Tsensational Fitness

You’ve followed your diet protocol’s suggestions, quit the sugar and junk, and you’re slaying it in the gym. But, why aren’t you losing any weight? Well, you’re not alone with this commonly experienced frustration. We have your back! In this article, I’ll go over the biggest reasons why despite their best efforts, dieters aren’t dropping the pounds (or kilos, for the rest of the world).

First, it’s important to understand conceptually how and why fat loss occurs. It all boils down to a very simple principle called Energy Balance. Energy Balance is a basic representation of physics and the law of conservation of energy. Energy (the calories you eat in food), cannot be created or destroyed; rather it can only be transformed from one form to another. In plain English, it means:

• When you eat too much food (calories, energy) it has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is stored fat in your butt, waistline, etc. This is called a Caloric Surplus.
• If you eat exactly what your body needs, and your weight stays the same–Maintenance, in other words.
• When you eat less than what your body needs, the body eats its own energy stores (fat, glycogen, muscle) to make up the difference. This is called being in a Caloric Deficit.

(Insert infogfx to illustrate these points.)

Now, let’s get started.

Reason #1: Eating too many calories

While a person has the intention of losing weight and going on a diet by eating healthier and being more aware of his or her food choices, it is still entirely possible to eat too many calories for weight loss to occur. From a weight loss perspective, your body doesn’t care how clean your diet is; if you’re not in a Caloric Deficit, the body has no reason to dip into its fat stores to burn the fat. To illustrate this point, in 2010 Professor Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition from Kansas State University, lost 27 pounds in two months on a “Twinkie diet” consisting of Hostess treats and convenience store yummies–all while in a caloric deficit. (1800 calories instead of his Maintenance of 2600 calories needed to sustain his bodyweight.) Of course, we all agree it’s not the healthiest way to go about losing weight. But, it certainly proves that weight loss is triggered by being in a caloric deficit and not by food choices.

Please don’t try the Twinkie Diet.

Reason #2: Not knowing your daily calorie target for fat loss

Because fat loss only happens when you’re in a caloric deficit, it’s pretty dang important to know your daily calorie target. Otherwise, you’re essentially winging it and shooting in the dark. I’ve found that a Caloric Deficit of 20-25% from your Maintenance calories produces the perfect balance of notable fat loss every week with long-term sustainability (as opposed to burning out on a short term crash-diet).

You can calculate your targets here.

While it’s certainly possible to get lucky and hit around that -20-25% deficit ballpark through conscious food restriction or implementing feeding windows (ie. Intermittent Fasting), most people still aren’t able to achieve consistent and notable fat loss results. Or, they hit a fat loss plateau and wonder why they aren’t losing any more weight. However, with calorie counting based on your own deficit target, you are able to achieve tremendous precision and consistency with daily calorie intake plus the ability to trouble-shoot because you know exactly what your food intake is and can adjust accordingly if weight loss slows down. There is no more guess-work, only simple math.

Reason #3: Inaccurate tracking of calories

Knowing your calorie target for losing weight is super awesome, but if your daily calorie tracking is inaccurate, you can easily overeat and thus not lose weight. Coaches and researchers all agree that most people aren’t so good at estimating or reporting their calorie consumption, as the number is typically under-reported because let’s face it…not a lot of people count their calories well throughout the day (if at all), much less being able to eyeball food items and tell you accurately how many calories they contain.

To fix this, I strongly recommend meal-prepping and portioning your food using measuring tools like a kitchen food scale and measuring cups and spoons. This gives you tremendous accuracy and precision when it comes to calorie control because you’ll know exactly how many calories you’re eating per measured portion size of a food item by referencing websites such as CalorieKing, MyFitnessPal, or other food databases.

(Screenshot of CalorieKing.com or CalorieKing app, Beef Sirloin page, 4.5oz)

https://www.calorieking.com/us/en/foods/f/calories-in-beef-beef-sirloin-steak-lean-only-broiled/FaZ39k2JSAKRKL_p79iCtw

Reason #4: Overdoing it on Cheat-Meals

I get it. After all the hard work and sacrifice during the weekdays, it’s nice to unwind for the weekend, let loose, and relax on your diet. That’s totally fine, but you can totally destroy all that hard work with a careless weekend. A lot of people turn a cheat meal into a cheat day and blow way past their daily calorie allowance, effectively cancelling any progress made.

Let’s run the numbers:

For an average-sized woman, let’s say her dieting calories are 1450/day, a 22% deficit from a maintenance of 1650 calories. She’s on top of it Monday through Friday with 1450/day, creating a deficit of 1000 calories (-200/day, Monday through Friday). 

Saturday kicks off with brunch with the girls, some bites and snacks here and there in the afternoon, then a simple Spaghetti and Meatballs at the Cheesecake Factory (1900 calories).   We’ll be super super generous and say she only had 800 calories leading up to dinner. That’s 2700 calories consumed on Saturday, or a +1250 calorie surplus from the daily target of 1450.

Whelp…She just wiped out her 1000 calorie deficit built up Monday through Friday in a single day. We haven’t even talked about Sunday yet! I’m not saying don’t have a good time. Cheat meals are fine, but you have to be strategic about your calorie budgeting for that day.

Reason #5: Not burning enough calories

To create a calorie deficit is really quite simple: eat less, move more. 

Reason #6: Water weight

I’m sure we’ve all heard or used the classic “It’s just water weight!” to justify weight gain. Except, sometimes it really is! Water retention can be easily affected by your diet or hormones. When you have more salt in your diet, the body tends to hold on to more water. You can see this effect overnight when your scale reports that you’ve gained 1-3 pounds after eating out at a restaurant the night before. To minimize how much your scale plays mind-games with you, keep to a low sodium diet, stay hydrated, and eat foods that are high in potassium (or supplement with potassium) to help flush out excess water.

Another way diet can cause water retention is when you increase your carb intake and your body then stores some of those carbs as glycogen. There’s nothing wrong with this, and it’s honestly a good thing, since glycogen stored in the body can serve as workout fuel for very productive and intense workouts. However, each gram of glycogen draws in 3-4 grams of water. If you’re putting a strong emphasis on driving down your weight on the scale, minimizing carb consumption can help reduce water retention caused by glycogen.

Lastly, hormones can cause pretty wild swings in water weight. Women are all too familiar with the monthly bloating that goes along with a period, and a fluctuation of 1-3 pounds is totally normal. If your weight doesn’t come down at the start of a new cycle, then I’d start troubleshooting. Also, the stress hormone cortisol can contribute to a temporary weight spike as well. Poor sleep, work, relationship, or family stress are the usual culprits. Address those issues yes, but also do your best to have some “me time” to unwind, relax, and do the things you love. It goes a long way!

There you have it, folks. Six big reasons why you’re not losing weight. Use these as a troubleshooting guide, starting with #1, whenever the pounds aren’t coming off. There’s still a lot of fine print and additional information on these six, and each reason could be an article in itself. We’ll do a deep dive into each of them, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I hope these help you on your fitness journey. If you find articles like this helpful, feel free to share with a friend!

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