PSYCH-K® – Italiano

Titolo: PSYCH-K® – Italiano

Autore: Piero Maina

Conteggio parole: 2049

Ho conosciuto PSYCH-K® dopo aver letto il libro del Dr. Bruce Lipton: “La Biologia delle Credenze”, che è diventato un best seller  e il relativo dvd: ” La mente è più forte dei geni. Bruce Lipton è stato il primo scienziato che ha dimostrato in laboratorio come le influenze esterne/credenze, abbiano un ruolo maggiore del DNA nello sviluppo e nella vita delle cellule arrivando addirittura a modificarle. Avendo visto le potenzialità della mente inconscia e il sabotaggio che ne deriva dalle credenze limitanti, dal principio di scarsità e separazione che spesso governa i nostri pensieri quotidiani, ho voluto conoscere più da vicino il metodo PSYCH-K®.  Ho frequentato il corso base di PSYCH-K® nel 2009 e ho avuto come istruttore Duccio Locati che oltre ad essere istruttore internazionale certifcato di PSYCH-K® è un affermato osteopata e tutte le informazioni sul suo lavoro le potete trovare all’interno del suo sito qui. Sono quindi diventato “facilitatore” di PSYCH-K® , che vuol dire che sono in grado di utilizzare le tecniche di bilanciamento di PSYCH-K® sia per me stesso che per gli altri. Ho completato il percorso partecipando al corso avanzato di 4 giorni nel mese di Maggio 2012 e questo passaggio mi ha permesso di comprendere meglio il funzionamento del processo di bilanciamento, approfondendo nuove tecniche e metodiche per il cambiamento delle credenze limitanti che sono presenti nella nostra mente inconscia.

Lo scopo di PSYCH-K® è infatti quello di permettere alla nostra mente inconscia di liberarsi dalle credenze negative/limitanti e autosabotanti che sono alla base dei nostri insuccessi o per meglio dire, che sono le fondamenta dei nostri pensieri che creeranno a loro volta la nostra realtà. Ora, per chi crede che la nostra esistenza su questo pianeta  sia governata da forze/cause esterne alla nostra volontà, bisognerà prima convincerlo del contrario. Per quelli che sono già coscienti che QUALUNQUE esperienza ci accada o meglio sembra accaderci è una conseguenza diretta dei nostri pensieri consci/inconsci, bisogna spiegare qual è il pezzo mancate del ragionamento. Se a livello conscio prenderò delle decisioni su quelle che vorrei fossero le mie esperienze di vita, vedrò molto probabilmente naufragare i miei progetti se non avrò altrettanto allineate le credenze a livello inconscio; il problema saranno i paradigmi, abitudini e credenze  che governano e influenzano ogni attività e modi comportamentali nella vita di tutti i giorni.

Alla base di quanto detto, c’è la lotta impari fra mente conscia e mente inconscia :

Da quanto apprendiamo dalle due immagini qui sopra, scopriamo che il 95% delle azioni che compiamo quotidianamente è gestito dalla mente inconscia e quindi dalle abitudini e automatismi che risiedono là. Pertanto possiamo affermare che anche se consciamente pensiamo in una certa direzione per un certo periodo, il disco che in sottofondo “suonerà più forte” e in maniera continuativa sarà senz’altro quello della mente subconscia….una vera lotta impari vista anche la differenza in termini di capacità di elaborare le informazioni (40 Bit/sec contro 40 Mio Bit/sec). Queste conclusioni sono il frutto di esperienze passate, dell’educazione che abbiamo ricevuto in età pre-scolare e sono immagazzinate nella mente subconscia. Queste credenze subconscie, creano dei filtri attraverso i quali vediamo e affrontiamo le sfide della vita. Sono le basi per le nostre azioni o reazioni utili per affrontare ogni situazione nella nostra vita. L’abilità di agire in maniera efficace sia a livello personale che professionale, è profondamente influenzata da credenze del tipo “Sono competente”, “Sono forte”, “Sono sicuro”. Con credenze come queste possiamo intraprendere progetti importanti con sicurezza e rimanere focalizzati senza perdere il controllo della situazione. Se invece avremo  credenze del tipo “Non credo di poter fare un buon lavoro”, “Non controllo l’andamento delle cose”, procederemo esitando, temendo di fare errori, di subire critiche e di sbagliare. Come disse una volta Henry Ford: ” Che tu creda di potere o non potere….hai comunque ragione!”

Il riscrivere le nostre credenze limitanti a livello subconscio è come riprogrammare un computer. Utilizzando le tecniche di PSYCH-K® come una specie di “tastiera mentale” che comunica con il cervello, potete incrementare la comunicazione incrociata tra i due emisferi cerebrali, raggiungendo uno stato di integrazione emisferica, ideale per il cambiamento delle credenze subconscie. In aggiunta, quando l’emisfero destro e sinistro sono in comunicazione e lavorano simultaneamente, le qualità e le caratteristiche di entrambi gli emisferi sono disponibili per massimizzare il vostro potenziale.

PSYCH-K® è una delle tante vie che ci vengono insegnate per riprogrammare la mente inconscia in maniera veloce, semplice, efficace e rispettosa al fine di essere noi i padroni della nostra esperienza di vita e non “vittime” come spesso siamo portati a credere in maniera errata.

Concludo riportando qui sotto le Domande/Risposte su PSYCH-K® prese dal sito di Duccio Locati.

A presto!

PSYCH-K® è una serie di principi e di processi progettati per cambiare le convinzioni a livello subconscio che limitano l’espressione del tuo pieno potenziale di creatura divina che sta vivendo una esperienza umana.

Rob Williams, ideatore di PSYCH-K

Il Segreto della Vita sono le CREDENZE. Piuttosto che i geni, sono le nostre credenze a controllare le nostre vite.   PSYCH-K® è un set di tecniche semplici di auto-aiuto per cambiare le credenze e le percezioni che hanno un impatto sulla tua vita a livello cellulare.

Bruce Lipton, PhD

Cos’è PSYCH-K®?

PSYCH-K è un metodo semplice, immediato e estremamente rispettoso  per l’individuo che permette di riscrivere il software della nostra mente e di cambiare  la matrice della nostra vita.

Sviluppato  a partire dal 1988, PSYCH-K include informazioni e processi che permettono di  accelerare incredibilmente la propria crescita personale. Questa tecnica veramente unica è un insieme di diversi  strumenti per il cambiamento personale, alcuni contemporanei, altri antichi. Come molte delle innovazioni più importanti ed efficaci nel  mondo, PSYCH-K è nato grazie a “una serie di intuizioni” generate da anni di  ricerca e da migliaia di sessioni individuali e di gruppo. PSYCH-K è quindi una tecnica estremamente sicura, non  invasiva ed efficace per cambiare credenze e percezioni antiquate, radicate a  livello della nostra mente subconscia.

La nostra realtà è formata dalle nostre “credenze”. Queste  credenze, di solito a livello subconscio, sono il frutto di una programmazione  che inizia dai primi anni della nostra vita, e influenzano in modo drammatico  il nostro comportamento e il nostro modo di “percepire” la vita in tutti i suoi  aspetti. Diversi studi nella branca delle neuroscienze indicano che  quasi il 95% della nostra coscienza è gestita dal nostro subconscio che è il deposito  per le nostre attitudini, i nostri valori e le nostre credenze. Tramite le nostre credenze creiamo quella che è la nostra  percezione del mondo e di noi stessi, e tramite queste percezioni sviluppiamo i  nostri comportamenti. Spesso il modo migliore per cambiare un comportamento (e  spesso abbiamo il desiderio di cambiare i comportamenti che sabotano la nostra  vita e gli obiettivi che vogliamo raggiungere) è cambiare le credenze a livello  subconscio che lo supportano. PSYCH-K, basato su anni di ricerca riguardo alla differenziazione  degli emisferi cerebrali, conosciuta anche come teoria della predominanza  emisferica (Brain Dominance Theory), offre diversi metodi per identificare  velocemente e trasformare le credenze che ci sabotano, in credenze che invece  ci supportano in ogni area della nostra vita: affettiva, relazionale,  economica, lavorativa, e quella legata alla salute.

PSYCH-K è quindi un processo che può liberare la nostra  mente dalle limitazioni del passato in maniera veloce, efficace e facile.

PSYCH-K® è un “sistema  di controllo mentale?”

Quando si parla di subconscio uno dei timori primari è “stai  tentando di controllare la mia mente senza il mio permesso?”.

Domanda lecita  dato che ormai ognuno di noi è costantemente controllato quasi in ogni ambito  della propria vita (ma qui apriremmo un discorso infinito). PSYCH-K dà gli strumenti e la conoscenza per permettere  alle persone di controllare la propria mente e quindi di non essere  vulnerabile ai desideri e alle volontà di altre persone, quando non corrispondenti  ai nostri. Quindi alla domanda “PSYCH-K è un sistema di controllo  mentale?” la risposta più corretta sarà: “Si, in un certo qual modo, PERCHÉ DA  A TE IL CONTROLLO SULLA TUA MENTE”.

Cos’è il Test  Muscolare e come funziona?

Il Test Muscolare è stato sviluppato 40 anni fa da Geroge  Goodheart, D.C. (l’ideatore della Kinesiologia Applicata) negli Stati Uniti. In PSYCH-K, il test muscolare è utilizzato come mezzo per  comunicare facilmente e direttamente con il nostro subconscio.

La mente subconscia controlla il Sistema Nervoso Autonomo ed  è responsabile per il controllo nelle nostre funzioni fisiche e neurologiche  autonome. Ad esempio, il nostro corpo si muove perché il nostro  subconscio dirige una complessa rete di segnali elettrici che vanno al muscolo  appropriato nel momento appropriato per portare a termine una azione che può  essere quella di prendere un oggetto. La forza del segnale elettrico, determinerà la forza della  risposta nel muscolo in questione; ma l’intensità del segnale elettrico è  strettamente legata a quali pensieri ha la nostra mente in quel momento. Quando la mente sta mantenendo un pensiero “stressante”, si  crea un conflitto elettrico che ridurrà la forza del segnale al muscolo, con una  diminuzione di forza di quest’ultimo. La stessa cosa succede quando una persona dice una frase con  la quale il suo subconscio non è d’accordo, con, di conseguenza una diminuzione  della forza dei muscoli di tutto il corpo. Di conseguenza, il test muscolare può essere usato per  determinare quali pensieri inducono stress a livello fisico, come per trovare  quali credenze sono o non sono supportate dalla nostra mente subconscia. È stato ed è tuttora utilizzato in altri ambiti per testare  l’efficacia di vitamine e minerali, disequilibri a livello dei meridiani  energetici, stress organici, intolleranze alimentari, allergie, ecc… È importante specificare quindi che PSYCH-K e il Test  Muscolare non sono sinonimi. PSYCH-K usa il test muscolare per comunicare con la mente Superconscia e subconscia. PSYCH-K è un insieme specifico di tecniche che ci  permettono di cambiare le nostre credenze, che includono il test muscolare come  mezzo per comunicare con il nostro subconscio e con il nostro Superconscio. Ma  ricordatevi, il nostro subconscio non è un Profeta Infallibile! State attenti a  fare domande sul futuro “Devo fare…?”. Come per ogni altra cosa si può  incorrere nel rischio di abusare del test muscolare. Alcuni lo usano come la  più importante “sorgente di Verità”, in alternativa al discernimento della  mente conscia. Il nostro subconscio rappresenta la nostra realtà, non la Verità Suprema.

Come, delle credenze e  degli atteggiamenti che ho da anni possono cambiare in pochi minuti con  PSYCH-K®?

Molti pensano che credenze e atteggiamenti negativi siano  come degli omini nelle proprie teste che tentano in tutti i modi di rendere la  loro vita miserabile.

Come analogia potremmo prendere dei documenti di Word (quello  di Bill Gates) immagazzinati nel computer come “micro documenti”. Sia il software del computer che le credenze immagazzinate  nella memoria di una persona sono schemi di energia mantenuti in un campo  elettromagnetico. Quando il campo è disturbato, questi schemi energetici  cambiano. Uno schema energetico mantenuto nel computer per 30 anni, può  essere modificato o cancellato con la stessa velocità di un altro che è nel  computer da soli 30 minuti! E così è esattamente anche per la nostra mente. La  chiave di tutto sta nel come cambiare lo schema, non da quanto tempo lo  schema è presente.

Quanto spesso devo  rinforzare un bilanciamento?

Questa domanda è legata alla credenza che non si possa  realmente cambiare un vecchio  atteggiamento o una vecchia credenza, e che quando meno te lo aspetti, tutti i  tuoi vecchi schemi saltino fuori per toglierti ogni difesa e sabotare la tua  felicità.

Occasionalmente un bilanciamento può richiedere alcune  attività di supporto per accelerare il processo di integrazione della nuova  credenza, ma è molto raro che una persona necessiti di fare esattamente lo  stesso bilanciamento, per lo stesso obiettivo, due volte (personalmente non mi  è mai capitato).

Devo ricordare le  passate esperienze dolorose per risolverle?

Molte forme di psicoterapia assumono che l’entrare in  diretto contatto con determinate emozioni o ricordi sia un pre-requisito  necessario per ottenere cambiamenti significativi.

Per PSYCH-K non è  necessariamente così. Nella nostra esperienza abbiamo visto che quando il  subconscio ha bisogno di accedere ad un ricordo o ad una emozione passata per  cambiare una credenza, lo farà, ma quando non è necessario non creerà nessuna  catarsi emozionale giusto per accontentare le aspettative del paziente, del  terapista o dell’istruttore. Ogni persona è differente e le soluzioni dei  problemi sono diverse da persona a persona. Quindi, l’atteggiamento migliore è  quello di non avere aspettative sullo svolgimento del bilanciamento ma rimanere  curiosi circa quello che può succedere e rispettare la persona qualunque sia la  sua modalità.

© Copyright Piero Maina – All Rights Reserved

How I Got “Ripped” Abs For The Very First Time

Title: How I Got “Ripped” Abs For The Very First Time

By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!

Word count: 2222 words

I’ll never forget the very first time I got ripped, how I did it and how it felt. I’ve never told this entire story before or widely published my early photos either. Winning first place and seeing my abs the first time was sweet redemption. But before that, it was a story of desperation…

I started lifting weights for bodybuilding when I was 14 years old, but I never had ripped abs until I was 20. I endured six years of frustration and embarrassment. Being a teenager is hard enough, but imagine how I felt being a self-proclaimed bodybuilder, with no abs or muscle definition to show for it. Imagine what it was like in swimming class or when we played basketball in gym class and I prayed to be called out for “shirts” and not ‘”skins” because I didn’t want any one seeing my “man-boobs” and ab flab jiggling all over the court.

Oh, I had muscle. I started gaining muscle from the moment I picked up a barbell. I got strong too. I was benching 315 at age 18. But even after four years of successful strength training, I still hadn’t figured out this getting ripped thing. Muscle isn’t very attractive if it’s covered up with a layer of fat. That’s where the phrase “bulky” really comes from – fat on top of muscle. It can look worse than just fat.

I read every book. I read every magazine. I tried every exercise. I took every supplement in vogue back in the 80’s (remember bee pollen, octacosanol, lipotropics and dessicated liver?) I tried not eating for entire days at a time. I went on a rope skipping kick. I did hundreds of crunches and ab exercises. I rode the Lifecycle. I wore rubber waist belts.

The results were mediocre at best. When I made progress, I couldn’t maintain it. One step forward, one step back. Even when I got a little leaner, it wasn’t all the way. Still no ripped abs. When I played football and they beat the crap out of us at training camp, I lost weight, but STILL didn’t get all the way down to those elusive six pack abs. In fact, it was almost like I got “skinny fat.” My arms and legs lost some muscle but the small roll of ab fat was still there.

 

Why was it so hard? What was I doing wrong? It was driving me crazy!

My condition got worse in college because I mixed with a party crowd. With boozing came eating, and the “bulk” accumulated even more. At that point, the partying and social life were more important to me than my body. I was still lifting weights, but wasn’t living a fitness lifestyle.

Mid way through college I changed my major from business management to exercise science, having made up my mind to pursue a career in fitness. That’s when I started to feel something wasn’t right. The best word for it is “incongruence.” That’s when what you say you want to be and what you really are don’t match. Being a fitness professional means you have to walk the talk and be a role model to others. Anything else is hypocrisy. I knew I had to shape up or forget fitness as a career.

But after four years, I STILL didn’t know how to get ripped! Nothing I learned in exercise physiology class helped. All the theory was interesting, but when theory hit the real world, things didn’t always work out like they did on paper. My professors didn’t know either. Heck, most of them weren’t even in shape! Two of them were overweight, including my nutrition professor.

However, out of my college experience did come the seeds of the solution and my first breakthrough.

In one of my physical education classes, we were required to do some running and we were instructed to keep track of our performance and resting heart rates. Somehow, even though I was a strength athlete, I got hooked on running. After the initial discomfort of hauling around a not so cardio-fit 205 pound body, I started to get a lot of satisfaction out of watching my resting heart rate drop from the 70’s into the 50’s and seeing my running times get better and better. And then it happened: I started getting leaner than I ever had before.

The results motivated me to no end, and I kept after it even more. My runs would be 5 or 6 days a week and I’d go for between 30 minutes to an hour. Sometimes I had a circular route of about 6 miles and I would run it for time, almost always pushing for a personal record. When I finished, I was spent, drenched in sweat and sometimes just crashing when I got home. And I kept getting even leaner.

That’s when I started to figure it out. If you’re expecting me to say that running is the secret, no, that’s NOT it per se. I was thinking bigger picture. In fact, I noticed that my legs had lost some muscle size, so I knew that over-doing the runs would be counter productive, ultimately, and I don’t run that much anymore these days. But that’s how I did it the first time and I had never experienced fat loss like that before. The fat was falling off and I had barely changed my diet.

My “aha moment” was when I realized the pivotal piece in the puzzle was calories. It wasn’t the type of exercise, it wasn’t the specific foods and it wasn’t supplements. Today I realize that it’s the calorie deficit that matters the most, not whether you eat less or burn more per se, but in my case creating a large deficit by burning the calories was the absolute key for me.

These runs were burning an enormous number of calories. Everything I had done before wasn’t burning enough to make a noticeable difference in a short period of time. 10-15 minutes of rope skipping wasn’t enough. 45 minutes of slow-go bike riding wasn’t burning enough. Hundreds of crunches weren’t enough. I put 1+1+1 together and realized it was intensity X duration X frequency = highest the total calorie burn for the week. How much simpler could it be? It wasn’t magic. It was MATH!

It was consistency too. This was the first time in SIX YEARS I stuck with it. Body fat comes off by the grams every day – literally. Kilos and pounds of body weight may come off quickly, but they come back just as fast. Body fat comes off slowly and if you have no patience or you jump to one program to the next without following through with the one you started, you’re doomed. In six years, I had “tried everything”… except consistency and patience.

Then the stakes went up. I had finally gotten lean, but there was another level beyond lean… RIPPED! My buddies at the gym noticed me getting leaner and then they popped the question: Why don’t you compete? My training partner Steve had already competed 3 years earlier and won the Teenage Mr. America competition. Since then, I had been all talk and no walk. “Yeah, I’m going to compete one of these days too… I’m going to be the next Mr. America.” Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. The only title I had won was “Mr. Procastinator.” Then finally, Steve and my other friends challenged me almost in an ultimatum type of way. Well, the truth is, I set myself up for it with my big mouth and they called me out, so I would have been the laughing stock of our gym if I didn’t follow through.

The first time you do a real cut – all the way down to contest-ready – is the hardest. Not as much physically as psychologically, simply because you’ve never done it before. Doing something you’ve done before is no big deal. Doing something you’ve never done before causes uncertainty and fear, sometimes even terror! I was plagued with self-doubt the entire time, never sure if I was ever going to get there. It seemed like it was taking forever. But failure was not an option. Not only did I have an entire gym full of friends rooting me on, I had great training partner who was natural Mr. Teenage America! The pressure was on. I had to do it. There was no way out. No excuses.

Some other day, I’ll tell you all the details of the emotional roller coaster ride that was my first contest diet, but let it suffice to say, at that point, I still didn’t know what I was doing. It was only later that I went into “human guinea pig” mode with nutritional experiments and finally pinned down the eating side of the equation to a science (and gained 20 lbs of stage-weight muscle as a result).

In the late 1980’s, the standard bodybuilding diet was high carb, low fat. For that first competition, I was on 60% carbs – including pancakes, boxed cereal, whole grain bread, and pasta – so I guess you can toss out the idea that it’s impossible to get ripped on high carbs – although high carb is NOT the contest diet I use today. But it didn’t matter, because I had already learned the critical piece in the fat loss puzzle – the calorie balance equation. Understanding that one aspect of physiology was enough to get me ripped. It only got better later.

In the end, I took 2nd place at my very first competition, the Natural Lehigh Valley, and one month later, I won first place at the Natural New Jersey. Seven months later, the overall Natural Pennsylvania.

Looking back, was all the effort worth it? Well, my good friend Adam Waters, who is an accountability coach, teaches his students about using “redemption” as a motivator. Remember the Charles Atlas ad where the skinny kid got sand kicked in his face and then came back big and buffed and beat up the bully? That’s redemption. Or the dateless high school nerd who comes back to the 10 year class reunion driving a Mercedes with the prom queen on his arm? That’s redemption.

After all the doubt, heartache and frustration I went through for six years, I not only had my trophies, my abs were on the front page of the sports section in our small Pennsylvania town newspaper. The following year, I was on the poster for a bodybuilding competition… as the previous year’s champion. THAT’S REDEMPTION. You tell me if it was worth it.

There are 7 lessons from my story that I want to share with you because even if you have a different personal history than I do, these 7 lessons are the keys to achieving any previously elusive fitness goal for the first time and I think they apply to everyone.

1. Set the big goal and go for it. If your goal doesn’t excite you and scare you at the same time, your goal is too small. If you don’t feel fear or uncertainty, you’re inside your comfort zone. Puny goals aren’t motivating. Sometimes it takes a competition or a big challenge of some kind to get your blood boiling.

2. Align your values with your goals. I understood my values and made a decision to be congruent with who I really was and who I wanted to be. When you know your values, get your priorities straight and align your goals with your values, then doing what it takes is easy.

3. Do the math. Stop looking for magic. A lean body does not come from any particular type of exercise or foods per se, it’s the calories burned vs calories consumed that determines fat loss or fat gain. You might do better by decreasing the calories consumed, whereas I depended more on increasing the calories burned, but either way, it’s still a math equation. Deny it at your own risk.

4. Get social support. Support and encouragement from your friends can help get you through anything. Real time accountability to a training partner or trainer can make all the difference.

5. Be consistent. Nothing will ever work if you don’t work at it every day. Sporadic efforts don’t just produce sporadic results, sometimes they produce zero results.

6. Persist through difficulty and self doubt. If you think it’s going to be smooth sailing all the way with no ups and downs, you’re fooling yourself.. For every sunny day, there’s going to be a storm. If you can’t weather the storms, you’ll never reach new shores.

7. Redeem yourself. Non-achievers sit on the couch and wallow in past failures. Winners use past failures as motivational rocket fuel. It always feels good to achieve a goal, but nothing feels as good as achieving a goal with redemption.

Postscript: My journey continued. Since that initial first place trophy, I have competed as a natural for life bodybuilder 26 more times, including 7 first place awards and 7 runner up awards. And yes, I finally nailed down the nutrition side of things too. You can read more about that and the fat loss program that developed as a result at www.BurnTheFat.com!

 


 

Tom Venuto Newspaper Photo

Train hard and expect success always,

Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS Fat Loss Coach www.BurnTheFat.com!

About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com!

The Truth About Fast Weight Loss

Title: The Truth About Fast Weight Loss

By line: By Tom Venuto

URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!

Word count: 1356 words

WEIGHT LOSS POP QUIZ: What are 3 things that ALL 8 of these advertisements have in common?

“Burn 30 lbs in 3 weeks – no diet!”

“Lose 9 Pounds Every 11 Days!”

“Lose a pound a day without diet or exercise!”

“Lose 2 pounds a day without dieting!”

“Lose 30 pounds In 30 Days!”

“Lose 20 lbs in 3 weeks!”

“Burn 30 lbs in 25 days!”

“Lose 10 Pounds This Weekend!”

ANSWER: (1) They are all FALSE, (2) they are all DECEPTIVE…

I just did an Internet search for “how fast should you lose weight” and these are just a small sample of ACTUAL ADS that are running this very moment. They sure are enticing, aren’t they? They play on your emotions and on your desire for instant gratification.

But did you know that…

(3) these claims are all actually ILLEGAL, says the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

“We have known for some time now that there is a serious problem with weight-loss product advertising,” said FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris. “Reputable marketers continue to take care to avoid false and misleading claims, but it appears that too many unscrupulous marketers are making false claims promising dramatic and effortless weight loss to sell their products. It is not fair to consumers; it is not fair to legitimate businesses, it is illegal, and it will not be tolerated.”

You might be asking, “Ummm, if it will not be tolerated, then why do we keep seeing these ads?” Ah yes, well, God bless the Internet, On Google, you can put up an ad and have it showing in 15 minutes. You can then have it taken down just as fast. Same goes for websites. The FTC couldn’t keep up with OFFLINE false advertising, how are they possibly going to keep up with it ONLINE??? And it’s only going to get worse.

There’s only so much the FTC and other consumer watchdog organizations can do. It’s up to YOU to educate YOURSELF and know the red flags and warning signs of bogus weight loss claims.

Here’s what else the FTC says about why these types of advertising claims are so damaging:

  • “The deceptive promotion of quick and easy weight loss solutions potentially fuels unrealistic expectations on the part of consumers. consumers who believe that it really is possible to lose a pound (of fat) a day may quickly lose interest in losing a pound a week.”
  • “The proliferation of “fast and easy” fixes undermines the reality of what it takes to lose weight. People who need to lose weight are buying empty promises.”

I believe that the weight loss education industry has been knocked a few steps backward in the last few years due to (1) the internet and (2) the horrendous reality TV shows that actually encourage people to attempt “extreme” body makeovers or see who can lose weight the fastest. The winners (or shall we say, the “losers”, as if that’s a flattering title to earn), are rewarded generously with fortune, fame and congratulations.

These shows are damaging and despicable. I’m shocked that so many millions tune in and I’m even more surprised how many people think this garbage is “inspiring.”

Let’s face it. Everyone wants to get the fat off as quickly as possible – and having that desire is not wrong – it’s simply human nature. Patience is the one thing you never seem to have when you’ve got a body fat problem. You want the fat gone and you want it gone now!

Like the FTC said, with what we see on TV these days and with web page after web page of fast weight loss claims, you actually start to believe it’s doable and you’re no longer interested in a healthy 1-2 lbs weight loss per week. In fact, you even see people with your own eyes losing weight incredibly fast. How do you deny it’s possible when you see THAT?

Well, the answer comes to you when you expand your time perspective and see where those people are 6, 12, 18 months from now. Deep in your heart, you KNOW the answer…

The faster you lose weight, the more muscle you will lose right along with the fat, and that can really mess up your metabolism.

An even bigger problem with fast weight loss is that it just won’t last. The faster you lose, the more likely you are to gain it back. It’s the the “yo-yo diet effect” – weight goes down, but always comes back up.

What Really Matters Is Not How Much WEIGHT You Lose, But How Much FAT You Lose

Where did your weight loss come from? Did you lose body fat or lean body mass? “Weight” is not the same as “fat.” Weight includes muscle, bone, internal organs as well as lots and lots of water…

Don’t Be Fooled By Water Weight Losses

One thing you should also know is that it’s very common to lose 3 – 5 pounds in the first week on nearly any diet and exercise program and often even more on low carb diets (because low carb diets deplete glycogen and every gram of glycogen holds 3 grams of water). Just remember, its NOT all fat – WATER LOSS IS NOT FAT LOSS – AND WATER LOSS IS TEMPORARY!

The only way to know if you’ve actually lost FAT is with body composition testing. For home body fat self-testing, I recommend the Accu-Measure skinfold caliper as first choice. Even better, get a multi site skinfold caliper test from an experienced tester at a health club, or even an underwater (hydrostatic) or air (bod pod) displacement test.

From literally hundreds of client case studies, I can confirm that it’s rare to lose more than 2 to 3 lbs of weight per week without losing some muscle along with it. If you lose muscle, you are damaging your metabolism and this will lead to a plateau and ultimately to weight relapse.

The Biggest Weight Loss Mistake That Is FATAL To Your Long Term Success

Lack of patience is one of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to losing body fat. If you want to lose FAT, not muscle, and if you want to keep the fat off for good, then you have to take off the pounds slowly (of course, if you want to crash diet the weight off fast, lose muscle with the fat and gain all the fat back later, be my guest!).

This is one of the toughest lessons that overweight men and women have to learn – and they can be very hard learners. They fight kicking and screaming, insisting that they CAN and they MUST lose it faster.

Then you have these TV shows that encourage the masses that rapid, crash weight loss is okay. To the producers of these shows, I say SHAME ON YOU! To the personal trainers, registered dieticians and medical doctors who are associated with these programs, I say DOUBLE SHAME ON YOU, because you of all people should know better. These shows are not “motivating” or “inspiring” – they are DAMAGING! They are a DISGRACE!

The rapid weight loss being promoted by the media for the sake of ratings and by the weight loss companies for the sake of profits makes it even harder for legitimate fitness and nutrition professionals because our clients say, “But look at so and so on TV – he lost 26 pounds in a week!”

Sure, but 26 pounds of WHAT – and do you have any idea what the long term consequences are?

Short term thinking… foolish.

Do it the right way. The healthy way. Take off pounds slowly, and steadily with a sensible lifestyle program like my BurnTheFat Feed the Muscle System that includes the important elements of cardio training, strength training and proper nutrition.

Measure your body fat, not just your body weight, and make this a new lifestyle, not a race, and you will never have to take the pounds off again, because they will be gone forever the first time.

Tom Venuto, author of Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle www.BurnTheFat.com!

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is the author of the #1 best seller, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom is a lifetime natural bodybuilder and fat loss expert who achieved an astonishing 3.7% body fat level without drugs or supplements. Discover how to increase your metabolism and burn stubborn body fat, find out which foods burn fat and which foods turn to fat, plus get a free fat loss report and mini course by visiting Tom’s site at: www.BurnTheFat.com!