FAT LOSS IS NOT STRAIGHT FORWARD

If you are someone who is on a fat loss journey, you’ve busted a gut in the gym, eaten in a calorie deficit and the scale doesn’t move.

Not a pound.

How can that be? You may ask. You’ve done exactly what your trainer has told you to do.

What do you do?

Give up? You may ask yourself “What’s the point?”

Definitely not.

Read on. It’s not that simple.

Fat loss doesn’t go down in a straight line. Just because you’ve been in a calorie deficit and worked your butt off in the gym 5 days this week, doesn’t mean that fat will simply drop off you. There’s more to it than that.

Fat loss doesn’t always mean weight loss.

Losing body fat is much more important that losing weight – Because when you lose weight, you could be losing muscle, which isn’t what you want, especially later on in life. We lose muscle as we get older anyway, so we want to keep as much of it as possible.

So do not be afraid of muscle - We all have it and need it.

If you stepped on the scales right now, did absolutely no activity for a whole 24 hours, you can bet that the numbers will not be the same.

Why? You may ask.

Water retention – Excess fluids within your body that build up can contribute to weight gain.

If you are a woman, it will also depend on the time of the month. You are heavier naturally during your menstrual cycle.

Also if you are coming off a heavy meal of mainly carbohydrates, the increased glycogen stores in your liver and muscles will add to your overall weight.

Full Stomach – It’s pretty clear that if you’re stomach is full, you will weigh more. Food takes time to digest through the body, so that can again contribute to your weight.

You may hear people say “I’ve lost 5lbs this week” – This is known as a “Whoosh” basically meaning that when you’ve hit a plateau with no weight loss over a period of time, then suddenly you’ve lost quite a bit. There are lots of different theories why this happens, but the most common is water retention.

When you are in a calorie deficit, the body breaks down fat cells for energy, but they do not shrink straight away. They will fill with water for a while, which means that after you’ve burnt those cells, they are still there for a while.

Eventually the body will flush the excess fluid out of the cells, which can be the cause of the “whoosh”

It’s not advisable to weigh yourself every day, or every other day. It will make you think that you’re not progressing at all, demotivate you and then you will give up.

Instead, weigh once a week at the most, but focus on the body fat %, body shape change and measurements or inches lost around your waist and hips.

If the scale doesn’t change and you are fitting into smaller clothes, you are most likely burning off body fat, gaining lean muscle (which is good, ladies), and losing inches.

MUSCLE GAIN - As previously mentioned, we all have muscle.

We all need muscle. As we get older muscle deteriorates, so it is vital that we keep as much of it as possible.

This is also another reason why the scales may not be going down. Congratulations, you've retained or even built lean muscle.

Muscle is much smaller than fat, so the more muscle you have in your body, the leaner you will look and actually be, meaning you look smaller in clothes.

DON’T GIVE IN TO THE NUMBER ON THE SCALE!

Fat loss doesn’t happen over night. We are all guilty of wanting a quick-fix, but that doesn’t work in the long-term.

Think of it being a lifestyle change rather than being “on a diet”, because you are constantly battling against yourself and going around in circles.

You may not see fat loss on a day-to-day basis, but over a period of time, you will notice the difference and then you will find that it is sustainable, while still enjoying the things you like to eat and drink.

Thanks for reading,

Mike