13 Fat Loss Methods That Don’t Work

The world of health and fitness is full of weird and, ironically, unhealthy ways to lose fat from your body. I’ve pulled together 13 of the most common methods people try when attempting to rid themselves of stubborn fat.

Some of these will SHOCK you!

The real question is how many of these have you tried, or how many of these are you still attempting?

1. Crunches: If I had a dollar… you know where this is heading… I get tired of telling people that crunches are just no good for fat loss. How can I convince you that crunches really don’t have a place in your training program if you are short on time and fat loss is your goal. Really there are many more exercises out there that take les time, work your metabolism harder, and subsequently help you lose fat from your midsection.

2. Jogging: In a study that compared aerobic exercise(read jogging) and diet with a group who just did the diet over a 12 week period, the exercise group trained 5 times a week with 45 minutes of aerobic exercise. Those doing exercise and diet showed no difference in body fat levels after 12 weeks than those just dietting. Basically the exercise had no effect on fat loss!!! Stop jogging.

3. Thigh Master: This little invention was originally an ugly contraption designed as an all body training tool, but was then popularized by a TV advert with Susan Somers in a leotard. The idea was it would tone the muscles on the inside of your legs and became one of the biggest selling fitness infomercial products of all time. The problem is it didn’t help you lose lots of body fat.

4. Tricep Extensions: You may have picked up a can of baked beans or a milk carton, bent forward and swung the “weight” backwards, working the muscles in the back of your arm. Once again, the same with crunches, because you are only working a small amount of muscle mass, the overall effect for the amount of time spent doing this exercise makes it really not worth it. Pick exercises that are going to work larger areas of muscle, to boost your metabolism and help burn fat from the whole of your body.

5. Pilates: I can hear the cries of horror and the voodoo dolls of my body being pierced by the passionate Pilates bunch right now. Despite pilates being the cure from everything from low back pain to the common cold(i’m joking), it is not the ideal solution for fat loss, the intensity for 99% of the population is too low and will not enduce enough of a metabolic response for the fast fat loss we are looking for.

6. Low Calorie Diets: I don’t count calories, never have done, I don’t ask my clients to either. Cutting calories below a certain level makes your body want to hold on to long term energy resources, i.e. FAT, the very substance we are trying to lose. Excessive calorie restriction is not a long term solution, and more often than not you end up with more fat than you started with.

7. Low Fat Diets: A study compared a low carb diet and a low fat diet with the same overall calorie intake. Those with a low carb diet, and obviously higher in fat content lost more fat from their body. No need to cut fat, just make sure the fat you eat is not from cookies and cakes (no surprise there), the fat in eggs for example, is good fat.

8. Missing Meals: Skipping breakfast or lunch is very common. Problem is your body goes in to this starvation mode when you do skip the meal, holding on to the fat reserves in your body. NEVER skip breakfast, lunch or dinner, or even the snacks between meals. Consume something every 2-3 hours of your waking day.

9. Body Wraps: Here we go another group of people I am destined to upset. Body wraps do nothing more than sweat out water from your wrapped body parts, you will not lose fat, just gain back the water weight when you rehydrate yourself after the wrap… Save you money, start eating and drinking cleaner products.

10. Nordic Walking: Yet another group of rather passionate people who will tell you that their exercise is the cure for everything. The majority of nordic walkers are people walking around creating extra resistance by dragging a couple of sticks behind them! The intensity is essentially aerobic in nature and just not hard enough to create a longer term metabolic effect to lose the fat.

11. Diet Pills: Most of these pills are nothing more than a method of increasing the body’s temperature. They are not a long term fat loss solution, once you stop popping the pills as you cannot afford them any longer, the fat will come back as your diet will still suck.

12. Power Plates: I must be going for a record of how many groups of people I can upset in one BLOG post… Vibration technology is (or was) the latest all encompassing solution to peoples fat loss woes. Unfortunately most peopl who bought the machines are discovering the effectiveness and novelty of these machines wears thin very quickly.

13. Fasting: Last but not least, good old starvation. I’ve come across plenty of people who will go on a 7 day fast, consuming nothing but water and some nasty soup. As mentioned in two of the other items above, simply cutting calories means the body will do everything in its power to hold on to long term energy source. Fat. It will break down high energy consuming substances in the body, i.e Muscle and make your metabolism even slower than it was in the first place. DO NOT damage your fat burning system any more with fasting. Short term weight loss will lead to fat gain and a more ugly body!

Do you disagree with me?

If so please comment below. I would be surprised if none of this have touched a nerve or raised an eyebrow for you. Let me know you bighgest question relating to shedding kilos. I’ll do my best to answer them over the coming weeks.