Crunch or Lunch?

There is no coincidence that the fitness industry is growing as rapidly as the obesity epidemic, but the fitness sector can not make the impact it should. This is because the goals, mainly weight-loss related, are coupled with unrealistic time frames for those wanting to change their body image and overall well being.

Fuelling these issues are fitness professionals, magazines and products that claim to guarantee results within weeks - when most people have taken years to get out of shape. Let us not forget that during a week or so over Christmas we can put an inch on our waistline, but it may take until April to lose it again.

Yes, a small minority of people get results in these publicised short periods, but they are either the genetically-abled who have almost achieved their goal anyway, or they are metabolically challenged. This means that any positive lifestyle change gave them dramatic results initially, which made them happy - but still not the results promised over the long term.

What is a realistic time-frame to make a lasting change?

Aiming for 0.5% to 1% body weight loss per week is realistic but a lot harder work than we are ‘sold’ to believe. Take Richard, for example. He runs a busy tech company in London, which is growing fast and takes up a lot of his time. Any spare time he has, is spent with family and squeezing in an occasional game of tennis. Keeping fit and mentally sharp is important to Richard, but finding the time to get to the gym often is a struggle: Richard weighs 102kg (16 stone) and has 25% body fat (for the average man anything above 20% is ‘unhealthy’) and would like to have visible abdominals – the proverbial six-pack. To have visible abs, Richard would need to be sub 10% body fat, so therefore his goal is to lose about 15kg of fat.

Losing the target 0.5% of his body weight per week is a total of 30 weeks. This is not the industry promised goal of a 6, 8 or 12-week beach-body.

What would Richard really need to do? 

Richard would need to have around a 500kcal deficit per day, every day. Of this amount, his macronutrient intake would be roughly 30% protein, 30% fat and 40% carbohydrates depending on his training regime. His sugar intake would need to be lower than 80grams per day. This will probably mean no alcohol, desserts or processed carbs. Richard has a tough 30 weeks ahead of him and his family, friends and work colleagues need to be supportive as well.

The majority of people would find this such a clinical regime that the task of being consistent for this length of time would be almost impossible. With the social and lifestyle commitments that most of us have and do not want to miss out on, it is a huge challenge.

An ideal solution for Richard could be to ignore the clinical regime and the unrealistic allocated time and make sure each measurement is better than the last. This would apply whether it is losing 2kg or less a month (measured weekly), or one less belt hole. At least this is a positive approach and eventually, Richard will get the result he wanted.