​Lack of Time

A perceived lack of time is one of the most common reasons people give up on fitness. It’s easy to feel as if you don’t have enough hours in the day to fit in a workout, especially if you have a demanding job, family obligations, or other commitments.

​Solution: Make fitness a priority and incorporate it into your daily routine. Don’t skip your workout, just as you wouldn’t skip an important meeting or appointment. Even if it’s only a 10-minute workout, it’s better than nothing! Consider getting up earlier, exercising during your lunch break, or involving your family in your fitness routine.

Lack of Motivation

A lack of motivation is another common reason people give up on fitness. It can be difficult to stay motivated when you aren’t seeing immediate results or are tired or stressed.

​Solution: Find a workout partner or hire a personal trainer  to hold you accountable and motivated. Set attainable goals for yourself and celebrate your accomplishments along the way. To keep things interesting, try new types of workouts and reward yourself when you reach milestones.

Injury or Pain

Injuries or chronic pain can make exercise difficult or impossible, causing many people to abandon their fitness goals.

Solution: Work with a physical therapist or trainer instead of pushing through the pain, to modify your workouts and find exercises that will not aggravate your injury or pain. Focus on low-impact activities such as swimming or yoga, and make sure to warm up and stretch properly before each workout.

Unrealistic Expectations

Setting unrealistic goals for yourself can lead to frustration and burnout, leading many people to abandon their fitness goals entirely.

Solution: Set reasonable goals for yourself and be patient with your progress. Remember that fitness is a journey, not a destination, and that seeing results takes time and effort. Celebrate your victories along the way, no matter how minor they may appear.

There are many reasons why people give up on fitness, but with the right mindset and strategies, you can overcome these obstacles and stay committed to your fitness goals!

​What Is a Calorie Deficit?

Calories are a measure of the amount of energy in food. All of the cells in your body require energy in order to work properly, just like a car needs fuel. They get that energy from the foods that you eat. Your body breaks down that food during digestion, releasing the energy that it contains. Those food calories – now converted to energy – power everything that you do: breathing, thinking, walking, sleeping, digesting, you name it.

But your body may not need to use all that energy right after you eat. It stores those extra calories – mostly as fat but also as carbohydrates – for later use. When you go to the gym, study hard for a test, or find yourself involved in any other energy-demanding activity, those stores provide the energy you need to power through.

If your activities burn fewer calories than you consume, those stores of extra calories will grow, and you will gain weight.

But the opposite is also true: You will lose weight if you burn more calories than you consume. That’s because doing so creates a calorie deficit. It forces your body to burn through the stores of fat that you have built up. This leads to weight loss. In fact, you won’t lose weight without a calorie deficit.

What Should Your Calorie Deficit Be?

A good rule of thumb for healthy weight loss is a deficit of about 500 calories per day. That should put you on course to lose about 1 pound per week. This is based on a starting point of at least 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day for women, and 1,500 to 1,800 calories a day for men. It can be unhealthy to take in less than that per day. Talk to your doctor about the minimum calories you need.

Keep in mind that you may not need a calorie deficit at all. You only need it if you want to lose weight for health or other reasons. Always talk to your doctor before you start a weight loss plan, especially if you have health problems.

How to Reach a Calorie Deficit to Lose Weight

Reaching a calorie deficit sounds simple: Eat fewer calories than your body needs. But to do that, you must first find out what those needs amount to: How many calories do you burn each day? Once you have established that, you take that total number of calories and subtract from it the number of calories necessary to achieve the calorie deficit you desire.

An example: Let’s say you find that you need roughly 2,000 calories a day, and you want to lose about 1 pound per week. You could do this by eating about 500 fewer calories every day. Your goal, then, is to eat 1,500 calories daily. That creates a 500-calorie deficit.

There’s another way. Instead of eating fewer calories on a daily basis, you instead increase the amount of exercise you do so that you burn 500 more calories every day. The result: You need 2,500 calories daily, but you keep consuming 2,000 calories. You have created that same 500-calorie deficit.

You also can mix and match: Increase the amount of exercise you do daily to burn, say, 200 more calories while cutting 300 calories from your daily diet. Your calorie deficit: 500.

These basic examples simply explain how it’s done. The best way to create – and maintain – your calorie deficit is the way that works for you.

Keep in mind that your calorie needs depend on several things: your age, sex, height, weight, and exercise habits. This calculator can help you figure out your daily calorie requirements. 

Other things that determine your calorie needs:

Your metabolic rate. This is how quickly or slowly you burn calories at rest. It varies widely from person to person.

Some health conditions. Hypothyroidism, in which your thyroid gland is underactive, slows metabolism. So does Cushing’s syndrome, a condition that’s caused by having too much of the hormone cortisol.

Remember, creating too much of a calorie deficit is a bad idea.

It can cause several side effects, including:

Constipation
Dehydration
Fatigue
Headaches
Nausea

It may also leave you feeling "hangry": angry because you’re hungry.

Along with those side effects, an oversized calorie deficit will be harder for your body to adjust to and harder for you to maintain. You’ll likely be more successful over the long haul with a significant but sustainable calorie deficit.

Strength training is an important part of an overall fitness program. Here's what strength training can do for you — and how to get started.

Want to reduce body fat, increase lean muscle mass and burn calories more efficiently? Strength training to the rescue! Strength training is a key component of overall health and fitness for everyone.

Use it or lose it

Lean muscle mass naturally diminishes with age.

Your body fat percentage will increase over time if you don't do anything to replace the lean muscle you lose over time. Strength training can help you preserve and enhance your muscle mass at any age.

Strength training may also help you:

• Develop strong bones. By stressing your bones, strength training can increase bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
• Manage your weight. Strength training can help you manage or lose weight, and it can increase your metabolism to help you burn more calories.
• Enhance your quality of life. Strength training may enhance your quality of life and improve your ability to do everyday activities. Strength training can also protect your joints from injury. Building muscle also can contribute to better balance and may reduce your risk of falls. This can help you maintain independence as you age.
• Manage chronic conditions. Strength training can reduce the signs and symptoms of many chronic conditions, such as arthritis, back pain, obesity, heart disease, depression and diabetes.
• Sharpen your thinking skills. Some research suggests that regular strength training and aerobic exercise may help improve thinking and learning skills for older adults.

Consider the options

Strength training can be done at home or in the gym. Common choices may include:

• Body weight. You can do many exercises with little or no equipment. Try pushups, pullups, planks, lunges and squats.
• Resistance tubing. Resistance tubing is inexpensive, lightweight tubing that provides resistance when stretched. You can choose from many types of resistance tubes in nearly any sporting goods store or online.
• Free weights. Barbells and dumbbells are classic strength training tools. If you don't have weights at home, you can use soup cans. Other options can include using medicine balls or kettle bells.
• Weight machines. Most fitness centers offer various resistance machines. You can invest in weight machines for use at home, too.
• Cable suspension training. Cable suspension training is another option to try. In cable suspension training, you suspend part of your body — such as your legs — while doing body weight training such as pushups or planks.

Getting started

If you have a chronic condition, or if you're older than age 40 and you haven't been active recently, check with your doctor before beginning a strength training or aerobic fitness program.

Before beginning strength training, consider warming up with brisk walking or another aerobic activity for five or 10 minutes. Cold muscles are more prone to injury than are warm muscles.

Choose a weight or resistance level heavy enough to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions. When you can easily do more repetitions of a certain exercise, gradually increase the weight or resistance.

Research shows that a single set of 12 to 15 repetitions with the proper weight can build muscle efficiently in most people and can be as effective as three sets of the same exercise. As long as you take the muscle you are working to fatigue — meaning you can't lift another repetition — you are doing the work necessary to make the muscle stronger. And fatiguing at a higher number of repetitions means you likely are using a lighter weight, which will make it easier for you to control and maintain correct form.

To give your muscles time to recover, rest one full day between exercising each specific muscle group.

Also be careful to listen to your body. If a strength training exercise causes pain, stop the exercise. Consider trying a lower weight or trying it again in a few days.

It's important to use proper technique in strength training to avoid injuries. If you're new to strength training, work with a trainer or other fitness specialist to learn correct form and technique. Remember to breathe as you strength train.

When to expect results

You don't need to spend hours a day lifting weights to benefit from strength training. You can see significant improvement in your strength with just two or three 20- or 30-minute strength training sessions a week.

For most healthy adults, the Department of Health and Human Services recommends these exercise guidelines:

• Aerobic activity. Get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. The guidelines suggest that you spread out this exercise during the course of a week. Greater amounts of exercise will provide even greater health benefits. But even small amounts of physical activity are helpful. Being active for short periods of time throughout the day can add up to provide health benefits.
• Strength training. Do strength training exercises for all major muscle groups at least two times a week. Aim to do a single set of each exercise, using a weight or resistance level heavy enough to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions.

​As you incorporate strength training exercises into your fitness routine, you may notice improvement in your strength over time. As your muscle mass increases, you'll likely be able to lift weight more easily and for longer periods of time. If you keep it up, you can continue to increase your strength, even if you're not in shape when you begin.

​Making the decision to invest in healthy lifestyle changes is more than just flipping a switch. Making sustainable lifestyle changes is a process that takes time, dedication, and patience. Psychologists have found that it takes an average of 66 days for a new habit to become automatic, but the truth is that building and maintaining lifestyle changes is highly dependent on each individual. For this reason, it is important to set up your lifestyle changes to work with your life and to give yourself grace as you find the rhythm that works for you. However, there are some easy strategies that can help you develop a lifestyle change plan that works for you.

1. Focus on the whole picture
Lifestyle changes are like a puzzle. There are many pieces that must add up to the whole picture. Building habits in only one area of the puzzle will leave your overall picture lacking dimension. Your physical, mental, and emotional health all work together to make and break lifestyle changes, so it is important to understand how they all interact when setting up your lifestyle change plan.

• Sleep – The average adult should try to sleep 7-9 hours each night. During restful sleep, your body has time to regenerate and recharge. This time is integral to the success of making a lifestyle change; Lack of sleep can result in irritability, cravings, and fatigue, all of which can derail a successful lifestyle change.
• Water – Hydration is the key to most of your bodily functions. Without staying hydrated, neither your body nor your mind will be working with the lifestyle change process. So, grab a big water bottle and hydrate!
• Stress – By taking care of your body, you are naturally signaling to your brain that your overall stress levels can decrease. A new habit can reinforce your stress management system and will ultimately lead to overall stress management success. Focus on finding manageable habits you can integrate into your daily routine. You can build on those strong core routines as you continue to reach for your long-term goals.
• Consumption – Nutrition is an important element of the puzzle. When we charge our body with healthy ingredients, we can focus on building and maintaining healthy habits. When we fuel with junk food, we will inevitably crash and fall off the lifestyle change wagon. Focus on finding healthy replacements for junk food that you can actually sustain.
• Exercise – Staying active affects your physical and mental health. By finding fun ways to stay active, you provide additional endorphins that help your brain and body function at peak performance!

2. Set realistic and achievable goals
The goals you set for yourself are integral to your overall success in changing your lifestyle. Focus on setting goals that are realistic. Instead of expecting to run a marathon in six months, shoot for running a 5K and work up to the marathon. Setting realistic goals that you can achieve and then building on them will help you maintain momentum and stay motivated.

3. Create daily structured activities related to the goals
Building activities into your day helps you stay on track with your goals. Instead of assuming you will figure it out in the moment, plan fun activities you can look forward to throughout the day that pertain to your goal!

4. Make habits that you can keep
For most people, it is unrealistic to assume that you will always be at peak motivation. So, think about how you can build habits that are sustainable in your life, even when you aren’t on the health kick. Learning to swap out junk food for healthier options is one habit that you can likely maintain even when you aren’t constantly in the mood to go to the gym. Here are few fun alternatives you can try to get started:

• Swap out sandwiches for open faced sandwiches- cutting out half the carbs in your sandwich makes a huge difference in your nutritional balance
• Swap seltzer for soda- you can save over 20 grams of sugar by making the switch
• Swap Greek yogurt for sour cream- not only do you save calories, but you also add healthy probiotics to the recipe!
• Swap an apple for your bagel- having a morning apple and peanut butter instead of a peanut butter bagel saves calories, carbs, and adds nutrients to a balanced diet

5. Adopt new habits slowly and build on success
Building habits takes time. Be patient with yourself and understand that the fastest way forward isn’t always the smartest way forward. The goal in creating lifestyle changes isn’t to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. The goal is to build habits that are sustainable in your everyday life. So, give yourself time to start small and build on success so that the end result is rock solid.

6. Find a lifestyle buddy
One of the easiest ways to make lifestyle changes is to do it with a partner! Find a buddy that is committed to the process and can keep you accountable. This will help you think of new habits to build, keep you motivated, and give you someone to talk to about the journey.

7. Track progress
An easy way to fail to change is by not tracking progress. Tracking progress is crucial to continued success, as it shows you how far you’ve come and where you want to go. Track your progress so you can learn from setbacks, see common trends, and have a pathway to success.

8. Change one behavior at a time
You don’t have to do it all at once! In fact, it’s nearly impossible to make lifestyle changes that last if you are doing them all at the same time. Making lifestyle changes requires patience and dedication. Your brain is learning a new skill and needs time and focus to build those neuropathways. So, focus on building one behavior at a time.

9. Learn about balanced nutrition and find the balance that works for you
Every person’s body responds to food differently, and not all metabolisms work the same. Cutting calories isn’t the only way to get healthy, and in fact many diets that cut out entire food groups are unhealthy. Your body needs a healthy balance of nutrients, including healthy fats and carbs. Finding a nutritional balance that works for you will help you stay motivated and build sustainable change into your life.

10. Find your why
Finding your why is the single greatest thing you can do if you want to make your lifestyle change easy. By discovering what your deepest goal is, you can stay motivated and positive during the process. When setting goals, it is helpful to focus on overall health and lifestyle. Whether your stay motivated with numerical indicators such as weight management or how much you can bench, or with hobbies and daily activities like being able to run with your friends or play with your grandkids, finding your deepest why will help you build habits that last.