It’s Saturday morning, and you slowly start to stir in your bed.

The sun has started to peek through your window, and you yawn, stretch, and start to blink away the goobers from your eyes.

You wake up to use the restroom, and you remember………”Hey, I’ve been dieting for a week solid, and I’ve been good the entire time! I wonder what that scale says!”

You smile, and tap your foot on the glass.

The electronic display zeroes out, and you wait in anticipation.

What will it read?

How much have you lost?

You ate a salad EVERY DAY for lunch, and you stayed away from carbs like the devil.

You went to the gym 4 days this week as well; you’re going to be rewarded, right?

You confidently step onto the scale, and wait for the number to be displayed in front of you.

You wait……..and wait………and then…………

What?

How could that be?

How is that possible?

You did EVERYTHING right! You ate well, you exercised, you didn’t drink any alcohol, and you even passed on the birthday cake at work!

How could you POSSIBLY be a pound heavier than last week?

“You gotta be kidding me……” you mutter to yourself, dejectedly.

And you head downstairs……….straight for the pantry……….and the box of Frosted Flakes.

 

What Am I Doing Wrong?

Has this ever happened to you?

Have you ever done “everything right”, only to not be rewarded with improvements?

When you are dieting, you HAVE to see concrete evidence of your efforts in order to establish a positive feedback loop.

Here is how this needs to work in order for you to be successful:

Get motivated ⇒ Form a gameplan ⇒ Put in effort ⇒ See results ⇒ Realize that effort equals results ⇒ Become more motivated ⇒ Put in continued effort ⇒ See continued results

This “positive feedback loop” is essential to your long term fat loss progress.

So, if you aren’t experiencing positive results, but you’re putting in a tremendous amount of effort, where are you going wrong?

I have successfully coached over 2,000 men and women through fat loss protocols.

They have lost many tens of thousands of pounds working with me.

My clients have lost 50 pounds, 60 pounds, 70 pounds, and more – without doing cardio and without giving up their favorite foods.

Through my practice, I have pinpointed the Top 5 Reasons You Aren’t Losing Weight On Your Diet And How To Fix Them.

Pay close attention to what I’m about to tell you………and ask yourself if you are making any of these common and critical mistakes.

 

The Top 5 Reasons You Aren’t Losing Weight On Your Diet (And How To Fix Them)

 

Mistake #1 ⇒ You think fat is “good” and you’re unaware of how much of it you’re eating.

In the 90’s and the early 2000’s, everyone knew that fat was “bad” and it would clog your arteries, leading to a heart attack.

Low-fat food became all the rage, as we shunned butter like the plague in favor of bagels, pasta, and potatoes.

Over the last decade, the “fat hysteria” shifted, and we realized that we had made a mistake.

Fat suddenly became en vogue again, and we began to douse our foods in butter, olive oil, and coconut oil.

Avocados became everyone’s favorite snack, we began to eat almonds by the bucket full, and we made all of our coffee “bulletproof”.

After all, fat was “good” and it would help us lose weight.

Right?

Not so fast…………there is a big problem of consuming fat without being mindful of it.

Fat has 9 calories per gram, more than double the calories that are in carbohydrates and protein.

Calories are the biggest driver of fat loss. There has never been a scientific, controlled study that has disproven the First Law Of Thermodynamics – that you must consume less calories than your body needs in order to tap into your fat stores and lose weight.

Do you know how much fat you’re eating on a regular basis?

When you take a close look, the number may shock you.

The Fix ⇒ Track your fat closely for a week to see how much fat you’re consuming.

How much fat should you eat each day?

For men, about 40-60 grams of fat is what you should aim for.

For women, that number is 30-40 grams.

For reference, one, level tablespoon of coconut oil contains 14 grams of fat.

One avocado contains 29 grams of fat!

Be wary of cheeses, creamy dressings and sauces, and fattier cuts of meat.

45-65 grams of fat is much less than you think.

Pay close attention to that number, and be sure you’re not overindulging.

Mistake #2 ⇒ You eat out too often.

We all need a break from our busy, hectic lives.

There is nothing wrong with dining out for a social event, or enjoying a meal at a restaurant with your family.

The real problem comes when dining out becomes a regular, daily occurrence.

Are you eating out each day for lunch? Or stopping every morning to grab something to eat for breakfast?

If you are, that’s a big mistake.

Restaurants have exactly one goal:  To get you to enjoy your food, and come back often.

In order to accomplish this, they make the food taste amazing, which often means added fats and sugars.

It’s not uncommon for one meal at a restaurant to be equal to an entire day’s worth of calories.

Any diet which creates a consistent calorie deficit will allow you to lose weight.

It doesn’t matter if it’s Paleo, low-carb, organic, “keto”, South Beach, Atkins, or anything else.

You know what all of those diets have in common?

(It’s the common denominator for every single successful diet plan on the planet.)

The Fix ⇒ You have to make your own meals and not dine out at a restaurant.

Even if the restaurant has calorie information on its website.

It’s a common practice for restaurant cooks to add extra tabs of butter, dressing, sauce, etc. in order for the food to taste more enjoyable to you.

Don’t fall prey to this trap – learn how to cook simple and tasty meals at home from foods you purchase at the grocer.

Your waistline will thank you.

 

Mistake #3 ⇒ You alter your food intake based on your activity level.

Have you ever gotten back from a tough workout and opened up your fridge?

You think to yourself, “I probably burned close to 800 calories! I can eat that piece of cake, I deserve it!”

We’ve all been there – myself included.

Thinking like this is a guaranteed trap that has stalled fat loss for many of my clients.

It’s a mental block that we have to work diligently on to eliminate it from our thought processes.

There are two main reasons why this doesn’t work – at all!

First, humans are terrible at estimating calorie burn. Whatever we “think” we have burned, we likely have burned about half of that.

(This holds true for those “calories burned” monitors on the treadmill at the gym as well!)

Second, humans are terrible at estimating the calorie content of the foods we eat. However many calories we “think” a food has in it, it likely has double that amount!

That’s a double-whammy guaranteed to make your fat loss stall.

LIAAAAAAAAR!

The fix ⇒ Be consistent with your calorie intake, regardless of what activities you have done for the day.

The most successful dieters in the world never change their intake based on what they have done on that day.

It doesn’t matter if they lifted weights, played basketball, ran 5 miles, or took a yoga class.

The best dieters out there only adjust their intake after they have been consistent for a few weeks, and have objective data with which to make an informed decision.

When you are dieting, you need to make calculated decisions as if you’re the “CEO” of a Fat Burning Enterprise – You, Inc.!

You don’t alter your system based on a whim, even if that whim is a demanding and challenging workout.

Mistake #4 ⇒ Your “cheat meals” negate your calorie deficit.

Everyone needs a “break” from dieting occasionally.

It’s a constant stress to be monitoring your intake closely and to be on point with your diet.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a “meal off” and enjoying some of the forbidden fruits.

But if you are doing so “unchecked” and eating as much as you desire, you could be sabotaging your progress.

It takes 3,500 calories to lose one pound of fat.

That means you need to eat 500 calories under your maintenance each day for a week to lose 1 pound of fat per week.

If you decide to eat a “normal breakfast and lunch”, and then go out to eat and have a “cheat meal” at a Mexican restaurant……….

and you eat some chips and salsa……….

and some cheese dip……….

and a big burrito with sour cream, guacamole (there’s that fat again!), rice, and beans………

and you have 2 margaritas along with it………

and you grab some ice cream on the way home……..

You easily ate back the 3,500 calorie deficit from the week, and you will lose no weight as a result.

The fix ⇒ Eat extremely light before your cheat meal, and then get an appetizer, a dessert, OR two drinks (choose one option) and a sensible dinner.

You can “cheat” and get as you wish.

That’s just fine.

But if you’re going to eat a meal that is larger than a normal meal, AND you want to keep making fat loss progress, you need to be strategic.

Leading up to the meal, snack on lean meats and veggies, and keep your calories low for the day.

At the meal, take your pick – an appetizer, a dessert, or a few drinks – but only one of those options.

Each of those options will contain a decent amount of calories, and including all 3 as part of your “cheat meal” will leave you WAY over for the day.

Choose a sensible dinner as well. It doesn’t have to be the grilled chicken breast and broccoli, but make sure you don’t go too crazy.

Ask for sauces on the side.

Get an order of mixed veggies for fiber (and to help fill you up).

And most importantly of all……..eat your food slowly and enjoy the experience of having an “off meal”.

After all, you’ve earned it.

Mistake #5 ⇒ You don’t plan your meals in advance.

Are you constantly “making decisions” in the moment when you’re dieting?

Do you find yourself opening the fridge and thinking, “What am I going to eat today?”

Do you log your food into My Fitness Pal (or other tracking apps) right before you eat it?

This is a BIG mistake – that will zap you of your willpower and leave you prone to late-night binges.

The Fix ⇒  Decide what you will eat tomorrow, write it down, and execute.

“Meal planning” seems like such a chore.

Nobody wants to be the “freak” who brings their Tupperware container to Christmas dinner.

(If you do that, I will find you and I will smack you!)

But willpower is a finite resource.

It’s been seen as an “energy bar” like on a video game.

Every time you make a “decision”, a little bit of your energy bar gets eaten up.

If you have to make decisions all day long, your energy bar will be at zero at the end of the day.

Without any willpower left, what do you think will happen when you’re done with dinner, you’re still hungry, and you’re sitting on the couch?

You’re gonna grab that bag of Doritos faster than you can say “I’m Lovin’ It!”

It may be a cliche, but if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.

Knowing what you are going to eat the night before you eat it ensures that you don’t have to think about food.

Your plan is in place.

When it’s time to eat, you look at your plan, and you take care of business.

And you preserve your willpower for when you need it the most.

 

Yours In True Health,

Jason