5 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight

Hey hey!

You thought you were doing everything right - eating the right foods, meticulously cutting out all of the bad ingredients, working out with intense discipline… and you’re not seeing the weight loss you were hoping for. What gives?!

Friend, this is a problem that SO many face, and there is more than one answer to the problem. Depending on your body and personal weight loss strategy the reason you’re not losing weight could be any one of these things or a combo:

1. Your metabolism has adapted

This one sucks. You’re working your butt off and you thought you’d be seeing results. Maybe you WERE seeing results and all of a sudden they just stopped out of nowhere.

Unfortunately, this is often the case for women who have a more extensive dieting history. You see, your body is super smart. It has a nice comfy level of body fat that it would very much like to hold onto. When you start dipping below this level, your body freaks out. It wants to bring you back to where it was or at least protect the body composition you have at this moment before you start dipping even lower. To do this, it figures out how to do the same amount of work while burning less calories. That way it can hoard your cals and hold onto body fat.

What does this mean for you? It means that if you were losing weight before on 200 calories less than you normally consume, well now you have to reduce by another, say, 100 calories to see the same amount of weight loss. It takes a lot less calories and a lot more exercise to see the same magnitude of results.

Unfortunately in this situation, your best plan of action is to slowly reverse out of your diet. This means gradually adding back calories and giving your metabolism time to regain efficiency in burning them before dieting down again. Otherwise, you will find yourself living off of very little food, which isn’t safe for you and doesn’t allow your body to function optimally.

2. You are retaining water

Don’t freak out just yet! It’s quite possible that your body is just holding onto water. First off, I always have my clients weigh themselves 3-7 days a week. The more you weigh yourself, the more accurate the data. We do this largely because your weight can fluctuate as much as 5 lb from water alone! Crazy, right? So instead of flipping out after you hop on the scale and see your weight went up since last week’s weigh in, start monitoring your weight more diligently and take an average over the week’s weigh in numbers. That average is a much better reflection of the actual changes occuring in your body.

If you notice that you are in fact holding onto a large amount of water/ are feeling really bloated, you need to drink more water! It seems counterintuitive but hydrating more will actually flush you out and calm down the bloat. Bloated or not, I suggest making it a goal to hit 2 L of water a day.

3. You’ve fallen into the clean eating/organic/natural is best myth

I get a bit frustrated with people that preach quality over quantity of food. It’s not that quality isn’t important. It’s just that they BOTH matter. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. You CAN gain weight on “clean” foods. You CAN gain weight on a diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables. You CAN gain weight on organic food.

The quality of the food matters in that you want to ensure you are getting all the nutrients that your body needs to function optimally. However, if you overshoot the calories it takes to maintain your current weight, it doesn’t matter if you’re eating a natural/organic/gluten free/sugar free dinner or McDonalds. You’re still going to gain weight.

First and foremost, if you’re trying to lose weight, you need to be eating less calories than usual. A caloric deficit is the ONLY way to lose the weight. It is fine to do that on a diet rich with clean, whole foods- just make sure that you’re not overeating and counting on the quality of the food to spark the weight loss. It won’t.

4. Your “cheat” meals are throwing you off

You can be diligent all week but if you get to the weekend and binge, it will not matter how great you did Monday through Friday. Consistency is key to getting the results you’re hoping for. The problem with cheat meals is that the restrictive eating all other days heightens your cravings and causes OVEReating when it’s time to cheat.

Not only that, but the concept of a “cheat” itself can create a very negative relationship with food. The word itself can cause overwhelming feelings of guilt surrounding what was supposed to be a rewarding meal. Associating foods you enjoy with guilt and other negative feelings leads to perception that there are good and bad foods. This, unfortunately, is the starting point for disordered eating.

Cheat meals can be beneficial or detrimental. If you feel they've been negatively affecting your diet, I recommend switching to a diet with refeeds, which have truly changed the way that I diet.

 

5. Your diet is too restrictive

This leads right into our next point. If your diet is extremely restrictive you’re heading down a very dangerous path when it comes to your weight loss goals. If your diet is so extreme that you cannot see yourself eating the way you’re eating now 3 years from now or 10 years from now, it is not the right diet for you.

The more restrictions, the more likely you are to binge, cheat your diet, fall off track and view your work up until this point as a failure. It’s very hard to stay consistent and commit to your goals when you’ve set the bar so high that your methods aren’t sustainable. If you've never heard of flexible dieting, this video is a great place to start learning how to diet with less restrictions and see massive results.

Start with small tweaks and changes. Those baby steps, over time, will create a longer lasting impact on you and your ability to reach your goals than a short lived, extreme crash diet. I hope you found this helpful in identifying the problems that might be keeping you from reaching your own weight loss goals!

If you’re struggling to lose the weight and would like some more guidance, let’s take the guesswork out of reaching your fitness goals and get you started on an individualized training and nutrition plan here - because nobody should have to struggle endlessly to get the body they really want.