3 Reasons Why Getting A Gym Membership Won’t Help You Lose Weight

Here’s the truth about getting a gym membership that gym owners everywhere do NOT want you to know but I am going to go right ahead and tell you anyway.

Getting a gym membership is not the answer to your weight loss woes.

As a matter of fact, getting a gym membership can be a distraction from the real work that needs to happen to create weight loss success.

Here is the sad and predictable cycle that I have watched so many women (including myself) repeat- sometimes for years.

THE SAD CYCLE OF MEMBERSHIP ACQUIREMENT & WEIGHT LOSS FAILURE

Try on a pair of jeans that snatches you out of denial about your weight gain.  Sure you reason for a while that the dryer has done a number on your favorite pair but deep down you know the truth.

INSERT CLIP OF THE CLOSET JAM

So what do you do?  You decide to fight back because you are not buying jeans any bigger than the ones you own.

You march off to the nearest gym, sign up, and start showing up daily like there is a paycheck attached to your attendance.

The results start to come at first.  Then they slow down.  You try harder but don’t really see a pay off.

Life gets crazy.  You quit going until… the jeans don’t fit again.

Sound familiar?

Since you already know that this is a cycle that repeat itself for years without any real resolution, let’s talk about why this happens and how to create a different reality for yourself.

And NO it doesn’t happen because you are lazy or just need to “try harder” next time.

Here are three gaps that getting a gym membership creates that set you up to NOT lose weight.

#1: The Scheduling Gap

While getting a gym membership may seem like a way to make exercise an accessible priority, the opposite is usually true.  After the initial excitement of the gym membership wears off, it gets increasingly more difficult to build your life around the gym schedule.  If you need to work out super early before heading in to work or at night after putting the kids to sleep, you may quickly realize that the gym schedule was not built with you in mind.

Even if you have a membership to a 24-hour gym or can train during normal gym hours, you are often doubling your workout time when you factor in the commute, storing and retrieving your things from the locker room, and setting up and breaking down your workout area.  When your 30-minute workout costs you 90 minutes each day, skipping the workout altogether is a likely possibility when life gets busy.

#2: The Education Gap

Showing up is just half of the battle.  If you don’t know what to do when you get there, you may as well have stayed home. When you purchase a gym membership, you purchase access not assistance. Access is not enough for you if you have no clue how to work out efficiently and effectively.

I am sure you know someone who goes to the gym regularly but doesn’t look any different after years of consistency.  One of the primary reasons this happens is because the “just do something” mentality doesn’t work.  Showing up at the gym without an effective game plan guarantees you will be “sweating for nothing”.

#3: The Accountability Gap

Here’s a crazy fact for you.  Do you realize that very few gyms have enough equipment to accommodate their members if everyone shows up?  Let that sink in…they are counting on you NOT showing up.  They are literally betting AGAINST you.

Getting a gym membership provides a false sense of accomplishment because when you are excited, it actually helps.  However by now you know that excitement doesn’t last forever and it is when you are over the initial excitement that you need help- someone to pull you back up and on the road to weight loss success.  Unfortunately that is not included with you gym membership. As a matter of fact the person that signed you up is likely to not even be working there by the time you hit your bump in the road.

So here’s my advice for you if you want to stop being distracted and start getting results.

Learn the basics of effective weight loss workouts (link to weight loss workouts 101).  Create or follow simple, efficient workouts like my FREE Fierce in 20 workouts  (link to Fierce in 20) and stop allowing a gym membership to keep you from weight loss goals.

I’d love to hear from you.  Do you find having a gym membership while on your weight loss journey beneficial or distracting? Sound off in the comments below.