You are putting in the hours in the gym, you’re doing your cardio and eating healthy every week, but you’re not seeing fat loss results. If this sounds like something that you’re going through, here are possible reasons why this is happening.
What You Need to Know About Fat Loss Results
You took awhile to gain the fat you have gained, so in no way should you think that losing it will be any faster. Your body undergoes the breakdown of fat through a process called lipolysis.
This process happens when you’ve burned the available energy you have from food you’ve eaten on the day and previous day(s). Your body then uses the stored energy that is in the form of fat. This will best occur when you’re in a calorie deficit: burning more calories than you consume:
- Exercising more to burn more calories than you consume
- Eat less calories than you burn when you’re not exercising
The thing is, you’ve got fat cells all over your body. When you consistently use energy stored in them in these ways, your body will use them more for burning energy and will not store more energy in them. You will then lose the fat through ways your body releases its waste (sweating, breathing and going to the toilet etc).
This decreases your overall body fat percentage, which starts internally with internal organs and then it will appear externally.
1. You Don’t Know How Many Calories You Should Consume
A great way to lose fat is to track your calories and macros and understand how many you need to consume when you’re trying to lose fat. It is important that you don’t lower your calorie intake drastically, because you could end up losing more overall weight, including water and muscle, than fat.
You can use MyFitnessPal to calculate the amount of calories you need to lose fat or you could use the calculator on Fitness As Tradition.
2. You Don’t Drink Enough Water
Water is an essential part of fat loss, it makes up about 60% of your body. It is also used in the process of lipolysis, where water droplets are used to breakdown blood fat into smaller components to be used as energy.
When you’re not drinking enough water, you may be reducing the chances of this process from occuring. Water also can act as an appetite suppressant to help reduce your calorie intake.
Drink at least 2 litres of water per day, also before, during and after your meals to help you feel full quicker and longer. You will achieve your fat loss results a lot quicker this way.
3. The “Healthy” Food You Eat May Be High in Calories
There is a trend in society and the fitness industry of products that are being sold in stores that are considered healthy. Healthy fruit juices, snacks and bars that even though they may present healthy qualities, being low in fat and high in protein for example, they are probably high in calories because of their sugar content.
When you consistently buy these products they can add up your calorie intake. No matter how much you exercise and eat nutritious food, if you burn less calories than you consume, you will not lose fat.
4. You’re Not Trusting the Process
There are so many programs, courses and plans that promise you fat loss in 1-2 weeks. It may get you results, but they are usually unsustainable as they leave you hungry or result in you having a bad relationship with food in the long run. They may also just focus on you losing a certain amount of weight that includes your water and muscle.
These subconsciously can make you believe that fat loss is something that is quick and easy to achieve. When in fact it takes hard work, patience and consistency. You should not be in a rush to lose fat quickly, but rather changing your lifestyle habits that will help you lose fat and keep it off.
Once you engrave this mindset in your fat loss journey, you will achieve it a lot quicker than you think.
5. You’re Not Tracking Progress Properly
There are a couple of ways to track your fat loss results and if you don’t know at least one way, it can be really frustrating. You can give up quickly when you’re not seeing progress and you may not know how to do this.
A weight scale is not the best way to do this, because you’re looking more at something that fluctuates with water and muscle. You can sometimes gain weight when you’re trying to lose fat. There are body fat scales, calipers and measuring tapes and more that you could use.
More on these ways to track your fat loss progress without a scale. I hope that you will achieve your fat loss goals in the last couple of weeks of the year and I hope that I can help you do that.
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