There’s something wrong with the fitness industry. It’s the way that fat loss is most often marketed. This is something that just get under my skin no matter how much I try to ignore it. Overweight people are desperate and willing to do whatever it takes to get results. Promising someone that they’ll lose fat fast is a very tempting offer. Combine this with half-naked ripped bodies that the fitness marketing is full of and suddenly every overweight person is made to believe that they can be the next Jessica Alba or Joe Manganiello (seriously, this guy is a beast!). Sex sells I guess.

The constant bombarding of “lose 10kg in 10 weeks”, “get six-pack abs for summer” and all the other get-in-now-to-get-quick-results nonsense that this industry is full of drives me crazy. It’s all this marketing for desperate and quite often uninformed individuals combined with the latest magic supplements and gadgets that promise to deliver in minimum time. Sometimes the results are even promised with minimum time and with minimum effort (sauna belt, anyone?). Amazing result with basically no work, no wonder it’s tempting. Just don’t read the small print.

Then you have the “flat stomach in 30 days challenges”. I’d like to see how some of these 30 day challenge participants are doing a year or two after reaching their flatness. Did they keep it off with their super tight diet while exercising 8 hours a week? If they did, more power to them. Yet something tells me that it was the outliers who got results. The majority is in the same cycle as they were before the challenge as no one told them what to do when it’s all over and they have to return to normal life. A life that doesn’t revolve around boiling cauliflower. No one prepared them for how to achieve a balanced and healthy lifestyle while actually having a life.

All this makes me feel like sometimes we are pushing water up hill. There is so much more to fitness industry than flat stomach and big biceps. We are not all bodybuilders and bikini models. Most of us don’t have the drive, the genetics or the motivation to do it. Or the interest for that matter. I know I couldn’t care less.

Sometimes it makes me feel why we even bother to fight it. Maybe we should just accept the defeat. But I know there are others like me out there as well. Those who have the same values and beliefs as I do. We can change the fitness industry by removing one sauna belt at a time.

For those struggling with a fat loss: I want you to understand that if it took you 10 years to put on 20kg, expect it to take more than 10 weeks to get rid of it. And if you can do it in 10 weeks expect to find it challenging to keep it off.

Focus on building habits and making small changes to your lifestyle that you can imagine keeping for the rest of your life. Small changes will yield big result over a long time. Big changes over a short time will yield catastrophe regarding your long term goal. Unless you are someone whose mind power resembles that of Batman’s..

Album that powered me through this frustration fueled writing:

If you are interested in a balanced approach to health and fitness that doesn’t suck enter your email address below to receive my 30 page eBook. Needless to say that I think it’s awesome. You’ll also get the latest blog post to your email each Tuesday.