It comes from a short term, quick fix mentality where the hope is this…

"What if it works? What if I just take this pill and everything works?"

Well, unfortunately that’s all it is: "Hope". It’s results that matter, and the results that you’re likely to get by taking a diet pill are much wasted time and money, lots of frustration, and even health problems.

You don’t need diet pills at all to lose weight, and I strongly recommend that you don’t take them. Here are 5 big reasons why…

1. Diet pills have little, if any, effect

There are no independent research studies proving that ANY diet pills provide significant results. There are only claims from the diet pill companies who have often only done tests on animals using extremely high doses.

In fact, independent research studies have shown that the effect of diet pills goes from zero up to about 75 calories over a 24 hour period. There is no solid proof that any diet pills do anything like what they say they will.

So you could take a diet pill and in the best case scenario it may increase your metabolism a little, or it may suppress your appetite a little, but the amount is tiny…

And it may do nothing at all which I suggest is the most likely scenario.

Or you could easily do something like go for a 15 minute walk, do the housework for 20 minutes, or wash your car, and you’ll have the same or greater effect than the best diet pills on the market. Plus, you can do this for free, and without any health risks.

That’s why I cringe when I hear about people taking diet pills. It’s such a waste of time, effort, and money "hoping" for magical results, when they could have been doing things that actually work instead.

Diet pills are insignificant compared to what you can achieve with quality exercise and a healthy diet.

2. You only need quality exercise and good nutrition

As I’ve already explained, many diet pills don’t work or they only produce insignificant results.

You can easily get the same or far better results just by making tiny changes to your exercise or diet. For example, you could do any of these…

• Walk for 15 minutes
• Do some ironing or vacuuming for 20 minutes
• Wash your car
• Take the stairs at work
• Add 5 minutes to your exercise routine
• Remove one biscuit from your diet
• Have one less soft drink each day

These options are much safer and less expensive than taking diet pills. Plus they actually work, rather than taking diet pills which have minimal or no effect.

3. You don’t get the vitamins you need

Most people who take diet pills do so at the expense of their diet. They want everything to stay the same with their diet, except that they take a pill and then everything works out alright.

In other words, they want to keep the same crappy diet and hope that the diet pill will make everything better.

The problem here is that diet pills won’t give you the same vitamins and minerals that you can get from a healthy diet.

So if you are taking a diet pill and not improving your diet, the chances are that the diet pill isn’t helping you lose weight, plus you’re not giving your body the vitamins and minerals it need to remain healthy.

If you exercise it’s even more important to have a healthy diet. Diet pills aren’t going to fuel your workouts. They aren’t going to help you get fitter and healthier, or give you a better looking body.

4. You don’t improve your lifestyle

Taking diet pills doesn’t teach you anything. It only encourages you to avoid putting in time and effort and try to cheat your way to getting the results you want.

Diet pills don’t learn you anything about quality exercise and healthy nutrition, yet these are the keys to losing weight and keeping it off. They are also the key to experiencing other things like improved health and fitness, and getting a better looking body.

Diet pills actually push you away from doing the thing that you need to do to be successful, and that is, change your lifestyle.

If you are not willing to change your lifestyle then you have no hope of EVER losing weight or getting the other great benefits that you want.

5. You waste lots of money

Taking diet pills, only to get zero or minimal results, is just like throwing money down the drain. They give you a false sense of hope, while also robbing your bank balance.

There’s no need for this to happen…

You can get all the results you could ever want if you are prepared to do quality exercise and eat healthily. Plus it’s much cheaper.

You don’t need diet pills

I hope you can see why you don’t need diet pills to lose weight and why you shouldn’t even use them at all.

Six pack abs or a great looking body don’t come in a pill or a bottle. Neither does great health and fitness. You get them by investing time and effort into quality exercise and developing a healthy diet.

It’s so simple, yet many people still chase the quick fix dream of diet pills which turns out to be a long term nightmare. Don’t let this happen to you!

If you know anyone who is trying to take short cuts with diet pills, do them a BIG favour by passing on this blog post.

If you have any experiences with diet pills yourself, please add your comments below and help other people by sharing your experiences.

James

There’s no doubt it would be useful to be able to say, "I can run ‘X’ number of miles per week and I’ll definitely lose one pound of weight". Then you’d know exactly what you needed to do in order to reach your weight loss goals and everything would seem quite straight forward.

Unfortunately it’s not as simple as this and other factors should also be considered.

Firstly let’s take a look at the theory behind how you can lose one pound…

Did you know that you need to burn around 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat?

And did you know that one mile of slow running is the equivalent to burning around 100 calories, depending on your body weight?

That means you need to run for around 35 miles per week just to lose one pound. At 12 minute mile pace that’s 7 hours running each week just to lose one pound!

You would need to run 5 days a week and average 7 miles for each run to complete the full 35 miles. At 12 minute mile pace each run would take 84 minutes.

Wow, that doesn’t sound too good. Does this sound like the best use of your time?

The good news is that you don’t need to do this. You don’t need to run for long periods of time and give yourself a greater chance of suffering from an overuse injury, while also losing weight slower than what you could be doing.

There’s much, much more you can do when using running to lose weight than just running long, slow miles.

That’s because there are several other factors which affect how much weight you lose.

For example, shorter and harder running methods burn more calories after your run. They also help you maintain more muscle which helps you burn more calories throughout every single day…

And they increase your fitness quicker which increases your ability to burn calories in future runs because you can run longer, faster, or harder.

So yes, you can do roughly 35 miles of long, slow running every week and you may lose one pound…

But why do this when you can lose more weight in less than half the time while also having a much more interesting and enjoyable running plan?

This is possible because not all running methods are equal. For example, rather than running for more miles you could run the same distance but quicker. By doing this you’ll burn more calories after your run as your body takes longer to recover and you’ll also increase your fitness quicker.

Or you could improve the quality of your runs even further by using running methods which include a short period of recovery between faster and harder runs.

I hope now you can understand why the question "How long do I need to run to lose a pound?" is not as straight forward as it first seems.

When using running to lose weight the speed of your weight loss is not just down to how far you run, which I explain in detail in my running programs.

Your weight loss also depends heavily on other factors such as your running speed, your effort levels, how many calories you burn after your run, and how quickly you can improve your fitness and running ability.

In fact using running to lose weight in the most effective manner is MUCH more about the quality of your running rather than quantity.

So rather than focusing on how far you can run to lose weight, it’s much better to look at improving the quality of your running instead.

James

I really do believe that it’s good to keep reminding people of the benefits of running because it helps to increase their motivation and keep them going.

In fact, I remind myself about the benefits of running all the time, and after 15 years running it still gives me constant motivation.

This is such an important area that I even wrote a 45 page report about it called "33 Reasons Why Running Changes Your Life" which comes as part of
Run Without Limits. Yes there really is that much you can gain from running.

Whether you are completely new to running, or you’ve been running for months or years, running can have a positive impact on all areas of your life.

Yes there’s the weight loss, better health and fitness, and better looking body…

But, as if that wasn’t enough, there are also MANY other positive benefits that can make a significant difference to your life.

Here are 5 other very important benefits that you can experience through running…

1. More energy 

With running your body becomes fitter, healthier, and more efficient. Your body works a lot better than an unhealthy body and because of this you are provided with much more energy.

The result?

You feel more alive, and you can do more things, every day of your life. Every single day of your life is higher quality compared to the body you would have if you didn’t run!

There’s no more feeling sluggish and wasting precious time in your life. You can now do more of the things you enjoy, and you feel much better while doing them.

2. Feeling younger

Having all this extra energy makes you feel much younger.

For example, after losing two stone in weight with running, and feeling much fitter and healthier, one of my customers said that she felt 20 years younger. Who wouldn’t want that?

Imagine feeling in the best shape of your life and feeling better than when you were younger. Imagine being able to do more of everything you want in life and feeling like you can just keep going.

I’m sure you can appreciate that this is a lot better and more enjoyable than collapsing in front of the television after a day at work, or having to sit down for a rest because you can’t keep up playing with your children.

3. Looking younger

With running you can lose weight, get a better looking body, and you can walk around and do everything with more energy and purpose.

Many people in their 60′s are overweight, they have a walking stick, and they shuffle along. Other people at the same age are running around and looking more like a 40 year old.

Many people in their 30′s look more like they are 50 years old with their slow pace and low energy levels. Other people at the same age are running around like a super fit teenager.

Can you see why people who run, very often end up looking younger than they actually are?

Can you also see why people that are unfit, have a poor body shape, and move around much slower with a poorer posture, usually look much older than they are?

4. More confidence

So let’s say that you’ve been running for a while and you’re experiencing the benefits and rewards…

You now have much more energy. You feel and look younger. You’ve also lost weight and developed a much fitter and better looking body.

Overall you are happy with everything. Your weight, health, fitness, and body are just how you want them to be.

How much better do you feel now? How much more confidence do you have?

This is why the benefits of running make you feel so good and why you’re likely to experience greater satisfaction and confidence.

5. More positive state of mind

With all these benefits it’s easy to see why running can make you feel much more positive and a lot happier about yourself.

Quite simply, the better you do with your running, and the more benefits you gain, the better you feel about yourself both physically and mentally.

The other major advantage of this is that your better and more positive frame of mind rubs off onto other people in your life.

So not only do you make yourself happier, but you also help the other people in your life become happier as well. Running doesn’t just benefit you, it benefits the people that you love.

You have a lot to gain with running, and a lot to lose if you don’t

In addition to all these positive experiences, running also helps you avoid negative experiences such as suffering from ill health and diseases.

It provides you with a lower risk of suffering from depression, several types of cancers (such as breast, ovarian, and colon cancer), osteoporosis, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and heart attacks, stroke, and arthritis.

With all this in mind, do you need any more reasons to run and keep on running?

If at any time your motivation dwindles, or you’re tempted to miss a run, just remember everything that running gives you.

With running all you have to give is some time and effort…

In return running gives you an abundance of benefits that can literally change your life.

Keep up the good running!

So what about you?

What have you gained from running and how has this helped you or improved your life?

Please add your comments below and share your experiences.

James

In today’s video I talk about the problems people have, what they do about it, and why it doesn’t work. You’ll also find out what you can do to lose weight and get the better body that you’re looking for.

Hopefully, this blog post will motivate you to keep running, especially when you see all the other people who run. Who knows, it may even encourage you to try one of these types of races yourself.

For those of you who don’t know, the Race for Life is a series of 5k and 10k events in the UK. The aim is to raise money for Cancer Research and we try to do our bit each year.

It’s a women’s only race which means that my girlfriend does the running while I have the easy job of taking photos (although this usually involves running around like a headless chicken trying to find her).

Here’s where we’ve been over the years…

2003 – Bradford
2004 – Cleethorpes
2005 – Scarborough
2006 – Bridlington
2007 – Hull
2008 – Scarborough
2009 – Nottingham
2010 – Chester
2010 – Rotherham
2011 – Manchester
2012 – Blackpool (planned for this year)

Every year we turn the Race for Life into a weekend away where we get to see a few sights as well as do the race. It makes for a fun time and we’ve really enjoyed the Race for Life experience over the years.

Overall it’s a great day out, or a few days holiday, you can raise money for a special cause, plus you can even be working towards losing weight at the same time.

To give you an idea of these kinds of races, here’s a video clip from the Race for Life in Scarborough 2008, and a few photos from 2008 and 2011.

My girlfriend finishing the Race for Life – Scarborough 2008

Here we are in the hotel on Race for Life morning – Scarborough 2008

Pretty in pink – My girlfriend doing the warm up before the race – Manchester 2011

Any race like the Race for Life can be very enjoyable as well as being useful in helping you keep motivated with your running and progressing towards your weight loss goals. With a bit of research you’ll be able to find a good charity race that you’ll enjoy.

If you are interested in the Race for Life you can find out more here:
Race for Life

Their 5k and 10k events run from May to July, so now is the ideal time to get booked in and get training for the race.

By the way, these races are probably 98% fun runners and many people walk the whole way. So don’t be concerned that you’re going to come last or look silly. It’s just a great day out while raising some money for a worthwhile cause.

Also, if you can’t run a 5k or 10k yet and would like some help, be sure to take a look at Run Your First 5k or 10k which provides 5k and 10k training plans as well as lots of other helpful tips and advice.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I am generally a private person and feel a bit uncomfortable sharing personal things with other people, but I thought this might help so I wanted to share my Race for Life experiences with you.

Please leave your comments below and share any experiences you have with the Race for Life or any other charity events or races. Or let us know about any races you have planned for this year.

I am interested in your experiences, and I know that other people will find your comments both useful and motivating.

James

By the way this is a 100 percent true story and the reason I’m telling you about this are two fold…

1. If you ARE NOT on the right path to weight loss success and are making these types of big mistakes, then I want you to get on the right path and start experiencing more success and an improved life

2. If you ARE on the right path, then I want you to realise this so that you keep progressing without making these types of poor choices which can easily send you spiralling in the wrong direction

So here we go with the story…

Lucy is a friend of a friend. I’ve met her several times and followed her story over many years.

Like a lot of people Lucy has struggled with her weight over the years. Her weight has gone up and it’s gone down, but most of the time she’s been overweight followed by short periods at a lower weight.

Her main strategy has generally been to starve herself, and as you might expect she lost some weight.

However, by doing this she put her body into starvation mode where it slowed her metabolism and tried to hold onto as much energy as possible. She stopped losing weight and now had a diet that was both de-motivating and unsustainable over the long term.

She was also robbing her body of the nutrients and energy that it needed for her to have a healthy body and live a healthy life.

When she returned to anything like normal eating, her weight ALWAYS came back again, plus a bit more.

My simple message to pass on to Lucy to help her get back on the right track was to try and eat a normal balanced diet and do some exercise.

The problem was that Lucy wanted an easier way. She wanted a way that required the least amount of effort possible and a way that produced magical results.

After years of having periods of starving herself she then decided to take a range of slimming pills. Sometimes she lost a little weight but she always felt terrible and would stop taking them. The weight came straight back on again.

So what has happened to Lucy since?

Well she has a whole host of health problems to contend with which I believe is ALL down to how she’s treated her body. She may have to live with these problems for the rest of her life.

She cannot work and is now registered as disabled, needing to rely on disability payments. She’s also more overweight than ever, suffers from depression, and struggles to walk for any length of time.

In fact, aged only 35 Lucy uses a mobility scooter which are usually used by people in their 70′s, 80′s, or 90′s, more than twice her age.

Lucy was only around 30 years old when she first started with serious health problems, and 5 years later things have only got worse for her health. To make things even harder she’s also a single parent with three young children to bring up.

So where’s the happy ending?

I’m sorry but today there isn’t one.

The choices that Lucy made about how to lose weight has cost her very dear. It’s cost her the health she has now, and it’s probably cost her the health she has for the rest of her life.

It’s cost her children a healthy mother who cannot do physical activities with them, who barely has the energy to survive, and who is highly unlikely to live as long as most parents are.

After all these years of trying to take quick fixes to lose weight, Lucy has only gone backwards, and by a long way.

What can you learn from this?

Well apart from not starving yourself or taking slimming pills, there are several other underlying important learning points…

1. Quick fixes do NOT work – Yes you may have some short term success but you are extremely likely to put all the weight back on, plus some extra. There’s also the damage that can be done to both your body and mind which can badly affect the rest of your life

2. You can’t get something for nothing – If you are willing to apply effort, patience, and persistence then you’ll get much better and much quicker weight loss results than the person who is looking for a magic solution that requires no effort

3. Follow a structured plan – Jumping around from solution to solution is a sure way to get nowhere fast. Following proven methods and plans and sticking to them always gets the best weight loss results

4. Learn from other people – Don’t guess about the best ways to lose weight. After all, this is your health and life we’re talking about. Seek expert help to find the quickest, safest, and most reliable path to success

If you are ready to follow my expert advice then I encourage you to take a look at my running programs and advice. Take advantage of my 15 years knowledge and experience to get the same outstanding running and weight loss results as many others.

James

Even if you’re training for a 10k, half marathon, or even a marathon, you’ll become a much better runner by including speed in your training.

In fact the only exception where speed isn’t important is for beginner runners. In their case it’s better to build up their fitness first by increasing the time and distance they can run, and then look to improve their speed.

For most runners though speed should be an important part of their training, if they want to become the best runner that they can.

So let’s take a look at what happens when you train for endurance and speed, and how this affects your running ability.

Training for endurance

When you train for endurance it’s all about running for longer times or distances. It’s what’s known as aerobic training where your body is able to take in plenty of oxygen which allows you to keep running for a long period of time.

So by training for endurance you can increase your fitness and run for longer.

However, the big drawback is that you are only training your body and muscles in one way, which is to run aerobically. The result is that you become a long, slow runner.

That’s why many people who train for a long distance event are quite comfortable when they run at a slow pace, but if they increase their speed a little then they struggle and can’t keep it up for any length of time.

Training for speed

Training for speed is where you run at a quicker speed that you can’t keep up for a long period of time. This could be anything from a 2 mile hard time trial to 100 metre repetitions, depending on your running goals and level of fitness.

For example, speed training for a marathon runner is very different than speed training for a 400 metre runner.

The big difference between training for speed and training for endurance is that speed training involves both aerobic and anaerobic training. In other words, you are training your body to be able to run with oxygen and without oxygen.

The result is that you gain the speed to run faster over shorter distances, plus you also gain the fitness to run slower over longer distances.

Here are 3 other big advantages of speed training and why it will improve your endurance and help you run further…

• When training for speed it makes longer runs feel easier. Your body and mind gets used to running at quicker speeds which means that the slower speeds during longer runs feel much more comfortable. So you can keep running for longer.

• Training for speed helps to improve your running technique quicker because you need to run with more drive and control with your arms and legs. So you become a more efficient runner which helps you run better throughout ALL of your runs, whether long or short runs.

• You also have less chance of getting an overuse injury. When you only do lots of long, slow runs it doesn’t provide you with enough variety and your risk of suffering from an overuse injury increases.

Putting it all together

Training for endurance will only improve your endurance, but training for speed will improve both your speed and endurance because it involves both aerobic and anaerobic training. So if you want to become the best runner you can be it’s important to include speed training.

Remember that people who only do long, slow runs can usually ONLY do long, slow runs. However, people who also train for speed can do long, slow runs, but also higher quality shorter runs…

They develop into an all round runner, rather than being a one-trick pony!

So use plenty of variety in your training. Yes include endurance runs, but don’t forget about the all important speed runs. They provide the quality that moves you and your running ability onto the next level.

James

No matter what you want to achieve with running, one of the most important aspects is running consistently.

If you can be motivated to keep running several times each week, week after week, month after month, then you’re going to achieve a LOT more than the person who runs one week and then can’t be motivated to run the week after.

With this in mind here are 3 motivation tips that will help you run consistently and therefore get better running and weight loss results…

1. Ask yourself "Why is running important?"

Sometimes with running, as with any other exercise, it’s easy to lose track of what really matters.

For example, you get into a routine and start to feel like you are running for running’s sake with no real purpose. When the weather turns cold or it’s raining it then becomes easy to feel like you’d rather not run and so you end up getting into the habit of consistently missing runs.

A great thing to do is always think about why you are running and why this is important to you. It’s like adding fuel to the fire because it helps keep your desire high which results in you running more.

For example, what if the next time it rained you thought "I want to go running because it’s important to me, my family, and my health, that I lose this weight. I’m not going to let a bit of rain stop me from improving my life".

The key is to focus on what’s important in your life, rather than what feels easiest at the time.

What are YOUR reasons for running? Remind yourself of these reasons often and you’ll have the motivation to run a lot more consistently.

2. Set intermediate weight loss goals

While it’s great to have a long term goal, such as lose 3 stone (42 pounds) over the next year, it’s also very useful to have intermediate goals.

With a long term goal it can be very easy to lose focus. The weeks go by, and then the weeks turn into months, without making any real progress. You can even reason that you don’t need to do as much now because you’ve got plenty of time to reach your goal.

There’s no real urgency, and that’s the problem. You get way behind on your goal and it’s very difficult to make it up.

Also when you spend several months working towards your long term goal and then realise that you’re not progressing anywhere near quickly enough it can be really de-motivating.

With intermediate weight loss goals you have stepping stones that help guide you towards achieving your long term goal. For example, you may decide to lose 10 pounds over the next 8 weeks.

This helps you focus better and provides much more urgency than a goal that may be 12 months away.

When the time has passed, whether you reach your intermediate goal or you don’t quite get there, you just set another intermediate goal and work towards that.

You might not always achieve these goals and there’s nothing wrong with that. The real benefit is that they’ll push you to try harder and run more consistently which helps you get a lot closer to where you want to go.

So identify where you want to be long term, and then set an intermediate goal. You’ll be much more motivated to get running.

3. Set running goals

To add even more purpose to your running it’s very useful to set running goals as well as weight loss goals. For example, you may aim to run 3 miles, or a 5k, in under 30 minutes before the end of the year.

The good thing with setting running goals like these is that you get to kill two birds with one stone.

You can focus on your running goals and improve your health and fitness. Plus you can make progress towards your weight loss goals at the same time.

Another good thing about having running goals is that you’re not always worrying about your weight. You have a positive focus on running that also helps to guide you towards your weight loss goals.

Just to summarise

When you use these 3 tips you’ll experience more motivation, focus, and purpose with your running…

1. Constantly remind yourself why running is important to you and all the great ways that it’s going to benefit your life

2. Set intermediate weight loss goals to push you more and give you something to aim for on your way to your longer term goal

3. Set running goals to add more purpose to your running and give you something positive to focus on that will motivate you and help you run more consistently

If you don’t do these 3 actions then you’re virtually guaranteed to take much longer to get the results that you want.

However, the great news is that just doing these 3 simple actions will help take you a long way towards where you want to go with both your running and your weight loss.

James

The further people progress with their running the more they tend to eat, so they struggle to lose weight. Find out if you are eating more than you think.

This video is a follow up to my first ever video which I did last year on 4th February. It shows how I’ve overcome my resistance to change and how you can too. It’s time to break through your barriers and get even better running and weight loss results.

By the way, you can click here to see my first ever video.