[00:00:00] Philip Pape: Welcome to the Wits and Weights podcast, for busy professionals who want to get strong and healthy with strength training and a sustainable diet. I’m your host, Philip Pape, and in each episode, we’ll examine strategies to help you achieve physical self-mastery through a healthy skepticism of the fitness industry, and a commitment to consistent lifting and nutrition.

[00:00:31] Welcome to episode 14 of Wits & Weights. As a follow-up to the last episode. Losing weight without losing muscle. I want to address the frustration. Many of us have experienced with either not being able to lose weight or with hitting a plateau. Usually in the form of scale weight, no longer going down.

[00:00:51] This is a complex nuanced topic that ultimately comes down to understanding the root cause behind being unable to lose weight and taking back control. So you can do something that will nudge your fat loss back in the right. That's not to say, this is your fault, but rather that 99% of the time, we just need to identify the problem so we can apply the right solution.

[00:01:16] And you are empowered to uncover that problem with the right tools and information. And that is the goal of this. Every fat loss phase is just a bit different. Even for each individual you might sail through and shed the pounds with ease, or you may struggle with fits and starts ravenous hunger, and the feeling that there's just something else going on beyond calories in calories out.

[00:01:41] However, at the end of the day, it really is about energy. The challenge is identifying which side of that balance diet versus metabolism and accounting for recent changes and other factors that could mess with this balance. Often in subtle ways, like a sneaky ninja, trying to sabotage your hard earned progress.

[00:02:03] Before I get into this list, a few caveats first, these reasons aren't always in a vacuum, you may be experiencing more than one at the same time, and some of these may be in trouble. Second. I want to reiterate this. Isn't a blame game. While a weight loss stall ultimately comes down to energy balance. It can indeed be challenging to identify the true root cause, which often stems from something out of your control.

[00:02:29] My intent is to empower you to take back control. So let's just jump right in and examine 20 reasons you're not losing weight so we can get that fat loss. Rolling again. The first reason is it may just be too soon to see the scale weight move. Maybe it's only been two or three days and you've weighed yourself every day.

[00:02:51] And the weight's kind of fluctuating, not really moving down, give it a few more days. You may have something related to fluid retention. You had a big meal, you just came off maintenance or bulk, or many, many other reasons that we're going to touch on later in this episode. And just gotta be a little bit patient and wait for that big whoosh.

[00:03:11] I actually am in a cut right now. When I started it, it was just after going through a building phase, it took a good week and a half to two weeks before the weight started to show up on the scale. Even though I had significantly cut my calories from the first. And we're going to talk about specific reasons why this happens, but if you've only given it a few days, give it a few more days.

[00:03:37] Reason. Number two, you may not be weighing frequently enough to get an accurate average meaning. If you only weigh yourself once a week, there could be a big difference from one week to the next on the scale. You know, you may show that you're a pound heavier the following week. When in reality, you've maybe lost the.

[00:03:58] But because scale weight fluctuates so significantly day today, you may not see it unless you have enough frequency to calculate a reasonable average. So this is why I recommend wane at least three times per week, but ideally every day, and some might say, well, that's going to lead to obsession with the scale or the scales.

[00:04:20] Something that I think about all the time, but if you make it a habit and do it in a way where you hardly have to think about it, I would argue that it has the opposite effect that you get to the point where you really don't think about the scale. And it's just another data point. And one way to do this is to use a smart scale that connects via Bluetooth to your smart phone.

[00:04:40] And then it can connect to something like apple health. If you have an iPhone like I do, and I can send the data to your food log. Like macro factor and that way it can calculate weight based on these data points that automatically go into the app every day, you could even cover up the weight on the scale of the visual display.

[00:05:00] So you don't see it, but still have it beamed to your phone. So you have the data reason number three, and this is not logging all of your calories. And I realize this sounds like the I'm blaming you a reason. Not losing weight, but let's just take a step back and think about this objectively. Now, the first question I would ask is are you tracking your calories?

[00:05:23] Because if you're not even tracking them and you're eating in an intuitive way, all right there, that could be an indication that you are potentially eating more than you think you are, which the data and the evidence shows is often the case with. The general population, because it is very hard to just estimate what you're eating without using nutrition facts.

[00:05:46] Food scales and the like, especially if you've never done it before, but let's say you are tracking your calories. There are lots of ways that you could easily miss calories. There are sneaky calories like oils and butter in restaurant food. I remember listening to a podcast where they had a restaurant tour.

[00:06:04] Uh, chef who was talking about how much fat, salt, and sugar, the cooks like to add to the food, to make it taste as divine as possible so that you come back to the restaurant and it's just virtually impossible to estimate that. And really the only way to do it would be to overestimate significantly just to make sure.

[00:06:27] Another area, alcohol. I love alcohol as much as the next person, be it, a glass of wine, glass of beer, some liquor, and some of those drinks have way more calories than you would imagine. Especially mixed drinks, which can be full of sugar. Uh, furthermore, we offer. K, uh, log alcohol properly. There's you got to keep in mind.

[00:06:47] There's multiple constituents in an alcoholic drink, there's carbs, but there's also the alcohol itself and alcohol is roughly nine calories per gram. And so it gets confusing as to how we want to track it. I would say, do your best to track all of the alcohol in there. All of the grams is nine calories per gram, or track it as carbs.

[00:07:08] Or if you can look it up online and see if there's nutrition, facts, somebody has entered in some. For the particular beverage appetizers at a restaurant or just restaurant food in general are an easy way to sort of overeat without realizing it. We're going to go to a Mexican restaurant tonight on a maintenance week, and I saved up some calories for tonight to enjoy some enchiladas and.

[00:07:31] Nachos and those nachos cooked in oil. You can easily eat more than you realize, and I'm not taking my food scale. So what am I going to do? I'm going to estimate how much I've eaten and I'm going to overestimate it when. And this really comes down to food that you don't prepare yourself, be it at a restaurant or your family member cooks it, or you go to a friend's house.

[00:07:54] It's just hard to estimate unless you want to be a weirdo and weigh everything in front of them. You're going to use your best guess based on what you've learned through food tracking and overestimate, perhaps add in some tablespoons of oil or butter, just to make sure you have it covered. So this is really one of the most important areas I would investigate first.

[00:08:14] I would look at everything you eat every day. If you're very consistent, it makes it easier. If you make your own food, it makes it easier. But if you eat out a lot, if you drink a lot, it's going to make it a much more. Related to this as overdoing a binge or cheat day. So if you have a particular day where you have a big event, a party, or you've even planned to eat more, it's built in quote unquote cheat day, make sure you've tracked the calories accurately.

[00:08:40] Make sure you're being conservative because it's very easy to eat more calories than you think. And furthermore, you might eat the types of foods that lead to extra fluids and glycogen in your body. Now we're going to talk about fluid retention on many of these reasons, a lot of these actually come down to the fact that our bodies are weird.

[00:09:00] They tend to store. Glycogen, which has water and then other fluids like water itself. And this adds to your scale weight without necessarily meaning that you have any extra fat or that you're not losing weight. So we're going to touch on that as sort of the symptom or the cause of many of these reasons, but I really want to dig back to what behavior may have led to that.

[00:09:22] So we understand why the scale says what it says. So overdoing a binge or cheat day was reasonable. Reason number five is eating a meal with lots of salt. And this may be as part of a cheat day, but it may not be, you may just have had a ton more salt in a particular meal than normal. Maybe you ate at a fast food restaurant.

[00:09:41] Maybe you eat Chinese food, something that has lots of fault salt, and that will lead to extra fluid retention. Over the subsequent hours into the next day, that could lead to a bump on your scale weight. That is only temporary. And by the way, a lot of these reasons I would lead you back to number one, which is maybe you need to just wait a bit, continue to weigh yourself daily, and you'll see the average start to come down.

[00:10:06] So don't freak out if there's a momentary blip, but if there is a blip and if things are kind of hanging in there for a few days, it could be for one of these other ones. Reason number six is perhaps you've had a recent diet break. So you were dieting, dieting, dieting, maybe for eight, 10 weeks. And then you took a break for a week or two, or maybe even a month.

[00:10:25] And because of the extra calories you've been eating, you also are going to retain extra fluids and glycogen. And these may take a few more days to come off. So it's kind of like when you start a fat loss phase after a building phase and you have to wait for that whoosh, same idea. It might happen when you go on a diet.

[00:10:41] Right. So if that's happened, Be aware. It may take a bit for the scale to continue. And this also is related to anytime you've made some sort of change. Look at that as a potential reason, why the weight's not going down. If you're extremely consistent day to day to day, it may not be one of those reasons, but it still could be something else.

[00:11:01] Reason number seven is not getting enough sleep. And this one is something that a lot of folks don't think about when it comes to nutrition, but. The lack of sleep, just not getting enough. Let's say you normally get seven hours and lately you been getting five and a half or six hours. Maybe you had a baby, maybe you have a new job.

[00:11:22] Maybe your routine has changed. The lack of sleep will raise your cortisol, which is the stress hormone. And this also can increase. Fluid retention. Now it should be a short-term thing that shifts your fluid retention holds off on the weight, and then the weight will continue again, but just be aware that if your sleep habits have changed, that could affect why you're not losing weight.

[00:11:44] The next reason number eight for not losing weight is the fact that you now weigh less and weighing less causes a natural reduction in your calories. Burned in. Total daily energy expenditure TD E simply because you weigh less and you're probably trying to keep your calories the same week to week based on a calculator, based on what was working for you before, despite the fact that your TDE is dropping.

[00:12:12] So in this case, you simply need to reduce your calories, maybe 100 to 200 per day and assess the next week and see if it starts to move. Reason number nine, a reduction in your daily. As you diet, and as you become lighter, and as you get hungrier, you may reduce your non-exercise activity, thermogenesis, your neat, without even being aware of it.

[00:12:37] You may fidget a little less move around a little less. You're maybe making fewer meals. And this is very common when on a diet. So your TDE decreases without maybe realizing it. And of course that shifts your maintenance calories down even further. One way to confirm this is to check your daily step count.

[00:12:58] If you use a smartwatch or phone and or Fitbit, something like that, where you can see that maybe your steps have gone down gradually or your overall activity. I don't necessarily trust the active calories that the wearables measure, but they could be a good indicator in terms of relative change. If you were normally burning.

[00:13:18] 600 calories. And now you're burning 400 calories actively every day. That could be an indicator. So one way to offset this, knowing that this happens in a diet is to consider walking more. As you get deeper into your diet, otherwise you're just going to have to drop calories even more. I would say shoot for eight to 12,000 steps.

[00:13:38] If you can, every day, especially in your diet, and that will help give you some wiggle room in case. All right. Reason number 10, somewhat related to activity as well is a reduction in training. And what I mean by this is if your training programming has changed, let's say you're going fewer days per week to the gym or shorter sessions.

[00:14:00] This also would reduce your daily activity to an extent, and you may be burning fewer calories in the gym simply because your performance is starting to drop. Your strength is starting to drop and therefore you get in fewer reps, fewer sets, maybe. Intensity and your volume has gone down. So all of these things add up to a drop in calories, burn and activity, which again also reduces your TD E causing you to have to cut your calories further, uh, or risk not losing the weight.

[00:14:34] Hey guys, I just wanted to thank you for listening to the podcast. If you find. You'd be doing me a huge favor by sharing it on social media. Just take a screenshot, share to your Instagram story or Facebook, please tag me so I can personally thank you. And we can talk about what you found helpful and how I can improve again.

[00:14:53] An incredible thank you for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the. Number 11 is a loss of muscle mass. So as you get deeper into your cut, it's going to be hard to prevent losing some muscle and just the loss of muscle mass, even though it has a small effect, it does reduce your metabolism somewhat.

[00:15:15] And that would cause you to stop losing weight. If you didn't reduce your cow. The next reason, reason number 12 is too much cardio. So this is kind of the counterpoint where you might actually have too much activity. And you say, well, how does that hurt? Doesn't that burn more calories? Well, the problem is if you have too much cardio, we're talking hours and hours, maybe more than half of the amount of time that you strength, train your body may adapt for endurance, and this would actually make you more efficient with your calories.

[00:15:47] Reducing your. Reducing your TDE to offset some of those extra calories bird. So maybe you are burning more calories overall on a net basis, but it's not nearly as much as you thought. And therefore you have to reduce your calories further or ease off on the cardio and focus more on low intensity cardio, like walking or.

[00:16:12] Reason number 13. Now these are more nutrition-related. If you just started taking creatine, that is going to cause you to put on up to several pounds of water, weight on the short term and sort of shift your weight slightly and keep it there. And then the trend downward should continue all else. So, if you just started taking creatine, you will see an increase in your weight.

[00:16:39] That is a real increase due to water, but not due to fat. And you should see the trend continue thereafter. Reason number 14 is if you recently switched from a low carb diet lake Quito, and now you have more carbs, those extra carbs will cause you to retain more fluid, extra glycogen, storage, et cetera, just like with the Korea team, it's should be a short term shift in your weight slightly, and then should start to resume downward again, all else equal, including co calories.

[00:17:14] The next reason, reason number 15 is if you recently reduced your caffeine, caffeine can, is known to slightly increase your calories burned as sort of that thermogenic effect. And if you cut caffeine for health reasons or whatever else, maybe you've had too much of it that could also slightly reduce your metabolism, thus causing weight to slow down just for a bit.

[00:17:41] But then again, it should resume after. Reasons 16 is a recent reduction in protein. If you've changed your macro profile, you are intaking a ton of protein and you've reduced it somewhat in favor of carbs. For example, protein has a higher thermic effect of feeding. It requires the most energy to digest.

[00:18:02] So if you reduce it quite a bit, replace it with other macros. You may see a reduction in your metabolism along with an increase in fluid retention. Also a short-term effect that should result in continued weight loss. Pretty soon if you just waited out and give the scale time to come back down again.

[00:18:20] All right. Reason number 17. That you're not losing weight is if you just started lifting, if you're a brand new lifter or you've been detrained for awhile and it's as if you're a new lifter, you're going to see changes to your body like muscle gain and fluid retention from the increased muscle glycogen levels.

[00:18:39] This is a big change that can cause you to see a slow down in your weight loss, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially when it comes from muscle. So just wait it out, stick to the plan. And again, after a few weeks, you should see, you should see the weight loss resume. Reason. Number 18 related to this is you could be undergoing body recomposition.

[00:19:02] That is you could be burning fat while increasing muscle. And remember muscle is more dense than fat and it could be because your just started lifting or just, it could be because you're sort of optimizing all the variables and just. Nice sweet spot of slow body. Recomposition. And the way to tell one way to tell is if you're tracking your measurements, you know, you're tracking your waste and you lose inches in your waist, but the scale hasn't gone down, that's not a bad thing.

[00:19:29] That means you've probably lost some fat, maybe gained some muscle. And if you're happy with that and you wait it out, eventually you're probably going to start losing weight again. But if you need to nudge it, you can always cut some of those. Okay, reason number 19 is metabolic adaptation. Your body is simply becoming more efficient as you diet and get leaner and.

[00:19:55] And this is one of the big ones it's trying to protect itself. So your TDE is declining and your calories have to keep up and you may not be keeping up with it. So this causes what looks like a plateau. When in reality reality, the calories outside of the equation is just taking a nosedive before your very eyes.

[00:20:17] And you need to cut the calories accordingly. Now this is happening to an extreme. Way down in calories, you know, in the low thousands, or you're just getting really low. It may be time for a diet. A short break maybe for a week or maybe longer a few months. I think I talked about the last episode where you don't want to lose more than 10% of your weight in one continuous phase before taking a break for awhile at maintenance before resuming, or maybe this is giving you a signal that it's time to end the cut and go into a building phase.

[00:20:51] If you are really close to your target, it depends on what your goal is. But I put this reason toward the end, because I want to emphasize that all of these. Usually come down to the calories out side of the equation, other than the one about how you log your food and eating, you know, binge eating and stuff like that.

[00:21:07] But most of them have to do with calories out with your TD E declining, more than you think, and using an app like macro factor, which can track your day-to-day day. TDE will make it much easier. Peace of mind that that is what's happening. And therefore I simply need to continue to cut calories or make some other change to my behavior.

[00:21:28] You know, a little more walking or take a diet break or what have you. And finally, the last, the 20th reason for not losing weight could be an underlying health problem that is causing water retention. Okay. Notice I said water retention specific. No, I'm not a medical professional professional. You shouldn't take any advice from me at all.

[00:21:51] Talk to a medical professional, talk to your doctor, but I understand that certain illnesses, diseases, even cancer can cause things like water retention, and if you've exhausted everything else, and there's still some sort of very odd plateauing or lack of weight loss, maybe it is time to seek medical advice.

[00:22:11] So I just wanted to throw that in there. To let you know that I realized there are always outliers and there are exceptional cases where it really doesn't have to do with diet and training and all these other reasons, but that there could be some change going on to your body that's medical related that could also be causing a change in your scale, weight due to fluid.

[00:22:38] All right. So that's 20 reasons. You may not be losing weight. And now that you're equipped with all of these, I hope you feel empowered to uncover the problems specific to your situation and take action to move things in the right direction again. Or if you've experienced other reasons for not losing weight that are not on this list, or you have a personal story of overcoming this challenge, please reach out to me by.

[00:23:05] Or social media with your story.

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Thank you so much for joining me today. 

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