I’m someone who has struggled with weight and body image my whole life. I was a collegiate athlete, which is where I learned to strength train, and loved how it both transformed my body and made me feel. It felt good to be trying to get stronger rather than smaller for once. But eventually, the body image issues took over, and I would do extra cardio on top of practices, run miles and miles, and in my off-season, I would often try to cut carbs and eat as little as possible throughout the week. Nothing ever seemed to work, and I just thought I’d be frustrated with my body forever.
After college, I discovered flexible eating and macro tracking. I was able to lose 15lbs AND keep it off, and I finally felt like the way I looked reflected how hard I worked in the gym. Through this method, I was able to continue eating foods I enjoyed and was able to lose weight sustainably without giving up after just a couple of weeks.
I say all of this because I too have fallen victim to the yo-yo diets, the carb cutting, the endless cardio, and the trying to eat as little as possible. And none of it worked. It felt hopeless. So if you feel hopeless right now and like everything you have tried has not worked, I hear you. And you can do it. But let me tell you more about the mistakes that I made so you don’t make the same ones!
Mistake #1: The Yo-Yo Diet
You try to eat as little as possible. Maybe 1200 calories right off the bat. You’re pretty compliant at first. But by the end of the week, you are HUNGRY. You’re tired. You’re stressed. And you’re over it. So you eat every snack in the house, have a couple of glasses of wine, maybe some chocolate, then promise yourself you’ll start over on 1200 calories tomorrow. But then tomorrow comes, and you go out to dinner with your friend, you eat and drink everything, and make the same promise to yourself. You go back to your 1200 calories the next day for the rest of the week, but then come Friday the cycle begins again. And because of these binge-y days, you’re never actually in a deficit from a weekly standpoint. So you never lose weight.
So you’re left with no weight loss, but you feel like you are constantly dieting. You’re exhausted, frustrated, and HUNGRY.
Why It Doesn’t Work: You are trying to go too fast and do too much too soon. When you lose weight, you want to try and do it while eating as much food as possible. Most people will find that every few weeks or so they have to drop their calories a little in order to continue losing weight, but this is much more sustainable than dropping your calories as much as possible right off the bat. This way, you’re maybe eating 1600 calories for a couple of weeks. Or 1400. And MAYBE, you’ll get to that 1200 point, but it’ll be at the very end and only for a couple of weeks, rather than months. This will allow you to not be starving for most of your fat loss phase. It will allow you to fit in foods you enjoy and social things like going out to eat. You won’t be exhausted and depleted. And, it will save you from losing your hard-earned muscle mass as well!
Mistake #2: Cutting Out an Entire Food Group
For me, this was cutting carbs. Now you may have to cut SOME carbs to lose weight because those calories have to come from somewhere, but by eliminating an entire food group you are doing two things: 1. Likely dropping your calories too fast too soon, as we just spoke about. And 2: You are setting a “food rule.” Telling your brain that carbs are off-limits. Which means the second you do this, all you are going to want to do is eat carbs. So again, for most people, this is not a sustainable way of eating.
Why It Doesn’t Work: Dropping calories too fast and creating food rules make diets unsustainable. Instead, reduce carbs moderately while maintaining a balanced diet to avoid feeling deprived.
Mistake #3: Endless Cardio
Back in high school and early college, I thought I had to become a runner in order to lose weight. While exercise and cardio can help in fat loss, it is honestly MORE important of a factor in maintaining your weight. The real way to lose fat is through your nutrition, and cardio can be icing on the cake to help you keep slightly higher calories. But ultimately, we burn a lot less than we think when we exercise. So it is VERY hard to lose weight through exercise alone, without honing in on your diet and nutrition. So if you are spending hours on the stair mill but your diet is not in check, you are likely not going to get very far.
The second piece to this is people see pictures of fit women and think that cardio is going to get them that toned body they are looking for. Again, while cardio is a great tool and important for overall health, it’s not going to get you that “toned” defined look. That’s all muscle. So often, women especially will neglect strength training when trying to lose weight and then are disappointed when they lose weight but still look soft, or “skinny fat.” When in reality, the key to that look is going to be building muscle and losing the fat on top. So the secret sauce for that is progressive overload strength training, building muscle, and a calorie deficit.
Why It Doesn’t Work: Focusing solely on cardio without proper nutrition won’t yield results. Strength training and a calorie deficit are crucial for achieving a toned look and effective fat loss.
Mistake #4: Setting Unrealistic Goals
You need to set goals that are attainable and realistic for your lifestyle so that they can form into habits. For example, if you currently don’t go to the gym at all, don’t set a goal to go 6 times per week. That’s setting yourself up for failure. Make a goal to go twice per week. If you eat takeout 7 days a week, make a goal to cook 1 or 2 times per week at first, and reduce your takeout to 5 days. By setting realistic goals these are going to be changes you can accomplish, so you’ll be more likely to stick to them and make them habits. Then, you can build from there.
Why It Doesn’t Work: Unrealistic goals are hard to maintain. Setting achievable goals helps create habits that you can build on for long-term success.
If you still feel lost with where to start, or feel like you lose motivation easily and need the accountability piece, now is a perfect time to look into 1:1 coaching. I would love to help you break your cycle and build new, sustainable habits.
