How long does it REALLY take?
The fitness industry keeps selling shortcuts.
“28-day shred”
“12-week miracle”
"Drop 10kg fast"
You’ve been lied to.
This episode tackles the most asked question in fitness: “How long will it take me to lose weight?”
In this episode we break down the myths, expose the false promises of quick-fix programs, and share what really determines your timeline.
No fluff, just truth, experience, and strategies that work.
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Get started on a proven step-by-step path to taking control over your emotional eating, building healthy and sustainable habits that give you energy every day, improve your strength, fitness, body shape and confidence — without counting calories, following some silly unsustainable diet, dodgy supplements, expensive medications or feeling like you have to exercise for 300 hours per week.
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Transcript
Welcome to the Weight Loss Podcast, where we offer solutions to the obstacles you face when it comes to achieving your health and fitness goals.
Speaker A:As a married couple who has lost a combined weight of 100kg and 11 clothes sizes, our raw, real and relatable stories will show you the path you must walk to achieve and more importantly, maintain the results you know you can reach.
Speaker A:Because we know it works.
Speaker A:So get ready to share the success and show the results with your hosts, Matt and Courtney.
Speaker B:Hello and welcome to the Weight Loss Podcast.
Speaker B:My name always is and always will be Matt.
Speaker C:Why are you saying your name?
Speaker B:We just started recording and you're killing my flow.
Speaker B:What are you doing?
Speaker C:Sorry.
Speaker B:Who are you anyway?
Speaker C:Do it again.
Speaker C:Start again.
Speaker B:Hello, I'm Matt.
Speaker C:Hello, I'm Courtney.
Speaker B:And we are here today to discuss what has to be the question that we get asked the most.
Speaker B:I know for me, in my career, it's the question I have been asked the most.
Speaker B:How long will it take me to lose weight?
Speaker C:Big one.
Speaker B:I would say that that would be number one in the questions we get asked the most.
Speaker C:Ranking.
Speaker B:The ranking scale, the power index.
Speaker B:The second most asked question is, how many times a week should I exercise?
Speaker B:Number three.
Speaker B:The third most asked question would be, what should I eat for breakfast?
Speaker B:But the number one question, without doubt is, how long will it take me to lose weight?
Speaker B:So we are here today to help you answer that question yourself.
Speaker B:So we're going to go through what this actually means, why it can be so hard for people, how it can actually be easier than you think to answer this question.
Speaker B:We'll take you guys through the process that we employ with our own clients, and then we'll also give our own personal experience on how we deal with it because it is a very tough question.
Speaker B:So Courtney told me, I think it's.
Speaker C:Hard for most people to answer this question because to answer the question, they're looking at just the number at the end.
Speaker C:So they're not looking at the process to get to the answer.
Speaker B:They're just, what do you mean?
Speaker B:Number?
Speaker C:The number of days, the number of months, the number of years it's going to take.
Speaker C:I think people are too focused, the number of kilos, too focused on the result, the answer of the question, and not on the process to get to the question.
Speaker C:And that's.
Speaker C:That's what makes it difficult.
Speaker B:That is deep.
Speaker C:Not that deep.
Speaker B:That is deep.
Speaker B:But that is also, I think, fairly spot on.
Speaker C:It's a sort of question where you say, hey, how long will it take me to lose weight?
Speaker C:And in your mind automatically for most people flashes numbers like 12 weeks, 28 days, 6 months, 12 months.
Speaker C:These are the sort of answers that are flashing in your mind instead of thinking, well, how am I going to figure that out?
Speaker C:So, so I think that's what, where the difficult part comes from for most people.
Speaker B:It's also fair because it is a results oriented world and especially in this day and age, we want everything five minutes ago.
Speaker B:You mean I have to take off the work and this takes time?
Speaker B:No, I don't want that.
Speaker B:I want it now.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I can understand that because I've been there as well as have you.
Speaker C:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker B:It can be a very frustrating thing that I think as well is actually sort of wood is thrown under the fire by the industry that we work in because there are many, many, many people out there happy to take our money, offering us a 7 day shred or a 28 day detox or even a 12 week program with the promise or the illusion of the promise that this is all it's going to take, like, hey mary, you've been 40 kilos overweight for the last 25 years.
Speaker B:It's okay, just do my 28 day detox and you'll be fine.
Speaker C:But the misleading thing is, if you asked a lot of those people that come up with these 28 days or these 7 days or these 12 week things, is it actually going to take that long to get the result?
Speaker C:I want if you sat them down and asked them if even they know that it's not going to happen.
Speaker C:But it's the way that they market and they sell their product is the way that they get their product out there.
Speaker B:Well, it's effective selling, that's for sure.
Speaker C:Realistically.
Speaker C:And it's not just the people, I don't blame just the people selling the product because it's the culture that we live in that's also the issue.
Speaker C:Because to be honest with you, if you see something, if you see a book on the bookshelf that says, you know, 28 days to success, are you going to pick that one up?
Speaker C:Are you going to pick up the one that says 12 months of hard work to success?
Speaker B:Well, you know what?
Speaker C:No, you're not going to pick up that one.
Speaker B:I do blame the people that are selling these things because it's just making a quick buck and I understand that we all need to put food on the table and pay our bills.
Speaker B:But when you're dealing with a topic that is very personal and emotional to people, because if you don't like what you see in the mirror and you want to change.
Speaker B:That's an exposed nerve.
Speaker C:I get that.
Speaker C:It's their fault as well.
Speaker C:Don't get me wrong.
Speaker C:I'm not saying they're not cashing in on it, but I think it's both.
Speaker C:I think these days, it's our love for quick fixes that drives.
Speaker C:That fuels the industry of quick fixes, and it just fuels the misleading nature, and then it just flows on from there.
Speaker B:So what we're saying is our industry's crap.
Speaker C:Yeah, basically, our industry.
Speaker C:I do agree with you on that one.
Speaker C:Is incredibly misleading when it comes to this issue.
Speaker C:And it does cloud the whole problem.
Speaker B:Yeah, it does.
Speaker B:It sets people's expectations off on the wrong foot.
Speaker B:Because let's use a bit of common sense here.
Speaker B:If someone has been overweight for the last 25 years and has been rather sedentary sitting on the couch, guess what, love?
Speaker B:12 weeks ain't gonna do it.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker B:No chance.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:I mean, believe me, 28 days isn't gonna do it.
Speaker B:Not even close.
Speaker B:Believe me.
Speaker B:I would like to be able to say to.
Speaker B:We can have you looking incredible in the best shape of your life in 28 days, but that would make me a liar.
Speaker C:Make us all a millionaire.
Speaker B:Well, if we could do it, we'd be a millionaire.
Speaker B:We'd be retired, living on the moon somewhere.
Speaker B:But that's not the way things work at the moment.
Speaker B:So I think this issue is really exacerbated by our industry's prevalence for pushing the quick fixes, which appeals to people's desperation.
Speaker B:And I can't blame people for taking up these options because, hey, I would do it if it works.
Speaker C:Right you are.
Speaker B:I'll do it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:100% right on that.
Speaker C:It is feeding on the people's desperation.
Speaker C:And because.
Speaker C:Because the industry is so clouded, there's.
Speaker B:A lot of noise.
Speaker C:There's a lot of noise, and it just makes people more and more desperate.
Speaker B:So today, we are going to help to clear up this noise because we like clarity.
Speaker C:We do like clarity.
Speaker B:And we like focus.
Speaker B:We like direction.
Speaker B:No, we don't like noise.
Speaker B:Noise is bad.
Speaker B:Noise is confus.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Noise makes things harder than it needs to be.
Speaker B:So in terms of why this is a hard thing for people, it is an issue that's built upon by our industry combined with the fact that they just don't know.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:It's just inexperience, and that's okay.
Speaker B:Which is where I think there's an obligation for people like us that have done it.
Speaker B:Ourselves personally and have done it with many other people professionally.
Speaker B:I think it's time to set the record straight, to clear the air.
Speaker B:Insert cliche here, but let's just give people the straight dope, the real information.
Speaker B:Let's just get down with this.
Speaker B:Hey, look, we're going all in.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Why is that?
Speaker C:Well, because it's about the look, not about the number.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:It's about the image that we all want in our heads is what we dream of.
Speaker C:No one ever sits in.
Speaker C:In bed and really thinks.
Speaker C:Dreaming of, oh, yep, I definitely want to be 57 kilos.
Speaker B:57 kilos.
Speaker B:I call that my left leg.
Speaker C:Well, I mean, I just picked a random number, but you know what I mean?
Speaker C:No one ever sits there and thinks, yes, I want to be this.
Speaker C:This amount of kilos.
Speaker C:People sit there dreaming of the image, the visual image of what they see, their goal to be, their goal self to be.
Speaker B:And they associate that visual image with the number.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Yet it doesn't always work out that way.
Speaker B:We have an obsession with numbers that is primarily caused by the.
Speaker B:The weight loss industry in general, that is then passed on to the people that spend, well, shit, tons of money in it on diets, personal trainers, gym memberships, you name it.
Speaker B:And it's at the stage where, well, often people will dictate.
Speaker B:Well, they will have the number that will dictate their success or failure in what they're doing.
Speaker B:So you may have someone that hasn't reached what they believe to be their goal weight and they consider it a failure, even though there's a pretty good chance they're going to look better.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker B:So what, what are we really focusing on here?
Speaker B:So I tend to find that people's obsession with the numbers and the way that is meant to define success or failure, you start playing mind games with yourself.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And that's where you start to get people that will weigh themselves multiple times a day having a freakout because, oh, my God, I just gained 300 grams.
Speaker B:I mean, let's be honest, I can go to the toilet and lose half a kilo pretty easily.
Speaker B:I can then go to the kitchen and make up a meal and gain that half a kilo back.
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:And it can be a real cycle to get caught into as well, weighing yourself.
Speaker C:I mean, there's a lot of people that not only, like Matt said, weigh themselves multiple times a day, but also keeping track of those multiple times a day.
Speaker C:So they're tracking them in a book or a log this time of the day.
Speaker C:I weigh this, this Time of the day, I weigh this, this date, I weighed this.
Speaker C:So it becomes a constant obsession.
Speaker C:And then this is where a lot of disordered eating can be grown out of because then people are adapting what they're eating to suit the number on the scale.
Speaker B:Courtney's made a magnificent point.
Speaker B:One that I was actually thinking of myself where.
Speaker B:Yeah, like Courtney said, I have also seen people where what they have weighed themselves at a couple of hours ago is going to dictate what they're having.
Speaker B:For example, for lunch.
Speaker B:If they're having lunch in the first place, I'll just skip this meal because then I won't put any weight on.
Speaker B:So I think Courtney's spot on the money.
Speaker B:It can contribute towards a disordered eating pattern.
Speaker B:And anyone that's had a disordered eating pattern or whether you're overweight, underweight, whatever, will attest to the fact that they're nasty and they're hard to get out of.
Speaker C:Yeah, and I think that's where as well those mind games come back into play again and it becomes a vicious cycle.
Speaker C:And I think that the fitness industry does have a lot to do with it because it isn't often spoken about in terms of visual goals.
Speaker C:It's all about weight based goals.
Speaker C:Yes, we've used the headline as well.
Speaker C:Lost this amount of weight.
Speaker C:A lot of people use it.
Speaker C:I'm not fully against people using the weight in their description or in their heading or in article headlines, things like this.
Speaker C:And they don't have to explain it too much.
Speaker C:There's no big explanation that has to go with lose 10 kilos in two weeks.
Speaker C:I mean that's pretty self explanatory.
Speaker C:So that is why these people do it, because it's easy, it gets the message across and we as consumers buy into it.
Speaker C:And you notice that you never see advertising for scales.
Speaker C:You don't see companies advertising scales for sale, do you?
Speaker B:Not that we're looking, no, but you.
Speaker C:Don'T because the fitness industry sells it for them.
Speaker C:So they just sit back and sell the product.
Speaker C:They don't have to do anything.
Speaker B:You mean sit back and count the dollars?
Speaker C:That's it.
Speaker C:So the fitness industry is selling the these scales for these businesses because every promotional point they put out there is based on weight.
Speaker C:So you really have to keep that in perspective.
Speaker C:What does that number tell us?
Speaker B:What are the scales actually doing?
Speaker B:So they're giving us an arbitrary number, but what does that number actually mean?
Speaker B:Breaking this down.
Speaker B:Well, from a technical standpoint, what does the number mean?
Speaker B:Well, not much.
Speaker B:It just Means you weigh a certain amount.
Speaker B:What it doesn't tell you, for example, are things like body composition.
Speaker B:So the scales may say so and so male weighs 100kg, but I've seen males that weigh 100kg each that look very different.
Speaker C:So why don't you just explain Matt about body composition?
Speaker B:Well, body composition, we're talking about muscle mass versus fat mass.
Speaker B:So the scales won't tell you your body fat percentage, it just tells you the overall number.
Speaker B:It doesn't tell you what comprises the number.
Speaker B:So if you've got someone, and I've seen this happen with people before, where over, let's say for example, over a 12 week program, they may lose 2, 3 kg on the scale, which some people would think is a failure, but in the photos look dramatically different, which is a result of a body composition change.
Speaker B:So that's where the scales really are, a hideously inaccurate way of measuring progress because it doesn't tell you is your body composition changing.
Speaker B:I've seen people where they have lost numbers on the scales but don't look any better.
Speaker B:Yeah, I've seen it where people have lost a lot of weight but still just look like a smaller version of themselves.
Speaker B:Shapeless.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Soft, flabby, jiggly.
Speaker C:You've seen in the ones where they lose a lot of weight but the.
Speaker B:Composition, the actual composition has muscle tone.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker C:They've got nothing there.
Speaker C:They've literally lost the fat.
Speaker C:But everything else as well.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:So any muscle they did have, they've lost that as well.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:So that's where the scales are very inaccurate.
Speaker B:They're a terrible way of measuring progress.
Speaker B:So I tend to find that the scales often, but not always will be them improving will be a byproduct of everything else that you're doing.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So people are going to focus on the number yet I prefer to focus on what you need to do to fix it.
Speaker C:And I think also speaking as a, as a female, I think that you have to look at as a female, things like your period, that time of the month.
Speaker C:I know it's not something that a lot of people talk about, but we get it as females and you can't avoid it.
Speaker C:You can't avoid it.
Speaker C:It comes every month.
Speaker C:So I know that there's a lot of people that are lucky enough where it doesn't really affect them, so their body doesn't really change during that week and it just sort of happens and then it's gone and, you know, not much happens.
Speaker C:Whereas then there's other people and I fall into this bracket, personally, where my body does change, and it does actually change from about the week before, about the half the week before my period week into the week after my period week.
Speaker C:So I.
Speaker C:My body does change a lot.
Speaker C:I bloat, I get, I retain a lot of fluid.
Speaker C:My body does change.
Speaker C:So if I jumped on the scales during that time versus the other half of the month where I'm not like that, well, there's going to be dramatic change in that number.
Speaker C:So I think that.
Speaker C:And Matt said before about when you.
Speaker C:If you've gone to the bathroom, if you've eaten, if you've had water, if you haven't had water for a while, I think these are all factors that can change that number on the scale.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And if you're looking at that number on the scale every week, that number changing by one or two here and there doesn't seem like a lot until you've got obsessed with that number.
Speaker C:And then that number changing by one or two can really freak you out.
Speaker C:And to really change your mindset on things when it's easy to not to think about these other factors that might have played a role in that and taking them into consideration, that is also another reason that the scales can be really dangerous, as in terms of a measuring guide for your success.
Speaker B:Well, from a trainer's perspective and a coach's perspective, they're just inaccurate.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So if someone were to say to me, oh, Matt, I'm doing really well.
Speaker B:I've lost 10 kilos on one hand, it's like, that's great.
Speaker B:I'm happy that you're happy.
Speaker B:On the other hand, what does that even mean?
Speaker B:Yeah, if someone comes to me and says, I've lost 10kg of fat, then we're having a very, very different discussion because they're going to look extremely different in a very, very good way.
Speaker B:So the data that you get from the number is highly inaccurate, which is precisely why Courtney and I don't weigh ourselves anymore.
Speaker B:And we don't weigh our clients.
Speaker C:No, I haven't weighed myself in a really long time.
Speaker C:I think actually recently I did have to weigh myself because I had a surgery.
Speaker C:And when you go to the hospital, they ask you how much you weigh.
Speaker C:And of course, I didn't know because I don't own a pair of sc, so I had to weigh myself at the hospital so they could write it down on their chart.
Speaker C:But before then, I don't remember the last time I weighed myself.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:And when Courtney and I set our gym up, we put a lot of money into getting really high quality equipment, making sure that all our clients could train there, that we could train there.
Speaker B:But we didn't buy a set of scales that was deliberate to send a message to the people that we work with that we don't care what you weigh because the number on the scales is not your problem.
Speaker B:What got you to where you are is your problem.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So we tend to find that by addressing the things that got someone to where they are in the first place, that's going to turn them and their lives around.
Speaker B:And as a byproduct, the scales will probably fix themselves anyway.
Speaker B:Yeah, but focusing on fixing the number isn't going to help.
Speaker B:But we don't.
Speaker B:We don't have the scales at the gym for that express purpose.
Speaker B:And I know for myself, and I know Courtney's the same, we make a point to not even ask our clients what they weigh.
Speaker B:I've got clients that I've worked with where they've achieved incredible transformations.
Speaker B:I didn't know their starting weight, I didn't know their finishing weight, and I don't care because they look great, they feel great, they've improved mentally and emotionally.
Speaker B:What's the number going to tell?
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Well, that's it.
Speaker B:You could hit your goal weight but not look much better.
Speaker B:Would you prefer that to staying the same weight you are now, but loving what you see in the mirror?
Speaker B:When people think about that, the answer is always the same.
Speaker B:I'd rather love what I see in the mirror.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:All of a sudden, when you come to that realization, the number.
Speaker B:Who cares?
Speaker B:Who cares?
Speaker B:Because when you like what you see in the mirror, I guarantee you, you won't give a shit what the number on the scales is.
Speaker B:No, you won't care at all.
Speaker B:You won't even think about it.
Speaker B:If you're wearing the clothes that you want to wear and you feel good about yourself, who gives a shit about a number?
Speaker C:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker B:A question for you, Courtney.
Speaker B:I'll ask on the back of this as well.
Speaker B:For me, the worst I got to was weighing myself every single day and stressing out about the number.
Speaker B:Courtney, if I can ask you, did you ever get that bad?
Speaker C:No, I never got that bad.
Speaker C:I didn't weigh myself every day.
Speaker C:I would go through phases.
Speaker C:Sometimes if I decided to have a bit of a health kick, I would weigh myself, and then I would weigh myself each of those days.
Speaker C:But my little health kicks didn't last very long, so that would tend to fade off fairly quickly.
Speaker C:I was rather bad when I was a Teenager.
Speaker C:When I went through puberty, I started to get a lot bigger, and I was still under 60 kilos at that time.
Speaker C:And I remember they used to weigh us sometimes for, like, gym class.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:And I used to freak out before those and used to.
Speaker C:My goal was I always wanted to stay underneath 60 kilos.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:That was my thing.
Speaker C:So I used to dread going and getting weighed in at school because I always wanted to stand and eat 60 kilos.
Speaker C:And I knew I was getting bigger.
Speaker C:So, yeah, I knew I was getting to that stage where I was going to be tipping over it.
Speaker C:So, yeah, that was in my younger days.
Speaker C:But in terms of weighing myself every day, no, I didn't ever stick to anything long enough to weigh myself every day.
Speaker B:Well, I know for me, doing it every day was very stressful.
Speaker B:And without anyone even prompting me or giving me the advice, I just thought to myself, this is doing my head in.
Speaker B:I'm spending more time worrying about what this number is going to be than actually doing what I need to do to fix it.
Speaker B:And that's when I.
Speaker B:The first step that I made was backing it off to doing it every week.
Speaker B:And then after a while, because I was liking what I was seeing in the mirror, I was liking the clothes that I was wearing, I just stopped altogether because, like, you know what?
Speaker B:I don't care.
Speaker B:I don't care because I feel confident.
Speaker B:I feel good within myself.
Speaker B:The ladies seem to appreciate what they're looking at.
Speaker B:Well, who cares about the number?
Speaker B:I want to get in front of this.
Speaker B:I know that the intro to our show talks about how we've lost a combined 100 kilos, and yet here we are recording a show talking about stop weighing yourself.
Speaker B:So it's probably easy to then have the thought process.
Speaker B:Hang on, what are these two clowns even saying?
Speaker B:They're out there promoting their weight loss, then telling me to stop weighing myself.
Speaker B:Here's the deal.
Speaker B:We have to put the number out there because that adds credibility to it.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, we don't like it, but that's just the way the industry works, because to people that don't know us, the number all of a sudden makes it look like, oh, they must know what they're doing.
Speaker B:So I just want to get out in front of that and have that bit of a disclaimer.
Speaker B:Yeah, we do promote the number, but it's because that's what unfortunately gets people's attention.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And that's what I was talking about earlier in terms of that's what the fitness industry do.
Speaker C:It's It's a short, sharp way of getting their message across.
Speaker C:We're doing, using the least amount of words and the least amount of explanation in, in one moment.
Speaker B:And Courtney and I saw it when we were on TV earlier this year and our story together, just before we started the podcast, our story together went viral purely based on a number.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Now we know deep down the number is kind of irrelevant, but even the media, all they kept asking is how much, how much, how much, how much?
Speaker B:That's all they cared about.
Speaker C:It's the headline.
Speaker B:That's the headline.
Speaker C:That's the headline.
Speaker C:And that's why, as well, it was important for us to do things like this podcast to explain things like this, because anyone can write a headline.
Speaker C:We can say a headline.
Speaker C:The media can say a headline.
Speaker C:Any products that are sold, any weight loss fitness products that are sold can always sell a headline.
Speaker C:That's, that's, that's the easy part.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:The easy part is saying, lose 10 kilos in two weeks.
Speaker C:That's the easy part.
Speaker C:It's the underlying, what do I have to do to lose 10 kilos in two weeks?
Speaker C:What does it involve?
Speaker C:Tell me about it.
Speaker C:Tell me the story of why it works.
Speaker C:Tell me the story of how it's worked for you.
Speaker C:These are the explanations that then you have to look into.
Speaker C:So the story that the headline is always the easy part.
Speaker C:And yes, it's always based around numbers, because that's the easy part to get across and to sell.
Speaker B:So I know that the number that I can throw around saying, Yep, I've lost 80 kilos in my life, that's going to draw eyeballs, that's going to raise eyebrows, that's going to get people's attention.
Speaker B:But for me, what I realized after quite a while was that I lost all that weight by not focusing on it.
Speaker B:That just ended up being part of the end result.
Speaker B:So for me, when I was weighing myself obsessively, I hardly lost a thing because I was focusing on the scales.
Speaker C:And I think the other thing that we often try to get across is that we'll say in a lot of our headlines and things like that, yes, a combined amount of 100 kilos.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker C:But the other thing is, when we're talking to people, what, what Roughly what Matt and I roughly know what we weigh.
Speaker C:Now, roughly speaking, people don't think that we would weigh that much.
Speaker B:Oh, well, that's a fantastic point.
Speaker B:I know that when I meet people for consultations at the gym and they're going on about all their fantastic U beaut weight related goals.
Speaker B:I always point out that we don't have scales and I will then ask them how much they think I weigh.
Speaker B:And often people are between 20-30kg off when I tell them how heavy I am now because of my body composition, because I'm fairly, fairly muscled up, if I do say so myself.
Speaker B:But it doesn't look that way because I'm still wearing, you know, not exactly massive clothing anymore.
Speaker B:So people will say, oh, you know, you weigh what, 95 kilos, 100 kilos?
Speaker B:Not even close.
Speaker B:Not even close.
Speaker B:And then when I told them the truth, which is more like 130 now, they're shocked because like, hang on, how do you look like that yet weigh that much?
Speaker B:Well, it's body composition.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Well, it's the same with me.
Speaker C:People often think that I have dropped sort of 30 kilos looking at my before and after photos.
Speaker B:Actually, I've had people guess that Courtney has lost 50 kilos looking at the dramatic difference in the photos, but it's actually closer to 20.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, I sit right now, I think when I had my surgery a couple of months ago, I weighed in about 75 kilos, if I recall.
Speaker B:That is the number.
Speaker B:Yeah, I believe.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:So, and that's where I'm roughly city.
Speaker C:I haven't weighed myself since then, but that's.
Speaker C:I'm going by what I would roughly still be at.
Speaker C:So a lot of people would think 75 kilos would not fit into the size clothing of a size small or a 10 to 12.
Speaker C:So that is a perception that we have based around weight.
Speaker B:Again, get off the scales because they're.
Speaker C:Not your problem unless they're food scales.
Speaker B:Well, let's start by getting off them.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:I guarantee you this.
Speaker B:If you focus on your habits and you know what I'm talking about, the bad habits that you know, you've got that you know are working against you, the number's going to fix itself.
Speaker B:Take the focus off the number and focus on what's in your control to improve the situation.
Speaker B:So I know that with people that I've worked with, when they have freaked out about the numbers, my response has also been, well, what are you doing to fix it?
Speaker B:Are you putting yourself in the best possible position to succeed?
Speaker B:So why complain about being heavy or gaining half a kilo if you're skipping breakfast, if you're smashing cheesecake every day, if you're drinking 25 alcoholic beverages over the course of a weekend, don't worry about the end result if what you're Doing to get it isn't what it needs to be.
Speaker B:So we.
Speaker B:We don't weigh ourselves or our clients for that express purpose because we're focusing on, you know, the look, the function, and the feel.
Speaker B:So what's the point of losing all this weight on the scale if you feel like death warmed up every day?
Speaker B:Or more to the point, what's the point of losing some epic number on the scales if you still don't like what you see in the mirror?
Speaker C:Well, that's a big one as well, isn't it?
Speaker C:Because a lot of people lose all this weight, and then they'll start saying to me, oh, now I'm going to tone up.
Speaker C:Now, all that means is that you lost all that weight, and you didn't just lose fat, you lost a lot of muscle, too.
Speaker C:So now you're making life harder for yourself because you lost all that weight, and now you've got to try to rebuild the muscle that you lost.
Speaker B:Let's say you aren't happy with the number that is on the scales.
Speaker B:And obviously that's also going to mean you aren't happy with what you see in the mirror.
Speaker B:If you tend to find that by taking the focus off the number, it's going to allow people to focus on what's actually important, which are the things that they're doing that get them either to the hole that they're in or get them out of the hole that they're in.
Speaker B:So the big thing that we focus on is with ourselves and our clients is habits.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Because the habits dictate the result.
Speaker B:We are, you know, we are the result of our choices and our habits.
Speaker B:So I do.
Speaker B:I do think that the scales are a bit of a plague when it comes to what we do.
Speaker B:And if for us, for Courtney and I. I know, I think you're getting there yourself now, Courtney, but myself, I'm very bullish on this, where I tell my clients straight up, I don't care what you weigh.
Speaker B:If you want to weigh yourself, go for it, but don't complain to me if the numbers aren't changing, because the numbers are only good when they suit us.
Speaker B:So my clients know, if they come to me complaining they haven't lost any weight on the scales, they know what they're going to get in response.
Speaker B:I don't care.
Speaker B:I don't give a shit.
Speaker B:That's not the problem.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker B:So I tend to find that by setting the expectations with the people that I work with up front, I don't get that problem anymore.
Speaker B:Of, oh, Man, I'm not losing any weight.
Speaker B:I don't care.
Speaker B:Yeah, don't care one bit.
Speaker B:So I suppose getting cranky enough at enough people has led to this happening where it's not an issue.
Speaker B:And now the people that I'm working with are very focused on fixing those habits.
Speaker C:What's the saying with habits?
Speaker C:Changing of habits, you've got to do something.
Speaker C:How many times to change your habit?
Speaker B:I've got no idea.
Speaker C:Oh, there's a saying anyway, some people probably listening to this telling me, but I can't hear you.
Speaker C:So cool story, but I'll look it up.
Speaker C:Anyway, there is a saying that you've got to do.
Speaker C:You've got to do a new habit so many times to make it actually for your brain to kick in to remember that one habit.
Speaker B:Well, even, even that any habit cliches can be dependent on the person.
Speaker B:Some habits take a long time to reprogram.
Speaker B:So if someone has a habit that's been in their system for 20 years, that's going to take time to reprogram.
Speaker C:Sometimes with habits, emotional and physical habits for some people take more time.
Speaker C:I know for me, emotional habits in terms of emotional eating, in terms of comparing myself to others, these sort of habits have taken me a lot longer to overcome, or I'm still trying to overcome them.
Speaker C:Then physical habits in terms of physically eating the food, physically doing the exercise, these sort of things.
Speaker C:So for some people, those sort of habits can affect people in different ways.
Speaker C:So that would be my first tip.
Speaker B:Well, on the subject of that, can I ask you a question?
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:How have you dealt with this issue yourself?
Speaker B:Because you've gone through it, I know.
Speaker C:Yes, we have, we both have.
Speaker C:And I know that where you're going with this because we both deal with it very differently.
Speaker C:I again deal with this issue.
Speaker C:That's why I mentioned so strongly that comparing yourself to others, because I really feel like they're linked.
Speaker C:And I feel very strongly like they're linked because I've done it myself.
Speaker C:And I think when you're comparing yourself to others, automatically you're relating back to how long has it taken that person, how long has it taken me, why am I doing it faster?
Speaker C:These are the sort of things that go through our heads.
Speaker C:So for me it is still an ongoing battle because of that habit that I have with comparing myself to other people.
Speaker C:So it was an issue for me at the start.
Speaker C:Very much like you said, like when I first met you and you said to me, it's going to take you at least 12 months.
Speaker C:It was not something I was shocked at because deep down I knew.
Speaker C:The shocking thing to me was that someone actually told me.
Speaker B:Wow, good point.
Speaker C:So deep down, as you said, I think it was a great point that you made where deep down, I think we all know that that is the answer.
Speaker C:This isn't breaking.
Speaker C:Someone else says something different, but we're just hoping that that person is going to come to us and say, nah, you've got it all wrong.
Speaker C:You've just missed this one thing and it's going to be all perfect and you're going to be a completely different person in 28 days.
Speaker C:But it just.
Speaker C:No one is going to say that to you with any integrity because I would be lying.
Speaker C:So generally speaking, some people might work in 28 days, depending where they're coming from, but generally not really.
Speaker B:Really.
Speaker C:No, I'm lying, so it's not going to happen that way.
Speaker C:And I think that was the biggest thing in my experience, was that, yes, deep down, I knew it was going to take me a long time.
Speaker C:I knew I was going to make mistakes and I wasn't going to get it right.
Speaker C:And it was going to be a battle and it was going to be really hard work, and it has been, but I just never actually thought that someone would say that to me.
Speaker C:And that was my biggest thing.
Speaker C:And in terms of how I still deal with it, it's more on the side of comparing to others where I still pick myself up sometimes in terms of I need to pull myself back and think it doesn't matter how long it's taken that person to do it because they're a different person.
Speaker C:To me, there's these different factors come into play, and I know that you deal with it differently.
Speaker C:So why don't you tell everyone how you deal with this issue?
Speaker B:I don't think about it.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:So that's how we differ.
Speaker B:I don't think about it.
Speaker B:To me, because when there's a process that's laid out and it's a process that you can sustain and that you have faith in and that you trust, which, by the way, those two things can be pretty scary themselves.
Speaker B:But when there's a process that you can trust, to me, it's like, you know what?
Speaker B:I know this is going to work.
Speaker B:Head down, bum up, just get it done.
Speaker B:Let the thing play out.
Speaker B:Let this process play out, because very easy to obsess every single day.
Speaker B:Am I changing?
Speaker B:Is this changing?
Speaker B:Am I getting skinny?
Speaker B:Am I getting fat again?
Speaker B:I shouldn't think about it.
Speaker B:I'm Training hard, I'm moving my body regularly.
Speaker B:I'm making very, very, very good food choices.
Speaker B:How can that not work?
Speaker B:Yeah, it does.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that's also a lot of the advice I pass on to my clients with that is when the process is in place, just let this thing work.
Speaker B:Let it, let it, let it take time.
Speaker C:Let your body adjust, which is the hardest thing.
Speaker C:And I know for a lot of people listening, you're going to listen to Matt's personal experience and think, oh yeah, that's me, I'm with you.
Speaker C:And some of you will be listening and thinking, no, I'm not there yet.
Speaker C:And to be honest, I'm not there yet either.
Speaker C:But I take Matt's advice and try and I'm trying to implement that into my own day to day life.
Speaker C:And that's why especially as well, we don't recommend people do things like take photos of themselves every day or every.
Speaker B:Week or weigh yourself every day or.
Speaker C:Weigh yourself every day because yeah, it just, it's going to play with your head more than it's worth it.
Speaker B:On the subject of tips and advice we're giving to our listeners, get off the scales.
Speaker C:Yeah, throw them away.
Speaker C:We're talking about the scales in terms of weighing yourselves.
Speaker C:I get this question asked of me a lot, especially when a lot of people see my before and after photos.
Speaker C:A lot of people will automatically say to me, oh, how much weight have you lost?
Speaker C:And I'm actually not bullshitting when I say to people, I have no idea.
Speaker C:Like, I literally don't know because I actually don't know what weight I was when I started.
Speaker C:I did not weigh myself.
Speaker C:I have an educated guess because I did go through phases of weighing myself prior to me meeting that and really starting.
Speaker C:So I can take an educated guess of around about what weight I was when I started and I can give an educated guess as to what I am now.
Speaker C:But generally speaking, I have absolutely no idea how much weight I've lost.
Speaker C:And it doesn't matter.
Speaker B:No, it doesn't.
Speaker B:And I'm the same as Courtney in that.
Speaker B:It's the biggest obsession that people I've worked with have had to deal with.
Speaker B:For myself, it was a gigantic obsession when I was younger where I weigh myself every single day and all it would do was my head in.
Speaker B:And I tend to notice that with the people that I have worked with, the numbers on the scales can do their head in chances.
Speaker B:Are you listening to this?
Speaker B:It has probably done your head in at least 5, 6, 7,000 times prior to now.
Speaker B:And I think that it's a problem that is exacerbated by the weight loss industry in that it likes to throw numbers at people in terms of, hey, check out mary.
Speaker B:She's lost 48 kilos in the past 28 days on my fantastic detox challenge.
Speaker B:You can too.
Speaker B:And so it's going to put in people's heads the idea of, oh, well, I can lose that number as well and I'm going to be happy.
Speaker B:Except I've seen quite a number of times where people have come close to what they consider, quote unquote, their goal weight, but still haven't been happy.
Speaker B:Another tip that I'd like to give the guys and girls listening here is all the quick fixes that are out there, the seven day shreds, the 28 day programs, even 12 week programs, I would be approaching them with the biggest grain of salt in the world.
Speaker B:Because using common sense and knowing deep down what your own background is, you'll know if this is going to work for you or not.
Speaker B:And you know what, you've got to follow your common sense on this one.
Speaker B:So these quick fixes that are out there, as tempting as they are, believe me, I know they're tempting.
Speaker C:Yeah, they're massively tempting.
Speaker B:Approach them with a grain of salt.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker B:Because the only.
Speaker B:Generally what tends to lose the most amount of weight with these quick fixes is your bank account.
Speaker B:I know for us we could just as easily turn around and start selling quick fixes to people and make a lot of money in a short period of time.
Speaker C:We've been approached about it.
Speaker B:We have been approached.
Speaker B:Yes, we have.
Speaker B:But guess what?
Speaker B:There is, there is obviously an ethics thing at play.
Speaker B:But we also, I think we need to be true and genuine to our own personal experiences because we haven't lost weight doing those.
Speaker B:We haven't.
Speaker C:So it would be silly for us to turn around and sell it in a way of saying, oh, look what I did, I lost all this weight with this product and you use it too and you'll lose weight too.
Speaker C:It just, it doesn't sit with us.
Speaker B:It doesn't jive, it's not authentic.
Speaker B:So for you guys out there listening, there is a process that Courtney and I put all our clients through when they start with us to help us get the answer to this question.
Speaker B:And it basically is going to take into account a series of factors that can obviously add up to how long this is going to take.
Speaker C:Because it's not the same answer for everyone.
Speaker B:No, everyone, everyone has their own individual background.
Speaker B:And that's also a big part of the picture with this.
Speaker B:So factors that we would consider would be obviously age because you know, our bodies do change as we age.
Speaker B:Our bodies change physically, externally and internally with the way our metabolisms work.
Speaker B:Gender, sadly is an issue.
Speaker B:It is generally harder for females than it is for males.
Speaker C:That's right, females.
Speaker B:Females generally will take a little bit longer to see and feel a result compared to males.
Speaker B:But females tend to be the snowball effect rolling down the mountain.
Speaker B:It'll go down slowly and then build up into an avalanche.
Speaker B:So females, after a while will be changing almost every week.
Speaker B:It just takes them a while to get those initial changes where often with males, very slow starters, where males tend to be very fast starters but can plateau rather quickly.
Speaker B:So that's a different story altogether.
Speaker B:So gender, gender, race actually can be an issue.
Speaker B:If we're for example of, let's say Polynesian, Pacific Islander descent, that can make things a little bit harder, not impossible.
Speaker B:It can just be a factor when it comes to time.
Speaker B:Diet history.
Speaker C:Diet history is a big one.
Speaker B:So if you've got someone, let's say they're an overweight person, but they haven't subjected their body to, you know, some pretty damaging diets, we're talking the yo yo dieting.
Speaker B:The yo yo dieting, the starvation.
Speaker B:Starvation followed by binging.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker B:If someone has a background of not doing that, it can actually help make things happen a bit quicker because there's not a great amount of internal damage to undo.
Speaker B:Because all these fantastic u beaut diets that are available in our industry that will preach, you know, a thousand calories a day, one or two meals a day while over exercising, actually damage our metabolisms.
Speaker B:So we need to spend time turning that around, healing the damages on the inside before we can heal, so to speak, someone's outside.
Speaker B:So we take into account their diet history.
Speaker B:If you have a 40 year old woman who spent the last 20 years doing yo yo diets and quick fixes, that's going to make things harder to start with, a bit more time consuming.
Speaker B:You also take into account exercise history in terms of what we call their training age.
Speaker B:So if someone has been training in the gym consistently for the last, say three, four, five years, that will help a lot because they can pick up their game rather quickly.
Speaker B:Just ramp it up in terms of.
Speaker B:Yeah, ramping it up.
Speaker B:Conversely, if someone has been sitting on the couch for the last 10, 15 years, well, guess what, we're starting from scratch.
Speaker B:Yeah, but that's fine.
Speaker B:That's all Fine.
Speaker B:It's just gonna take a bit of time.
Speaker B:You also factor into account their actual size.
Speaker C:So current starting, starting, body weight, basically starting size.
Speaker B:So if someone, if someone's starting at, you know, let's say 150 kilos, it's probably gonna take them longer to get down under 100 than it would someone at 105 kilos.
Speaker B:I mean, that's kind of obvious, but it still is a factor.
Speaker C:It's a factor.
Speaker B:Then you've also got things like medical conditions, medical issues.
Speaker B:So diabetic.
Speaker B:Yes, that can play a factor.
Speaker C:Whereas also that goes along with medical issues.
Speaker C:That plays a factor is medications, medication.
Speaker C:Some medications people are on antidepressants can hinder the process.
Speaker B:Hinder, but not making possible.
Speaker C:Not making possible, but obviously just hinder in terms of time factor.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:Then you've got a big one that people tend to overlook.
Speaker B:Being stress stressed.
Speaker C:Yeah, big one.
Speaker B:Stress is a major factor.
Speaker B:Stress either through work, through your family or relationships.
Speaker B:It can even be the stress that you put yourself under, pressuring yourself to.
Speaker C:Change, to be perfect or.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:To not make mistakes.
Speaker B:Stress.
Speaker B:Stress can be devastating on the human body.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Extreme and sustained stress episodes can be really bad.
Speaker C:And that was one of the big things that you taught me actually as well, was the chemical that's released from stress in the body, which is quite a blocker.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:So stress levels can play a big, big factor, as can a person's sleeping patterns.
Speaker C:Lack of sleep.
Speaker B:Lack of sleep.
Speaker B:Sleep is criminally underrated in how effective it is at helping people change their body so they recover from exercise.
Speaker B:The fat burning process is in play when we're asleep.
Speaker B:So the body, obviously it's obvious that we all need to sleep, but the average person is not going to get enough for what their body would ideally like.
Speaker B:So sleep is a factor.
Speaker B:And then I think a big one as well is simply the goal that someone is working towards.
Speaker C:What outcome do you want?
Speaker B:What's the desired outcome?
Speaker B:So if you've got a young female who's been exercising for a while and he's relatively conscious about what she eats, and all she wants to do is lose that last one dress size, that last dress size to really look, you know, in mint condition, that's not going to take too long.
Speaker B:But if you've got a female that's been on the couch for the last 10 years and wants to drop eight dress sizes, then we're looking at some serious time.
Speaker B:Yeah, serious time.
Speaker B:So these are the factors that we take into account.
Speaker B:So I'll use two scenarios here.
Speaker B:Let's say you've got 45 year old mum.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Who's been looking after the kids for the last 15 years, hasn't exercised for 15 to 20 years, has tried a number of diets here and there, wants to lose, you know, four or five dress sizes, doesn't sleep much, is stressed through her work because she's not happy with the work that she's doing and the children and well, the stress of being a mum.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:She wants to lose a good four or five dress sizes.
Speaker B:The first thing I'm going to say to her is, well, guess what, we're going to need at least a good 12 months here.
Speaker B:@ least, at least, at least.
Speaker B:Bare minimum.
Speaker B:So I could sit there and say, yeah hon, come and do our fantastic 12 week program, you'll be fine.
Speaker B:But that would be misleading and false where to be honest with people, you've got to say no, this is going to take time.
Speaker B:Due to these factors that we're taking into consideration, you're going to need time.
Speaker B:And I also suspect that deep down a woman like this would actually know.
Speaker C:You know, to be honest, most people do know.
Speaker C:Deep down.
Speaker C:I knew deep down when I first met you and you told me it was going to take me at least 12 months and it's not something you want to hear, but deep down I think 99% of everybody does know.
Speaker B:Well, we also ask people when they come to look to work with us, we ask them how long they think it's going to take.
Speaker C:How long do you think it's going to take?
Speaker B:And very, very rarely do I get or do we get an unrealistic.
Speaker B:Most people know.
Speaker B:Yeah, most people know.
Speaker B:But on the flip side of that, let's say you've got a 25 year old male.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Who is already in relatively good shape, goes to the gym regularly, watches what he eats and just wants to lose that last four or five kilos of body fat to look really lean and really athletic.
Speaker B:That's where I would say, hey, you have a good 12 weeks, then hey, some great results, you're going to be there, you're going to be there.
Speaker B:So there are these factors we take into account, but for the average person, the safe bet when answering the question how long it's going to take longer than you'd like.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's pretty much a good way to put it.
Speaker C:And we do answer that sometimes with that response people will say to us, how long it's going to take me to lose weight?
Speaker C:And generally the answer is longer than you want it to.
Speaker C:And again, I think deep down we all know that that's going to be the answer.
Speaker C:We just need to hear it from someone else because we don't want to hear it.
Speaker C:And I think that if you really wanted to sit down and really sort of look at it in the sort of perspective of where we're coming from, you can look at those factors that Matt just went through.
Speaker C:So they were age, gender, race, diet history, exercise history, your starting weight or size, medical issues or medication you might be taking, stress, sleep, and what your eventual goal is.
Speaker B:And can I also add to that, you can also include things like, are they a regular smoker?
Speaker C:Smoking is a big one.
Speaker B:How often, how often do they consume alcohol?
Speaker B:These things are what we call metabolic blockers.
Speaker B:They do make things a little bit harder.
Speaker B:Now, also, can we just stress that with all these factors we take into account, nothing makes it impossible.
Speaker B:Yes, actually, I take that back.
Speaker B:One thing makes it impossible is a person quitting.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Every other factor.
Speaker B:Even injury.
Speaker B:Even injury.
Speaker C:Injury is not even on our, on our sheet as a, as a factor, because it really is a factor.
Speaker C:But in, in, in with our clients, we don't see it as a factor.
Speaker B:You can work around it because we.
Speaker C:Work with people with injuries all the so often that it's crazy.
Speaker C:I could probably list for you easy other people that we work with without an existing injury than the people.
Speaker B:Oh, with that question.
Speaker B:With our clients, we have more clients with injuries than without.
Speaker B:And it's a massive ratio.
Speaker C:That's probably why we didn't list it, because in our minds, we don't see it as a massive factor.
Speaker C:But yes, technically it is a factor.
Speaker C:But again, just like any of these, when you see them, they're not really massive factors.
Speaker B:You can work around everything.
Speaker B:The only thing you can't work around is a bad attitude.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Well, is your desire to succeed, really.
Speaker B:If someone wants to change.
Speaker B:And let's say you've got someone that smokes, drinks, rarely eats, has a massive diet history, they're 40 kilos overweight, they've got a busted knee, they've got a sore shoulder, they're a type 2 diabetic.
Speaker B:That can all be dealt with.
Speaker C:Yeah, it can all, it can all be worked around.
Speaker B:It can all be worked around.
Speaker B:But what you're going to find is, and this is what I learned with my own experience, that the longer you sort of abuse or subject your body to a poor lifestyle, there's a price to pay for that.
Speaker B:And the price to pay is how long it's going to take to reverse it.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:So you look at me, I was really, really unhealthy and out of shape for a good 20 years and it took me two and a half years of really knuckling down and getting on with it to see a result where it was like, hey, I look good, I look different, I feel great.
Speaker C:People, you know, like people don't recognize you.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:But we're talking about two and a half years of just head down, bum up, getting it done.
Speaker B:Where as much as I would like to, I would have preferred a fantastic 12 week program.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:But it was two and a half years.
Speaker B:It's a constant process and you know yourself with what you've been doing and.
Speaker C:It'S hard and it's sucks.
Speaker C:We know it sucks.
Speaker C:We'd love to tell you that there was a simpler answer for it, but there's not.
Speaker C:So there, as I said, they're the factors we use.
Speaker C:And can I also just mention, I'm sure that for some people listening to this, there's going to be light bulbs going off, thinking, ah, I get that.
Speaker C:I understand that there may also be light bulbs going off for you that are saying, oh, this is why it doesn't work the same for everyone and this is why it didn't happen for me the same as it happened for my friend.
Speaker C:And, and can I also just point out on a separate topic, but it's worth noting, this is why we do not compare ourselves to other people because so many factors go into answering this question that it is so impossible for two people to go through this exactly the same.
Speaker B:Well, every journey is different and people have their own different backgrounds and their own factors to take into consideration.
Speaker C:They live different lifestyles, they are different in so many ways.
Speaker B:It's chalk and cheese.
Speaker B:So, so what we'll do, we will, we'll move on.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Let's talk about, let's give people, let's give people some, some sort of tips that they can do at home with this.
Speaker B:So what's some advice that you'd be giving to people that have sort of struggling with, with this thought in their head of how long is this going to take me?
Speaker C:Well, I think we've got to start with the obvious one which you mentioned before, which is it's going to take you longer than you want.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's gonna take you longer than you want.
Speaker C:And when you work it out, how long roughly in your mind you think it's gonna take, you add a little bit longer.
Speaker C:Yep, that's generally the safe bet.
Speaker C:So if you think roughly it's gonna take me 12 months, then you say to yourself, what Matt did before in his example, it's going to take me at least 12 months because it is generally gonna take you longer than you want or that you expect, and that's okay.
Speaker B:But there have been people that have decided not to work with us because we said this is going to take longer than you think and longer than you want.
Speaker C:Definitely.
Speaker B:You know what?
Speaker B:I'm fine with that.
Speaker B:If people don't want to work with us because we're being honest and saying, you need a good 12 months, that's fine.
Speaker B:Because they're not ready for what we do.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker B:And that's fine.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And for a lot of people, it's just often because they just weren't ready for it.
Speaker C:They just weren't ready to commit to that sort of.
Speaker C:To that sort of timeframe.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker C:I know when you said about what we've lost, people that have not wanted to work with us because we've told them it's going to take you at least 12 months, things like this.
Speaker C:And I think sometimes when people aren't necessarily ready to make that commitment to change, they see things like that, conversations like that going in the way of, oh, well, you just want me to sign up for 12 months, so you get 12 months of money from me.
Speaker B:And you know, we'd make more money if we could change people in 28 days.
Speaker C:I was just about to say, and I can sometimes for some people, I don't take things like that personally.
Speaker C:We don't take it personally because we just know that that person just wasn't ready yet.
Speaker C:And we know if you're someone that's not ready to hear that sort of honest answer, like I said, you all deep down know that that's the answer, but you don't expect to hear it from someone.
Speaker C:So sometimes it can be really confronting.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And so it's easy to think, oh, they just want to take that.
Speaker C:Personal trainer, just wants to take my money.
Speaker C:But remember that deep down, you know what the person you are talking to is saying to you is correct.
Speaker C:You know that what they're saying is right deep down, you know, and remember that for us especially, I don't know about other personal trainers out there, but for us, if we had that quick fix, if we could change someone in 28 days, oh, we would.
Speaker C:We.
Speaker C:God, we would.
Speaker C:Like the amount of them before and after photos and things like that.
Speaker C:We would have.
Speaker B:We'd start with ourselves, like, oh, My.
Speaker C:Gosh, we would make ten times more money.
Speaker C:So it's not, it's not about that.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:Remember, it's about honesty and it's about being open enough and sensible enough just to believe what deep down inside you know is true.
Speaker B:And you touched on something that.
Speaker B:Okay, look, tangent warning.
Speaker B:In terms of the, the thought of.
Speaker B:Oh, you bloody pts just want me to pay for 12 months, our business lives or dies.
Speaker B:Not on people signing up for 12 months or six months or three years.
Speaker B:Our business lives and dies on results.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:We need to be able to show results.
Speaker B:Otherwise, who are we?
Speaker B:We can't say we know what we're doing if we can't actually prove it.
Speaker B:So if I could get the results that we get with our clients in a month, as opposed to 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 2 years, believe me, I would.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker B:Because we have more, more happy people and we'd be retired next week.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:So in terms of being fully transparent about this, it's not the people signing up for 12 months that gets us money.
Speaker B:It's actually changing people and having results to show.
Speaker B:So tangent over.
Speaker C:So we want it to happen quicker as well.
Speaker B:I, believe me, we want the results for all our clients as fast as they do.
Speaker B:We just share our own experience with ourselves and with our clients in the past.
Speaker B:We just have to be realistic about this and be honest with people because that's what it comes down to.
Speaker B:And does it put some people off?
Speaker B:Yeah, it does.
Speaker B:But you know what, that's fine.
Speaker C:And remember as well, the sort of changes you're looking for are the changes that you want to sustain long term.
Speaker C:So that's why as well, it takes a long time.
Speaker C:You're changing the habits that we mentioned.
Speaker C:You're changing so many things that you've got to take it one step at a time.
Speaker C:Because otherwise then you fall back into that diet mentality of we just push as hard as we can for this 12 week or 28 day period and.
Speaker B:Then go back to normal.
Speaker C:And then you go back to normal because you haven't really learned anything.
Speaker C:You haven't learned about why you're eating certain foods when you haven't learned about why you're exercising in a certain way.
Speaker C:You haven't learned about what your worst habits are and how to change them.
Speaker C:You haven't focused on any of these things.
Speaker C:So that is again why it takes that long to do.
Speaker B:So for you guys listening there at home or at the gym or out on your run or your bike ride or in the car going to work, the factors that we mentioned earlier.
Speaker B:And we will put these in the show notes page@theweightlosspodcast.com so you can still have a bit of a checklist to go off.
Speaker B:Take those factors into account when trying to answer this question yourself.
Speaker B:And then I recommend adding a bit more time onto that.
Speaker B:It's always going to take longer than what we think.
Speaker B:So just summarizing the tips that we give you guys understand.
Speaker B:When it comes to asking yourself the question of how long will it take me to lose weight?
Speaker B:It's going to take longer than you think.
Speaker B:It's going to take longer than you want.
Speaker B:Watch out for the quick fix solutions that are out there.
Speaker B:If quick fixes worked, people would not ever need to do them more than once.
Speaker B:Take into account the factors that we've mentioned in this episode and have on our show Notes page in terms of answering your own question and work with people that have been there, done that and know what the hell they are doing.
Speaker C:I think the final tip I personally want to give is to really look at your goals, to examine what goal you're actually aiming for.
Speaker C:So we always sit down with any client that comes into our gym, Matt and I will sit down with them and discuss what their goals are, what they're looking to achieve.
Speaker C:And if someone comes to me and I say to them, you know, what's your goal?
Speaker C:What are you looking to achieve?
Speaker C:And they come to me with a weight related goal.
Speaker C:I want to be 65 kilos.
Speaker C:And I will say, okay, great, what do you think that looks like?
Speaker C:Because 65 kilos to you might look very different in your mind to what I think 65 kilos looks like.
Speaker C:So I would encourage that person instead of then keeping in the forefront of their mind that that weight based goal, try to describe what that 65 kilo U looks like.
Speaker C:Maybe put a size number on it instead, maybe a clothes sizing number and let's aim for that first and foremost instead because there is, it is a lot easier then to achieve that goal because you can see it more.
Speaker C:Whereas a 65 kilo goal can look very different.
Speaker B:In closing on the tips, I want to sort of reinforce what I was saying before.
Speaker B:I can guarantee you this.
Speaker B:If you are going to focus on the things that are in your control, focusing on gradually turning your bad habits into good habits and taking the focus off the number, I guarantee you down the track the number is going to fix itself one way or the other.
Speaker B:So I can speak from personal experience.
Speaker B:When I stopped stressing about the number and focused on what I was actually doing.
Speaker B:It got easier and then eventually it fixed itself as a byproduct of all the right things I was doing day in, day out for months and months and months.
Speaker B:Yeah, so that's the final tip.
Speaker A:Are you ready to share your success?
Speaker A:Head over to our website for full access to our show notes, resources based on today's topic, and links to our Facebook group so you can share your story with our hosts and many others out there who are looking to achieve and maintain their health and fitness goals.
Speaker A:You can find all that and more exclusively@theweightlosspodcast.com.
Speaker C:SA.
