Thinking about going on a diet or entering one of those 12 week
transformation challenges? Better read this first..
Copyright 2005 Tom Venuto
Not long ago, one of the members of my health club poked her head in my office
for some advice. Linda was a 46 year old mother of two, and she had been a
member for over a year. She had been working out sporadically, with (not surprisingly)
sporadic results. On that particular day, she seemed to have enthusiasm and
a twinkle in her eye that I hadn’t seen before.
"I want to enter a before and after fitness contest called the “12 week body
transformation challenge." I could win money and prizes and even get my picture
in a magazine."
“I want to lose THIS”, she continued, as she grabbed the body fat on her stomach.
“Do you think it’s a good idea?”
Linda was not “obese,” she just had the typical “moderate roll” of abdominal
fat and a little bit of thigh/hip fat that many forty-something females struggle
with.
“I think it’s a great idea” I reassured her. “Competitions are great for motivation.
When you have a deadline and you dangle a “carrot” like that prize money in
front of you, it can keep you focused and more motivated than ever.”
Linda was eager and rarin’ to go. “Will you help me? I have this enrollment
kit and I need my body fat measured.”
“No problem,” I said as I pulled out my Skyndex fat caliper, which is used
to measure body fat percentage with a “pinch an inch” test.
When I finished, I read the results from the caliper display: “Twenty-seven
percent. Room for improvement, but not bad; it’s about average for your age
group.”
She wasn’t overjoyed at being ‘average’. “Yeah, but it's not good either.
Look at THIS,” she complained as again she grabbed a handful of stomach fat.
“I want to get my body fat down to 19%, I heard that was a good level.”
I agreed that 19% was a great goal, but it would take a lot of work because
average fat loss is usually about a half a percent a week, or six percent
in twelve weeks. Her goal, to lose eight percent in twelve weeks was ambitious.
She smiled and insisted, “I’m a hard worker. I can do it”
Well, indeed she was and indeed she did. She was a machine! Not only did she
never miss a day in the gym, she trained HARD. Whenever I left my office and
took a stroll through the gym, she was up there pumping away with everything
she had. She told me her diet was the strictest it had ever been in her life
and she didn't cheat at all. I believed her. And it started to show, quickly.
Each week she popped into my office to have her body fat measured again, and
each week it went down, down, down. Consistently she lost three quarters of
a percent per week – well above the average rate of fat loss – and on two
separate occasions, I recall her losing a full one percent body fat in just
seven days.
Someone conservative might have said she was overtraining, but when we weighed
her and calculated her lean body mass, we saw that she hadn’t lost ANY muscle
– only fat. Her results were simply exceptional!
She was ecstatic, and needless to say, her success bred more success and she
kept after it like a hungry tiger for the full twelve weeks.
On week twelve, day seven, she showed up in my office for her final weigh-in
and body fat measurement. She was wearing a pair of formerly tight blue jeans
and they were FALLING OFF HER! “Look, look, look,” she repeated giddily as
she tugged at her waistband, which was now several inches too large.
As I took her body fat, I have to say, I was impressed. She hadn’t just lost
a little fat, she was “RIPPED!”
During week twelve she dropped from 18% to 17% body fat, for a grand total
of 10% body fat lost. She surpassed her goal of 19% by two percent. I was
now even more impressed, because I had only seen a handful of people lose
that much body fat in three months.
You should have seen her! She started hopping up and down for joy like she
was on a pogo stick! She was beaming… grinning from ear to ear! She practically
knocked me over as she jumped up and gave me a hug – “Thank you, thank you,
thank you!”
“Don’t thank me,” I said, “You did it, I just measured your body fat.”
She thanked me again anyway and then said she had to go have her “after” pictures
taken. Then something very, very strange happened. She stopped coming to the
gym. Her "disappearance" was so abrupt, I was worried and I called her. She
never picked up, so I just left messages.
No return phone call.
It was about four months later when I finally saw Linda again. The giddy smile
was gone, replaced with a sullen face, a droopy posture and a big sigh when
I said hello and asked where she’d been.
“I stopped working out after the contest... and I didn’t even win.”
“You looked like a winner to me, no matter what place you came in” I insisted,
“but why did you stop, you were doing so well!”
“I don’t know, I blew my diet and then just completely lost my motivation.
Now look at me, my weight is right back where I started and I don’t even want
to know my body fat.”
“Well, I'm glad to see you back in here again. Write down some new goals for
yourself and remember to think long term too. Fitness isn’t a just 12 week
program you know, it’s a lifestyle - you have to do it every day - like...
forever.”
She nodded her head and finished her workout, still with that defeated look
on her face. Unfortunately, she never again come anywhere near the condition
she achieved for that competition, and for the rest of the time she was a
member at our club, she slipped right back into the sporadic workout pattern.
Linda was not an isolated case. I’ve seen the same thing happen with countless
men and women of all ages and fitness levels from beginners to competitive
bodybuilders. In fact, it happens to millions of people who “go on” diets,
lose a lot of weight, then “go off” the diet and gain the weight right back.
What causes people to burn so brightly with enthusiasm and motivation and
then burn out just as quickly? Why do so many people succeed brilliantly in
the short term but fail 95 out of 100 times in the long term? Why do so many
people reach their fitness goals but struggle to maintain them?
RESOURCE BOX: Tom Venuto is a certified personal trainer, natural bodybuilder and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle. You can get info on Tom's e-book at: Burn The Fat. To get Tom's free monthly e-zine, visit www.fitren.com
