Shape Up Fitness & Wellness Consulting personal trainers can help when the scale does not budge

When the Scale Won’t Budge

In Short

  • You might not be eating enough
  • Your protein intake might be too low
  • Exercise 5-7 hours/week for optimal fat loss
  • Include strength training
  • Leave steady state cardio behind
  • Replace rice, potatoes, etc with non starchy vegetables

You have been doing everything: You have exercised regularly. reduced your food intake and…. the damn scale does not budge!

Now, I am not a big fan of scales to begin with. Too many men and women have enslaved themselves to the numbers produced by this small device, but if someone is on the heavy side of things it can be a good measure of success.

Checklist for success

This article is written for the person that has been on the fitness journey for a while now, and is familiar with the basic concepts of eating whole foods, exercise, etc. Look over the following check list and compare your behavior to it. Make adjustments accordingly and let me know of your progress.

  • Not eating enough – A lot of people reduce their food intake too much when they start out. Most of us don’t have to make radical choices like that. By reducing your food intake drastically you might have pushed your body into starvation mode, and it is trying to hold on to what it has. Increase your food intake a little bit and see if you are making headway. Alternatively you can use so called ‘refeed days’ every 7 to 14 days.
  • Protein intake too low – When reducing your food intake, your protein intake is often reduced as well. Since we want to conserve muscle tissue during the fat loss process, or even build muscle tissue if possible, we need to make sure, we take in enough protein from sources like, beans, lentils, poultry, fish, beef, pork, etc. Protein intake should be about 1g/lbs of body weight.
  • Amount of Exercise too low: Working out is important. If you are stuck, ramping up the intensity on some days, and increasing the overall volume to 5-7 hours a week can give your metabolism the necessary push to get started again. Most of us sit throughout the day. If you are sitting for more than 4 hours a day, you definitely need to increase your activity level.
  • Include strength training: I think most of us are aware of this by now but it cannot be repeated enough: strength training is important to retain lean, fat burning muscle mass. We are just simply not confronted in our daily life with hard work anymore. 1 lbs of lean muscle mass roughly burns 50 kcal of energy per day. So, when you go pick up weights the next time, make sure to make it challenging.
  • Leave the steady state cardiovascular training behind: no, it is not bad for you, but it should not be the only thing that you are doing. Intense interval training can boost your metabolism for hours after you are done with your workout. The old fashioned steady state training primarily burns energy while you are doing it. –> Incorporate 2 days a week of HIIT into your schedule.
  • A lot meals are heavy on the starchy vegetable side. Recently, I was out of town for a race, and had a social event. Both times I noticed that the vegetables consisted of a rather miniscule amount of green veggies (in this case 3 spears of asparagus) but at least a cup of sweet potato risotto, or something similar. Reduce the starchy veggies to directly after your workout (within the hour), and increase your fibrous veggie intake drastically. ‘Go with the rainbow’, meaning the more colorful the better.

I hope this helps you jump start your fat loss again!

Yours in health and fitness,

Michael

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