When dieting, many people like to make a million excuses or they look for a million reasons why they may or may not be doing their diet properly.
The first question I ask myself when I'm having some doubts about my diet is: is the weight scale moving? Am I losing weight each week?
If the answer is yes, then I should keep doing what I'm doing. I'm losing weight and weight-loss is my goal.
If the answer is no, then I should re-evaluate. Why is the weight not moving? Is a better question to ask yourself than "why am I totally screwing up!?"
My Process For Finding Out Why I'm Not Losing Weight:
So now that I've established that I'm not losing weight at the current moment, I need to figure what exactly is causing that to happen.
The first place I go is caloric intake - am I eating too many or too little calories? How do my macronutrients look? Am I getting the majority of my calories from fat and a moderate amount from protein and a tiny amount from carbs (for a Keto diet regime)?
Everything should check out ok. The next step is checking my workout routine - am I doing cardio? How much am I doing?
Now comes a decision: would I rather cut back on the amount of food that I'm eating each day or would I rather add a little extra cardio to each of my 5 sessions per week?
I typically will choose to take a little away from my diet rather than exercise more.
My exercise routine is already pretty substantial. Overtraining does come into play at a certain point and it can actually be a separate factor when it comes to weight loss.
Here are a few other checks that I'll make in my head:
- Am I overly stressed out?
- Am I sleeping enough?
- Am I getting hidden calories from some unknown product?
Losing weight is a balance. You need to balance your diet and your exercise and not get stressed out over it. Stress is caused by the release of cortisol which is a fat-storing hormone!