One of the most fundamental failings of weight loss programs and diet in general is that they are rarely thought through in terms of the objectives that you the individual have set for building your body in the long term.
This is a fundamental.
You must be absolutely clear about what you are looking for in a weight loss program in terms of the body transformation sought!.
One of the failings of most weight loss programs is that they are targeted on the general public; which is to say they are not targeted on you.
How can a programme geared to the needs of a 100 pound woman who wants to simply slim down, be geared to the needs of a 180 pound man wanting to build muscle, lose body fat, reduce his waist and build up his chest; if you see what I mean.
General programs produce general results! This is not what you are after..
The more focused on your particular needs and circumstances the more likely the programme is going to be in helping you to achieve your objectives.
Many diets simply starve you! Such techniques do not work! They usually end up backfiring, leaving you to gain weight after you go off them; often more weight than you had when you first started.
So what to do? If your goal is to get rid of fat then the objective should be to burn the fat, not starve the fat.
Because most weight loss programs encourage your metabolism to shut down this leads to muscle loss because the body starts to use its muscle reserve before it starts on using stored fats! This is a doubled negative whammy which over time encourages even greater fat storage.
On the other side of the coin you have to look at your muscles exercises program which must include both cardiovascular training AND weight training.
Lets be clear, hours of cardio are not going to support the retention of lean muscle tissue mass, nor is this going to be effective in getting your results in sensible time frames.
It is your lean muscle tissue that maintains your metabolism at it's highest levels meaning your burning calories naturally whilst at rest at the highest possible levels; it's this that you need to focus on.
Whatever exercise and weight loss program you choose must be maintainable over time.
Short term initiatives are not going to be effective.
You need to think in terms of well founded lifestyle changes that cover both exercise and your diet.
To find out more about effective weight loss and muscles exercise programs that really work for both men and women [and yes these are different because we are different in our make up] the take a look at my blog.