“Why am I not losing weight?”
I know the feeling. 4 workouts in, calories tracked and steps managed to a tee. Still no weight loss. But why is this? Well let me hopefully rest your mind. There is more to this than meets the eye. Far more…
First off congratulations. You, unlike so many of us, have decided to make a conscious decision to do something about our weight. And that can only be commended. Obesity is on an upward trajectory. One that will see us hit 89% by 2030. This has to be stopped and the buck stops with you.
Time is on your side. A 15% reduction in body weight has witnessed reversal of type 2 diabetes. In our experience as little as 5% sees a significant improvement in energy and well-being. Even after 1 exercise bout you feel better!
So stick this out.
And park part of it too. Hopefully your expectations have been managed. So many of us cling on to having to ‘lose a stone’ like this is a happy number. In most instances this is a gross exaggeration of where you are starting out and even a small amount of weight loss, in some cases, is enough to tip you right into a healthy range.
So before we begin – well done. Pat on the back, but manage your expectations. For most 1-2 lbs per week, 3 on average if you have more to lose, will be a good goal and you can work a time frame back from that.
Average weight loss is the golden rule
When we ask our clients to track their own weight we ask them to focus on their average weight over a 7 day period. Not what it was Monday at 6.30am and leave it at that.
Averages take onboard fluctuations. And boy does your weight fluctuate. Hour by hour, day by day and week by week. It will move all over the place. This is a complex piece of kit! Over a 12 week period we would look for an average of 1-2 lbs per week.
How many of us last that long? Not many right? That is why diets fail in studies. Subjects can’t keep up. They lose adherence fast. The folks who stick it out win.
Like any science experiment though error is reduced with more data points. A general trend emerges.
You see your weight will be like a stock market…on a really bad day. Tumbling with teasing peaks and troughs, steady as she goes moments before launching again.
So take your weight, write it down and then forget. At the end of the week take your average, set, forget and carry on with the process.
Do you need to lose it?
There is a HUGE component to weight loss that can’t be overlooked. And one that could be eating into your ’emotional bandwidth’.
What IF you are already at a healthy weight and the weight that you have grown accustomed to over the years has been underweight for your height and body shape?
Remember our body loves balance. It doesn’t want to be underweight as much as it does overweight.
Right in the middle please!
Take a case in point. Bob has been 10 stone for much of his adult life. He smokes and eats a pretty standard diet but only a couple of meals per day. For Bob he is actually underweight at this point. In the last year he has got a new job and Bob is now out drinking a couple of nights a week, living on more processed food choices and seen his weight creep up to 12 stone.
But Bob is not comfortable. He liked being 10 stone. His clothes don’t fit and he is suddenly looking at someone completely different. Bob overtime has to grow accustomed to this weight. It isn’t too much for Bob and no different for someone trying to lose weight.
12 stone is actually the right weight for Bob.
What about Gill? She was 8 stone up to the point of university and now finds herself at 25 1.5 stone heavier. She would prefer it if she got back to 8. The thing is, 8 stone is too low now and runs the risk of disrupting her menstrual cycle and being underweight and in this instance you also run the risk of robbing Peter to pay Paul to keep underweight.
Not what we want.
What has brought this weight gain on? Growing up for 1! More activity and a change in eating habits for 2 and also maybe some hormonal challenges via the pill she has been taking for the last 2 years.
Do you need to lose weight? It depends but you have to remove all emotion aside and ask yourself:-
- Am I functioning better?
- Is keeping at this weight meaning less restriction in eating and activity levels?
- Is keeping at this weight meaning that I am healthier in terms or my mental and physical health for the long run?
- Is weight loss going to get me performing better or is just taking some exercise and making better choices?
Taking all this into account if this isn’t the case…
Fluid fluctuations
Your weight will fluctuate throughout the day. Ever wake up feeling puffy after a night out or a cheeky take-away meal? Sodium levels have been disrupted and cue the weight gain.
Or what about your inability to poop. Every thought what goes in must come out? There could be pounds of matter in your gut.
A high carbohydrate meal for example will naturally pull and retain fluid.
This is why we keep tabs on this via our Bodyscan. You can get a really good understanding of where and when you hold onto more fluid.
Weight – what is being lost?
When you look at weight loss, what are you actually looking to lose? There are many tissues in the body and our Bodyscan effectively distinguishes and measures between them all. Bone mass won’t really change, muscle mass may go up, fat mass may go up, fat free mass may go down. So what are you actually looking to reduce?
What part of your weight are you looking to reduce?
Weight – what is being gained?
Likewise what is going up? It is very possible that after a phase of resistance training you could gain 0.25-0.5kg per month is muscle mass cancelling out the same amount of fat mass you lost. The scales therefore don’t budge.
Your clothes on the other hand are feeling looser. Your energy is through the roof and you notice that you are getting that little bit stronger. Cool! We are on track. This could be a pattern after 2-3 months though rather than an initial 2-3 weeks of a training plan.
Homornal fluctuations particularly in ladies
We know that hormonal cycles will heavily influence weight in ladies. We have found and this can be backed up by Lyle McDonald’s observations that weight tends to be lowest between weeks 2 and weeks 3 of a 28 day cycle whilst begins to creep up either side of the period.
If you are hopping on and off the scales in this time then you are destined for a brain fry.
This is why it is important to take an average and give yourself 2-3 months at least so that you can see patterns emerge.
Try and Be objective
This is not the time to be emotional. Realise that this is your fault no one else is the 1st step. You have time though. You may have spent the past 10-15 years blissfully ignoring your weight or battling it.
Now the ‘battling’ stops. This is now a process in getting you to a desired outcome. Focusing on the process and removing all diction such as ‘battling’, ‘fighting’, ‘yo-yo’, ‘bingo wings’, ‘muffin top’ and ‘belly’ has to stop for you to become successful and realise that if you have spent 10-15 years of neglect in this area, 30 days isn’t going to undo it.
Are their better markers to track?
Whilst weight is what society has led you to believe is a good marker, and even the medical profession are their better markers?
In short – yes.
Alot of studies were initially designed by using scales because this was convenient and a quick way of keeping track on a large number of subjects. But at what cost? We are now obsessed with just scale weight when in reality there is so much more to this ‘number’.
Give me a reduced blood pressure or resting heart rate over a reduction in scale weight ANY DAY.
Or what about a reduction in body fat, marked by a set of skinny jeans fitting better?
Your sleep improving? Energy?
Or what about being able to do my first press up or chin up? PLaying sport with my kids?
Yes reducing the weight will help all the above but it has to be taken in context. Let’s look at what the weight is made up of e.g. body fat, fluid, skeletal muscle mass and go from there.
Are you focusing on the outcome or the process?
Are you focusing therefore on the outcome (losing weight) or on what needs to be done to achieve this (process). If your mind is permanently on the outcome what happens when you hit a roadblock? The process goes out the window. This is the focus on doing things day in day out that make the outcome achievable.
Hopping on the scales, it can be argued, is nothing more than a short term focus on the outcome. It doesn’t take you further to your goal**.
Process * actions = outcome
(**as a side note, daily weigh ins have been shown to improve dietary adherence by reminding the subjects to stay on track)
So for you to achieve the outcome you need to list of the actions that make it achievable.
Weight loss for example can be: –
- 8K steps per day
- Recording and submitting a weekly food record
- Training 3 times per week
Did you do them? Yes or no.
Plateaus
We have observed that there may be a period of time whereby weight is maintained and the scales just don’t move.
Alot could be going on here typically after a few months of dieting. Weight loss may have occurred initially and provided that you are still in a caloric deficit (eating less…) then you should still be losing weight.
Individual rates will vary. Dieting reduces how many calories you need. In one study there was a variance of 50 kcal vs. 300 kcal. So imagine there these 2 people followed the same diet starting with a 600 kcal deficit. 1 will continue to lose rate alot faster than the other.
A plateau could occur through changes in habits too. Put simply, the changes in habits that have occurred in a diet may not stick and back we go to sabotaging habits. After all adherence is the key to dieting. Suddenly extra calories begin to seep in and back up we go.
That is why it is sooo hard to maintain your weight for any period of time unless you have really worked hard on building and nurturing good habits.
Time and time again adherence has been the deal breaker in most dieting studies.
One way to combat this is to increase your physical activity levels. I have written about this here.
And as James Krieger writes:
In one study, subjects who exercised enough to expend 1000 calories per week regained most of their weight, but subjects who expended 2500 calories per week maintained most of their weight loss.
Your steps and activity levels are key to progress and making a conscious effort to up your game is necessary should you wish to keep making progress.
In conclusion
The scales may not be moving for many reasons but ultimately change is happening and it requires an objective look at what may or may not be happening and addressing it accordingly with a coach.
The ‘eat less, do more’ certainly weighs in favor of the ‘do more’ side when it comes to carrying on the momentum but overall adherence and sticking to something long enough to make sure you see results is the clincher.
And if this is how you feel after week 1, it is ok. Buckle up. You have a road ahead.
References
https://weightology.net/why-is-it-so-easy-to-regain-weight/ Date visited 9th August 2018
Heymsfield SB et. al. Why do obese patients not lose more weight when treated with low-calorie diets? A mechanistic perspective. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Feb;85(2):346-54.
