One of the many problems dieters encounter in their fat loss journey, is they will not pivot and make a change if something is not working. So often a dieter will hold on to whatever worked in the past as the end all, be all to get their results.
And they will keep going back to it. Over and over again.
What got you “Here”, won’t get you “There”
First of all, know that there will always be bumps in your journey. Some of them will not be clear the first time you encounter them, and some of them will require running into multiple times before it will actually apply to you. These are blindspots.
“If I am doing _____ and it is working for me, why would I do ____ instead?”
Let’s back up a moment.
Let’s say you have never done anything physical before. So you get off the couch and start walking. Almost immediately you see results in fat loss, so you walk further. Then you start running. Again, results start to happen for you. So you run further, faster.
For the weeks or months leading up to this, maybe you have come across HIIT workouts, or someone has suggested weight training for fat loss and muscle building. It makes complete sense to you, but you are able to push these items out of your mind because running has been getting you results.
Eventually, it all stops working.
Uncovering blindspots
The problem with human nature is we are all egotistical at heart. No one ever wants to be proven wrong. So in this case, because you’ve told yourself that running was giving you progress, you can’t fathom giving it up for anything else.
Soon the blindspot is uncovered – your body has adapted completely to running, and in order to get results, resistance and weight training need to be added.
A great analogy for this is a potted plant. For a seed to grow, it needs a small pot. But eventually that seed will outgrow the pot and needs something bigger. If you don’t replant the pot into the ground, then the roots get stifled and it will no longer grow.
Blindspots are your seeds trying to grow. Eventually they cannot be ignored any longer and a decision has to be made whether to proceed forward, or continue stifling the plant.
These happen around every corner of your journey. Knowing they will come is a huge part of the mentality shift. By preparing ahead of time that something will need to change, we can immediately make the right decision to propel our progress forward.
Be open to change, and be open to knowing that what worked in your past, may not work for your future.
In our previous blog post, we discussed three main reasons why many women struggle with fat loss:
– Women are more focused on “weight” loss, rather than fat loss. – Hormones can play a big role in how fast and where the fat loss can occur. – Women generally have a lower muscle mass than men do.
While we could have certainly ended the conversation there, (solving any one of those issues could result in a shift in fat loss for most ladies), we feel compelled to bring the topic home by pointing out the elephant in the room: The Diet Mentality. Even if most ladies understand the central theme behind developing a less stressed, “muscle-based” mindset, they still want to go about solving their fat loss issues with extreme diets and unrealistic deadlines.
Diet Preferences
When we choose to diet in a way to lose “weight,” (remember reason #1!) we typically select very extreme methods to do so. (*cough* 1200 calorie diets!)
Whenever you embark on a low calorie diet your body is forced to make less food spread farther, so it often has to make budget cuts to survive (literally). Because muscle requires more calories to maintain, extreme “budget cuts” can put those precious muscles you’re striving so hard to hold on to, in jeopardy. When the body is faced with a low calorie (especially low protein) diet – it has to break down muscles in order to “find” the protein it needs to survive (essentially getting rid of those dang “expensive” muscles, so that the budget can spread further!).
Most women (whether on a diet or not) prefer a high carb, high fat diet with very low protein incorporated. When coupled with little to no resistance training, and repeated bouts of super low calories, many women are living in a perpetual “muscle wasting” lifestyle. Rejecting the 1200 calorie insanity, and increasing the protein is a great starting point for most ladies seeking fat loss. Protein not only keeps you fuller longer, it helps to keep the metabolism from burning up the proteins in our muscles, thus making our workouts more effective, and allows the muscles to build up instead of break down. Once weight lifting is sprinkled in, it’s icing on the cake! (Note: I didn’t say anything about getting rid of cake…)
Because many of the diets that we tried in the past helped us to lose weight “fast,” it’s honestly tough to NOT lack patience. Thanks to our microwave society, we tend to want alllllllll. the. things. RIGHT. NOW. We can’t understand why men can lose weight so quickly, or why younger women are dropping pounds faster than us. The media knows this, and makes sure to taunt/target/tempt us regularly with quick fixes (and we just keep taking the bait- even when we know better). We want things that happen as fast for us as they did in the past – to have the losses we did when we went on our first diet.
We say we’re willing to do “whatever it takes” — but never for “as long as it takes.”
Having patience is about being willing to build/maintain muscle mass and actually stop stressing about it. It means focusing less on weight loss, more on fat loss. It’s about finally settling in and doing things right by your body. It’s about reaching your goals in a no-nonsense way that does not backfire in the long run: eating enough food, eating enough protein, getting enough fiber, lifting and doing workouts in a way that are built to maintain the muscle mass you already have, and maybe even encourage more muscle growth along the way.
So there you have it. The five biggest reasons why women tend to struggle with fat loss. So remember this on your journey to a better and healthier you. Dieting will lead you down a path of never ending gain/lose cycles, constantly frustrated with the lack of progress. The goal of the Diet Mentality is to make you stop enjoying your life to its fullest. A change in your diet focus, throwing the scale away, and taking the time to build your muscle mass back up while living your life now, will all put you down the path to success. The path just winds along the rose gardens, rather than plows right through them.
One of the biggest misconceptions about muscle and fat is that they are interchangeable. It is not uncommon to hear women talking about how they are afraid to lift weights because they fear of their level of fat will just instantly change into solid muscle. In fact, many think they should hold off lifting any weights until they have a lower level of fat on their body for just this reason. On the other side, many older generations will wonder why you bother to lift weights at all because as you get older, your muscle will just turn into fat.
Just No.
Nope.
Cannot physically happen.
You cannot turn fat into muscle or muscle into fat!
No matter what you read, fat and muscle cannot be replaced by each other. However you DO need muscle in order to lose fat. Muscle helps keep your metabolism burning high, so the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism will be. This is important because it means your metabolism burns more energy and thus increases your TDEE (more food!!) On the flip side, the higher your metabolism is, the higher your caloric intake will be in a cut phase which will allow you to lose fat.
If you are coming from a restrictive dieting background, be aware that you need a muscle building phase FIRST before you can tackle a fat loss phase. Most dieters are coming from a muscle deficit, which means there is not enough muscle to accomplish the very goal you’re chasing. Muscle building and fat loss are two very different phases and cannot be done together. The process of doing either goal, are complete opposites of each other. Muscle requires more calories (TDEE or higher) whereas fat loss requires less calories (TDEE – 5-15%).
You cannot turn fat into muscle, but you do need muscle in order to lose fat.
Although more women are paying attention to their macronutrients, fiber is a micronutrient that most people tend to ignore. Fiber is important as it aids in digestion and helps lower glucose and blood cholesterol levels all while keeping you feeling full and satisfied. Power Eating author Susan Kleiner, even goes so far as to say that increasing fiber intake by just 5% would help most people improve fat loss results.
Fiber is not available via fat or protein, which means that eating carbohydrates is key to getting in enough fiber. So if you’re carbophobic, but always coming up short on this micro, it may mean that you have to get off that low carb train in order to do it!
Great Fiber Sources
Fiber is best in its “natural” form. Supplements like Metamucil and the like can certainly come in handy, but it’s best to get your intake in from eating real foods. Some of the best options are:
Fruits
Vegetables
Nuts
Seeds
Beans
Legumes
Grains
Eating carbs may be scary for some, but have no fear. Focusing on higher fiber choices will help guide you in eating the right kind of carbs for your goals, round out your diet, and compliment your other macros.
While the recommended intake is about 25-35 grams, most women are lucky to get in about 15 grams in a day. This is one element of your diet that you want to increase very slowly (and with lots of water!) to allow your body time to adjust.
Water is essential to increasing your fiber! By not drinking enough, your digestive system will essentially create concrete making it very hard to pass through your bowels. Give your stomach a chance to adjust and increase very slowly.
When increasing your fiber, remember that some choices may work better for you than others, or rather that some will give you more bang for your buck. An apple or orange have about 3 grams, but a cup of raspberries has about 9 grams! So look at your fiber options and how you can get the most out of your choices. Celiacs (or anyone for that matter!!) can opt for grain options like millet or brown rice rather that oats and barley, the key is to adopt the habit AND make it work for you.
If you are new to increasing fiber, try to break up your meals and aim for about 5 grams per meal (5g x 5 meals = 25g/day). If you’re eating fewer meals, then you’ll want to work up to more fiber (ex. 7-8g) per meal to help you get it all in. Again, take your intake for these goals up slowly and increase your water accordingly!
When it comes to all of the reasons why your weight rises in any given circumstance, the one reason women overlook the most is Stress. I know we have all muttered it before, “Yeah, I know I’m stressed out, but I’ll just keep doing what I am doing” or “I know I’m stressed, but I’m not that stressed”
If you are under Stress, the scale will not co-operate
We have talked before about how the scale is not a good indicator of success in your journey, but when you add stress in the mix, it can be downright cruel. When the body is under stress a number of things begin to happen. First, cortisol levels shoot up. When this shoots up, water retention levels also shoot up, causing the scale to say things we don’t want to hear. If your cortisol levels stay high for prolonged periods of time, the gain on the scale becomes a permanent one.
Stress weight is the hardest weight to lose. A cycle takes place when we are under stress and most women don’t realize that the very things we are doing to lessen stress, is what is actually causing more stress. We become stressed at home – then we decide to hit the gym and kill it – then we decide to tighten up on our diet, or pick at what needs to change in our diet – then we stop sleeping well – and so on..
Each of these things are a stress to the body. Even though we think of “going to the gym” as a de-stressor, it is still adding stress to your body overall. Stress in women tends to show up in the belly area, thus the “Stress Belly.” So when we see that our belly area is growing, it is a good sign that we need to look at the stressors in our life and find a way to relax and slow down again.
In times where we cannot control personal stresses, like a job, move, or divorce or something, we need to be able to stop other stresses from piling on.
Things to consider to reduce stress
Eat at TDEE and take a maintenance break
Reducing your time on the steady state cardio machines
Staying away from HIIT workouts
Participate in a pilates or yoga class
Leisure walks
Rest week from the weights
Being aware of how stress affects our body and knowing how to deal with it properly will certainly set you up for future success. Sometimes we cannot control stress, but when we can, we need to limit our exposure to it and be prepared to scale back on other things until the stress period has passed.
New to EM2WL?
Grab our FREE quick start guide!
Are you curious about how the process works, or wondering what's in our Starter Kit E-Book? START HERE. We'll send you a free breakdown of the basics, exclusive videos explaining why everything that you've learned about diets have only led you astray, and an action plan to take your life back immediately.
For so many years we have been told that scale weight means “health” and your measure of success should come from the BMI chart. Over the past number of years it has been confirmed that the BMI chart is 100% outdated and should not be used to measure your health. But for millions of women, the draw of the scale is still very much ingrained in our lives and our self worth depends on that piece of machinery. So if you have chosen not to listen and ditch the scale, then here is a list of all the possible reasons why the scale goes up or down so you can understand what the scale is saying.
POSSIBLE CAUSES OF A JUMPY SCALE:
Time of day/week/month – Your weight will be lower in the morning than in the evening, higher during certain times of the month, and can be all over the place depending on your stress levels at any given time.
Type of workout done before weigh-in – Cardio workouts will show a loss because of lost water due to sweating. During a HIIT or weight training workout, the scale may be up because of water retention. Don’t let that fool you though, muscle building is what you want to do, so you need to get over the extra scale weight because of the retention that happens!
Sweating – In general when your body sweats, its losing water which will show a loss on the scale. But it’s water you are losing, not fat! This needs to be replenished otherwise the body then retains water and will cause a scale gain.
Clothes – It’s no secret that millions of women chose to weigh in wearing absolutely nothing! Clothing will add up on the scale. Jeans typically weigh about 3 pounds!
Amount of carbs eaten before – Eating carbs is certainly not a bad thing, but the glycogen retention they cause can show on the scale. If you eat a huge spaghetti dinner the night before, the scale may not show something you like.
Excess sodium – Too many processed, packaged foods can contain an overabundance of sodium. This causes water retention. In order to release the water, you must drink more water!
Foods that take a lot of time to digest – Eating that big Thanksgiving meal and then getting on the scale later? Food in your body counts towards your scale weight! Weight is weight, so eating 5lbs of turkey dinner will certainly show a 5lb gain right after consuming.
Sleeping – The amount of sleep you get will factor into that scale number. When you are asleep, every time you breathe you are losing water. And from the above we know that losing water means losing “weight.” During sleep, you typically lose 1-2% of your body weight just from breathing. Sleeping in? You might see a slightly lower number than usual.
Stress levels – Stress drives up cortisol, which increases your water weight.
Our weight will constantly fluctuate during the day. Knowing the reasons why the scale goes up can show you why it is not a good measure of success. It’s important to understand that unless you ate over SEVEN THOUSAND calories more than your maintenance level, your two pound “gain” is certainly not a real gain :)
New to EM2WL?
Grab our FREE quick start guide!
Are you curious about how the process works, or wondering what's in our Starter Kit E-Book? START HERE. We'll send you a free breakdown of the basics, exclusive videos explaining why everything that you've learned about diets have only led you astray, and an action plan to take your life back immediately.
One of the many problems dieters encounter in their fat loss journey, is they will not pivot and make a change if something is not working. So often a dieter will hold on to whatever worked in the past as the end all, be all to get their results.
Uncovering blindspots
One of the biggest misconceptions about muscle and fat is that they are interchangeable. It is not uncommon to hear women talking about how they are afraid to lift weights because they fear of their level of fat will just instantly change into solid muscle. In fact, many think they should hold off lifting any weights until they have a lower level of fat on their body for just this reason. On the other side, many older generations will wonder why you bother to lift weights at all because as you get older, your muscle will just turn into fat.
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