Personal trainer Emmet Rushe tells us why the only training and nutrition progress we should focus on is our own.

It is very easy to get down when it comes to progress.

But, first you need to know what real progress looks like.

1-2lbs per week is very good progress when it comes to weight loss.
If you have more to lose, you can aim for the upper end of this and if you have less to lose you can aim for the lower end.

If you are very lean already, your progress will be even slower as you will have very little weight to lose and you may have to judge progress based on measurements and visual changes like how your clothes fit and how you look in the mirror.

The one thing that you cannot do however, is compare your progress to someone else’s.

Your journey is unique to you and you alone.

No two people live the same lives,
No two people have the same problems,
No two people have the same jobs, family lives or activity levels.

These all come into play along with your training and nutrition.

Daily stress will play a factor in whether you get your training done, whether you can get your nutrition the way you want it for that day and whether you get enough sleep so you can recover and train to an optimal level.

If any of these things interfere throughout the week, your progress may not be the way you want it to be and it may not be the same as someone else who does not have to deal with the same stress.

Then you need to look at how much weight you have to lose compared to them.

Someone with more weight to lose will always have a bigger change at the beginning than someone with less to lose.

You see this all the time when people begin a diet plan and some get 7-10lbs weight loss in the 1st week and other get 1-2lbs weight loss.

Both have lost weight and both have had a great start to their programmes, but if you had weighed them both together, the person who lost 2lbs would feel hard done by compared to the other person who lost 7lbs. 

Yet one had more weight to lose than the other and the initial differences in the weight loss is justified.

So don’t get yourself down because you think that someone else is making better progress than you, because if you aren’t looking at all the factors that come into play when it comes to weight loss, you are doing yourself and your hard work an injustice.

You also have to look at the differences in your starting points when it comes to your diet.

If you have two people who were the same height, weight age and had the same activity levels.

One had always struggled with their diet, have always found it difficult to adhere to and struggle to keep on track.

The other person is able to keep on track, doesn’t break from their plan and enjoys that way of eating.

The person who is able to adhere to the diet will have better progress than the person who isn’t, even though everything else seems to be the same.

Making comparisons is self-defeating and will only cause unnecessary grief. 

Getting disheartened because someone seems to be making better progress than you is like getting disheartened because someone is taller than you.

As long as you are trying and progress is happening, you are making progress and are doing great.

So, don’t make comparisons and don’t get yourself down. 

Keep consistent and on course and you’ll be fine.
#leanin2018