You grow more and more frustrated by the day.
You started eating better, exercising again, drinking more water, and doing all the right things for a few weeks, yet the scale is not moving. Or maybe your strength numbers remain the same.
With so many different strategies out there, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and question if what you're doing is working.
Although you are making improvements there may be a few things causing the scale to reflect your efforts. Let's take a look.
1️. Misguided Effort
Yes, breaking a sweat and creating oxygen debt is important, but it is not the only way you train hard. Get stronger by looking at #4.
Thinking of training hard in terms of strictly raising your heart rate and sweating instead of progressions. To build muscle you have to increase amounts of tension on the muscles over time.
2️. Protein
You would be surprised by how little protein you are eating. Oversimplified: muscle helps you burn cals. Not enough protein limits muscle growth and repair. you reduce the hunger hormone and boost several satiety hormones.
3️. Sleep & Stress Management
I'll say it: You are overlooking this. Many decisions are based upon habits and new habits ask more from your nervous system.
If you are emotionally drained new habits will require more effort.
It is hard to repair muscle and make proper nutrition decisions if you are lacking energy and not allowing your body to reset. Stress impacts not only your hormones but also your appetite, endurance, and your decisions.
4️. Exercise
You can have too much of a good thing. Random exercises can be counterproductive. Progressive overload ensures you are helping muscles grow. Examples: Same Movement but increasing weight, frequency, or number of reps over weeks.
Trying to out-exercise bad eating, sleep, and stress habits - random exercises for the sake of variation. Progressive overload is important for muscle growth.
5️. Calories
Yes, even when eating at a deficit you still need to eat enough. Not enough fuel means you will not be able to output significant energy nor rebuild from the damage of exercise. You have to feed the muscle to burn fat.
Intense workouts need fuel from food. If you do not have enough in your system, you won't be able to output any significant amount of energy.
Short term, you will feel crummy. Long term, you will not make much progress, get frustrated, and start to think that exercise is full of false promises.
There are a ton of factors that go into reasons why you are not making progress. Remember, being "overweight" or "not toned" did not happen overnight and neither does weight loss, better health, or six-pack abs, ha.
Progress takes consistent effort both inside and outside the gym.
If you would like to stop guessing what to do next, we would love to help.