Almost anyone who has attempted to diet or get into shape has dropped out at least one time. It can a number of reasons why failure occurs - lack of free time, social commitments, family commitments, diet or fitness programs that are to hard or not appropriate. Whatever the reason it is important to choose a fitness program that you are comfortable with so you stick with it.

Failure to plan ahead is a very common mistake. If you go to the gym and you don't have a specific target in mind you will fail. If you make you target unclear you won't know if you've reached it or not?

If you aren't sure of your ideal weight ask your doctor and that should be your goal. Or you can focus on the number of inches you want to loose around the middle, on you bottom or thighs. That's an excellent method.

Another common mistake is to come up with excuses to avoid going to the gym. Sure life and those never ending appointments or events get in the way, but that can be arranged with some more planning. Don't use it as an excuse to quit the program and make sure you don't get lazy.

Too little too late and you will fail so don't work out too little. This may seem too obvious so not worth repeating but a lot of people lift two dumbbells a couple of times and they figure they're done for the day. Sit down at the table and come up with a sound training program that you can stick to.

You might be surprised to find out that too much fitness is also bad. Your muscles need time to recover from the work out, and then time to grow, and your body needs time to burn up the fat. The body doesn't just burn fat during exercises and the more muscles mass you have the faster the calories will burn because muscles needs energy all the time. If you over train you will make your muscles tired without any additional benefits.

Never compare yourself to others. Each of us is a unique individual with our own unique genetic make up which controls some of our weight gain, weight loss and even how our muscles respond to training. Don't rate your accomplishments according to the achievements of others; instead continue at your own pace and your own goals. If you try too hard you simply set yourself up to fail.

Don't do the same exercises over and over - mix it up or you will lose your motivation. Learn to form your routines and then replace them with new ones every four weeks. Try to find variations to a classic exercise to make things interesting for yourself.

And last of all think about how important your fitness program will be to your over all health. We aren't getting any younger and so let's take longevity to a new level.