The fitness industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, and one that has new products, diets and programs being released constantly that are promising to be a new miracle cure to everyone’s fitness troubles.
By now just about everyone has realized that no matter what the program, product or diet is, it usually fails. From gimmicky exercise routines that are fun for a month to diets that might work in the short term, but are terribly unhealthy in the long term making them unsustainable and leading to weight gain instead of lose the industry is one big mess.
The real secret is quite simple, eat reasonably well and find a sustainable exercise routine that will not just challenge you for a month, but challenge you for life.
Eating right is simple in theory, but there are a lot of misleading claims out there. “Diet” drinks and other artificially sweetened products are one example, sure they have 0 calories, but they trick your body into thinking it is getting carbs when it is not, the brain ends up compensating by lowering your metabolism to conserve what it does have and the end result is often gaining weight. You want foods that are in as close to their natural state as you can get them. Processed and “artificial” ingredients are almost always bad for you.
Exercise programs need to be challenging, going to the gym and doing 30 mins of light cardio will get very little results. The real goal with exercise when it comes to weight loss is increasing metabolism, not burning calories only while you do it. In order to get a metabolic boast you NEED to challenge your muscles and leave them in a state where they have to repair themselves after. Light weights and low intensity cardio will do very little for you.
And perhaps most importantly for both diet and exercise you need a program that is sustainable, meaning a diet you can continue following and a exercise program that remains fun, challenging and with enough variety to keep your interest in the long run.
It’s not easy, soft drinks are the assumed beverage just about everywhere, even in restaurants that market themselves as “healthy” and any exercise program that will help is going to be hard, and will leave you stiff and sore for a while as your body adjusts to its new level of activity. But if it was easy everyone would be in great shape.
The good news is everyone CAN be in good shape, it just takes commitment and will power, if you have those two things, you can get there, and the benefits of feeling healthier and having more energy throughout the day are well worth the effort.