Why 12 week body transformations don’t work

I’ve been doing a massive amount of reflection on the fitness industry lately. As my business grows and I work with more women I have been putting more and more thought into what ACTUALLY works for people and why.

I’ve been questioning my own coaching program, it’s effectiveness and wondering how I could improve it and increase its success.

I’m sure if you follow me on social media you have seen I’m a little cynical about the state of the industry. Instagram is full of six pack abs and dramatic before and after photographs from 12 week body transformations. The more I work with women who are so desperate with their weight, I realise that a six pack is not quite meeting them where they are at…

I am looking at the weight loss that some of my peers are promising prospective clients (12-25 pounds in 4 weeks!). And while yet a small (very small) handful of my clients might achieve this, we usually recommend this amount of weight loss in 3-6 months.

Perhaps I have just shot myself in the foot here because now, why would you want to work with me if I am promising you that you will get results SLOWER than the competition?

This is why.

In our Ladies That Lift Coaching program we tend to work with women who have already done the above. Lots of restriction which is totally possible in 4 weeks, but what happens later?

All I am really doing in my coaching program is teaching women how to eat properly after years of dieting which has created so much confusion, messed with their own awareness of their bodies, their body image and their relationship with food.

What!? You want me to eat MORE food!? I’m here to lose weight you know!

[I hear this at least once a week but I am telling you, those that follow the program get results]

Anyway, I digress.

So there are a few reasons why we see slower results in our program. Here are the top 3:

Number 1: It’s all about looking in the mirror (and no I am not talking about the scales don’t into account muscle mass argument)

Starting a program like mine is like holding a mirror up to your life and having it reflected back at you. I see so many women who come into the program with stress and overwhelm and they blame the program.

But what is actually happening is that the program is reflecting back on them what is already there. Their life is already stressful and overwhelming!

Some people will take this reflection and put the steps in place to work with it. Taking these steps to simplify life takes time. It is probably the fact that these steps have never been taken before, that this person has failed or rebounded time and time again.

I would probably recommend that everyone who joins my coaching program joins for a minimum of 6 months. Three months to get their sh*t together and 3 months (at least) to follow the nutrition and training (however I appreciate for most people, the idea of that commitment is pretty scary!)

The ones that don’t do this will often spin out of control, give up, move on, start searching for the next thing that will magically work for them and then find themselves stuck again because they haven’t dealt with what is really going on.

They are not ready yet to look at that reflection because it might be too uncomfortable.

Number 2: Feed Me!

The second reason is that we feed people.

Yep, we teach you how to eat yourself slim.

Most women are either restrictive dieting or overeating on calorie dense foods. How we approach things is to get you to eat large amounts of nutrient dense foods and for most of our clients this means that they are losing inches (but necessarily scale weight) on 1800-2000 calories per day.

What this does for the body is that is preserves muscle mass (keeping the metabolism up) while facilitating fat loss.

When you lose 12-25 pounds in 4 weeks, I can guarantee you that a good amount of that is also muscle tissue, which means your metabolism rate drops.

If you can lose inches but not that much weight, you are maintaining muscle tissue which means you don’t see that screwed up metabolism you get with most diets.

This means that if you go away for the weekend and you eat and drink a bit too much, you will easily find that you don’t see the massive fluctuations in weight that you would normally punish yourself for.

We see clients go from eating 500-800 calories a day, wondering why they aren’t losing, to eating close to 2000 calories, and feeling strong in the gym and leaning out.

Number 3: Life is stressful!

I find that most people have stressful lives. Most people are time poor.

Therefore, adding more depletion into an already depleted state is not helpful to one’s health and vitality.

We don’t recommend huge amounts of intensive exercise, 3-4 sessions a week combining resistance training and maybe a little cardio with a good diet is plenty. It’s sustainable and it will help build good habits for the future.

So, in summary, it’s not about dropping 2 dress sizes in 12 weeks or whatever, it’s about the journey.

I cannot hammer the message in enough. Stop chasing the quick fixes, stop looking for the cheapest deal, stop pushing your body so damn hard with restriction and stress.

Have the courage to hold that mirror up and look at what your life is reflecting back at you and ask yourself, can you see yourself doing what you are doing for the next 5, 10 or 20 years?

If the answer is no then I’d love to invite you to apply to be part of my coaching program.

If you aren’t sure what you are in for check out the Success Stories page on the website (you may want to especially look at Rou and Adriana’s testimonial)

If you’d like to move forward and embrace making some sensible and sustainable changes in your life (not just your weight!). Then please apply.

You will need to be ready to take this seriously.

You will need to be ready to invest in yourself and commit to yourself.

In exchange we will commit to giving you the results you deserve. We guarantee that if you follow our program and you do not see results you can stay in the program free of charge until you do.

You will get a nutrition plan personalised to you.

You will get a huge amount of support with a one to one kick starter call, group forum and the option the attend 3 calls A WEEK to speak with me personally.

If you are ready, apply below.

Anna x

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