Perhaps not surprisingly, by far the most common fitness goal I hear is “I want to lose weight”.
On the surface, this is an excellent goal, the majority of adults and even many children would experience a significant shift in their quality of life in the process of losing a few kilograms of body fat.
But therein lies my point(s)
- It is the reduction of body fat that people really want, not necessarily the reduction of weight. By increasing your lean muscle mass, it is possible to completely change your body shape and composition without your weight changing at all.
- The process of losing the weight, that is, developing proper exercise and nutrition habits, is going to produce far more benefits for you than merely achieving an arbitrary figure on the scales.
- It is about your journey, not the destination. This is particularly true when it comes to weight loss as it is easy (I have done it myself) to become obsessive about the figure on the scales and obsession reduces your quality of life, it does not improve it.
Your weight can fluctuate according to a whole host of factors, including your hormones, your menstrual cycle (if you are a woman) and whether you have gained (or lost) any lean muscle mass, rendering your mass a somewhat unreliable indicator (on its own) of your progress.
I am not saying do not set yourself a weight goal. I have one myself, but make sure you have other goals as well (cardiovascular fitness, strength, nutrition etc) that mean your fitness success (and happiness) do not hang on this one particular figure. A really great method is to take photos periodically so you can see the changes in your body shape. If you feel a little self-conscious about this, don’t worry, you will want to show everybody what you used to look like once you start achieving results.
Also set yourself process goals, for example – you want to exercise at a high intensity 4 times per week, or you want to eat well 80% of the time. This way you know, regardless of what your weight is, you are doing everything you are prepared to do in moving towards that weight goal. And for that you should reward yourself.
Fitness is for life and is ultimately about far more than what you weigh. My advice is to sit down with a pen and paper and write about what it is you really want for yourself in terms of your fitness, think of all the aspects of being fit and healthy and begin to work towards them in a balanced way.
Sure, if your weight is your primary goal then focus more attention on it than your other goals, but do not blindly pursue it at the expense of any muscle mass, strength, dietary balance or the level of health that you currently possess. You never know, if you shift your focus towards these other aspects of fitness then your body composition and weight goals may just come about anyway.
Stay Focussed, Stay Balanced.
Kendall
