FAT LOSS MISTAKES

[Kate]

There is a lot of mixed messaging when it comes to fat loss. Every influencer, trainer, and expert says something different, so I get it – it’s very confusing. Here are common themes I see when talking to clients about their fat loss challenges.

1. Excessive Restriction: Needlessly restricting calories, or excluding food for the sake of dieting is not sustainable and can lead to obsessive behavior, and burn out. The goal isn’t to eat as little calories as possible, but rather, the goal is to eat AS MUCH as you can while still losing body fat. Every food can play a role in your nutritional strategy, but if you feel deprived, you’ll be hard pressed to remain consistent.
2. Excessive Cardio: Cardio is important for overall health, and can certainly play a roll within caloric expenditure and a negative energy balance. However, too much cardio can play an interference effect with your strength training sessions and can actually take away from your net productivity. Additionally, cardio makes you HUNGRY so if you find yourself constantly starving, scaling back on cardio will serve you in two ways. First, to prioritize your strength training which is more effective, and two, gives you time to recover.
3. “Eating back” Calories: Many calorie tracking apps (My Fitness Pal, Lose It!, etc) will calculate how much food you can “eat back” after exercise. The problem with this method is your wearable tracker (FitBit, Apple Watch, Whoop, etc) is NOT accurate. Most wearables OVER estimate caloric expenditure, so if you’re “eating back” calories burned from exercise you will most likely kick yourself out of your deficit, and into maintenance at best, and a surplus at worst (if your goal is fat loss).
4. Cyclical Binging: I think we can all relate to the “weekday diet” where we’re super disciplined with our nutrition throughout the week, but the second the weekend hits, it’s pure chaos. Your deficit is a NET caloric total that includes weekends and should be viewed across a 7 day period. This about this – if your deficit is 1350 calories per day, but you eat 3000+ calories on Saturday and Sunday, you cancel out part of your weekday adherence with your weekend surplus. That’s not to say you can’t go out, or have a big meal, you absolutely can. However, if fat loss is your goal you’ll have to pick and choose when you indulge.
5. Inconsistency with Self-Reporting: Humans tend to under-report consumption, so it’s important to ensure you’re actually in a deficit when you think you are. There are several ways you can track your intake, some are more extreme than others, so you’ll have to decide what you’re most comfortable with. Weighing your food is the most accurate approach so if you’re struggling to lose fat, audit your intake to ensure accuracy.

Remember – the secret sauce to weight loss is…drum roll please…patience. Rate of loss is SLOW. Be patient, stay consistent, and give yourself grace. The process is slow, and hard, but it does work!

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