“Hi, how are you?”
“Oh, not so good. I’ve put on a couple of stone since I saw you last and I feel tired and fed up.”
“Ah, I’m sure you’ll be fine. I had the same problem but just this last week, I’ve lost 6 lbs!”
“Wow, 6 lbs, how did you do that?”
“Oh, I’m on XXXX diet shakes, they’re brilliant.”
“XXXX diet shakes? You mean you drink shakes rather than having meals?”
“I have a shake for breakfast and one for lunch then a main meal in the evening. I’ve cut out sugar, alcohol and takeaways. But 6 lbs, it’s amazing.”
“It does sound fab. Maybe I should try it. What is it again?”
“XXXX Diet. It costs me £35 a month for the shakes and pills plus my healthy food on top of course. Plus you get lots of support from the XXXX distributors.”
“Hey, I may try it. How do I find out more?”
“I’ll give you the number for XXXX Distributor – she’s so friendly and helpful. Maybe in a couple of weeks you’ll be losing 6 lbs!”
“I know, it sounds great and I need to do something. I’m fed up of trying diets and slimming clubs that haven’t worked in the past. I really want something that works and the XXXX Diet sounds ideal.”
“Let me know how you get on.”
“I will, thank you. You’re a star.”
NOW THEN… [this is me talking now]
Is this a familiar conversation?
It drives me MAD!!!!!!!
I hear this type of conversation A LOT and I feel so sorry for the vulnerable people involved. Let’s break this down a bit…
[I just want to point out that ‘XXXX Diet’ is my name for it rather than the real name! Oh and the distributors of the ‘XXXX Diet’ are in it for the money not your welfare].
Firstly, losing 6 lbs in a week is not good. 6 lbs of what – fat? I doubt it. Muscle and water weight? Probably.
You see, losing 6 lbs in a week is usually bad news. I mean, your body will try its best to hold onto your body fat – it may need it in cases of emergency (i.e. in times of hunger or even starvation etc). So the last thing ‘it’ wants to do is shed body fat.
So you cut down on your food intake and replace your meals with a diet shake or pill. At the end of a day, you’ve probably had less than 1200 calories. When you’re probably used to consuming 2000 calories, 1200 is not good news.
Reducing your calories drastically like that only means that your metabolism will be lowered – your body won’t need as many calories to function so it shuts down your fat burning process.
Once you lose the initial 6-14 lbs, which is muscle and water weight, you will plateau. You may lose 1 lb or just maintain. Maybe you’ll even put on 2 lbs.
Then you’ll be upset that all your efforts will be in vain because you are GAINING weight again!
You may then reach for the comfort food because you think “what’s the point”. The weight creeps back on and guess where you are? Yes, back to square one and even further – you will be heavier than ever!
Fast forward a month and the conversation above may well be different. The person who lost 6 lbs could well be 6 lbs HEAVIER – what an awkward conversation that would be!
BUT HERE’S THE THING…
The person in the above conversation who lost 6 lbs is a person I TRAINED!
How do you think I feel about that? Frustrated? Sad? Feel like I failed in my ability as a Personal Trainer?
Well, maybe but I have every faith in my ability as I’ve been in the fitness industry for over 19 years and I KNOW what works for sustained weight loss. It takes effort and unfortunately a diet shake means NO EFFORT.
The person I trained was on track to get long-term results but she decided it wasn’t quick enough. She’s been to slimming clubs since then too. Guess what? They didn’t work either!
When she worked with me, she lost a few lbs but it was body fat, her blood pressure improved, her muscle mass increased, she was more hydrated, her waist and hips had reduced – I could go on.
But, like I said, it just wasn’t quick enough for her – she wanted a quick fix.
If you want a quick fix, good luck but you will never have the pleasure of working with me! I only work with women who want long-term results and want to earn their reward.
If you want to talk to me about a personal weight loss plan designed just for you, get in touch. I’m offering a free call where I will give you your very own weight loss blueprint.
Here’s the link: FREE CALL APPLICATION
By the way, if someone offers you the chance of taking XXXX shakes, they are probably unqualified in nutrition so what do they know?