The Negative Feedback Loop

Let’s consider a typical scenario for someone who doesn’t get the results they want. All this is hypothetical, but is happening right now for many people.

We’ll use ‘he’ in the case of Joe, but it’s happening to women as well.

• He started out training with the goal of looking better.

• After a few weeks in the gym, he’s not seeing the results he wants. That night he goes on the internet and researches the best workout for ripped abs, and a million search results come up.

• 4 hours later, and a lot of reading, he decides on a new plan. He’s excited, and ready for results.

• The next day he starts the routine, and does it for the next week.

• Turns out the program is really challenging. He realizes he can’t dedicate 6 days to training, and he missed his morning workouts over the weekend.

• During the following week, he feels bad for missing the workouts, and stares at himself in the mirror. He sees a weak physique and decides the program is not working, and begins his search for a new one.

• While he’s searching, he comes across a diet that seems to make losing fat a breeze. Effortless, even.

• He begins following that.

• The first week is hard, but he is determined.

• According to the new diet protocol, carbs make you fat.

• So he eliminates all starch, eats nothing but lean meat, leafy greens, and limits carb intake to 25g of dextrose in his post-workout shake.

• At the end of the week, he’s asked to attend a birthday party on Saturday night, but refuses so he’s not tempted to eat any ‘bad foods.’

• Sunday morning, he wakes up ravenous due to slashing his calorie intake in half the week before, and proceeds to eat everything in the house.

• He tries to avoid the temptation, but cravings are out of control.

• That night he decided to call this his ‘refeed’ so as to make himself feel a little better.

• After some reflection, he learns that choosing to miss out on a social event due to his ‘diet’ restrictions made him a little depressed.

• He wakes up 10 pounds heavier from the drastic intake of carbs, glycogen refilling into his muscles, and of course holding tons of water.

• He hates the bloat he’s sporting in the mirror and even calls himself a failure under his breath.

• In his head, he tells himself he’ll never change. After some more sulking, he heads back to the internet for another magic bullet.

• He finds it, and proceeds to repeat the above scenario over and over again the coming months.

• Eventually, he’ll look back and say “I’ve been training and dieting for years—nothing works for me!”

• For many people who claim that nothing works, a similar pattern is at play.

• An inability to practice consistency coupled with unrealistic expectations is a surefire way to feeling bad about yourself.

• When you feel bad about yourself, you try to cope.

• Why We Fail

• When we act on emotions, as opposed to logic and rationality, we often make bad decisions.

• Joe, in the example above, always deferred to his emotions and how he felt he was progressing, or how he felt a diet was working, as opposed to what was really going on.

• His actions were never grounded in a foundation of hard work, consistency, and effort. He acted on a whim, making changes when he was emotional.

• You can only control what you track, and measure, over the weeks, months, and years, not an hourly or daily basis.

• We fail when we give into the shortcut mentality. We fail when we think the results are easy to achieve.

• We fail when we get into the negative feedback loops full of negative self-talk and sabotage.

• Don’t be like Joe. Choose your goal, develop realistic expectations, track your progress, and get the support or accountability when you need it.