“Many people believe they know how to train properly and eat the right thing, but still they don’t get the results they want. Here are my top five reasons why you aren’t getting the results.

1. You’ve been told low fats and diet products are better than full fat
This may come to a shock for you that the fact is low fats and diet products are really bad for you. The truth is that it’s impossible to have something decrease the amount of fats in the product, the only way that this can happen is chemicals been added to produce the product (meaning poor nutrition value), which aren’t good for you. It can change the perception how your body works and produces bad hormones, which can lead to detriation in body cells and lead to the risk of heart diseases.

2. You don’t sleep long enough, get enough quality sleep and sleep at the wrong time
My mentor Charles Poliquin always say to get a good quality night sleep, you need to sleep in a cave. So this means making sure no light is coming into the room, turning off all electrical appliances e.g. make sure TV is completely switched off. This way you should get to sleep a lot quicker and avoid light or electrical radiation waking you up in the night.

It’s very important you get eight hours sleep; this is when our body repairs itself physically and psychologically. You even stay leaner; if you don’t sleep for eight hours, you’re likely to be tired which can lead you to increase your food intake during the day.

3. You aren’t training hard enough
The time spend should be between 45 – 60 minutes, go over it and it could be a waste of time. Growth hormone production maximised within this time period. Also are you working hard enough or slacking behind your true potential? 

4. You aren’t eating breakfast
Number one rule – eat your breakfast. It should be the biggest meal of the day. If you don’t eat breakfast you will over eat during the day. If you believe not eating will help you burn fat then think again. Leaving yourself with an empty stomach leads to a build-up of fat-storing enzymes (lipogenic), which is not what we want. This decreases your fat burning enzymes (lipolytic) making it harder to burn fat.

5. You go to the gym to socialise than work out
The gym is the place where you train. The worst-case scenario is when you only have an hour to train and mid-way through you bump into a friend and chat for 15 minutes. By that time your muscles would have cooled down and you’ll likely pull a muscle if you go back straight into it and you haven’t reached the full potential of the workout.

Taking these points on board will immediately give vast improvements to reaching your goals. Good Luck!

Chris Chan is a Chester-based personal trainer and strength & conditioning coach. For more information email Chris at: chris@ccpt.co.uk.