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For me, that darn ol' having to work 40 - 50 hours a week to earn a living thing got in the way. When I get off my stress-filled job after 9 hours, I'm going the heck home, not to the gym, and sitting my butt DOWN.
I think a lot of people expect instant (and most times unrealistic) results and when they don't get them, they get frustrated and quit.
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Originally Posted by Lilypad1126
I really believe that it's not a diet, but a lifestyle change.
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Originally Posted by chrisCD
It is really must be a lifestyle change. If you go in thinking the changes can be temporary, you will fail.
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Originally Posted by Garfunkle524
If there are 2 things in this world most people are bad at, it's thinking long-term and delaying gratification. These two things are paramount to a successful fitness regimen.
All of the above. Too many people fail to view fitness in the long term. All too often, around mid to late winter people decide they need to whip themselves into shape to look good on the beach when summer arrives. Once they've attained that short-term goal, they lapse back into their old habits. Fitness needs to become a way of life for improvements to stick.
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Originally Posted by oh-eve
Beginners often fail because they overdo it first and then get very sore, hardly eat anytghing and then get frustrated very quickly and give up.
Along with the short-term view goes the idea of whipping yourself into shape. People kill themselves with tough workouts they're not yet ready to handle. When they drive hard for too much too soon, they may not manage to stay committed even until summer. If they do maintain this pace all the way through summer, once summer is almost over and they're no longer concerned about looking good at the beach, it becomes tough to maintain the commitment.
Along with the long-term view of fitness, steady progress is much better than the attempt to whip an unconditioned body into top shape in a few months.
Everyone is different, but for the sake of answering your question, I believe that "most people fail" because of their unwillingness or inability to stick to a healthy eating program. .
For myself, I realized that trying to fit the gym into my life wasn't enough; I had to see it as a non-negotiable commitment, written in ink (metaphorically speaking) on my calendar, until it became just as much a ritual as eating, sleeping, or showering.
When a person has a lot of other responsibilities it's so easy to let working out slide, rather than finding solutions to all of those obstacles. For me that looks something like:
1. Needing a babysitter. Solution: have a set of adjustable dumbbells and a barbell at home (Santa is building me a wall-mounted squat rack. Squee!!) and just get it done while the kids are playing, sleeping, otherwise occupied. If they're being pains in the butt, have a little set of 1 pound weights for them to play around with. Or lock them in their rooms (kidding. no really)
2. Fitting it in to my work and school schedule. Solution: work out at home with aforementioned equipment , or go at night after the Mr. comes home (he usually goes very early in the morning), or as I did this semester, use the gym on campus before I have to leave to pick up my youngest from school.
3. Too tired. Solution: too ****ing bad, do it anyway. "I really wish I hadn't made time for that workout" said no one ever.
4. I should be spending more time with my family. Solution: if they are so maladaptive that they can't handle an hour of me taking care of myself, then clearly I have failed them as a parent
5. I have too much housework and laundry piling up. Solution: guess what? That same housework will continuously need to be done until the day I die, no matter how much I stay on top of it. Subcontract some of it out to the rest of the family, or work out at a home and clean up a little bit in between sets.
For me, that darn ol' having to work 40 - 50 hours a week to earn a living thing got in the way. When I get off my stress-filled job after 9 hours, I'm going the heck home, not to the gym, and sitting my butt DOWN.
This is why I'm trying to invest in a home gym. Time going to and from the gym may not be time I always have.
Getting fit isn't pleasurable. Eating, especially, pizza, tacos, etc., is pleasurable. It's very convenient to be unfit. It involves little effort and a lot of pleasure.
Strength training/muscle growth programmes: Lack of understanding regarding difficulty/time commitment. It would take a 20 year old man 6-12 months to see substantial results with a proper diet/workout regimen (4-5x/week - the gym nut itinerary). This lack of understanding is significantly facilitated by the constant bombardment of BS "KILLER ABS IN 6 WEEKS!" on ever fitness magazine ever. I am a man of 26, and it's taken 15 months to make substantial improvement.
Weight loss: Oh where do I begin?
-Western (US, Canada, UK, Australia, NZ) understanding of what a properly portioned meal looks like is so f'ed up I am at a loss for further description.
-We (Americans) have to deal with nearly every processed food we eat containing added sugar. Why is HFCS in BREAD? Does that muffin really need 60g of sugar per item? Could not the recipe work with less?
-One finds himself thinking about food - constantly. This is annoying. It was much easier to just eat whatever the hell I wanted, until I began to hate myself.
-Idiot relatives/friends/neighbours will comment on how you're "wasting away" even while you're barely under the "overweight" threshold of a 25 BMI.
"I don't have time" is the worst excuse, unless you never watch TV, which can be done while on a treadmill.
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