Have you ever said this one?
“I can’t seem to lose weight, no matter what I try”
Again, from my experience, pretty common.
And I get it.
Weight loss can be a frustrating experience.
Sometimes we can feel that we’re putting all this effort in and nothing is happening.
We end up trying method after method.
Diet after diet.
Join gym after gym.
It’s not uncommon when I speak to potential members on the phone that they tell me “I’ve tried everything”.
And they’re exasperated.
However…………
If we accept that all the large, published, peer reviewed, repeatable experiments ever conducted………….
Where participants are placed in confirmed (breathing constantly measured, every molecule of food accurately tracked and every bit of movement precisely factored in) and sustained calorie deficits………….
Then every one ever tested has lost weight………..
Then, maybe, what we also have to accept is that we weren’t in a confirmed, sustained calorie deficit when we weren’t losing weight.
Which is not annoying.
It’s empowering.
It shifts us from being a victim of our metabolism to knowing what needs to be done.
And the following few points might be a good starting point to look;
– We’re not tracking our food so are, essentially, guessing. Fine if getting the results we want. Tracking is our biggest win if we’re not.
– We’re double counting exercise and activity levels by already taking it into account with our choice of ‘activity levels’ when we calculated our calorie needs AND adding it back on with a FitBit (or similar).
– We’re overly optimistic in our estimation of activity levels. Below are the multiplications of BMR (resting energy needs) for each level of activity. If we go one more than is accurate, then we’re putting our daily calories another 17.5% higher than is actually needed.
Sedentary = BMR x 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR x 1.375 (light exercise/ sports 1-3 days/week)
Moderately active = BMR x 1.55 (moderate exercise/ sports 6-7 days/week)
Very active = BMR x 1.725 (hard exercise every day, or exercising 2 xs/day)
Extra active = BMR x 1.9 (hard exercise 2 or more times per day, or training for marathon, or triathlon, etc.
– There’s only so much accuracy in all the calculations of food in – even if we’re as precise as humanly possible the reality could easily be a few hundred calories different to what we think it is
– We might not be as accurate as we think in our tracking. In tests, even qualified and experienced nutritionists ‘under report’ on average. Not by as much as most, but still by an amount that’ll make a difference. If they do it, we probably all do.
– We forget all the “little extras” – snacks, condiments, drinks, finishing the kids’ food off, etc
If you’ve ever thought “I can’t seem to lose weight, no matter what I try” then it’s worth remembering that, until it can be shown otherwise, it’s pretty safe to say that what hasn’t been tried is a “confirmed and sustained calorie deficit”.
No emotion to that.
Just a consideration that can empower us to look where we can make changes to make that happen!
Much love,
Jon ‘3 points’ Hall
P.S. If you like the sound of stripping the emotion back and actually finding what needs to be changed to get the result you want (and have some support and accountability in actually making that happen), then here’s where you find it –> www.myrise.co.uk/apply
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
