In late 2010, I was preparing a presentation for a business meeting with a very successful partner in the sports nutrition space. This particular partner could help us reach more customers via its massive direct marketing budget, and we could help it by helping its customers reach their fitness and nutrition goals. As we gathered background information on its industry, we uncovered some sobering statistics on fitness and weight loss:
- 95 percent of weight-loss efforts fail.
- 100 million Americans are overweight.
- 86 percent of American adults may be obese by 2030.
- 67 percent of Americans do not get enough exercise.
- Tens of millions of Americans are dieting at any given time, spending more than $40 billion annually on weight-reduction products.
- In 2007, the revenue of the U.S. health club industry was approximately $15 billion.
- As of 2010, consumers spent nearly $100 billion on wellness-related food and supplement products (up from $68 billion in 2005).
In the information age, with the availability of Internet, free workouts and diet plans, commercial gyms on every corner, and billions of diet pills being sold each year, we asked, “Why are Americans failing to get and stay fit?”
We believe there are two factors at work.
1. Mass confusion. People lose weight only to gain it all back, follow a workout plan that doesn’t deliver as promised, read a celebrity weight-loss secret, try a fad diet, or know a cousin who is a personal trainer, and yet they ask themselves, “What should I do?”
Confusion results in no action or half attempts.
2. Mass illusion. What you see is not what you get. Those ripped bodies on TV infomercials and in magazines are not attainable for most people and do not represent health and fitness. What you’re looking at in those magazines and programs is the top 1 percent of fitness models and bodybuilders. These bodies are meant to sell “the dream.” Think of them more as make-believe, as an illusion of fitness that is not attainable without the assistance of unhealthy practices. It’s time to get real about what it takes to get fit.
Misleading advertising results in demoralizing outcomes.
Even with all the failures, there are success stories, and in the successes, we find answers. We find the truth about what it takes to get fit in the “real world.”
In this book, we’ll define the steps you can follow to achieve the body you want and the fitness you desire.
If you want to gain clarity and know the truth about what it takes to be fit and look great, keep reading.