Is your weight not moving?
A very common problem that many people have is they start to make changes to their nutrition, adding in more exercise and yet they still don’t see the scale move or certainly move as much as they hoped.
Why is this?
Let’s go back to the number one rule of weight loss and and that is:
“YOU MUST BE IN A CALORIC DEFICIT”
No matter how well you eat, if you eat more than you burn each day, you will not lose weight. Now before I go on, let’s look at this two ways.
Person A: They eat nothing but super healthy proteins, carbs and fats, but they don’t track their calories and eat in a calorie surplus (eating more than they are burning). Their food choices are amazing and on point and they are very healthy, metabolically, but no weight loss.
Person B: They eat nothing but a couple of bagels in the morning, a slice or two of pizza at lunch and have ice cream in the evening. A terrible diet by any stretch of the imagination, but guess what … they lose weight because despite all of that, they are under their calorie needs for the day … HOWEVER, metabolically on the inside it’s trash. They have all kinds of bad biomarkers, high this and high that. It’s not sustainable.
A calorie is a calorie, no matter the source, but how it reacts in our body is completely different from a calorie of broccoli to a calorie of Ben & Jerry’s.
Here is the part that most people don’t like: You really need to weigh your food and track your calories!
No, you don’t need to do this forever, but you need to do it for a few weeks so you can actually see the portion sizes of various foods and the overall number of calories you are eating per day. In addition, I would track your activity. Use an Apple Watch, FitBit, Garmin etc to track calorie burn (keep in mind - these are not 100% accurate, so don’t hold it to be accurate down to the calorie, but it gives you a good indication of whether you moved a little or a lot during the day).
Some of you might be shocked to see that what you thought was a calorie deficit was actually a calorie surplus.
This is giving you data and more knowledge on how to best manage your calorie intake and thus your weight.
HERE ARE SOME TIPS:
You must first know your MAINTENANCE calories (the number that would keep you at your current weight). You can find this by typing in BMR+TDEE calculator in Google and inputing your data. PRO TIP: On the TDEE chart, go one less than what you feel you are at on the chart. Many people overestimate the amount of exercise they tend to get week in and week out.
Once you get your maintenance number, eat that number of calories, per day, seven days per week for two weeks. If your weight doesn’t move up or down then this is your true maintenance calorie number. PRO TIP: Remember you MUST eat this way 7 days per week, not Mon - Thur and then the weekend is a free for all. This is another downfall to a lot of peoples progress.
Now, reduce that number by 15% in week 3. Does your weight go down at all? (not looking for a big loss .. it might be only .5-1lb) If it does, continue at this number. If it does not, go to 20%, but no more. I would rather you up your calorie burn through more movement than continuing to cut your calories.
As before, if you see progress, stick to this number. You should continue to lose. It is important that you keep as close to that number as possible.
A big mistake clients will make is that they see the 15% reduction working and they think if they then changed it to 30% they would lose even more, faster. While that is true, we want this to be SUSTAINABLE. If we start cutting too low, we will lose more weight, but we also lose more muscle, our energy plummets and we start hitting those food cravings again and it’s likely that you will turn back to overeating/indulging more once again. Remember, the goal is that we are wanting to keep building a healthy body, not simply a lighter one.
Two more pieces of advice …
We don’t want to stay in a deficit forever. Let’s say your goal is to drop 15 lbs. Once you are down to or near that, slowly stop the deficit. Begin eating to where you stay at that new weight. We want our bodies to remain metabolically healthy. Trying to stay in that deficit will eventually take it’s toll on other areas (hormones, muscle) that we don’t want it to.
Continue your weight training. The last thing we want to lose in our deficit is muscle. We will lose a little, but we want to preserve or add if we can.
And finally remember this … weight is simply a number on a scale. If I were to say to you, “If you weighed 10lbs more than you do now, but your body looked great, you had tons of energy and focus, you looked great naked and your clothes fit really well, would you care that you were 10lbs heavier?” No, you likely wouldn’t. I have seen people lose 15-20 pounds and honestly look terrible. They retained bodyfat because they lost muscle instead. They look weak and fragile, almost sick and their strength went way down. We do not want this. We want a healthy, strong and energetic body and mind!
FINAL NOTE: I completely understand that many people have food addictions or have anxiety over tracking food, the scale, etc. Please work with a Registered Dietician or Nutritionist if this is an issue. The information above is basic and is not meant to be medical advice.