The Biggest Lesson I’ve Learned in the Last Two Years

So much has happened in a really short time.  Writing the book, speaking, and getting to meet a lot of other habit-based trainers and coaches.

Personal Training

A couple years ago I did an internship at Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove’s gym, Results Fitness.  They pioneered doing a true “semi-private” personal training.  And the biggest thing I learned in that internship was that personal training four people at a time is more effective than personal training one person at a time.

Habits-Based Food Coaching

Likewise, I’ve gotten to hang out with the best habit-based food coaches in the world.  And there are two things they all agree on:

1. Never work on more than one habit at a time
2. People are more successful working on habits in groups

If there are two completely ubiquitous laws of successful habit-based coaching, those are it.

One habit at a time, people can have up to an 80% success rate.  At two habits at a time, success rate goes down to 35%.  Three or more habits, and chances of success go down to 5%.

Most people tend to assume that one-on-one coaching is the pinnacle of habit-based fat loss success.  It turns out that isn’t the case:

Research indicates that not group-based fat loss programs are often more effective than one-on-one.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20054200

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2823259/

http://eprints.bham.ac.uk/426/1/BurkeNtoumanisGroupIndividualApproach.pdf

http://www.dsnm.univr.it/documenti/OccorrenzaIns/matdid/matdid128270.pdf

To make it even more interesting they’ve done studies with people who preferred group coaching vs. people who preferred one on one coaching.  What they found was that in both cases, group coaching was more effective — even the people who preferred one-on-one coaching got better results with group coaching.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11550739

My Mentor and Co-author, Dan John

Dan John has been talking about the power of intentional communities for quite some time.

Men’s Health: Best Workout Motivation

Dan John’s Guide to Building an Intentional Community

Dave Draper’s Iron Online: Virtual Stone Soup

And in his book: Can You Go?

Another Diet Isn’t the Answer

If you’ve had trouble sticking to multiple diets, then maybe another diet isn’t the answer.

I guarantee you it isn’t that you haven’t found the right the right macro percentages.

Let me repeat that: I guarantee you that it IS NOT that you haven’t found the right macro percentages.

If you aren’t hitting your goals, it’s always one of three things:

• You’re confused about the basics
• You aren’t working on the basics consistently enough to get results
• You aren’t working on the basics long enough enough to get results

That’s it.

100% of the time.

Is this just a pitch for the Coaching?

No.  But it is why phone coaching and online coaching exists.

There are lots of coaching groups.  There are lots of member led groups.  You can start a group with your friends.

There are so many options.  The point is, humans are social creatures.  It’s way easier for humans to make big changes in a group of other people making the same changes.

If going it alone isn’t working, I’d recommend trying it with other people vs. trying a new magic diet.

Josh Hillis