Setting Realistic Fitness Goals

Whether you want to lose weight or increase your endurance, it's important to tailor your workout to fit your goals. Seems like a no-brainer, doesn't it? However, almost everyone who begins a fitness program finds their enthusiasm waning faster than they can say "Yes, actually, I would like fries with that." If this sounds like you, stop blaming yourself. Instead, take a look at your goals to make sure that, a) they're realistic, and b) you know exactly how to reach them.

Common Fitness Goals
Repeatedly failing to stick to your goal might mean that your goal was nonstick in the first place. Either that or that you haven't figured out how to reach it. This means you're gonna have to put down that phone (I know you were about to order some infomercial fitness gadget, weren't you?) and pay attention. Below are some common goals and the simple way to reach them.

Losing Fat

Fat Loss occurs when you burn more calories than you eat. If you burn an extra 500 calories per day, you would lose about a pound a week. You can't choose where you lose fat--Spot training doesn't work. Accept it. Believe it. Love it.

Gaining Muscle

Muscle gain occurs when you eat more calories than you burn coupled with heavy strength training. If you lift weights, you can build a little muscle but if you want to put on some serious size, that requires serious work and commitment.

Sports Conditioning

To be a faster runner, practice running fast. To jump higher, practice jumping higher. Is any of this making sense?

Health

Being healthy is probably the simplest goal to reach since there are tons of things you could do right this second to be healthy. Drink some water, eat fruit, take a walk, etc.

Now that you have a basic ideas of different goals, we'll spend some time on each one to give you a better idea of what it takes.

Next page How to Lose Fat

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