The statistics for long-term weight loss are poor. Worse than poor, shocking even. Research studies consistently show that up to and over 90% of slimmers regain their weight within 2 to 5 years, with most putting on even more with each weight rebound. Over the years this “yo-yo” effect subtly accumulates: start diet... lose weight… end diet… regain more weight… try another diet… and so on. It should really be called “yo-YO dieting”, because the weight regain is always larger than the initial weight loss.

So what is it that separates the 90% of failed slimmers from the 10% of successful slimmers? Have they discovered some kind of miracle weight loss cure, a pill, or new diet? No. The answer lies in the two very different approaches to losing weight - training and lifestyle. Understanding the difference between these approaches is vital if you’re goal is to lose weight long term.

A training approach

Athletes and sports people “train” for an event, whether it be a match, a marathon or even the Olympics. To achieve their optimum level of fitness they have to train for a number of weeks before the event, avoiding distractions and committing everything to their fitness plan. Once the event is over their training stops and the fitness they gained is slowly lost, until they start training for the next event.

All diets are a “training approach” to weight loss. Like the athlete in training, the dieter puts themselves in a bubble, takes themselves away from normal life and focuses purely on their weight loss target. Social events are put on hold. Friends are avoided. Meals out are postponed. The dieter’s eating habits are forced into something very unnatural, often experiencing hunger and feelings of deprivation. There are an ever increasing number of detox diets, meal replacement plans, very low calorie diets (VLCDs) and even fat camps, all designed to put the dieter into a period of “weight loss training” over a number of weeks. Once the target weight is reached, the training stops and the dieter returns to their normal lifestyle.

This is the defining point of the training approach - it is temporary.

A lifestyle approach

If the training approach is about putting yourself in a bubble and cutting yourself off from the world until your goal is met, the lifestyle approach is about redesigning the world you live in day to day and building habits that fit into your every day life. For example, a training approach to exercise would involve exercising every day for an hour over a 4 week period, whereas a lifestyle approach to exercise would involve being more active in general, taking the stairs at work and walking more often as a long term habit.

The same is true when it comes to nutrition and weight loss. Whilst a training approach to weight loss would involve a low intake of calories (often 1000 or less a day) for a set period of time, a lifestyle approach would look at how much you actually need to eat and then form a healthy eating plan that is enjoyable, flexible and allows you to have a social life. Rather than the restrictive nutrition of the training approach, lifestyle weight loss means eating a good breakfast, lunch and dinner, cutting down on sugar and fats and breaking bad snacking habits. Unlike the training approach there is no end point to a lifestyle approach, you live it permanently, it is your life-style.

This is the defining point of the lifestyle approach - it is sustainable.

Choosing the right approach

Whilst both approaches result in weight loss, there is one very appealing difference - you lose weight faster with a training approach. Most quick-fix diets offer the prospect of losing 2 to 3lbs a week on average, compared to maybe 1lb per week with a lifestyle approach. This makes the training approach very attractive, especially in the fast paced modern world where everyone expects things right here, right now.

Nevertheless, before starting a diet slimmers should note that this training approach has two significant long term effects - (1) it damages the metabolism and (2) it increases the appetite - a phenomenon known as “the starvation response”. This means that after each diet the body burns less calories and it craves more high energy foods. Do enough diets over the years and this damage accumulates - a slower and slower metabolism with more and more food addictions. You don’t need to be a scientist to realise that if you mix a slow metabolism with a big appetite you’ve got the perfect cocktail for obesity.

A training approach to exercise, not nutrition, certainly has it’s place. If you are a healthy weight and want to get very lean, then a lifestyle approach to exercise just isn’t going to cut it. You will need to train to lose those last pounds of fat, as the body resists fat loss the slimmer you are. This makes the training approach to exercise ideal if you’re looking to get extra trim for an event such as a holiday, but expect to see those few pounds back by the time you’re on the plane home. By exercising rather than crash dieting you also prevent the slow down in metabolism and increase in appetite that leads to the holiday binging, weight rebound nightmare that so many dieters never recover from.

So why are 90% of slimmers getting fatter, not slimmer?

Because those 90% of slimmers are taking a training approach to weight loss, when they should really be taking lifestyle one. Think of the obese person who crash diets (a training approach) when really they need to find a healthy and sustainable nutrition plan (a lifestyle approach). If you are overweight or obese, then you have no choice but to take a lifestyle approach to both exercise and nutrition if you want to achieve lasting weight loss. Celebrities are guilty of this just as much as anyone else. Natalie Cassidy from Eastenders famously trained to get her weight down for the release of her “Then and Now” fitness DVD but couldn’t sustain it. Her exercise and nutrition regime worked perfectly as a training approach - exercising for 50 minutes five times a week and cutting out all junk food - but the result was a huge rebound weight gain.

The real problem lies in the attraction of fast results offered by quick-fix diets and the failure of the slimming companies to warn their customers about both the temporary nature of their diets and the inevitable weight regain. If they carried a warning about the long term damage they cause to to the metabolism and appetite, slimmers might think twice before living on 500 calories a day for 6 months.

There are many ways of removing your unwanted hair, but it is often a messy, uncomfortable and time-consuming process. Many of us have tried methods such as waxing and shaving, but these only work temporarily. In most cases our hair will just grow back quickly and thicker than it was originally.

Using wax can help to keep your unwanted hair away for around two months maximum, but the whole process is extremely painful. It means that you need to apply some hot wax to the area, and then rip the cloth that you have applied on top of the wax away as quickly as possible. This is why the process is painful, similar, and more exaggerated, to pulling off a band-aid.

There are many creams that claim to help remove the hair that you don’t want by simply dissolving it within a few minutes. However, these creams usually smell awful and can even damage your skin if you leave them there for too long. You will also need to test out these creams with a small amount to test out for any allergies before you can use them properly.

Laser Hair Removal At Home

There are many options at professional hair removal clinics, including laser hair removal. However, many people will choose to use options like this in the privacy of their own home. There are actually many different do-it-yourself laser hair removal kits now available specifically for this purpose. They can often prove extremely cost effective, but are they right for you?

If you want to do laser hair removal at home this will be done with a small version of a portable laser. This works by pushing pulses of laser energy into your hair follicles, and this is what stops them growing hair in the future. The convenient size of the home laser hair removal kits means you can only aim at individual hair follicles, making this a lengthy procedure.

The effectiveness of home laser hair removal will depend on how you use your laser pulse. In fact, some users of these systems have caused injury to themselves by applying the laser repeatedly to the same area of the skin. There is a high chance of scarring from using the laser in this way, which is why some people have started to question the effectiveness of home laser kits.

There are many claims that home laser kits make. For example, one claims that it can provide 100% home laser removal for all colors of hair. However, this claim does not hold up when you look at it more carefully. Quite simply, lasers are meant to target the dark pigments of the hair – meaning that the darker your hair the more laser energy it can absorb. Those with light hair will not be so successful when using home laser hair removal kits.

There are many exaggerated claims when it comes to home laser hair removal kits. This also applies to other methods, such as lotion or wax. The best way to gain successful results is to look carefully at each product you are thinking about buying.

I have been asked a couple of times recently what is the difference between the Isagenix Nutritional Cleansing and the Herbal Colon Cleansing. Many people seem to think that they are the same, operate by the same exact process and that the products end results are similar. That’s totally incorrect!

Truth Be Told: Comparatively speaking these products are like talking apples to oranges.

Let me explain – the Herbal Colon Cleansing product was developed to help you to get rid of what is termed fecal matter. This fecal matter is like spackle or paste stuck to the lining of your lower or large intestines. The idea is that this paste like substance is a breeding ground for parasites, bacteria and harmful pathogenic agents.

The reality of the matter is it that science has proven that this fecal matter problem does exist! According to the program general recommendation information an Herbal Colon Cleansing procedure is suggested at least 2 times per year. With the paste-like substance removed from your lower gut, you feel better and your body will start to absorb nutrients better from the food that you eat.

Now, let’s get a base understanding of Isagenix Nutritional Cleansing. As the company explains in corporate marketing materials, cleansing is not new. However, what they have done is brought it from an ancient approach to modern day and thus, created a scientifically advanced product that is designed to infuse a nutrition dense formulation of minerals, herbs and botanicals into your body for the purpose of eliminating toxins and impurities.

Now, follow this closely - these toxins and impurities are embedded in tissues and body fat, so one of the main objectives of their process is to help you get these dangerous substances out of your body.

Important Note: Research has shown that these toxins and impurities have been linked to your body adding fat stores and making it difficult to lose weight and keep it off! This is because the extra body fat is produced as a defense mechanism to protect the body from the dangerous substances being introduced to it daily.

When comparing the different process of a Colon Cleanse versus the Isagenix Nutritional Cleanse we can start to see that one is dealing with the physical mechanics of the body’s elimination system, while the Isagenix product is for optimizing the physiology of cell and chemical functions in the entire human body.

What that means is that it gets to the root of all problems that arise in the human body.

Recent research have discovered that our bodies are loaded with 200+ toxins, chemicals and impurities and that these nasty particles of destruction come from the food that we eat, the fluids that we drink and the air that we breathe.

In other words, there is no way to avoid these hazardous chemicals and pollutants from getting inside of you, so their product was specifically designed to reduce those life-long accumulated levels of toxins and impurities.

In conclusion, they both are good product by your body would greatly benefit from. However, the Isagenix Nutritional Cleansing product dominates Herbal Colon Cleansing in terms of providing your body with excellent nutritive substances and the critical nutrition needed for the body to begin the process of healing.

I strongly encourage you to do your own research in order to verify the information contained in this article and draw your own conclusions about what is best for you.