You’ve tried absolutely everything and still can’t lose weight.
From juice detoxes to celebrity workouts, herbal teas and now the latest weight loss stack from “Flashy Supplement Company”. You’re running out of ideas. I mean, you even wrapped yourself in banana leaves because you heard it’s supposed to do something…
And here you are, same weight as when you started. Feeling defeated and depressed.
Trust Me, I’ve Been There
I was there, same as you, not too long ago. Stuck in the purgatory called skinny-fat. Working out 4 times a week, eating “clean” and doing everything the fitness magazines told me to do.
I tried all them diets:
- Low fat, high-carb
- High-carb, low-fat
- High protein
- Low protein
- Anabolic diet
- Atkins diet
And on top of that, I worked my butt off in the gym almost every day without seeing ANY progress. WTF?!
I know now that all of these supplement stacks, paired with their “gluten free, beach body” diets are designed to do one thing – show you just enough results to keep you buying more of their stuff.
They don’t want you to reach your goals. Why? Because they might lose you as their customer at that point. Good old dirty, deceptive marketing.
And it’s not just you and me. This is going on everywhere. Why do you think the obesity rate in America continues to climb, even though more and more people are attending gyms?
Why You’re Not Losing Any Weight
I had to figure out fat loss the hard way, and I’ll be damned if anyone else has to. We are supposed to be an industry dedicated to helping people, so it’s time to cut through all the BS.
Here are the real reasons why you’re probably not losing weight:
1. You’re overeating high calorie “healthy foods”.
Let me tell you a little secret. Those “healthy foods” you’re eating are NOT really that healthy. The whole “clean eating” thing is often so misused, it’s just embarrassing!
What do you think has more calories – 1 avocado or 1 Snickers Bar? Nop, it’s NOT the Snickers.
But the avocado is “healthier”, right? Maybe, but when it comes to losing weight, your body doesn’t care where the calories are coming from. It just cares about how many you’re consuming vs how many you’re burning.
So just because avocados have some vitamins and healthy fats, if you’re eating them left and right, thinking they are helping you “eat healthy”, you’re likely overeating to the point where you may start to gain weight.
Here’s another example. I used to think that olive oil was the healthiest dressing for your salads you could get. Good fats, naturally produced, what’s not to like? I’d pour it on my salads with 100% confidence.
Guess what? A tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. How many calories was I dripping over my veggies? 500? 700? 1,000? That could easily have been a quarter or a third of the DAILY calories I needed!
“Clean eating” has NOTHING to do with weight loss.
The only way you’re going to lose fat is if you burn more calories than you eat. That’s it. It’s not about what you eat, it’s how much you eat that matters.
2. You’re eliminating something from your diet completely.
Almost every popular diet out there eliminates something you eat completely. Atkins said to eliminate carbs. The 90’s said to eliminate fat. Paleo says to eliminate processed foods, grains, oils, sugar, unicorns, and pretty much everything else that’s good.
I get where they’re coming from. They are trying to help you eat less by restricting what you CAN eat. The fewer options you have, the less you’re going to eat, right?
Problem is, these extreme diets are time bombs waiting to go off. Denying yourself an entire set of foods is the quickest way to start wanting them like they’re the One Ring.
Just like the One Ring, these diets slowly chip away at your willpower and cause you to inevitably break down and throw any progress you made out the window.
3. You haven’t mentally prepared yourself for dieting.
Losing weight is hard.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an average Joe or a professional bodybuilder. Losing weight is both physically and mentally challenging. If it was easy, everybody would be skinny, but the opposite is closer to being true.
Your mind is engineered to take the easy way out. It’s the best method for your own safety and survival. So it’s normal to feel hungry, it’s normal to have cravings and it’s normal to be in a bad mood when your diet is restricted.
They key to a successful weight loss program is mentally preparing yourself for the battle ahead. The best way to do this is to make small changes to what you eat, learning to deal with them and moving on to something harder.
Maybe you’re a soda fanatic. You gota have that Coke! A good first step would be eliminating all carbonated beverages from your house and playing along for a week or two. Once you’re somewhat used to it, tackle your junk food habits (or whatever) next.
This is much easier than trying to jump into a new diet and make a ton of changes right off the bat. Chances are, it’s going to be next to impossible to stick with them.
Train your willpower by accomplishing small victories and you’ll set yourself up for long-term success. Check out these awesome motivational tips if you need an extra boost.
4. Your workout plan just plain sucks.
Nutrition is the most important factor when losing weight, but you also need to exercise to burn off those calories.
A good workout program will help you speed up your weight loss progress, keep as much muscle as possible, regulate your hormones and relieve stress.
But not all workout programs are created equal. I think everyone should train with weights. Weight training will help fire up your metabolism and cause you to burn fat much quicker than without it.
Endless cardio will only get you so far before your body becomes so efficient at it, that the benefits become less and less. Very few things will suck motivation and willpower out you faster than hours upon hours of cardio.
So get a solid fat loss workout routine (like this one) to start seeing good, consistent progress.
5. You’re not getting enough sleep.
You need to sleep. It’s that simple.
Without adequate sleep, your body’s hormonal balance becomes severely destabilized.
When you didn’t get enough shut-eye, your Cortisol and Ghrelin (the “I’m hungry” hormones) levels increase, while Testosterone and Leptin (the “I’m full” hormones) levels decrease. The result is a hormone cocktail that primes your body for only one thing – weight gain.
On top of that, lack of sleep reduces your ability to recover from your workouts. It’s the most underrated component of recovery that will do you more good than any magical post-workout shake.
This is especially true when you’re trying to lose weight and are not eating as much as you’re used to. Without sleep, your workouts are going to SUCK, your motivation will plummet and you’ll wander through your day in a zombie-like haze.
Your general weight loss progress will slow down, which will just fuel the negative cycle. Dieting already sucks, so why are you making it harder by not sleeping?!
Change Your Methods and See HUGE Results
Anything new we do is all about trial and error. If something doesn’t work – it’s pointless to keep doing it and expect different results.
So if you’ve hit a plateau in your weight loss program, there is a good chance that you’re doing one of the things above. Focus on fixing it in the next few weeks and I promise you’ll start seeing dramatic changes in your progress.
Weight loss is hard for everyone, so make it easier on yourself by avoiding these common pitfalls. The good news is that at the end, it can be an extremely rewarding and triumphant journey that will change you both physically and mentally.
I hope this knowledge will start you down the right path and I can’t wait to see what you’ll accomplish!
