Why So Many Health and Fitness Plans Fail

People often ask me…

What's the best diet? What exercises should I do? Which supplements should I take? How many hours should I sleep a night?

I can't answer any of those questions until I know what problem we're actually trying to solve.

Most people don't fail because diets, exercise programmes or supplements don't work.

They usually fail for one of two reasons:

Either they apply the wrong solution because they never properly investigated the problem in the first place...

1. Or they never get started at all. Faced with thousands of diets, exercise programmes, treatments and conflicting opinions, they know they don't have enough information to choose the right one. So they procrastinate. Failure to act.

Most people simply don't have the time, energy or interest to become experts in health.

When I was trying to understand why I had high cholesterol, high blood pressure, pre-diabetes and was overweight, I became obsessed. I spent thousands of hours reading books, listening to podcasts, studying research papers and questioning everything I thought I knew.

I loved every minute of it.

But most people don't.

And that's perfectly reasonable.

If you're a banker, fund manager, founder or CEO your job isn't to become an expert in nutrition, exercise, sleep, pain, hormones and metabolism. Your job is to become an expert in what you do for a living.

The challenge is that if you aren't an expert at identifying the problem, you're forced to rely on generic solutions. Solutions designed to work reasonably well for the average person, rather than your specific circumstances. Or even worse, solutions designed primarily to benefit the person selling them.

Weight gain isn't always a calories in, calories out problem

For example, sleep deprivation can raise your baseline blood glucose levels, meaning your body spends less time burning fat and more time in fat storage – even with a reasonably healthy diet.

Back pain isn't always a back problem

It can often be the result of poor core endurance or weak stabilising muscles. Until the underlying weakness is addressed, treating the back itself may never solve the problem.

Stress isn't always just a work problem

A lack of movement and inadequate recovery can both have a profound effect on your mood and resilience. I know from personal experience that when I stop exercising, my mood deteriorates. I used to fill that void with alcohol instead.

Recurring injuries aren't always solved with surgery

They're often a sign that something else in the body isn't functioning properly. Identifying and correcting those underlying imbalances is often the key to solving the real problem.

If we don't investigate the root cause and instead rely on guesswork, we waste time, money and energy on solutions that were never going to work.

Eventually we become frustrated, lose confidence and convince ourselves that it's just part of getting older.

I don't believe it is.

More often than not, what we blame on ageing is simply the accumulation of problems that have never been properly identified and addressed.

It's not that there isn't a solution.

We've just been solving the wrong problem - or ignoring it altogether.

So what's the alternative?

Before choosing a solution, you need to understand the problem by looking at the whole picture, not just the symptom that's bothering you today.

How do you move? How strong are you? How well do you sleep? What do you eat? How stressed are you? What does your blood work tell you? Are there injuries, habits or lifestyle factors that could be contributing?

Investigate before you intervene.

Only then do you form a hypothesis about what's actually causing the problem.

Then you test it.

If it works, great. If it doesn't, you go back, refine your thinking and test the next hypothesis.

The goal isn't to be right the first time. The goal is to stop guessing.

That's how a good investigation works. It doesn't start with the answer. It starts by asking better questions.

That's why we don't start with an exercise programme or a meal plan. We start by understanding what's really going on. Only then do we decide what the right solution looks like. 

If any of this resonated with you and you'd like to understand what's really holding you back, get in touch. I'd be happy to help you work it out.