How to Build a Successful Weight-Loss Program

by Liz Neporent (Subscribe to Liz Neporent's posts)
Oct 14th 2009 2:00PM

Categories: Fitness, Motivation, Fit or Fiction

Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and co-author of "The Fat-Free Truth."She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider. You can also follow her on Twitter @lizzyfit.

Photo: Getty Images

Can't I just get on a treadmill and start running? Is having a goal for my workout program really important? Yvette Carpenter, New York City

Normally, goal setting is a topic I tackle during New Year's resolution season, but since I just got a question about whether or not goals are really that important if you want to lose weight or do something meaningful with your fitness program, I figured this is as good a time as any to remind you how important it is to have real, tangible goals for your fitness program. As Edwin Locke, the father of modern goal-setting theory once pointed out, "Telling someone to 'Try hard' or 'Do your best' is less effective than telling them to 'Try to get more than 80 percent correct.'"

If you are serious about getting results from your workouts, diet or any other aspect of your fitness plan, go through my 10-step goal-setting guide. Is it too much to ask when you're trying to squeeze the most out of your efforts? Me thinks not.

Step 1: Choose a general goal, such as, "I want to lose weight," "I want to get in shape" or "I want to improve my eating habits."

Step 2: Determine a starting point by evaluating factors that are easily measured, like aerobic capacity, body composition, strength and flexibility, and baseline heart rate and blood pressure. (It helps to work with a professional.) If you have an athletic training goal, such as improving your 5K time, do a time trial.

Step 3: Fine-tune your goals based on your baseline measurements so that you are working toward a definite, realistic point. "I want to lose weight" becomes "My body fat is 31 percent. My goal is a healthier 26 percent. Therefore, I need to lose a total of 20 pounds."

Step 4: Break your main goal into smaller "stepping-stone goals" while still keeping your ultimate goal in mind. "My first stepping stone goal is to lose one pound in the next two weeks."

Step 5: Aim for some "back-up goals" to increase your chances of succeeding, just in case you are unable to work toward your primary goal for some reason. "Besides losing 15 pounds, I would like to be able to walk up the two flights of stairs to my office without feeling out of breath."

Step 6: Develop a specific blueprint for how you're going to get from Point A (your starting point) to Point B (your ultimate goal). You can always tinker as you go along, but it's important to begin with a specific plan in mind that's tailored to your lifestyle and abilities.

Step 7: Get going! Follow your plan and keep your goals in mind.

Step 8: Keep a log. Write down as much detail as you can think of about your program and what you're doing to achieve your goals. This will serve as a travel log of your accomplishments. If you succeed, you have a step-by-step guide outlining how you did it. If you fail, the reasons are often contained on the pages of your workout log.

Step 9: Reevaluate both your fitness level and your goals. Re-measuring after six weeks or so serves as motivation when you can prove definite, quantifiable improvements. You may also want to reevaluate your goals from time to time. Perhaps your focus has changed or maybe you've set your sights too high or too low.

Step 10: Devise a maintenance plan or set new goals once you have achieved success.

My 2 cents: Real, tangible goals really work. What are you waiting for?

Now for your 2 cents: Please share your goals with the group. How did you go about setting your goals? How long did it take you to reach success? Or are you still on the road? For those of you who need some structure and motivation, be the fifth person to twitter me today, and I will send you a free copy of Element: Yoga for Weight Loss, one of my favorite exercise videos of the year.

Think you don't have the self-control to do all this goal-setting? Here's something you can do about it.

Comments (2)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

u262f 10-14-2009 @ 10:01PM

I think the value of setting fitness goals varies a lot from person to person, depending on who they are and what they want. I think goals probably work very well for people who want to dedicate significant amounts of time to their bodies, such as wannabe athletes and models. For some people, goals keep things interesting. For a lot of other people, however, I think goals result in yoyo dieting and poor levels of self-confidence, making everything worse.

The problem is that a lot of people just don't care about looking good or performing well physically. We're normal, busy people with work to do, and we have things to worry about other than how fast we can run or how many push-ups we can do or what size we can fit into. When we set these goals, we get discouraged that the scale doesn't budge, that our body fat percentage stays exactly the same after a lot of effort, or worse, that the measured numbers go backwards no matter how hard we try, how much effort we put in, or how good we've been. We have things that we're better at doing, talents we get paid for, activities we find more fulfilling, and matters that are more pressing than making progress towards these random goals that we just don't care that much about. When we miss our goals, if we have to miss gym day, if we go on vacation, etc., it's very easy to decide that we've already failed, that it's not worth it, and that we're going to just give up (until the next time we visit the doctor).

So, for a lot of people, I think making goals is bad. The reason we get fatter than we should be isn't because we don't set goals but because we don't have good habits. Do people set a goal to scrub harder in the shower every day or brush their hair for 100 strokes today and 101 strokes tomorrow? Not usually. Usually, these things are just maintenance habits. And what happens if we get busy and need to miss a shower or take an extra-quick one? We don't freak out. We don't feel bad about it or beat ourselves up over it. We don't decide that showering simply isn't worth the effort and give up showering completely. We just go shower as soon as we can.

For a lot of people, I think fitness would work better if it happened at this maintenance level. People who simply want to be healthy don't have to keep getting faster or stronger or lighter or thinner. If we're only after health, it's enough to just get on a treadmill every morning and start running.

I've incorporated physical activity as part of my showering habit. Just like I start feeling gross if I don't shower, I now feel weird if I try to shower without working up a sweat first. So, I just do it, and everything else just worked out for me. My weight dropped, my waist got thinner, my blood pressure got lower, my cholesterol ratio got better, etc. And I've been doing this for years now. I used to hate any form of physical activity, but now I hardly notice that I'm doing it, and I because I don't have to think about it, because I don't have to measure anything, because I don't have a goal to reach or fail, I'd probably be able to keep it up for the rest of my life. That's another problem with goals. You either reach them, which eventually encourages stopping, or you don't reach them, which is discouraging - and also encourages stopping.

So, depending on who you are and what you want, I think it can often be better to just simply get on that treadmill and run instead of worrying about goals.

Kellie Glass RD, LD 10-19-2009 @ 7:10PM

A successful weight loss program includes lifestyle modification in 4 main areas: nutrition, exercise, stress management and sleep. For more information see my book, "How To Eat Fried Chicken and Be Thin Too" on Amazon or at strategicbookpublishing.com