Why You're Still Not Losing Fat

You’ve been dieting. You’ve been working out. You’re eating clean. You’re doing all the things.

Then you hit a plateau. Or maybe you haven’t made much progress yet at all. So you begin to wonder…

“Maybe it’s genetics.”

“Maybe it’s my thyroid.”

“Am I just supposed to be fluffy all my life?!”

Before you start making appointments for your doctor to see if you’re some illegitimate mutant from space who’s destined to fail at health and fitness, here are some basic things that could be holding you back:

DIET

●       You’re not in a deficit. Eating “clean” is great but it doesn’t always mean you’re in a deficit conducive to fat loss, and what may have been your caloric deficit before may no longer be a deficit, especially if you’ve been dieting for a prolonged period. Dieting lowers our metabolism, no matter if you’re an overweight novice or a seasoned bodybuilder. Dieting will change your caloric deficit. The magic is in the adjustments. Prolonged dieting without appropriate refeeds and maintenance periods can start to wear on your metabolic and hormonal health, which can stunt progress.

●       You have no idea what you’re actually eating. Tracking your food is great. It’s pretty much necessary for specific or more advanced goals and periodization. However, many people underestimate their intake (overall calories) and overestimate their output (calorie burning). They tend to miss things like cooking oils, condiments, licks and tastes, bites here and there, liquid calories from beverages, etc. They all add up! And food manufacturers are allowed a 20% margin of error on nutrition labels!

●       Your weekend habits are botching your progress. Dieting Monday-Thursday to hit the bar and binge eat Friday-Sunday, especially if you’re simultaneously skipping the workout piece of the equation, is not going to make your fat disappear.

 

TRAINING

●       You’re clueless about your own personal fitness needs. Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing. You are not them. Everyone has different needs. You need to dial in on your own fitness needs to reach your own goals.

●       You’re not consistent. Consistency is one of the keys to long-term sustainable success. If you’re always yo-yoing between diets and fads and workouts with no consistency, your progress will be yo-yoing too.

●       You don’t have a plan. You leave a lot to chance when you don’t set realistic short and long term goals with a plan to achieve them. Why are you doing this? Realistically, how long will this take? Where do I plan to be a month from now? A year from now? What is my plan for this week? For this month? Don’t just wing it every day- have a strategy. Hire a trainer or coach to help you map this out.

●       You’re not actually challenging yourself. If you’ve hit a plateau and you haven’t changed your routine in months, here’s your sign- it’s time for some progressive overload. Our bodies adapt to the demands we put on them. If you’ve been using the same weights, same reps, same volume, same machines the same way, and doing the exact same cardio routine for months if not years, because that’s what worked before, it’s no wonder nothing’s happening anymore. Increase your weight or overall volume, train to failure, train with different tempos, add a set, add some reps, change your workout style- progressively overload.

 

RECOVERY

●       You’re not making time to sleep. Notice I said “making” time. No one values your time these days- you have to take control of that and make time. Your body relies on adequate quality sleep for its overall health and function.

●       You’re not taking adequate rest days. It sounds impressive when someone says they go to the gym six days a week, but it’s not if they sleep four hours a night and spend two hours in the gym every day. Muscles don’t grow in the gym, they grow while you rest. You should have ample rest time for each muscle group throughout the week.

●       You’re not working to reduce stress. Stress is another fitness progress killer. Like sleep deficiency, it can and does affect more than your thoughts and feelings. Take time off, get away, do something for yourself.

Foundations first, friends.

Your trainer & coach,

Kandis