Why diet and exercise fail

Why Diet and Exercise Fail
Autor: markyoung ~ 19/05/10



When it comes to treating shoulder pain most people would agree that instead of treating the shoulder itself, you might first investigate thoracic mobility, scapular stability, lower trap and serratus anterior strength, and any other root cause that might be related.



On the other hand, when it comes to excess body fat, the same trainer or coach might tell people to follow a nutrition plan and exercise to lose weight. In other words, they treat the symptom (excess body fat) with exercise and nutrition instead of addressing the possible barriers that were limiting people from doing these things in the first place.



To this end, I think it is absolutely critical that anyone who is overweight or working with anyone with body fat to lose address the real reasons the person is overweight to begin with. While a client may be able to stave their regular barriers for a short period of time (i.e., a 12 week commitment to a fad fat loss program), they will eventually have to face these issues or lose all the progress that has been made. Despite the fact that you’ve given a person your very best cutting edge training, nutrition, and supplement program, they’re bound to fail if these issues remain.



Moreover, (as an astute blog reader recently pointed out) people who have been particularly overweight since childhood will have more fat cells than the average person which might make it significantly harder for them to keep weight off so staying on target is absolutely key.



If you’re a regular reader of this blog you’ll know that I’m all about assessing people and knowing what these barriers are should be part of any fat loss client assessment. Below is a great chart produced by Dr. Arya Sharma demonstrating how one might assess for potential barriers for long term success. Of course, this isn’t nearly as sexy as saying “get ripped in 12 weeks” or “abs in hours”, but it is the reality and I’d be willing to bet that anyone reading this blog right now that doesn’t have the body they desire has yet to truly identify and troubleshoot each of their barriers.







Whether there is 100 pounds to be lost or 10, if you address the symptoms (like treating shoulder by taking Tylenol) you can eliminate them temporarily, but they will be back.



And by the way, never once have I come to the conclusion that a client is overweight because they haven’t purchased the latest supplement, exercise gadget, training program, or cleanse. Just sayin’.