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How to Set Fitness Goals You'll Actually Achieve
guide | August 26, 2026
Most fitness goals for women sound the same - lose weight, tone up, get fit. Here's a simpler approach that's actually helped me lose 20kg. And keep it off.
READING TIME: ~5 min read
Zoe Barker | Strength Coach & Founder, Future You Fitness & Coaching | @zobarks | @futureyoutraining
Most of us have set a fitness goal at some point that sounded something like this: lose weight, get toned, get fit. It's simple, it's common, yet it almost never works. Not because we don't want it enough, but because a goal like that gives you a destination without a map.
I learned this the hard way. Before I lost 20kg over the course of a year, I'd written that exact same, vague goal more times than I can count. What actually changed wasn't a bigger goal but a completely different way of setting one.
Why Most Fitness Goals Don't Stick
Most goals for your body - things like 'get toned for summer' - are all outcome and no plan. They tell you where you want to end up, but nothing about what to do on a Tuesday afternoon when you've got no motivation and a packed schedule. That's usually where things fall apart - not from a lack of willpower, but because outcome-only goals aren't built to survive an ordinary, imperfect week. And most weeks are ordinary and imperfect.
This was exactly my problem for years. My health goals always sounded the same, so I went round and round in toxic cycles for years. I'd start strong, fall off within a few weeks, then quietly restart the following Monday - sometimes for months in a row.
The shift that actually worked wasn't a stronger version of the same goal. It was a smaller, more attainable one.
Instead of 'lose 20kg and live as strictly as possible to get there quicker,' my goal became 'aim for 80% success, no matter what.' That was it - no banning chocolate, no avoiding socials, no ridiculous cardio target. Just one simple, repeatable action I could do on a normal week.
And that is exactly why it worked.
"A goal you can't keep on a bad week isn't really a goal - it's a wish."
Why Simpler Goals Actually Work Better
There's a reason small, attainable goals outperform big, ambitious ones - and it's not just that they're easier. Every time you hit one, you get a genuine sense of accomplishment, and that sense of accomplishment is what actually drives motivation. Not the other way around. We tend to assume motivation comes first and action follows. In reality, it's usually the reverse - one small win builds the momentum for the next one.
It's also why action-based goals stick better than outcome-based ones. You can control whether you show up for a session. You can't control what the scale says week to week. Building your goal around something you can control - and achieve - is what makes it sustainable.
How to Set a Fitness Goal You'll Actually Keep
Here's the approach I use now, both for myself and with the women I coach:
- Base it on an action, not an outcome. Easy things like sessions per week or steps per day. Something you either did or didn't do, no guesswork.
- Make the action realistic. There's no point saying 'I'm going to do 5 sessions a week' if you don't even do 1 session a week currently. So start small, think attainable. If right now you haven't been making time to train at all, then an attainable target would be 'I'm going to do 1 run and 1 strength session per week.'
- Size it for your worst week, not your best one. If the targets you set only work when everything else in life is going smoothly, then it isn't realistic.
- Attach a reason that isn't the mirror. Mine was simple. I didn't want to keep starting over - and I didn't care how long it took anymore.
- Check in week to week, either with yourself, a partner or a coach. A real fitness journey ebbs and flows - some weeks feel close to perfect, others throw you a curveball. On the curveball weeks, it's okay to strip things back and just control the controllables. Showing up in smaller ways will still count.
None of this is complicated. The test I use for any target now is this: can I still achieve 80% of this on a bad week? If yes, it's a good goal. If no, it needs to be smaller.
Here are some examples of attainable fitness goals to get you started:
- Completing 1 to 2 workouts per week
- Aiming for 7000 steps per day, rather than 10,000
- Increasing your water intake by 1 glass daily
- Trying to get to bed 15 minutes earlier
- Rather than preparing ALL your meals - just prepare your weekday lunches
- Aim to increase your daily protein intake by 5g
- Achieve 30 minutes of cardio across the week
Start With One Goal You Can Keep
The 20kg I lost was never really the point. What mattered was that I stopped having to start over. Five years on, I've managed to retain the majority of the results I achieved and have successfully broken a decade's worth of toxic cycles - and that's a bigger result than any number on a scale.
If you're considering setting up a fitness space of your own - one that makes it easier to keep a small habit going, explore the Lifespan Fitness home gym range and find equipment that fits your schedule and your goal.
Tags
Fitness goals • Goal setting • Women's fitness • Strength training • Sustainable results • Fitness habits
Zoe Barker - Strength Coach & Founder, Future You Fitness & Coaching. Zoe is an online strength coach specialising in women's health across training, nutrition and holistics. Having lost 20kg herself in a year through strength training and sustainable habits, she now coaches women 1-1 to build the body and confidence they've always wanted - without the quick fixes that don't last.
Follow Zoe: @zobarks | @futureyoutraining
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