Any guesses??

·       Not tracking calories?

·       Impatient?

·       No motivation?

·       No idea where to begin?

All valid points but I think the main reason will surprise you…

You aren’t eating enough!!!!

I know what you’re thinking…

Ben, are you mad!!??

I’m trying to lose fat & you’re telling me to eat more??!!

YES!

See, what many of you will think is that in order to lose bodyfat, you need to create a huge calorie deficit immediately

You find maintenance – albeit from an online calculator that will have asked for minimal information &, therefore, will be very limited in the accuracy of the numbers it spits out – let’s park that for now!

And, from that, you immediately deduct 500 calories!

Within a few weeks, your body has adapted to the lower level of calories, progress stalls & you’re left scratching your head

“But I’m in a calorie deficit, why am I not losing weight?”

Your maintenance level changes daily, so what may have been maintenance 4 weeks ago, is unlikely to still be maintenance now

Just as the deficit you created 4 weeks ago is no longer having the same response

At the point of plateau (just FYI, weight is not the only measure & you should also consider look, feel, other measurements, gym progress, energy, mood, other lifestyle factors, sleep, stress, time of the month for females) the logical next step is to either further reduce calories in, increase calories out or a combination of the two

You reduce calories in by another 500 – why not, it got some results last time, right!

Give it another few weeks and you plateau again

Now you’re at a sticking point…you’re consuming just 1,000 calories or less, your output is maxed out, you’re feeling pretty terrible but you’re still a way off your goal

If you keep following the ‘deduct 500 calories’ method, you’ll soon be eating nothing but DUST & suffering from complete exhaustion

You might only be 6-8 weeks into your fat loss phase & you’ve bottomed out!

Now you’re frustrated, you resent the calorie deficit, you decide that ‘cutting’ isn’t for you & you’ll never be as lean as you want

Hold on a minute!

Take a moment to rethink your approach…

Assess what you have done previously

Then let’s see if we can take what we’ve learnt & implement it in a way that is going to work for you

We’ve learned that our metabolism is quickly adapting to the calorie input that we are giving it

So how can we make that work to our advantage?

Pushing calories much higher to begin with is a great place to start out, which will allow your body to adapt to higher base level to begin your fat loss journey

This also gives you much more scope to make changes as & when that metabolic adaptation occurs

My clients often feedback in the first week or two that they are struggling to eat the amount of food I have programmed…perfect!

This will, in part, be a result of a change in eating habits to something that they may not be used to

But after a week or two it becomes much more ‘normal’ & now we have a great place to start

In all likelihood, progress will be made even within those first couple of weeks (and even from not being 100% on plan) from the change in both nutrition approach & also training (it’s easy to think of training & nutrition as two separate entities, but they work hand-in-hand where physique transformation is concerned)

As and when plateaus begin to emerge, gradual changes can be made that will elicit the right response while also allowing plenty of room for further change

This gradual, incremental approach will ensure that the fat loss phase has plenty of room to develop at a sustainable rate that will not only provide significant reductions in body fat but also maximise the process of muscle retention & growth

If you’re in the beginning stages of planning your next fat loss phase, don’t be afraid to start high!

You’ll give yourself much more room for adjustments & the results will be vastly improved!