The following scenario may sound familiar, especially around the month of January:

You decide to start eating right and exercising to improve your health & fitness. You’re all gung ho about finally getting in shape. Your veins course with tiger blood. Nothing can stop you. You’re working out several times a week, you’re eating healthfully, and you’ve never looked better. Three weeks later you’re back to eating Cheetos and making frowny faces in the mirror whenever your shirt is off.

Perhaps this is you or somebody you know. It is as sad as it is common. So why is it that we so often start out with superhuman levels of enthusiasm, only to return to our former ways?



At Fitocracy, we don’t believe the issue is one of motivation but rather, of expectations. Where people fail isn’t the work they put in but their mentality from the start. All too often they expect incredible results in just a few weeks. As we always say to people just starting out, in order to really improve one’s fitness, it has to become a part of your lifestyle, not something you do for a short while and “take care of.” Nor is it something you can occasionally dabble with and then expect good results. Too few people realize that taking control of your body is a long term commitment.



If you visit our home page, the first thing you see is “Get addicted to your fitness.” We chose this wording to convey two ideas:

Fitness doesn’t have to be work, it can be pleasurable You have the potential to build a real dedication toward fitness

The problem with trying to change one’s lifestyle is that it’s hard and it often takes time before the benefits are realized. Let’s face it: we humans are wired for short-term gratification so it’s very easy to quit before the effort starts to pay off. In other words, the path to fitness can fail to hook you early enough. But once you become an addict, you will never want to stop.*



Part of Fitocracy’s mission is to bridge that gap between short-term gratification and the long term benefits of a lifestyle dedicated to fitness. Ultimately if we can help change the perception that fitness can be fun and addictive, then we have accomplished something important. Fortunately, early signs seem to indicate we’re on the right path toward that goal. Several users have told us that using Fitocracy makes working out fun and motivates them to stay consistent in their workouts. If making fitness a priority in your life is something you’re interested in, then check out Fitocracy.





*Disclaimer: It’s important to note, of course, that there are very real disorders related to fitness such as muscle dysmorphia. We would never encourage anyone to take their fitness lifestyle to an unhealthy extreme.