I meet hundreds of people each year who want to shed fat, change body shape and generally transform the way their bodies look and feel.
Unfortunately though, most people have highly unrealistic expectations of what results they should achieve over the first few weeks of a new fat-loss program.
All too often I see good people get very upset and disappointed when they realize that they haven’t lost 10-20kg in the first few weeks after improving their exercise and eating habits.
To better understand and accept this situation, I like to use a ‘car-on-a-hill’ analogy.
Let’s pretend you’ve parked your car on a hill. The engine is off and in neutral gear and you take your hand brake off. Not surprisingly, the car will begin to roll backwards down the hill.
This situation represents the vast majority of Australians with their health and body-fat. Because of lifestyle habits and poor metabolisms, their bodies are constantly gaining fat each year (i.e. rolling backwards).
So how do you stop a car rolling down a hill? You apply the brakes. The same goes for your yearly fat-gain.
Before you can even think about losing any fat, you need to apply the brakes to firstly stop your body storing any more fat.
THIS is what you should aim to achieve over the first few weeks of any new exercise and nutrition regime.
Then, once the car is stationary again, how do we get it back up the hill? We need to turn the engine back on and apply the accelerator.
The exact same principles applies to your body. Once you’ve stopped your body constantly gaining fat, you can then focus on revving up your metabolism so that you can begin to actually burn body-fat (i.e. getting back up the hill.)
So, if you’re feeling a bit disappointed with your lack of progress, remember the ‘car-on-a-hill’ analogy and firstly focus on applying the brakes so you stop rolling backwards. That itself is a great achievement.