Here's the Number One reason you're not losing weight.

I love quotes.  I love reading them in a good book, or on my phone when I’m scrolling mindlessly on Facebook.  I know they’re cliched and overused, but you can’t help what you love right?

There are two quotes I personal love to live by.  And they are: 1)  “Life isn’t what happens to you, it’s how you deal with it” and 2) “You can’t pour from an empty cup”

What’s your favourite quote to live by?

Why the hell are you talking about quotes Jerome???  I clicked this link because I want to know why I’m not losing the weight I want to.

Ok ok, I get it. Just stay with me.

The quote that I want to refer to as to why you’re probably not losing weight was from the great Richard Feynman (a famous physicist).  He said: “You must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool”.

Here’s why.

You know by now (or probably should know) that to lose weight, you need to eat less calories than you burn.  That is, by eating less calories, and being in a calorie deficit, your body cannibalizes your own body’s tissue for fuel because of a fuel shortage.

Simple right? Eat less, train more, and the weight will fall off.

So why isn’t working?

Because you’re fooling yourself, like Richard Feynman says.

If you’re not losing weight, then the most likely reason is that you’re simply not being consistent enough with your calorie deficit.  I mean think about it, and think about it honestly, have you strung together 7 days of consistent daily calorie deficit? 2 weeks?  A full month?

Or, like most people, do you have a good day, then a bad day.  Maybe 2 good days in a row, then a bad day with take away dinner, 2 glasses of wine and a block of chocolate.

You won’t lose the weight if you’re not truly consistent.  Can you honestly say that you have?

Let me show you an example:  say you’re a 70kg female and your target weight is 63 kilos.  And you come to see me to begin training and we calculate your daily calorie target is 1400 calories.  (Please don’t use these numbers for yourself, these are purely hypothetical numbers)

Here’s what your week looks like:

You have an awesome Monday to Thursday.  You’ve food prepped, ate only good foods, refrained from any junk food & booze and by Friday you feel amazing.  So, on Friday night you go to work drinks and have a couple of cocktails and eat dinner out.  Then on Saturday you meet friends for a picnic and consume wine & cheese.  Then on Sunday you meet your best friend for a breakfast catch up. 

Therefore, here’s what your week really looks like:

Monday – 1350 calories

Tuesday – 1350 Calories

Wednesday – 1350 Calories

Thursday – 1350 calories

Friday – 1700 Calories     (work dinner and drinks)

Saturday – 1900 Calories  (Picnic with cheese and wine)

Sunday – 1800 Calories (Eggs benedict breakfast.  Or even worse, and Acai Bowl)

Your average daily calorie intake for the week is – 1543 calories.

You then jump on the scales on Monday morning and the weight has gone up slightly, and you get angry, frustrated and curse, saying aloud “WTF???But I had a good week last week!”

But did you?  Don’t fool yourself.

Obviously, I’m not saying that to lose weight you must stop being social and you can’t see your friends.  Please, who wants to be alone, skinny and miserable.  What I’m saying is that if you want to lose weight, and you are not seeing the results you are after, please ask yourself, am I really in a CONSISTENT calorie deficit. 

There’s so much more I can write on this subject, but I’ll save it for a future post.  So, if you have any specific questions, or if you need me to help you implement a consistent food plan, please email me or text me on my mobile 0413 017 416.

There is one more RIDICULOUSLY important thing I need to say about this.  Because if you do a calorie deficit, and ONLY do a calorie deficit, then you’ll most likely lose muscle as well as fat which won’t do you any good. 

So, calorie deficit is the MINIMUM you should be doing when trying to achieve fat loss.  Because you need to maintain muscle and bone density.  You’ll then also need to lift weights 2 x week, eat adequate protein and fiber, get quality sleep, laugh with friends and spend time in the sun.

But that’s a whole other blog post.

I hope this helps.  Sincerely, Jerome.

As always, if you’ve made it this far, you’ll be rewarded with a very funny Dad joke. Here goes:

Wife: “Quilts are obviously better than Doona’s”

Husband: You should be careful about making blanket statements like that”