I hear it all the time: “I’m doing everything I’m supposed to be doing, and I’m not losing weight!” This is a cry fraught with anger, impatience and frustration. It is so frustrating for people because they are working out every day, they are watching their food, but those darn numbers on the scale won’t budge! Here, I have outlined six reasons why you aren’t losing weight:
1. DOMS. DOMS, or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, happens when you begin a new exercise program. When you begin working muscles you aren’t used to working, you create tiny tears in the muscles. This leads to the typical muscle soreness you feel in the first few days of starting anything new. But that same soreness that fades after a few days can actually be the cause of a three to four pound weight GAIN - yes, GAIN. Why? Because your body is doing what it what created to do - protect itself. Those tiny tears? Your body is trying to protect them from further damage by surrounding them with fluid, making them inflamed and swollen. Your body is holding on to that fluid to defend your poor muscles, and it can hold on to that fluid for WEEKS.
The good news is that this is only temporary. You still really are doing what is best for your body, and once you become accustomed to the new routine, that fluid is going to shed, dropping the phantom weight. The bad news is that you have to be patient with this process, which can be tough.
When I first started my journey, I was a victim of the dreaded DOMS. I was carefully counting every calorie I put in my mouth (I don’t do that anymore, but that is another blog post) and doing Turbofire daily. I was so frustrated - I KNEW I was doing everything I should be doing, but the scale wasn’t moving. I literally repeated to myself every Monday morning as I stepped on the scale for my weekly weigh-in: “You’re doing all the right things. Just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re doing all the right things.” Still, nothing. About three weeks in, I was in tears.
Sobbing, I told my husband, “This isn’t WORKING.”
“Oh yes it is,” he told me. “I can tell. You’re body shape is changing. Maybe you can’t see it, but I can.” Then he took some pictures of me, just like the “before” pictures he took of me at the beginning of my program. When I compared the two sets of pictures, just a few weeks later, I COULD see a difference. The scale hadn’t moved, and my clothes weren’t any looser, but I did begin to notice that they fit DIFFERENTLY than they had before. I resolved myself to keep pushing ahead.
I’m so glad I did, because about a week after that incident, the weight started FALLING OFF. Before I knew it, I could pull my pants over my hips without unbuttoning them. Once it started happening, it started happening FAST.
If you are being completely honest with yourself, and you really are doing all the right things, you just have to stick with it - it WILL happen. If it has been six weeks of constant and diligent effort, and you have gained more than five pounds or haven’t lost any weight, you might want to consider that something else is the problem.
2. You are exercising like crazy, but you haven’t changed your eating habits.
Weight loss and maintenance is 80% food, 20% exercise. You cannot out-exercise your diet.
Yeah, yeah. You’ve heard it all before. But are you REALLY listening? It’s true. I had someone tell me yesterday that it shouldn’t matter what he eats because he runs three miles a day. Um, no. Unless you are a teenager, those rules to not apply, and sometimes not even then.
If you consume more calories than your body burns, it doesn’t matter how much you exercise - you won’t lose weight. You really have two choices: make a weekly meal plan and stick to it, or log the calories for every single bite or sip you put in your mouth. There are calorie-logging apps like Myfitnesspal and Fooducate that help you do that; they even have nifty barcode scanners so that you can scan in the prepackaged foods you eat (I don’t recommend many foods with labels, but again, that is a different blog post).
I have done both, and personally, I like meal planning better. Initially, it is more time consuming because you are still figuring out what you are doing, but now, I can make my weekly meal plan and grocery list in about 15 minutes. Add another half hour or so on Sundays to prep my snacks, and I am set for the week; I don’t even have to have the good ol’ “What do you want for dinner?” / “I don’t care, what do you want?” discussion with my husband every night. I just look at the meal plan magneted to the fridge. I do my thinking in advance.
If you don’t want to plan out your week, you can track your calories, but for me, it is more time consuming. First, I have to take a few minutes 5-6 times per day to figure out what I want to eat. I’m like a spinning compass at the grocery store, and I almost always spend too much time there and buy food I don’t really need. Then, every time I eat I spend about 5 minutes logging my food into my app. It would always happen that I would eventually get frustrated with the entire process and give up. For a few days I would try to eat well, but then I would catch myself slipping, or forget about the few bites of cheesecake I had, or the handful of chips, or the Snickers Minis… well, you get the point. I’m just better off making a plan, prepping, and sticking to it, but I know many very fit people who are successful with logging their food.
The truth is, you should be doing one or the other. If you start out making meal plans but find you cannot stick to them, maybe you should consider keeping a food log instead. If keeping a log is too cumbersome, consider switching to meal planning. When you pay attention to what you eat, weight loss cannot be far away.
3. You are drinking your calories. Honesty time: Are you still drinking soda, regular or diet? What about electrolyte replacement drinks? Pretty much any beverage with an ingredient list?
Okay, stop. Just stop. You know how awful soda is for you. Sports drinks? Full of sodium, and unless you are working out for longer than ninety minutes, you don’t need them. Unless it is water, coffee, or tea, you are consuming EMPTY CALORIES that are impeding your progress. That goes double for alcohol; see this post for information about how to drink like a grown up and still lose weight.
4. You are only using the scale to measure your progress. Seriously, I think the scale is the WORST measure of your progress. There are so many factors that can affect that number: how much you’ve had to eat or drink, if you need to use the bathroom, bloat, “that time of the month,” a big meal the day before, an increase in muscle mass. At the most, weigh yourself once a week on the same day, at the same time, wearing the same clothes (or better yet, nothing at all). Do it in the morning, before you’ve had anything to eat or drink, but after you’ve used the restroom. Then put the scale away and DON’T touch it for another week. You’ll only drive yourself crazy with your body’s natural fluctuations.
A better measure of your progress is the way your clothes fit, but if you need cold hard numbers, use a measuring tape. You should be taking your measurements at least once per month, anyway. If you are losing weight and building muscle, your measurements should be getting smaller (unless you are a bodybuilder; that’s a totally different story and I do not have the experience to help you there).
Another good measure of your progress is photos. You should be taking “before” pictures at the beginning of your program, and if you are questioning if your body is changing, take another set of pictures and compare them. I know most people don’t want to take nearly-naked pictures of themselves before they have a perfect body, but trust me,here. It is a great indicator of progress! Besides, almost all of my challengers who DON’T regret it later.
5. You aren’t getting enough sleep. I know that for me, when I am tired, I want to eat EVERYTHING. I think it is my body’s way of trying to snag some energy because I haven’t gotten enough rest. I also know that when I am tired, my will power is the first thing to go out the window, followed closely by discipline. Therefore, a sleepless night = candy, Chinese food, and Doritos, followed by skipping my workout. Multiply that times three or four nights per week, and you have a recipe for NOT losing weight, if not weight gain.
6. You aren’t eating enough. On a weekly basis, I hear people say something like, “I just don’t get it; I barely eat anything. I eat maybe once a day, and I’m not losing weight.” For the record? It just doesn’t work that way. You are STARVING yourself, quite literally. You have driven your body to starvation mode by not consuming enough calories to sustain it. Remember that your body’s main function is SURVIVAL. If you don’t feed it enough, it is going to do everything it can to store the tiny bit of nutrients it DOES get, and you aren’t going to lose weight.
Okay, yes; if you really are starving yourself, eventually, you WILL lose weight, but most people cannot maintain that sort of food restriction and end up bingeing. That’s not HEALTHY, people. Just stop! Trust me, it is so much easier to lose weight while EATING HEALTHY FOOD. More comfortable, too.
The most difficult aspect of losing weight the healthy way is that it takes patience and consistency. You didn’t put the weight on overnight; you won’t take it off overnight, either. I find that many people want a “magic pill” or an easy fix - I get it, I wanted that, too! I’ve done my share of ridiculous cleanses and dangerous supplements, and sometimes they even worked! But the truth is that it doesn’t last. In order to have lasting weight loss, you need to make a lifestyle change. I know that is so scary, but for me, once I committed to it, I discovered that I really loved it! Also, it is so much more manageable than crazy crash diets and self-loathing.
You CAN lose the weight, and you CAN lose it for good, the right way. I can help! Please fill out the challenge group application for consideration for a spot in one of my groups. Serious applicants only.
BE FIERCE!
https://fiercemindbody.wufoo.com/forms/challenge-group-application/
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