When it comes to people prioritizing their fitness goals at the beginning of the year, body composition tends to be at the top of the list for almost everyone. Whether you want to lose weight, burn excess body fat, or add lean muscle, your goal falls into the body composition bucket. 

Sure, we all want to feel our best, but if we are being honest, most of us also want to look a certain way. Maybe we just want to fit into some old clothes or dial things in a little bit for a big event in 2023. Regardless, there is nothing wrong with aesthetics being a big part of what you are hoping to achieve in 2023. After all, if you look good, you’ll feel good.

However, when it comes to changes in body composition, the one thing we all lack is patience. We all want to lose weight, burn fat, or gain muscle in thirty days. But the truth is, those changes take time, especially if you want them to stick. 

So here is a helpful way to think about body composition changes and why a more patient approach is almost always the way to go. 

We all have a baseline body composition.

The best way to think about this baseline is the body composition that takes minimal effort to maintain. It is the state of homeostasis that your body has settled into based on the habits (good or bad) you have adopted. 

You will see results when you do a 30-day challenge or a crash diet. Your body composition may change, but your baseline probably won’t. All of the changes you made to get those results don’t have the time to turn into habits, which means that shortly after the challenge or diet is over, your behaviours will start to creep back to your baseline. And as your behaviours start to slip back into old habits, your body composition will eventually return to your baseline as well. 

It is three steps forward and three steps back. 

This is why a holistic, habit-based approach is the best way to make sustainable progress toward your goals. It will take more time to see results, but those results will stick because you’ll get there by turning behaviours into habits. 

By definition, a habit is a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. That is the key – hard to give up. 

If the body composition changes you accomplish are built off habits, those changes will stick because the behaviours that got you there are now hard to give up. You shifted your baseline, and your new baseline looks good!

ONE THING TO TRY THIS WEEK

Pick One Habit And Smart Small.

Instead of making a handful of big changes to kick off the New Year, pick one habit to work on and start small. What change can you implement this week that will move you closer to your goal while feeling so easy that there is no chance you’ll fall short?

That is where you start! And if you already jumped into some 30-day challenge to start the year, that is ok! Just go into it knowing that it should be a jumping-off point for sustainable changes throughout the year and not an instant fix or a shortcut to get where you want to go.

We can help you get on the right path with our one on one nutrition coaching, to find out how – visit us here to book a free discovery call.