THE REAL REASON YOU AREN’T LOSING FAT

Have you been struggling to lose fat despite being on a low calorie diet and exercising multiple days per week?

There are always exceptions, but if you’ve been trying to lean down and aren’t making any real progress despite feeling like you’ve tried everything, the answer is probably the simplest and most obvious one that is staring you right in the face…

Your overall daily calorie intake just isn’t as low as you think it is.

You might think you’re taking in, say, 1800 calories a day, but I can almost guarantee that if you’ve been consistently failing to lose weight, you’re actually consuming quite a bit more than that without even realizing it.

I’ve been doing fitness coaching in some form or another for over a decade now, and I can honestly say that in almost every case where someone tells me they can’t lose fat despite being on a “low calorie diet”, it turns out they were never even on a low calorie diet to begin with.

When I sit down with that person, break up their entire day step by step, and then add up all the calories they’re actually eating, they’re usually landing pretty close to their calorie maintenance level as opposed to a calorie deficit.

And make no mistake – without a consistent calorie deficit in place, you quite simply are NOT going to lose any noticeable amount of body fat.

It doesn’t matter how “healthy” you eat throughout the day or if your diet is made up of nothing but lean protein, high fiber carbs, fruits, vegetables and healthy fats…

Fat loss is only going to occur at a significant rate if the number of calories you’re burning is greater than the number of calories you’re consuming over a consistent period of time.

calorie deficit

If your calorie intake is right on par with your calorie expenditure, your body has no need or incentive whatsoever to burn its stored body fat in order to obtain a source of energy.

This is the most fundamental baseline factor in your entire fat loss plan, yet most people simply don’t put forth enough effort to properly monitor their eating habits and ensure that they are in fact in a calorie deficit.

There’s actually a fair amount of research available on this topic as well, and the consensus is quite clear…

When people on a weight loss diet are left to their own devices, they’ll very often under-report their calorie intake, and by a pretty significant margin.

These are just a few of the available studies that have examined this topic…

Discrepancy between self-reported and actual caloric intake and exercise in obese subjects.

The validity of self-reported energy intake as determined using the doubly labelled water technique.

Systematic errors in middle-aged women’s estimates of energy intake.

Undereating and underrecording of habitual food intake in obese men.

Validity of self-reported energy intake in lean and obese young women.

Psychosocial predictors of energy underreporting in a large doubly labeled water study.

This issue of caloric under-reporting happens for a few main reasons…

A) The individual just isn’t bothering to track their food intake with very much precision.

can't lose weight

They may simply be eating what they consider to be a “clean diet” throughout the day, without realizing that their individual food choices won’t make any difference at all if their overall calorie intake is too high to begin with.

As a result of not monitoring things closely enough, they still go overboard on total calories despite eating mostly “healthy” foods.

B) They are attempting to track things properly but are making small errors with their food choices and measurements that are adding up throughout the day.

weight loss plateau

When you consider that a typical calorie deficit for fat loss is usually around 500 calories below maintenance, all it really takes is a few mistakes throughout a given day for your calorie deficit to be significantly reduced or erased altogether.

For example, if what you think is 1 tablespoon of peanut is actually 2 tablespoons (this is a very common measuring error), that’s 100 extra calories right there.

Other items that get added into your plan without much of a second thought can also add up big time in the overall picture if you aren’t careful.

An extra glass of fruit juice… a handful of almonds… cream and sugar in your morning coffee… cooking oils… small high-calorie snacks added in here and there…

All of these small choices can amount to a significant number of calories by the time the day is over and can mean the difference between consistent weekly fat loss or complete stagnation.

C) They’re taking the concept of “cheat meals” and “cheat days” a bit too far, and this is impacting their overall net calorie totals.

cheat day

Another very common mistake you’ll see is in those who do stick to their diet very closely during the week, and then reward themselves with an all out “cheat day” on the weekend where they go ahead and eat any foods they want in whatever amounts they want.

There’s nothing wrong with so-called “cheat foods” eaten in moderation, but unmonitored binging on the weekends can easily offset a good portion of the calorie deficit you created during the regular week.

If you ate at a 500 calorie deficit Monday through Friday (a total of 2500 calories under maintenance), but then ate an extra 1000 calories above maintenance on both Saturday and Sunday, most of your overall deficit has gone to waste.

Can’t Lose Fat? Here’s The Dead-Simple Solution

how to lose fat

The bottom line is that if you’re trying to lose body fat but aren’t seeing results, you simply need to be honest with yourself and recognize the simple fact that you’re probably just over-eating.

There are always exceptions where other factors may be coming into play, but in the majority of cases this is really all that it comes down to.

If you have a true calorie deficit in place then you will steadily lose fat, so if the results aren’t showing up then you simply aren’t in a calorie deficit to begin with.

If you’re one of the many people out there asking “why can’t I lose weight?”, the solution is very simple…

Sit down and honestly take a look at what you’re eating throughout a given day and in what amounts, and add things up to find out how many calories you’re truly taking in.

You can check the labels on the foods you have at home, and you can use an online nutrition database like CalorieKing.com for items that you aren’t sure about. Another option is to use a calorie-tracking app such as MyFitnessPal.

If your weight has been generally staying the same, then the amount of calories you’re eating right now roughly represents your current calorie maintenance level.

In order to create a calorie deficit and stimulate fat loss, subtract 500 from that number and make that your new daily calorie target.

Then, moving forward, start tracking your diet with more precision to ensure that you’re landing somewhere around that number each day.

weight loss plateau

Your basic goal should be to aim for an overall weight loss of around 1-2 pounds per week, and you ultimately just need to find whatever daily calorie target lands you in that range.

It is possible to lose fat faster than this, but for the majority of people, 1-2 pounds per week is a safe range that will allow you to drop fat at a reasonable rate while keeping your appetite, energy levels, mood and training performance in check.

You might think that calorie counting is tedious or “too obsessive”, but if you’re serious about losing the fat then it’s just something you have to do, at least in the beginning stage until you get yourself on the right track.

If you simply eat “on the fly” out of instinct, you’ll almost always revert back to eating at your calorie maintenance level (or in a surplus), since that is what your body is naturally programmed to do when food is constantly available.

Besides, tracking this stuff isn’t nearly as hard as most people think, and it will quickly become something you don’t have to think too much about once you get the hang of it. (This is especially true if you’re like most people and tend to eat a relatively similar diet from day to day.)

Also keep in mind that you don’t have to be 100% dead-on with your calorie numbers every single day in order to get great results.

Fat loss is ultimately all about what you do in the big picture, and if you do go a bit over on some days it’s really not a big deal as long as you’re coming reasonably close on average throughout the week.

At the end of the day though, all this really comes down to is an issue of being more disciplined with tracking your food intake.

Fat loss is not nearly as complicated as most people make it out to be, and it’s really just a matter of creating and sustaining a calorie deficit over time.

Combine that with 3-4 weekly weight training sessions and some additional cardio, and you’ll be well on your way to consistently dropping fat every single week.

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motivational messages

We’ve all had those days…

You’ve just come home from a long day of work or school… you’re physically tired and mentally worn down… you’ve got a thousand non-gym related things on your mind… and all you really want to do is flop down on the couch, relax and unwind.

Only problem is, it’s Thursday. And Thursday is leg day. And no matter how much you try to rationalize it in your mind, deep down you know there’s just no good excuse to skip this workout, even though you’d love nothing more than to stay right where you are and not move a muscle.

Sound familiar?

Yes, even the most motivated of trainees still experience “off days” every now and then. Days where laying in bed and watching Seinfeld re-runs seems like a much more appealing course of action than getting into the squat rack.

So, what should you do in those situations when, for whatever reason, you really just don’t feel like training and can’t seem to find the motivation to make it happen? Or what if this lack of inspiration is an ongoing occurence for you and you’re finding it very difficult to stick to your fitness plan each week as a result?

The solution is dead simple…

Stop thinking about it and start taking action anyway

See, most people think of action and motivation as being strictly a one-way street. In other words, you feel a sufficient level of motivation, and that inspires you to carry out a specific action.

In reality though, it works both ways.

Not only does motivation cause you to take action, but taking action also causes you to feel increasingly motivated.

In other words, if you feel completely unmotivated to do a particular task but begin taking action anyway in spite of how you feel, you’ll often find that the simple act of merely doing something in and of itself is the very catalyst that causes you to feel increasingly motivated.

This then feeds back on itself, as more motivation inspires further action, and further action inspires more motivation, and before you know it, you’re fully absorbed in the original task that seemed so daunting and insurmountable to begin with.

So, instead of sitting around in your current “uninspired” state and merely hoping that you’ll magically feel some big surge in motivation to get you into the gym… instead realize that the very act of taking positive actions towards performing your workout is often the very thing that will produce the motivation you’re looking for.

The state of mind that you feel as you sit on the couch ready to fall asleep is NOT the same state of mind that you’ll be in while you’re performing your actual workout.

Rather, all of the small actions that you take leading up to your workout, through your warmup and through the first set or two of your session will gradually “shift” your state of mind in a positive direction, so that when it comes time to perform the bulk of the actual challenging work, you’ll already be in that pumped up and motivated state you were originally searching for.

Again, stop thinking and just start taking action anyway.

Stop creating mental pictures of what lies ahead… stop creating “what if this” and “what if that” scenarios in your mind… stop trying to weigh out the benefits and drawbacks of performing or not performing your workout…

If you’ve already made the commitment to yourself and know that the right thing to do is to get into the gym and train, then shut off your mind and just do it.

Stand up… change into your gym clothes… pack your bag…

Even these tiny little actions will kick-start this “state-shifting” process.

Have your cup of coffee, pre-workout supplements or whatever else you usually consume prior to training… walk out the door and start making your way to the gym…

Again, these additional small actions will cause your state to shift further.

Walk onto the gym floor… put your headphones on… begin warming up and moving your body…

Far more often than not, you’ll find that by simply taking all of these individual actions leading up to your actual workout without over-thinking or over-analyzing it, your mindset will shift all on its own and automatically produce the motivation and inspiration you need to tackle your workout with full intensity.

By the time you get past your first few sets, the rest of the workout will usually not only be smooth-sailing, but will actually be fully enjoyable as well, especially since you’ve now reinforced in your mind the fact that you’re a self-motivated person who takes action regardless of the circumstances.

This concept applies not only on the micro-level of individual workouts, but also on the macro-level of your overall fitness program as a whole.

That’s because once you begin taking action consistently and have built up a solid track record of successful workouts over the course of a few weeks or months, it will quickly turn into an automatic ingrained habit that you simply do without thinking too much about.

In fact, you’ll likely begin looking forward to your workouts and will genuinely enjoy performing them rather than viewing them as some unwanted chore that you need to “get over with”.

So, if you’re still a beginner and have been struggling to really get things off the ground with your muscle building or fat loss program, just know that the early stage is always the most challenging part by far, and that it only gets easier and easier with each passing week.

And here’s the most important take away from this article…

This principle can be applied to every area of your life beyond just your fitness program.

Any time you’re faced with something that you know you need to do or should do but are feeling unmotivated and overwhelmed by, you can apply this “stop thinking and just take action” principle in the exact same way.

Have a work project that needs to get done but that you really don’t feel like doing? Just take some initial small steps and then harness the momentum of those first few actions in order to motivate yourself further.

Need to write an essay for school but are feeling completely uninspired and uninterested? Just get the first few lines down on the page and then see where it takes you.

Got an invite from a friend to go out but aren’t in a “social mood”, even though you know you should get out of the house? Just go anyway and watch as the state-shifting process kicks into gear once you speak to a few people.

The bottom line here is this…

If you believe that every single action you take requires you to feel fully inspired and motivated right from the get go, you’ll never get anything meaningful done, or at the very least, you’ll only be a fraction as productive as you could be.

If you already logically know what the “right” thing to do is, then stop relying on positive emotions (or the absence of negative emotions) to drive you forward, and just do it anyway!

If you found these tips helpful, make sure to get your personalized training, nutrition and supplement plans watch video presentation   

protein and muscle

Whether you’re following a plant-based diet or are just trying to figure out how to properly track your daily macronutrient intake, the question of complete vs. incomplete protein is one that springs up quite often.

Should you count incomplete proteins as part of your daily protein totals, and do they contribute positively to muscle growth?

Let’s go over it…

Do Incomplete Proteins Count?

complete vs incomplete proteins

The simple answer here is that yes, they certainly do.

Whether it’s 30 grams from a chicken breast or 1 gram from a banana, every gram of protein that you eat throughout the day does count toward your protein total and does assist your muscle building and fat burning efforts.

All proteins are made up of individual building blocks called amino acids, 9 of which are considered “essential” since your body cannot produce them on its own.

amino acids

Traditionally speaking, “complete proteins” are those that contain a sufficient proportion of all 9 essential amino acids on their own and are generally derived from animal sources such as chicken, beef, eggs, dairy etc.

On the other hand, “incomplete proteins” are those that are particularly low in at least one essential amino acid, which is typically referred to as the “limiting amino acid” in that food. These are generally derived from plant sources such as fruits, vegetables and grains.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that all protein sources are technically “complete” since they still do contain all 20 of the amino acids in some amount.

It’s just that some foods have lower amounts of certain amino acids in comparison to others.

For example, beans are high in the amino acid lysine but are low in methionine, whereas grains are high in methionine but low in lysine.

                  

If for some reason you were only eating a relatively small amount of protein per day from a limited number of sources, this likely would become a legitimate concern since you wouldn’t be receiving a sufficient amount of certain amino acids needed to optimize muscle protein synthesis and overall health.

However, in the context of an overall diet providing enough total daily protein from a variety of sources, the whole notion of “complete vs. incomplete protein” basically becomes a non-issue.

daily protein intake

This is because your body can only build a limited amount of muscle in any given day to begin with, and it only requires a finite amount of each specific amino acid to maximize your growth potential over that specific period.

More protein and more amino acids does not automatically mean more muscle growth, and there are diminishing returns as your total protein intake gets higher and higher until eventually there’s no added benefit at all.

So, instead of thinking in terms of “complete vs. incomplete protein”, it’s far more useful to simply think in terms of total protein intake and total amino acid intake for the entire day as a whole.

As long as you’re getting in somewhere between 0.8-1g of protein per pound of body weight daily and are following a standard “fitness diet” that includes a variety of different protein sources, you’ll automatically be getting enough of each individual amino acid to optimize your results.

For that reason, worrying about the specific amounts of “complete” vs. “incomplete” protein you’re consuming is really just an unnecessary over-complication.

Remember, your body does not view your diet within the context of individual foods, and amino acids are amino acids regardless of which specific source they’re coming from.

On top of this, your body also has a “free amino acid pool” available that it can draw from if certain aminos are missing at a particular time when they’re needed.

So, if a certain meal you eat is low in a particular amino acid, your body can draw from this pool to balance things out.

This is why, contrary to what was traditionally recommended in the past, there’s actually no need for vegans/vegetarians to specifically combine their incomplete protein sources together at each meal to form a complete protein.

The Bottom Line On Complete Vs. Incomplete Protein

incomplete protein bodybuilding

While it’s true that a typical “complete” protein source such as chicken would be superior to an “incomplete” protein source such as rice on a gram for gram basis, it’s really not a practical concern when looked at in the overall picture.

As long as you’re consuming enough total protein for the day as a whole derived from a variety of different sources, all of your individual amino acid needs will be met one way or another.

The issue of complete vs. incomplete protein is more or less an outdated concept at this point, and it’s not something you need to concern yourself with from a muscle building or overall health perspective.

Just focus on total protein content and variety, and you’ll be good to go

cardio exercise a scientific look

Performing cardio on an empty stomach (usually first thing in the morning after an overnight fast) has been a popular fat burning strategy among bodybuilders for many years. It seems to make sense… Since there is no food in the stomach, and since glycogen levels are low, the body will be forced to utilize more body fat for energy during the session. As a result, you’ll lose fat faster. But just like the “eat protein every 3 hours” rule, the post workout shake obsession and the “eat clean 24/7” approach, fasted cardio appears to be yet another piece of traditional bodybuilding advice that comes up short. Although this ultimately a highly complicated issue, let’s go over the key points… First off, the body is a far more intricate and dynamic system than most of us could ever imagine. Its specific use of fuel during exercise is constantly changing and is affected by a ton of different internal factors, such as different hormones and enzymes. The attempt to burn greater amounts of fat by exercising on an empty stomach is an extremely simplistic approach to a far more complex overall picture. Secondly, worrying about what happens in small spans of 30-60 minutes is an incredibly short-sighted view of fat loss. The process of losing fat is all about the big picture and what you do over the course of several days (not hours) is what’s really important. For example, it appears that if more carbohydrates are burned during exercise, you’ll simply end up burning more fat later on in the day. In the same way, if you burn more fat during exercise, more carbohydrates are burned later on. In other words, looking at overall 24 hour energy expenditure seems to be the most important factor by far. Thirdly, cardio on an empty stomach doesn’t appear to burn more total fat in comparison to having a meal first. Fasted cardio does appear to increase lipolysis (the amount of fat that is broken down), but does not increase fat oxidation (the amount of fat burned). In other words, fasted cardio causes the body to break down more fat than it can actually use for energy. And when it comes to fat loss, the limiting factor is fat oxidation, NOT lipolysis. In the end, those fatty acids that aren’t used for fuel are simply re-stored as body fat. Fourth, a pre-cardio meal increases the thermic effect of exercise. Not only does fasted cardio have minimal to no direct effect on fat loss, but fed cardio may actually be superior. This is because having a meal first appears to increase post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) due to an increase in thermogenesis (calories burned as heat). Fifth, performing cardio in a fasted state reduces exercise intensity. At the end of the day, effective cardio is all about maximizing the total number of calories burned. The more total intensity you generate, the greater the calorie-burning effect will be. In most individuals, performing cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach will have a significant negative impact on overall exercise intensity in comparison to having a meal first. Lastly, fasted cardio causes a greater degree of muscle loss. The research has shown that nitrogen losses are nearly doubled when cardio is performed on an empty stomach. If you’re aiming to burn fat while maintaining as much muscle as possible, fasted cardio is probably not the smartest choice. So, to sum this all up… Not only does fasted cardio appear to NOT increase fat loss during exercise, but it may actually lower the total amount of fat burned due to a decrease in post exercise oxygen consumption and overall training intensity. In addition, fasted cardio causes you to lose more muscle. Bottom line? If you’re looking to maximize fat loss while minimizing muscle loss, it’s probably best to get a meal in at least a few hours prior to your cardio sessions. Fasted cardio does not produce any clear fat burning advantages, and if anything, it may be counterproductive.