Fitness goals are important. They allow you to measure your success and motivate you to keep going.

Keep your goals short term and measurable. Losing twenty pounds in the next year is not a good goal. Doing something over the course of a year only allows you to keep putting it off. Set your goals for the short term, preferably no longer than a month or two. Losing and inch off of your waist in the next month is a great goal. It is measurable and has a short timeline.

The purpose of setting goals is to think about what you are doing in a logical manner. First you need to understand where you are now. Then decide where you want to be and plan out how to get there. Then correct course early and often.

Where are you now? I am __ feet and __ inches tall. I weight ___ pounds. I have a body mass index of ___. I have a ___ inch waist. I eat ___ calories a day. I burn ___ calories through exercise daily.

Where would you like to be? I would like to weigh ___ pounds. To get where I want to be, I would like to lose ____ pounds in the next 30 days. Right down what your goal is to make it concrete and real.

What is your plan to make your goal reality? In order to lose ___ pounds in the next 30 days my plan is to ___. Keep in mind that in order to lose a pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 more calories than you consume. It is extremely helpful to measure calories consumed and calories burned while creating and executing a fitness plan.

Why did you succeed or fail? Determining why you reached or failed to reach your goals is the most important aspect of setting fitness goals. If you don’t know what worked, how can you replicate it? Did you stick to your plan? Was your plan a good plan? Did you exercise enough? Did you do the right kinds of exercises? Did you eat too much? Did you slack off?

Make Adjustments – Use what you have learned to make adjustments to your goals and fitness plan for next month.

If you need help creating or evaluating a fitness plan, we can help. Contact Nolan Ferraro at 504.821.4896 or nolan@salirefitness.com

Thanks for reading How To Set Fitness Goals. I hope you found it helpful, informative and interesting. If you have any feedback, please leave a comment. You can follow me on twitter.com/salirefitness.