Magic Fitness Pills
I just want to be in Shape!

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The sad fact is that most people are doing nothing about it. And a large percentage of the ones you think are doing something about it are just fattening their own pockets while taunting you with hopes of a slimmer you. They promise magic fitness pills but can't deliver. Without some serious help, the only part of you likely to get thinner is your wallet.

Here's my advice: forget fad diets, dump the ridiculous workout gadgets, turn off the TV, and flush those dangerous weight loss supplements right down the toilet. Stop looking for quick fixes to your health and make up your mind to take immediate action. No, you can't have one more donut and start your healthier lifestyle tomorrow. It needs to be right now. Ok, maybe you can wait until you finish reading this article. But as soon as you're done, you need a plan of action to get in shape and stay in shape, and you need to take at least one step on that plan without delay.

So why aren't the popular fitness approaches working? Have you noticed that joining a gym and not actually going doesn't contribute to a healthier lifestyle? Sure, having the fancy card dangling from your keychain looks cool, but, believe it or not, that card does not reduce your risk for heart disease, diabetes, or other illnesses that exercise may help prevent. You may think there's some complex physiological reason why your body is keeping fat stores, and that it'd probably take a medical doctor to understand the real science behind it. Let me open your eyes and show you how remarkably simple it really is.

Here are my top three questions about fitness and some answers:

1. How do I lose weight? (No matter what I do, it seems like I can't ever lose weight.)

First of all, let's address the specific statement of "losing weight" and society's obsession with scales. To say you want to lose weight indicates you might want to find it again someday. Perhaps it's in the cupboard next to the Oreo cookies. From a psychological standpoint, the perception is that losing weight is a temporary condition instead of a permanent lifestyle change. And seriously, does it really matter what you weigh? In the extreme cases one could argue that your joints aren't able to support excessive weight, but keep in mind that muscle is more dense and therefore heavier than fat. So if you commence a program to build muscle and lose fat, some people may gain weight at various points in their training program. Still, their body fat will decrease, they will look much leaner, and they will be healthier. Unless you're a fighter who has to stay within a weight class or you're at the "Guess My Weight" booth at your local carnival, weight really doesn't matter to anyone but you.

You wanted unadulterated science, so here it comes. If you are a human being, and I hope you are if you're reading this, you will decrease body fat if, over time, your body expends more calories than you take in. This is undisputed scientific fact. Clearly there's a lot more to developing a complete nutritional plan than just counting calories, but this is the first step in understanding. Incidentally, if you're that obsessed with losing weight you could also opt to move to the moon, where you'd instantly lose 5/6ths of your body weight. It's an option if you have the budget. Russia is charging about $100 million for the airfare.

2. Why isn't my diet working?

Merriam Webster defines the term diet in this context as, "a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight." The problem with most any regimen one would term a diet is that it's simply not maintainable. Virtually any diet, regardless of how healthy or unhealthy it is, will cause a person to lose weight IF they stick to it. But as soon as they stray or give up, the weight comes back. Abandon the term diet forever, and change your lifestyle. This means developing entirely new eating habits that you can and will maintain for a life time. Moderation is the key, not total abstinence. Abstinence leads to cheating, which defeats the purpose. A nutritionist or registered dietician should be the person providing assistance in this area.

3. Why isn't my exercise routine working?

Let's turn to Merriam Webster again and see what they think about the word routine. "Habitual or mechanical performance of an established procedure." Perfect. Once again the dictionary has come to the rescue. By definition it's habitual, so let's assume this is something you're sticking with long-term and not cheating as we discussed above. Your body may have used a lot of energy to perform this regimen when you first started, but the problem now is that your "routine" is so routine that your body has adapted to it and performs the movements with such efficiency that it does not require the same energy it once did. If you were a professional athlete this efficiency might be welcome in certain areas. But if you're trying to spend more calories than you ingest, or are trying to truly challenge your fitness level, it's anything but welcome. The solution is to vary your routine so it provides a constant challenge to your body.

Help!

If you're serious about getting in shape, you need serious help. When a person has the motivation to get in shape, the most common problem I see is a lack of knowledge and creativity. You want to workout, but you need to know how to do it safely and effectively. Many people try to piece together workout plans from books and tapes, or perhaps they use the same routine they got during their free trial period with a personal trainer. They seem to think they've gotten all the information they can (or can afford) and are ready to go it alone.

What you need is a workout routine that adapts to your progress and continually changes. One solution is to hire a quality personal trainer to develop this program for you and to monitor your progress. Another option is to sign up for FitDaily.com and follow my free program that provides new challenges every day and gives you the tools to track your own progress right on the site. You'll never have to try to figure out what to do on a given day for exercise and you'll have no excuse to procrastinate as you try to decide what to do.

Go check out the web site right now and try today's workout. If you can't do today's workout because you don't have the equipment, check out the Right Now Routine that requires no equipment, or go through the archive and try a workout from a previous day. If you need extra help or motivation, we offer a Complete membership that gives you the guidance of a real person acting as your online personal trainer. Your health is worth it. Don't give up on your body, it's the only one you'll get.

Written by Jeff Mims. Jeff is the founder of FitDaily.Com. He is also a Certified Personal Trainer, Martial Arts Instructor, and Conditioning Coach in the Baltimore area. For more information check out www.FitDaily.com.