What to do if you can’t seem to lose fat.
Have you tried to lose weight but can't seem to succeed no matter how hard you try?
Do you feel like you’ve “tried everything” but you can’t lose weight? Do you wonder if you are cursed? Do you feel like no matter how hard you exercise and eat right you just stay the same- or worse yet, you are GAINING WEIGHT?
You aren’t alone. And I can relate to your feelings more than you know. Read on to learn how to REALLY start making headway on your fitness goals, even if you feel stuck AF.
That’s funny. Stuck AF. It rhymes. 😉
Things to consider when you aren't losing weight.
- Hormones. Once you are past the age of 25, you need to get comprehensive bloodwork done. Period. And you need to get it done regularly. And you must see a qualified doctor who practices integrative medicine ideally– who can translate your results for you. Hormones affect EVERYTHING. Good thing is- hormonal balance is achievable– although it does take time. Trust me on this. I’ll have a LOT of posts coming up on this here in the near future so be sure you are subscribed my friends.
- Stress. This is tied to hormones as well- because stress affects cortisol which affects fat storage– but the more stressed out you are, the harder it will be to lose fat.
- Sleep. If you are not sleeping, your body will revolt against you. You need sleep and good quality sleep.
- Exercise and Diet. DUH!! But- not too much and not too little. Overtraining and Undereating are a recipe for disaster just like overeating and under-exercising. You gotta find that happy place in between. Hard to do in this fad diet focused country we live in….I know!
- All of these topics above I will cover here in more depth — each in its own blog post and I’ll also point you to several podcasts I recorded with experts on these topics. So stay tuned for that.
The Other Biggest Factor In You Not Losing FAT Is- YOU.
Ok so here is the biggest downer part of this post but for so many of you- (and this includes ME too) ladies, this is one of the biggest factors preventing you from losing fat.
It’s you. Yes, it’s YOU. If you are like me, you get to this point where you can see how far you’ve come but you also see what STILL ISN’T CONQUERED. You see that belly fat shaking its fist at you daring you to try to get rid of it. You see that while you feel good in a lot of your clothes, you still have a lot of jeans and dresses and shorts in your closet that are too tight.
Been here? More than once? I hear you. I have been too. I’m so tired of looking back and analyzing the good months of this year or that year and trying to figure out what was I doing then that was working vs. now…..and the thing is….I spend and have spent a lot of time looking back instead of looking HERE. Looking at myself right now. This week, this month. Right now. What am I doing or not doing and how long have I been not doing it?
Ladies, if you can be real with yourself, even though you’ve probably said out loud – to yourself or to others – “I’ve tried EVERYTHING!! NOTHING WORKS!! I MUST JUST BE CURSED TO BE OVERWEIGHT!”– you are wrong. None of us are cursed. All of us have the potential to fix our health issues, including losing fat.
While all of the above topics I shared in the bullet points earlier in this post are a factor in our ability to lose fat and get lean….we are still more often self-sabotaging our efforts more than we realize.
If you are like me, you get to a certain place where you’ve lost fat/weight and you are feeling GOOD– you love that you can wear clothes you couldn’t a while back and it’s like this huge sigh of relief…so…you get comfortable. You get a little too comfortable and a little too cocky– unintentionally, mind you. No one says to themselves “I just made some great progress I’m going to get lazy and sabotage my efforts so I stay stuck in this plateau and frustrated AF all the time”.
NO ONE says that.
But here is the hard truth that I think a LOT of us forget. Because it isn’t talked about a lot. Getting fit and staying in your best shape possible is NOT easy– especially after the age of 25 or so. There are lifestyle and hormonal things working against you. Getting fit and staying fit are WORK. Like- a solid amount of work and effort and focus and staying on point. For a whole lot of us we have to be super diligent. Unless you are a superstar athlete who trains so hard you have to eat like a billion calories just to not lose weight (dreamy right?) — you and I have to WATCH WHAT WE EAT– what we eat and how much we eat. And it’s highly likely if we are tracking our foods, we can easily OVEREAT — and eat too many carbs and not enough protein- or, not eat enough in the midst of a schedule where we are working out regularly– not eating enough is just as bad for fat loss as eating too much crap food. It’s very very true.
The Juice Is Worth The Squeeze.
Ladies, we each have to decide what is most important to us. And if you are like me, and being in your most optimal health is beyond appealing to you, then you have to embrace the notion that it requires WORK and attention to detail – a lot of it. I’m realizing with utter clarity that I have been my biggest obstacle. I get too comfortable too soon and then I think I’m eating on point but I’m really not- I’m eating 90% what most would say are healthy foods: salads, organic/grass fed meats, healthy fats, fruits and vegetables, protein shakes etc. – are you reading this and thinking I’m crazy– how could I not be at 20% body fat or 15% body fat eating that kind of food every day?
People- you can gain weight or prevent weight/fat loss by eating all healthy foods. Too many calories are too many calories. When your intake is too many carbs and not enough proteins/fats, you are spiking insulin and encouraging fat storage.
I have been far too laxe in my efforts. I don’t have a body that allows me to just wing it. I’ve gotten in great shape- after GAINING weight last year following some poor nutrition advice and not trusting my gut (that’s another blog post coming up too y’all…..big lesson there)- but to be real, I am easily still 10-15lbs over my ideal weight. Easily. And I am just kind of STAYING HERE.
And I realized this past week how laxe I had been about tracking food– and how I have not been good about protein and then I’ve been allowing myself alcohol on the weekends with my man. THIS all adds up to my body staying put.
I’m SO DAMN TIRED of not being to react to a “Hey honey let’s go to Miami next month” suggestion with a “hell yea let me go buy a new hot bikini” (and instead immediately panic and think about what fad diet I can hop on to lose 10lbs because I feel mushy). I’m tired of always being CLOSE to fit. I’m tired of always striving and wanting to be my best self, physically- and yet I have never really gotten there where I am comfortable and confident in my own skin.
All of this– the fact that I’ve not been nearly focused and diligent enough on my health goals and that I’ve done this for YEARS– putting myself last, self-sabotaging for whatever reason and then feeling hideous about how I look inside…..all of this hit me like a ton of bricks recently. I realized life is too short, here I am in love with the absolute love of my life and looking forward to traveling the world together– and yet, I’ve held myself back from running the last 5 miles of the marathon, figuratively speaking.
That’s how my fitness journey feels- as if I have signed up for many marathons but in all of them I stopped at mile 20 then trained for another one then stopped at mile 21 then started all over….
I’m ready to get to mile 26.2. I’m ready to HIT THE TARGET instead of always talking about it as if it’s not achievable. It IS. I am capable, I have to just get out of my own way.
Ladies, the devil is in the details. If you really want to get in the best shape ever you have to give it your ALL. You gotta track your meals and your macros and honor your committments to yourself EVERY DAY. You have to figure out what YOU need to do –whether it’s limiting alcohol to the weekends or one night or adding in more workouts or some HIIT cardio or tracking your food in a notebook or MyFitnessPal. Do the extra work, the extra steps.
What is the better feeling: going in to your closet and being able to pick out anything? Or feeling like you want to crumble and cry because you still can’t fit in your jeans? It sucks to feel shitty about your body. It SUCKS. It feels sooooo awesome to feel great about how you look- why do we allow ourselves to focus on the wrong things?
Sure, cake is yummy and donuts are divine but I’m willing to forgo many MOMENTS of taste pleasure for a lifetime of feeling free and confident and awesome about myself.
I hope this wake up call helped you as it’s helped me. I’m in this to win it now. No more months of almost there. No more years of “well crap I’m still not at my goals”. I’m moving on UP!.
