Why Am I Not Losing Weight
What is weight anyway?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions in the fitness industry, and we want to try and help you work out why you are not losing weight.
We need to focus on that word for a minute, though – Weight. You must understand the weight most of us want to lose is FAT. We can become obsessed with what the scales tell us rather than focusing on the other aspects of healthy eating and living. Weight loss can mean the loss of anything, including water and muscle, so it’s essential never to use the scales as your primary source of measurement.
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How To Track Your Progress
To measure your weight loss progress, we suggest only getting the scales out once a month and getting those tape measures and cameras out every couple of weeks. This is where you will see a reduction in body fat and an increase in muscle gain if eating and training correctly while trying to lose weight.
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The Struggle
Many of us battle with weight loss, which is mainly caused by “diets and the media”. We are drawn into this false world of perfection where even our phones can now give us a flawless appearance, with high cheekbones, white teeth and huge puppy dog eyes. The more we see, the worse we feel about our real selves, feeling dull, lifeless and not good enough.
Comparing ourselves to the deception of outer appearances all around us has a massive impact on our state of mind and can be very harmful, especially to the younger generation. This makes us determined to try and help you believe that when you can be in control of a healthy lifestyle, you can be entirely at peace with who you are and be proud of how you look because true beauty shines when the most important person finally sees it. That person, of course, is you.
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Weight Loss and The Media
Unfortunately, the media is strife with Weight Loss stories, and this then becomes the place where all the fad diets swarm in and take over. With these diets, you will see results in a matter of days and then in a few weeks, you see more “weight” loss. But you are suddenly feeling unhappy, shouty and crave everything in your kitchen cupboards, so much so, most of us at this point fail and scoff as much as we can into our faces. We then go cry in a corner somewhere, disgusted and angry at ourselves and the people around us! Then it starts again. You don’t blame the diet for you failing; you blame you!! This is wrong! You need to blame the diet.
Why Diets Don’t Work
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The reason you binged on the crap in your cupboard was that your poor body was craving nutrients! Fun fact…. your body will crave sugar and complex carbs when it needs fuel fast. It’s the quickest way your body can run again, but it’s not sustainable, so you will crash and then crave it all over again, and then crash and crave, crash…and crave….and you can see what is happening here. So yeah, not good at all. This is also the way you pop all that weight back on PLUS more. Silly, isn’t it. One of the best ways to approach a diet is almost like a lifestyle change, where your goal is to incorporate healthy foods to lose fat while you eat fewer calories.
So, What Do We Need To Do To Successfully Lose Weight?
Your goal should never be to “lose weight”. If you hate what you see in the mirror, you are starting a goal surrounded by self-condemnation, which won’t work. The negativity will continue throughout your journey towards your goal, “I didn’t work out enough, I ate too much, I’m fat, I should have started sooner, I’m not good at this, I can’t do this” This won’t get you anywhere. You will be more successful in getting the results you want if your goal is positive and realistic.
To burn fat and see effective and long lasting results, it’s highly recommended you try a calorie deficit and increase your activity level. By reducing calorie intake while upping your exercise, your chances of losing fat and gaining muscle mass are drastically increased, meaning that while your overall body weight may stay the same, you may begin to notice differences in your appearance and the way your clothing fits.
How To Keep Motivated – Even After Weight Gain
Make your motivation something like, “I want to run a half marathon, or climb a mountain or row 5,000 metres without stopping. I want to be able to run a 5k in 30 mins, or even to walk a long distance over a few days, or to be able to do 10 pull-ups in a row,” whatever it may be, but make sure you set yourself a deadline to reach your goal! You may have some months where you burn fewer calories and notice that the number on the scales has slowly began to creep up. This is why the number on the scales should not be your only goal, there may be weeks where its necessary to consume more calories depending on your workout needs.
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Your Daily Calorie Requirement
You want to make sure that you are sticking to your daily calorie requirement. You can work this out on our simple calorie calculator (there are many free options). It uses factors such as your age, daily activity levels, gender, height and weight to calculate how many calories you burn therefore can intake per day.
There are lots of apps out there to help you manage this; just google the best ones. A good one will also incorporate the calories you have lost in your training session, so you will add that to your total to eat more! See, this sounds so much better than a stupid diet already, right?!?
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Make sure your meals are balanced, and if you are training, up your protein! Protein is a great way to fill you up as well! Fun Fact – Protein isn’t always found in just meat, eggs and dairy products; it is also found in Oats, beans, nuts (especially Almonds), and broccoli!!!!! If you balance your meals well, you are less likely to crave the crap!
Get A Fitness Programme In Place.
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Try and get a mix of things in there, making sure you enjoy most, if not all of it. Do challenge yourself though, it can’t all be fun and easy-going (If it was, we’d all look super fit and amazing, no problem)! But you don’t want to get bored. If you feel disinterested, quickly change it up because boredom can be demotivating, which can ultimately lead to giving up. If you find it challenging to keep motivated on your own, why not join a fitness group. Here comes the plug 😁! But seriously, exercising in a group significantly increases your chances of staying committed and with our outdoor group classes, you can wear whatever you want as long as it’s suitable for the outdoors!
Music
For some, this can be so important! Make sure you have an abundance of fantastic tunes! Again, change it up every month to keep it interesting. Top tip – pop out a Facebook post and ask your friends what their favourite workout tunes are…we assure you that you will get a few recommendations as we all love to share a good song!
Hydrate
Drink lots of water. Not only is it a natural appetite suppressant, but thirst can also be mistaken for hunger a lot of the time. Try drinking a pint of water 30 minutes before each meal, and you will most likely eat less and feel more satisfied after you’ve eaten.
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Don’t Compare Yourself.
Last but not least, never compare yourself to others! As long as you are making progress, you are doing great! Healthy living should be fun, so don’t be hard on yourself. If you give in to that craving for a massive slice of chocolate cake, don’t worry, you are human…we must enjoy life and take it with a pinch of salt sometimes.
Slow down and watch your body change into the body you wanted and enjoy feeling healthy and energised. Use this happiness as your motivation to keep going. Enjoy the fitness training, the healthy eating and most importantly, enjoy being you!
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Let us know how you get on with this; we would love to hear your stories and what you think of our post 😁
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