You Eat Right And Exercise, But Why Can't You Lose Fat?

It’s reader mail time!

Here is one of the most common questions I get and the way I always respond to it.

Q: I eat right and I workout all the time, but I’m not losing fat. What else can I do, or what am I doing wrong?

A: I get this question all the time and it’s a very, very frustrating situation to be in to say the least.

You think you’re doing everything right, and the scale isn’t moving.

First you have to ask yourself if your clothes are fitting better. If they are, then don’t even worry about the scale because the number on the scale will begin to fall if you notice your clothes getting loose in the places you want.

If that’s not the case, you really need to examine what you say you’re doing “right.”

You say you’re eating right, but what does that mean?

That usually means there’s something you’re not understanding or are you’re just lying to yourself.

I don’t mean to be rude, but if you truly do eat “right”, then there’s no reason you should be maintaining your current weight (if you want to lose). If you were really eating the way you should if you want to lose fat (and you’re overweight), and the scale isn’t moving, then you should probably become some sort of lab rat for the UN because you could solve world hunger.

I would never outright call someone a liar. I just think that you may be misunderstanding what it means to eat to lose fat. There’s a lot of misinformation out there and sometimes what seems like the most common sense approach is actually the worst approach.

So let’s see if I can solve your dilemma right now.

Does “eating right” mean you eat like a bird, if you eat at all, most of the day, then eat a huge meal at night?

If so, there’s your problem right there. You can’t eat little to nothing for a good portion of the day, then eat a huge meal later on. Your body doesn’t work that way. If you consume more calories in one sitting than your body can use, the remainder will get stored as fat. It really is that simple.

Eat over 1000 calories in one sitting (which is very easy to do), then count on a good chunk of those calories going right to your gut, butt, thighs or chest as fat.

Or maybe you’ve got some hidden calories in the form of sauces, salad dressings, coffee drinks, soda/pop/cola, sweetened teas, breads, etc.

Most of those things that I just mentioned are loaded with calories and you wouldn’t normally even think of them because they’re not your “main dish”, they’re add-ons. But believe me when I tell you that salad dressings and sauces WILL turn a fat fighting meal into a fat gaining meal.

Read the label, don’t douse your food with the stuff, and switch to low calorie versions.

If you drink those calorie bomb coffee drinks, cut them out. There’s no place for them if you’re trying to lose fat. Many of them can be well over 600 calories.

The other thing it could be is portion sizes. Most people under-estimate their portions by around 25%. That one thing right there could be your whole problem.

You may think you’re consuming around 2000 calories per day, when in actuality you may be consuming 2500.

If all else is equal, that could mean a pound of fat gain per week, or if you understand that and fix it, it could mean a pound of fat loss per week. It really is that simple and it’s your choice.

The last thing I’ll cover today is the weekend.

I know people who eat perfectly all week long, then when Friday night rolls around…everything gets thrown out the window and on comes the beer, fast food, junk food, etc.

That will ruin your fat loss plans and you should count yourself lucky if you’re even maintaining your current weight rather than gaining fat.

To succeed on the weekends, you’ve got to treat it as if they were any other day. Sure you can relax a little bit, but if you’re trying to lose fat, you have to maintain some discipline.

Remember what you’re trying to accomplish?

So before you tell someone that you’re eating right, exercising, and doing all the right things and the scale isn’t moving, you really need take a long hard look at how you’re actually eating.

Have a good day!

Ed

P.S. – My Fat Loss To Go program comes with a Nutrition eBook that covers all the healthy, fat fighting eating habits you should be doing, plus it tells you what things to avoid and how to eat to lose fat. It’s not some sort of fad diet, it’s eating to live and eating to fight fat rather than starving yourself or going on some goofy fad diet. Check it out at www.fatlosstogo.com