The Top 5 Reasons New Years Resolutions Fail (And How to Beat Them)

By Adrian| January 8th, 2024

New Year's Resolutions

Another new year is here, which means that right now, millions of people are chasing after new diet and fitness goals.


I hate to be a buzz-kill, but did you know that 88% of New Year’s Resolutions end in failure? How can such a positive idea backfire so regularly?


The problem isn't lack of effort or desire. It's that most people's New Year's resolutions are unrealistic to begin with.


If you avoid these common 5 mistakes training and nutrition mistakes, your chances of success dramatically increase.


1). Going Cold Turkey

Swearing off sweets for life may sound like a good idea, but your restrictive approach may be setting you up for failure. It’s common for people to totally eliminate a certain food, food group or guilty pleasure. This usually yields some short-term success.


The problem? Usually at around the week 3 mark, your will power (which is a muscle and like when you exercise, the more it’s used the more fatigued it becomes) gets pushed to its limit and runs out. Once your will power runs out, this usually leads to binge eating and the person giving up.


When people are binge eating, a lot of the time the issue is that they eat something that they think is bad, and then this is the negative pattern they go in:


1. They eat it

2. They think they f*^ked up

3. They say “Well, I already f*^cked up, I might as well keep going.


I’ll get back on track tomorrow. I’ll get back on track on Monday.”

The process of eating something they deem as bad then continues the negative cycle of “I screwed up, I might as well keep screwing up.” And that is SO, so important to understand.


Everything is okay in moderation. Creating this moderation will help you a lot.


So, instead of cutting out your favourite indulgences, why not just focus on adding and not subtracting? Add some protein to your breakfast. Add some vegetables to your meals.


You can and should still give yourself permission to have a treat. Will your results be faster? No. Will it be more enjoyable? Yes. And will it improve adherence (which is the #1 most important factor for any diet)? Yes.


To paraphrase Jordan Syatt - going 100% cold turkey isn’t progress. It’s prison. You can have your cake and eat it too without ruining progress.


2). Taking on Too Much Too Soon

It takes time to adapt to lifestyle changes. Jon Goodman, founder of the Personal Trainer Development Company described those who try to accomplish all of their goals in January as ‘New Year Revolutionists.’


So start slow, expect progress to be gradual and not linear, and lead with your strengths. We overestimate what we can do in 12 weeks but underestimate what we can accomplish in 12 months.


Set yourself goals without rigid time limits. Instead of saying ‘I want to get down to a size 8 in 12 weeks,’ why not just say ‘I want to get to a size 8 and stay there?’ If you set out to accomplish too much too soon it can lead to injury or result in you rebounding because your body isn’t accustomed to being so deprived and starved from a lack of food.


You’re going to be living in that body of yours for the rest of your life. Change takes time so be patient and persistent and it will pay off in the long run. I love starting out with small, simple habits that anyone can follow such as:


  1. Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning
  2. Add protein to your breakfast
  3. Eat 3 different vegetables a day
  4. Go for a 10-minute walk after every meal
  5. Schedule time to train 2-3x a week


It might seem easy but if you do this consistently, it will have a compounding effect on other areas of your life and set you up for success.


3). Doing Cardio to Tone Up

We all know the guys and girls at the gym who never seem to leave the treadmill. They spend their entire session trying to sweat off the pounds through running.


Yet, despite their best intentions, they never seem to get the results they’re looking for. Their body doesn’t change or adapt and they don’t end up getting that shaped and toned look they desire, despite their best efforts.


The problem? Cardio isn’t very effective at helping you ‘tone up.’


That shape and toned look you desire comes from adding muscle to your body. Muscle is the thing that gives your body shape in the absence of bodyfat.


So how do you add muscle? By strength training! And how do you get rid of bodyfat? By being in a caloric deficit. That’s not to say doing cardio isn’t beneficial. In fact doing cardio alongside strength training will speed up you results.


But, too often people prioritise cardio and completely neglect strength training despite wanting to tone up. Focus more on strength training and I promise you, the ‘shape and tone’ will follow.


4). Stopping at the Finish Line

Congratulations! You've dropped 10 pounds or you’ve finally fit into the dress that had been hidden in the back of your closet for so long. You're now free to go back to your old habits, right? Wrong.


A mentor of mine calls this the “test of success” which is something I’ve fallen victim to. What’s the test of success?


You know that feeling of accomplishment you get when you put a few “good days” back-to-back? For instance, Monday - Friday you’ve been eating really healthily and so you feel like rewarding yourself at the weekend? Or that sense of achievement you feel when you weigh yourself and see the scale move down and you now look forward to treating yourself.


I love those feelings too - everyone loves to win. But a mistake I made in the past was to let these wins give me a false sense of security. I justified these wins to allow myself to go binge-eating at the weekend and reverting back to my old habits. I would eat portions of food way bigger than normal. This all came off the back of getting a false sense of security from encountering a small win.


I let the test of success get to me - that temptation to “take the foot off the gas” when you experience a win instead of striving for better. It’s a fine line. So, while I’m not saying you shouldn’t take time to celebrate the wins, I am saying it’s important not to let complacency kick in when you do win. Not to allow yourself to lose your momentum and revert back to old habits.


I have lost weight before and rebounded so I know what it feels like. And it breaks my heart to see people who’ve encountered all the joy and satisfaction of reaching their target weight only to encounter the disheartening misery of putting it all back on within a year.


So, when you experience a win, when you start making progress, are you going to become comfortable and coast and go back to your old habits? Or are you going to continue to do the fundamentals that led to your success in the first place?


There’s an old saying: ‘Success is not in reaching the top, it’s staying there.’


Remember, losing weight is one skill to master, but creating a lifestyle change where you can learn how to sustain it and keep it is another skill entirely in itself.


If you want to stay in shape for the rest of your life, once you reach your goal, have a celebratory moment for sure but then set a new goal or performance standard you want to hit which will help keep you there.


‘Behind mountains are more mountains’ and there truly is no finish line. Once you have this perspective, you realise that this is a never-ending, crazy life-long journey full of ups and downs but once you stay on the path, nothing will stop you.


Being aware of the test of success and following the fundamentals is a sure-fire way to ensure your New Year’s Resolutions don’t fail.



5). Doing it On Your Own

When it comes to getting in shape, your chances of success are significantly increased when you have a support system. This might mean telling your family, your friends, posting on social media to share with the world your goals or having next level accountability by hiring a coach.


Putting your intentions out there helps keep you motivated when you go through a rough patch (note the way I say ‘when’ and not ‘if’ because everyone runs into challenges along the way).


Just be sure the people you share your goals with encourage you to move forward rather than tell you to quit what you’re doing and continue on with your old habits.


Don’t underestimate the power of your social environment and the positive/negative impact people can have on your actions.


The Takeaway

The New Year is in full swing. Unfortunately, resolutions that carry us through the winter months start to fade out in the spring and are all but forgotten once the summertime sunshine reaches us. If you avoid the below mistakes, you can put yourself into the category of the few who accomplish and out of the many who fail their resolutions.


  1. Going cold turkey
  2. Taking on too much too soon
  3. Doing cardio to tone up
  4. Stopping at the finish line
  5. Doing it on your own


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About Adrian McDonnell & McLifestyle Fitness:

Adrian McDonnell is a highly specialised Personal Trainer & Online Fitness Coach from outside of Tuam, Co.Galway, Ireland.

Previously a primary school teacher for almost 5 years, Adrian followed his passion and pursued a career in fitness after seeing first hands the results he could achieve with himself.

Although Adrian is a Personal Trainer & now Full-Time Online Transformation Fitness Coach from outside of Tuam, Co.Galway –

he not only coaches clients locally, but also nationally and internationally.

Adrian specialises in helping working professionals:

• Be confident in themselves

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• Go on more dates (this is a common one).

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