The Truth About The Ups and Downs of Weight Loss: Twist, Turns and Triumphs

You need to understand that your fat loss and fitness journey will not go as you think.  You won't lose 1-2 lbs. of fat each week until you hit your goal (even though its possible.) Instead, you will have peaks and valleys.

This is important to understand because I see clients all of the time who lose weight for a few weeks and then it stalls. I can see the disappointment in their face on our zoom calls. I can hear the "failure" in their voice as they tell me how things have stopped. I can see in their body language how frustrated they are. 

For many this frustration, pain, and disappointment lead to quitting, which is the only real way to fail.

What they are failing to understand is that this is a normal part of the process.

Even on drugs like Ozempic of Wegovy, you will see fat loss slow down or even stop altogether.

96% of people who attempt to lose weight will fail within the first 2 years! I have seen estimates that state over 50% of those people quit trying after hitting a plateau!

You need to gather perspective and understand this isn't a road block, its part of the actual route!

Lets take a look at a specific example.

I have a client who has lost 30 lbs. so far this year. 

Each peak and valley is a weigh in. What do you notice? Exactly, it goes up and down! When you zoom out you can see the trajectory over time is that their weight is going down.

Take a look at the short video below. You can see that when you zoom in, it often feels like nothing is happening. It feels like things have stalled out and you're not making progress. As you will notice there are weeks and weeks where there is little to no movement in weight!

Weight loss trend over several months. notice there are weeks where it varies only slightly

What if this person had given up the first week their weight stalled? they'd have robbed themselves of so much progress. 

And not even just progress but a quality of life!! 

This is how you turn 5-10 lbs of fat loss into 30,40, 50 lbs, by gaining perspective, zooming out, and understanding that the only way to fail is to quit.

You can avoid or bust through a plateau by continuing to work forward or by implementing and focusing on a few key areas.

Here are 5 ways we kept my client on the right track when it felt hopeless mentally:
1. Alternate between periods of more exercise vs less exercise. This person didn't workout at the gym or 5x a week. At most it was twice a week and some not at all! This allowed us to "wiggle" the metabolism and keep it from getting stuck on what were were doing. 

2. Kept focusing on keeping protein high. We kept aiming to get protein to .6 or 1g per pound of bodyweight. This kept metabolism healthy and flexible.

3. Bumped calories up and down. Your body can't stay in a caloric deficit forever. Every 3-4 weeks we'd bump calories back up 200-500 calories for a bit to ensure the metabolism wasn't too cozy where it was at. The metabolism wants to adapt ASAP, so the best way to keep it healthy was to give it a little more food once in a while. This meant when we dropped back down, the body would actually lose weight instead of being overly stressed. 

This is perhaps the most difficult part for people because it seems counterproductive but think of it like this: If you wanted our dog to lose weight you wouldn't just keep cutting its food back forever. Eventually you must give your pup a little once in a while. 

4. Moved body more. We would burn extra calories not by introducing MORE exercise, but just more movement. Gentle walks, movement, active lifestyle accounts for a LOT of calories and because its not hard, it doesn't influence hunger, energy and cravings like intense workouts and very low calories do.

5. Prioritized sleep. Making sure their body was in a non-stressful state by getting quality sleep and rest has been HUGE for keeping things moving in the right direction. A body that isn't rested and its tired, will have a MUCH harder time losing weight.

In summary, zoom out and get perspective on your weight loss. Look at the patterns over 3 months, 6 months, a year! this tells a broader story!

Zooming in will often be frustrating and doesn't tell the whole story. Sure, its useful because you can change things up when before its too late but don't fall into the trap and give it more importance than necessary. Its just feedback. 

Prioritize the 5 tips above, keep a positive mindset and KEEP GOING!

You can't fail if you don't give up!

Until next week...

PS. If this was useful, it'd mean the world to me if you passed it along to someone who may benefit from reading this. Together, we can help more people!