When push comes to shove, it all boils down to one or more of these 5 reasons. Instead of trying to solve all five at once, I’d recommend you tackle them in order. Without doing this, it’s an uphill battle you don’t deserve to fight.
This isn’t about counting calories, necessarily, but that’s important. In general, you should be eating between 1,500 and 2,500 calories per day, depending on your body size and gender. The best metric for determining this is your BMR (basal metabolic rate.) Here’s the formula — figure out how much you should be eating and stick to it:
English BMR Formula
Metric BMR Formula
It’s important to note that lean body mass has a direct correlation to caloric consumption. In other words, if you are leaner, you should eat more calories, and you will be underestimating the caloric intake you should have. This really only applies to anyone who is less than 15% bodyfat. The contrary is also true (if you are obese, you need to eat less calories, because you don’t have muscle consuming the calories.)
Once you know your BMR, it’s time to associate this # of calories to your activity level and adjust accordingly. Your BMR is the number of calories your body will naturally burn throughout its day.
This means that my body will naturally burn 1,800 calories every single day, without increasing my activity level. Therefore, in order to maintain my weight, I should consume 1,800 calories and I will not need to exercise beyond activities of daily living.
However, if you’d like to lose weight, you will have one of two choices:
So, if I want to lose 1 pound per week, I’ll need to create a caloric deficit of 3,500 calories over the course of the week, or 500 calories per day. This means that a mere 500 calories of exercise per day will accomplish my goal, so long as I don’t overeat on any one day.
When you exercise more, you’ll lose weight faster; when you eat less, you’ll also lose weight faster. The big question becomes: how much food can you sacrifice before you actually harm your metabolism?
Anything below about 1,300 calories (tiny frame, female) and 1,500 calories (tiny frame, male) will be dangerous for your metabolism. You’re simply not allowing your body the required energy to function, so it slows down and begins to migrate into a hibernation-like state. Your metabolism plummets, and so do your weight loss results. You may lose weight, but you’ll have a heck of a time keeping it off.
Forget the food pyramid — sorry, but it’s crap. It’s meant well, but it’s misguided. I’ve seen example after example of a high fat, high protein, low carbohydrate diet winning for fat loss and overall health. In extreme cases, I’ve seen heart disease completely reversed in 90-180 days after a heart attack by modifying your diet to high fat, low carb. The reverse has equal potential to sabotage your health and damage the inside of your body. Many times, your bodyfat is an indication of the overall health of your body, on the inside.
When you see unwanted bodyfat, your body is trying to tell you something — you’re not as healthy as you should be. Weight is one consideration, but depositing fat is a red flag that something is wrong.
Get your bodyfat down, as follows, according to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM):
Your blood work may be ok, and your doctor may be telling you that everything is fine, but your body is experiencing a downward spiral; it’s only a matter of time until it all comes crashing down. Get your bodyfat where it belongs, and then become concerned with your BMI (Body Mass Index.)
BMI over 25 is considered overweight. Over 30 is considered obese, and it gets worse from there, in increments of 5. (level II obesity, level III, etc.)
Yes, this matters for risk of cardiac disease, even if your bodyfat is low, because your heart is working too hard to pump blood to your body. But, the fact of the matter is that this affects about 1% of the population. The rest of us should be concerned with bodyfat %.
Let’s get back to eating the ‘right’ kinds of food. Here’s the scoop:
High fat diets produce sustained energy and they fill you — low fat diets destroy your energy levels and create massive carb cravings — protein feeds muscle, so if you’re building muscle to lose fat, you’re going to need protein to keep your results flowing.
A lot of people ask me about ‘carb crankiness’ and that’s an important question to answer. Consider the ‘quality’ of the food you’re eating, rather than just the macronutrient classification. Here are some simple rules to help you defend against carb crankiness:
Follow these 5 rules and you’ll easily transition into a healthy diet that ‘feels’ great and rewards you every day of your life with better health and longevity. Plus, you’ll shed fat ridiculously fast.
— only make this commitment for 3 weeks to start, and then re-evaluate. You’ll stand a much higher chance of success.
Be honest. Are you resistance training at least 2-3 days per week? If you’re not, there’s a huge gap in your fat loss and health journey that’s keeping you from success.
As human beings, we are extremely lucky to be able to exercise for as little as a few minutes per week and see our health progress. Historically, we needed to run and hunt for 8-12 hours per day, and that helped us maintain our health. Often times, we had to run on an empty stomach the whole time, alternating between ‘hiding and hunting’ and ‘sprinting for the kill.’ Today, we barely have to move and our health soars… It’s a small commitment, but it’s a necessary one.
My preference is that you commit to 10 minutes of exercise 5 days per week, or 20 minutes 3 days per week. It’s simple, and you’ll see a tremendous difference.
I discuss this in great detail on the post How To Get Lean In Less Than 1 Hour Per Week Without Dieting. As a summary of what works, here’s what I recommend:
There are several reasons that your body may be preventing you from losing fat, but they all boil down to the same principle — your body is trying to tell you something is wrong and it needs to be fixed.
I provide you with a screening tool that will help you determine which ‘higher priority’ system in your body may be preventing fat loss in Body Sequencing For Fat Loss.
With that in mind, there are a few common reasons that most people are not losing fat:
By working on each of the 5 reasons you’re not losing fat that are listed above, in order, you are taking a comprehensive look at your fat loss and health obstacles that are preventing fat loss. Lose fat and improve your health. It’s your job, and it’s your body.
As it turns out,
I show you how right here: