Why aren't you losing weight? Part 2

I previously wrote in Part 1, there are some questions which you may want to ask yourself if you are not happy with where the scale is going. It was an attempt to help people see that even when you are doing well with your nutrition and diet, the scale may not reflect your effort.

One of the questions I asked was; “Are you eating more carbohydrates?” Often, clients come to me eating very little. Too little in fact. Now, metabolism is far too complex a topic to get into with one blog post, however, eating more will often help increase the speed of your metabolism over time.

Warning: this does not mean you can suddenly eat as much as you want and have your metabolism magically burn it all off. You still must be sensible.

Another question I asked was; “Are you eating more protein?” In addition to eating too little in general, I often find many client’s protein intake is fairly inadequate. Like carbohydrates, eating more protein can improve the speed of your metabolism over time.

I cannot stress enough two points that I already mentioned.

1. The metabolism is very complex. How complex? See the picture below and realize that it does not even begin to cover the various feedback mechanisms.

2. Increased caloric intake can improve the speed of your metabolism...over time.

So, let’s imagine you embark on the fitness journey. You train with weights and you increased your carb and protein intake slightly. You love the weight training. You notice it is improving your mood and energy levels. You are sleeping better at night. You are eating a bit more and enjoying that you do not feel deprived at meal times. Then you weigh yourself after a few weeks. Ugh! Up a pound. Do you give up? Weight training is clearly not for you, right? Back to endless cardio and starvation diets. WRONG!

Do not discount all of the other positives you feel. They matter. They are a sign that positive changes are happening in your body. But wait a minute, didn’t I say that increased protein and carbohydrate intake may speed up your metabolism? Yes, I did, but it takes time.

Unfortunately for you, the person just starting their fat loss journey, you’ve likely begun to build some muscle tissue and your muscles have begun to be more full of glycogen and water. This will register an increase in your scale weight. However, it is certainly possible (and likely) that you have shrunk some of your fat stores while you've been filling out your muscles.

Let’s keep moving a few weeks into the future. Now the scale reads the same or maybe down one pound from when you started, hypothetically. Do you give up now? Absolutely not, why would you?

Please think about this critically:

You’ve likely built muscle, increased your food intake, and still managed to either maintain or maybe even lose some weight.

What does that tell you about your fat stores and your metabolism?

Well, if the scale stayed the same or went down while you built muscle, that means that you definitely burnt fat. And if you are eating more food but maintaining or losing weight, that means your metabolism is faster than before (remember, it takes time). These are victories!

And may I remind you that muscle weighs more than fat (per unit of space). Yes, I know you’ve heard that before, but do not gloss over that fact. Let me repost the image from part 1. Those are both 5 pounds.

Now, imagine you are 8 weeks into a program and you are down 6 pounds. It wasn’t as fast as you’d like, but you feel stronger and more confident in the gym. You’ve definitely noticed some extra muscle. You’ve certainly lost more than 6 pounds of fat. For the sake of easy visualization, let’s say you’ve gained 4 pounds of muscle/water which means you’ve actually lost 10 pounds of fat (for the 6 pound net loss). Look at that picture above. Imagine losing two of those blobs off your body. How good that must feel!

Why do I tell you this? A few reasons.

Because knowledge is power. The person without the knowledge discussed above would step off the scale discouraged and defeated. They will likely make choices in response to those feelings, that actually put them on the wrong track. While the person with knowledge, handles the weight on the scale in stride. They understand the changes that are happening in their body and know that they are heading in the right direction. They will stay the course and most likely achieve great long term success.

And I tell you because there are many, not all, but many coaches who will be scared to tell their clients to eat more.

Why? Because they want repeat business. They know in the short term they can create weight loss with excessive cardio and extremely restrictive diets. The client is happy with the weight loss and tells their friends and the coach grows his or her business. But extreme cardio and diets that make you feel lousy are not sustainable long term. And when the client regains the weight after they are finished working with the coach, what then? They do not have the tools to keep it off. They go back to the extreme cardio and starvation diet because it’s all they know. And thus begins a vicious cycle of messing with their hormones and slowing down their metabolism; making it harder and harder to lose weight or keep it off.

It’s scary, I won’t lie. When a client is several weeks into a program and has not lost a pound, it can be nerve racking for the client and for me. But I will not resort to tactics that I do not believe in.

I cannot in good conscious do that. I view your health and fitness in the long term. I want to set you up for a lifetime of success. I want to give you a plan that is sustainable and that works with your lifestyle. But it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen one step at a time. If this article hit home for you, contact me.