Remember last year when​ I wrote this​ telling you that you weren’t losing

fat because you’re eating too damn much (even when you don’t think
you are), and most of you were like:

Some were like:

Aaaaand there were some of these:
Yeah? Well, see, ​sometimes​ you can be eating in a calorie deficit and
still not be losing fat.

But, wait, you said…

Yes, I know what I said. ​In that article​ I was discussing the ​calories in
half of the equation. But there's also a ​calories out​ half.
This is where it gets a bit tricky – 5000 words worth of tricky to be exact.
See, while the ​calories in​ is pretty simple: you eat food. The ​calories out
is a bit more complicated.

Your body is pretty good at regulating your body weight, and while it's
completely happy with you getting fat, it doesn't take too well to ​you
losing fat.​ This is why even when you're being diligent with your calorie
deficit you may find your fat loss has come to a standstill.

Don't worry though, I got you. Here are 8 reasons you're not losing fat
even in a calorie deficit.
1. Not being patient
Let me share with you a conversation I have all the time.
So, yeah. I have that conversation pretty much all the time. And it’s one
of the biggest reasons why people don’t make any progress: a lack of
patience.

This is why.

When you first start your fat loss diet you see fast results and are
super motivated. These initial results give you a false sense of what
the process will ​actually​ be like. Soon, progress slows down as you
enter what I call “The Suck”: that period of time where you’re doing
everything right but still no progress is, seemingly, being made.
And then you give up because you’re an asshole who doesn’t believe
me when I tell you that you need to give it more time.

If you had given it time, this is what would’ve happened.

That’s right, progress.

Solution:

You can’t ​force ​fat loss. The only thing you can do is coax your body to
drop fat by eating in calorie deficit and training. SO. Firstly:

Calm the fuck down and be patient​. ​You didn’t get out of shape in a
week, you’re not getting in shape in a week. ​The people who have this
“fast fat loss” mentality are also the ones who tend to gain it back after
the diet ends, or quit entirely after a few weeks. Not because aggressive
dieting doesn’t work (1) but because this mentality encourages the use
of fad diets that, a) won’t be sustainable in the long-term, and b) doesn’t
help you build the habits that allow you to maintain the loss in the long
run.
Now that's out the way, the second thing we should probably
discuss is how fast you should be expecting to lose ​fat. ​This
depends on how much fat you have to lose.​ ​The higher your starting
levels of body fat, the faster you can expect to lose; conversely, the
leaner you start, a slower rate of loss will be best to minimise muscle
and strength loss.

With that in mind: set fat loss targets between ​0.5 - 1% of your total
bodyweight per week. ​The benefit of using percentages is the rate of
loss automatically scales with your bodyweight.

For example.

Someone who weighs 250 lbs can expect to lose~1.25 -2.5lbs per week.
Conversely, someone who weighs 160 lbs, will aim to lose ~0.8 - 1.6lbs
per week.

1b. You Keep Comparing Your Own

Progress to Others
This leads on from the previous point. And it's when you do this.
Look. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you shouldn't compare
your progress to others because we all do it. Just know the more you
look at other people and what they're doing, the more likely you are to
jump from programme to programme; diet to diet and never make any
progress of your own.

You don't know what someone else's circumstances are. Maybe they're
genetically superior​, and regardless of what they do they get results;
maybe they're on drugs; maybe they've been training every day for the
past twenty years.

Solution:

Seek out advice and ask questions. Don't be afraid to try things, but,
ultimately, you need to pick something and ​give it time – ​remember that
whole thing about patience?​ –​ focus on what you're doing and not what
everyone else is.

2. Metabolic Adaptation

A major reason why people's fat loss comes to halt even when they're
eating in a calorie deficit is simply due to the ​adaptive component of the
metabolism.​ While we refer to the metabolism as one entity, it consists of
four separate component parts: BMR, NEAT, EAT, and TEF.
1. BMR:​ As you’re sat reading this there are a bunch of chemical
processes occurring inside of you like, your brain using calories to
process this article, your eyes flicking from the phone screen to the
pretty girl sat opposite, simultaneously making your heart beat faster as
she stares back. All of this stuff, believe it or not, burns calories and is
your BMR or ​Basal Metabolic Rate.​ BMR makes up the chunk of your
metabolism and accounts for around 60-70% in most people.

2. NEAT: ​Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis​ is all the activity that

isn’t intentional exercise; fidgeting, walking, playing with your dog, etc.
NEAT accounts for around 30% of total energy expenditure, but can be
higher for certain people depending on how intensive their job is.

3. EAT:​ Exercise Activity Thermogenesis​ is intentional exercise.

Depending on what sort of exercises you perform, the number of calories
you burn can vary. For example, strength training would burn fewer
calories than an hour of running. For most of us, EAT accounts for
around 10-15% of calorie expenditure. Which is why it’s fairly impossible
to ​out train your diet.

4. TEF:​ Thermic Effect of Food​ is the number of calories you burn

digesting food. Even though TEF accounts for only 5-10%, it still factors
into energy expenditure.

Fat loss impacts each of these to some degree.

● BMR: A smaller body burns fewer calories

Your BMR is dictated by your size: the bigger you are (weight, height,
muscle, body fat, etc.), the higher your base calorie needs, conversely,
the lighter you are the lower your calorie needs. This is why, on average,
men require more calories than women.

As you lose fat and become leaner, you're decreasing your body size
and resultantly your calorie needs also decrease.

Solution:
You need to make adjustments to your calorie intake. This sounds
complicated, but it really isn’t.

Firstly: you need data to track changes.

 ● Weigh yourself daily,​ in the morning, after using the bathroom
and before eating breakfast.

This will give you your most accurate weight. After you have a week’s
worth of data, find the average weigh-in for the week.

Like so: you weigh yourself every day for seven days:

Mon – 176.1lbs

Tues – 174.6lbs

Wed – 174.3lbs

Thurs – 174.3lbs

Fri – 174.1lbs

Sat – 172.5lbs

Sun – 175.5lbs

The average weigh-in for the week is 174.4lbs [add up the seven days
worth of weigh-ins and divide by 7 to get the average].

Why the weekly average?

Your weight will fluctuate day to day depending on a host of different

factors as the table below illustrates.
The table shows three weeks worth of weekly weigh-ins and the weekly
averages in red text below. Note the day to day fluctuations in weight
(yellow highlights), but also note that the weekly averages are going
down week on week. This is why it’s important to keep track of your
weekly averages over time because they provide a much better picture
of how your weight is trending.

● Measurements.

Weigh-ins are only one piece of the puzzle and, as I illustrated above,
are going to fluctuate. Thus, not always an accurate reflection of weight
loss. Keeping track of your body measurements will help give you
something to compare your weigh-ins to and help you decide if you
should adjust or not. Take measurements once per week, under the
same conditions as the weigh-in (in the morning, after using the
bathroom and before eating breakfast).

● Progress Photos

Keeping weekly progress photos will also provide objective data for you
to base changes on. ​See this​ for how to take progress photos. And
w​atch this video​ where I discuss all of the above three in detail.

Secondly: On starting your diet ​don’t​ make any adjustments for the
first 4 weeks.

The body takes some time to 'catch up' to the deficit. Waiting 4 weeks
when you first set the deficit will allow enough time for you to really
gauge what's happening.

Alright. Let’s assume you’ve done all of the above, you’ve set the
deficit, waited 4 weeks, and fat loss really has come to a halt. How
do you make the adjustment?

Easy: Reduce calorie intake by 5-10%.

So, if you’re starting calorie intake was 2500 calories, you’d reduce this
by 125-250 calories.

Where should the adjustments come from?

This is where people get confused: should you cut carbs, fats, or
protein?

● Don’t touch protein intake or you’ll die. Ok, you won’t but,
seriously, leave protein as it is.
Carbs or fats?

This is going to be your call. But here are some suggestions:

● If you’re following a higher carb diet, reduce carb intake. This

reduction would be anywhere between 30 to 60 grams of carbs (1
gram of carbohydrate has 4 calories. 125/4 = 30, 250/4 = 60)

● If you’re following a higher fat or Ketogenic diet, reduce fat intake.

There are 9 calories in a gram of fat, so the reduction would be
anywhere between 13 to 27 grams of fat.

● If you are following a higher carb diet, don’t let your fat intake drop
below 15% of total calories. Because #health.

After your first adjustment, keep an eye on your weekly average weight,
measurements, and progress photos. Wait 2-3 weeks, If things look like
they’re stalling, make another 5-10% reduction.

2. NEAT: People expend less energy

The second part of the metabolism that takes a hit with the length of the
deficit is NEAT.

Quick aside: Note I've written 'the length of the deficit' and not 'calorie
intake'. Many people believe that low calories will affect their strength
and energy, this is only true when you combine low calorie intake with
long periods of time.

Simply: people begin to move around less (​2​,​3​). Not surprising

considering low calories will, inevitably, lead to decreased energy and
increased lethargy, which leads to massive reductions in the number of
calories expended.

Solution:
It appears that with weight gain, NEAT increases, and with weight loss,
NEAT decreases (​4​). To tackle the issue, simply set a target number for
movement outside of the gym– like walking – to aim for.

You can either:

a) Choose time: “40 minutes of light walking every day”

Or,

b) Step count: “10,000 steps per day”

Doing this will help ensure you’re keeping ​your total daily energy
expenditure somewhat consistent​. This also encourages the ​Eat
More–Move More​ mindset, which I'm a fan of. And there's sound
research (​5​,​6​) on its efficacy over its more popular, ​Eat Less– Move
More ​counterpart.

3. TEF: as you’ll be eating less food, the number of calories you

burn through eating and digestion will also be lower.

4. EAT: A smaller body burns fewer calories, so you’ll be burning

fewer calories through exercise.

3. Water Retention
Dieting (and exercise) is a form of stress on the body. And the longer
you diet, the more this stress increases. When stress is elevated for a
long period of time, the stress hormone cortisol increases and as a
result, people start retaining water.

Water retention tends to be more prominent among women. Here’s an

example of my ​female client​. The two photos are one week apart.
You can see the huge difference from one photo to the next. If I hadn’t
captioned these photos, you might think she'd lost body fat but really it
was just water retention. Water retention ‘masks’ fat loss and people
falsely assume they’re not losing fat even in a calorie deficit, or worse,
they’re gaining body fat – cue the ​“metabolic damage”​ news stories.

This is a very simple diagram illustrating the last paragraph.

The red line represents scale weight and the green line represents the
actual​ fat loss. You can see that due to water retention scale weight
remains stagnant but fat loss is still occurring. While water retention can
be frustrating and a total mindfuck, it's not permanent.

Solution:
1. Chill the fuck out.

If you're going through a particularly stressful moment in your life, maybe

dieting down to 8% bodyfat isn't the best idea; maybe it's better if you
simply focus on maintaining until the stressful period is over. Conversely,
running a high volume or 'strength' phase during stressful periods will
only hinder your progress and increase the chance of injury.

All of that to say, if you're chronically stressed you're going to find it

harder to lose fat and build muscle. Here are some things that can help.

– Meditation:​ This is where I pretend like I meditate so I don't come

across as a hypocrite. Truth is, I hate meditation. I'd rather fight a
pack of Direwolves with my bare hands than sit around meditating. I
tried it. I hated it. I'm not gonna do it, regardless of the benefits. BUT.
The evidence on meditation is pretty solid, it works. And some crazy
motherfuckers even enjoy it. Whatever man. If you want to give
meditation a go, more power to you. I wrote about my experience
here.

– Walking: ​This is my version of meditation. I love walking. I try to

get 30 minutes every morning. I purposefully leave my phone at
home and use this time to think about things, reflect, and all that
other good stuff.

– Massage:​ Getting a massage once a month can do wonders for

your stress levels.

– Have sex.

– Journalling:​ Getting your thoughts out of your head and onto

paper can offload a lot of the mental 'baggage' you carry with you.
Doodling also helps.
 – Don't write 3000+ word articles.​ No, but seriously.

2. PHASE the Diet.

I wrote about ​phasic dieting in detail here​, so go read that. But here’s the
Twitter summary:

Take 1-2 weeks off the diet by increasing calories – mainly through
carbs – to a maintenance intake or slightly higher to help reduce
stress and drop water.

A few more points of note on water and fat loss.

• Water retention and tracking for females.

Due to the menstrual cycle women can see some pretty crazy
fluctuations in weight. This can become frustrating because, a) it makes
it harder to gauge if you’re actually losing fat, and, b) it can result in you
making drastic changes to the diet, like cutting calories or adding in more
exercise to ‘solve’ the problem which only leads to an increase in stress
and the body holds onto more water.

To solve this, track weekly but ​compare monthly. ​A really simple way
to do this is to have an anchor week – the week your menstrual cycle
starts – and compare the anchor weeks month to month before deciding
to make any changes.

To illustrate:

– Month 1

Week 1 (average weigh-in): 130 lbs

 Week 2 (average weigh-in): 131.2 lbs

Week 3 (average weigh-in): 134 lbs ⇒ Anchor week

Week 4 (average weigh-in): 132.4 lbs

– Month 2

Week 1 (average weigh-in): 131 lbs

Week 2 (average weigh-in): 130.1 lbs

Week 3 (average weigh-in): 131 lbs ⇒ Anchor week

Week 4 (average weigh-in): 131.3 lbs

In the example above, the fictitious woman has dropped 3 lbs between
the two anchor weeks, and wouldn’t need to make any adjustments as
she’s losing weight just fine. Had she gained weight between the two
anchor weeks, it would be time to consider making adjustments to the
diet.

• Carbs and Water

1g of carbohydrates comes along with 3-4g of water.

If you've just finished a period of low carb or ketogenic dieting and are
wanting to reintroduce carbs into your diet you're going to gain weight on
the scale. As you eat more carbs, your body will also store water which
will increase your weight on the scale.

This is all just illusory​.

To illustrate:

Let's say you decide to go back to a high carb diet after a period of
consuming ~50g of carbs per day.

You bump carb intake to 300g which brings with it ~1200g of water.
Based on these numbers, you can expect to gain somewhere between
2-4lbs (adjusted for water/salt) on the scale.

• Creatine

If you've added creatine into your diet ​after​ starting a fat loss phase, you
can expect the scale to go up. Creatine does cause you to retain water
but the mechanisms are completely different to stress related water
retention.

This is stress related water retention:

You can see that the water appears just underneath the layer of skin.
This is why when people are retaining water they'll complain of looking
'soft'. This is referred to as ​subcutaneous water retention.

This is what it looks like with creatine.

See the difference? ​Creatine pulls water into the muscles.​ This is what
contributes to the 'full' look people often experience after supplementing
with creatine. So, firstly: don't worry about looking 'soft' if you
supplement with creatine. And secondly, just be aware that creatine can
cause your scale weight to increase. It's not fat gain, it's simply weight
gain from the water in your muscle cells.
4. Health Issues
Certain health conditions can affect fat loss, like hypothyroidism,
polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and even ​Menopause.​ Medication
can also be a factor, antidepressants and birth control pills, for example,
are known to cause weight gain.

Solution:

If you're sticking to your diet, training hard and still not losing fat, It's
always best to consult your doctor to make sure you don't have any
underlying health conditions you aren’t aware of.

In regards to medication and weight gain, I reached out to ​Dr. Spencer

Nadolsky, aka. The Doc Who Lifts​ and his advice was:

● Discuss with your doctor IF there are ANY other

options.Sometimes there are and sometimes there are not.

● Understand that it may be a barrier and ACCEPT it. Work on

things you CAN control.

● There are medicines to add in that may be of benefit. For example,

metformin with antipsychotics. Also sometimes appetite
suppressants if the medicines is making you hungry

Please note that I'm not a doctor so if you email me asking what seems
to be medical advice, all I'm allowed to say is, 'I'm not a doctor, please
go speak to your healthcare professional'.
5. Your Fat Loss Plan is Dumb
Here’s the thing: you don't want to lose ​weight, ​you want to lose ​fat. ​And
the two are entirely different things.

You seem lost. Let me explain.

(Body) ​weight ​is​ ​everything that makes up your body mass — things like
your muscles, body fat, organs, water, bones, etc. ​Weight loss is easy:
deplete your water levels, remove carbs from your diet ...hell, stop eating
altogether and you’ll lose ‘weight’. You'll probably also die.
Fat loss​ is the process of losing body fat while maintaining your muscle
mass and/or even gaining muscle mass.

With that in mind, there are a few key requisites to a good fat loss plan.

● Sufficient protein intake

● Engage in strength training
● A reasonable calorie deficit

So stop with the endless hours of cardio – ​you can't out train your diet​,
remember?– or those ​silly BOOTY BLASTER ​plyometric fuckery HIIT
workouts your favourite Insta-Celeb swears is the secret to her
voluptuous ass:
Because it isn't.

Solution:

Stop focussing on ​weight loss​ and start focussing on ​fat loss.

● Lift weights and consume adequate protein:​ ​Strength training

and ​adequate protein consumption​ will conserve muscle mass ​and
your BMR when dieting.

● Aim to lose around 0.5 - 1% of your bodyweight per week. ​In

conjunction with the above, at this rate of loss, you’ll prevent or at
the least, greatly minimise muscle loss.
Read this​ for an in-depth guide on how to set up your diet.

6. You're Gaining Muscle

If you’re not losing weight, or have even started gaining weight, and
you’re certain you’re eating in a calorie deficit, – certain like, y​ ou've read
this article​ and made sure you're actually not eating too much even if
you think you aren't, certain – then there’s a good chance y​ ou’re gaining
muscle.

Solution:

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this already but I can’t remember, so fuck
it, I'm saying it again: The scale is only one tool you should be using to
track progress. Tracking your body measurements, progress photos, and
strength gains will be far better indicators of muscle growth.

● Body measurements: ​If your chest, arms, and quads

measurements have increased while your stomach measurements
have decreased or stayed the same, well done, you’ve gained
muscle.

● Progress pics:​ Compare progress photos month to month to get a

better idea if you’re gaining muscle. Looking bigger and/or new
lines where there never use to be lines? Well done, you’ve gained
muscle.

● Strength increase:​ Increases in strength correlate fairly well with

increases in muscle size in beginners and early intermediates. If
you’re in a calorie deficit, and you’re strength has, or still is,
increasing, then well done, there’s a very good chance you’re
gaining muscle.
7. You Don't Need to Lose Fat
This is the one nobody wants to hear. Well, fuck you. Because it isn’t
about what you ​want ​to hear, it’s what you ​need​ to hear. If you’re lacking
muscle mass and dieting to lose the fat you don't have, you're going to
end up looking worse. Let's bring back Christian Bale from his hectic
filming schedule so he can illustrate what I mean.

In both photos, Bale is exhibiting the 'ripped' look - if we go by the

standard definition of 'exhibiting low body fat'. But what look do you
prefer? I'm going to go ahead and assume the 60lb heavier Bale from
Batman.

There's one defining factor between Machinist Bale, and Batman

Bale: Muscle.
The more muscle you have on your frame, the better you’re going to look
when dieted down. So, if you’re lacking sufficient muscle mass, you don’t
need to lose fat, you need to gain muscle.

Ladies, this applies to you too. ​See this.

And to teens and beginners.​ If you’re a teen (14-19 years old), or just
starting out, unless you’re really overweight, you shouldn’t be ‘dieting’.
You’re at the golden age of growth. Eat in a calorie surplus, or at the
minimum of​ maintenance​ and train hard. Take advantage of this period
of time to maximise your muscle growth. You'll have enough time to diet
later.

8. You Need to ​Stop​ Dieting

Are you a chronic dieter? You know, this:

*scroll down for image*

*Keep scrolling*
The chronic dieter is stuck in a perpetual state of dieting. They 'end' a
diet, only to begin dieting again a week later. This constant dieting is
neither healthy or conducive to progress. With chronic dieting comes:

● Muscle loss:​ the longer you stay in a calorie deficit, the more you
risk muscle loss. This is why you should be ​phasing periods​ of
dieting with periods of maintenance or a slight calorie surplus.

● Disordered eating:​ You can only sustain a calorie restricted diet

for so long. The longer you restrict calories, the more likely you are
to end up bingeing, and then feel guilty about your binge, try to
restrict calories ​again​ – through unsustainable methods – and then
binge ​again​ when you can’t adhere to it.

● Spinning your wheels:​ doing the above only means you’re going
to make zero progress with your goals.

Solution:

If this point resonated with you, and you see these behaviours in
yourself, maybe it’s time to stop dieting for a while. Raise calories up to
maintenance and just focus on your training, while striving to find some
normalcy.

Yes, this means you might gain some fat and not look how you want for
a while. But it’s something you’re going to need to do to make progress
in the future.

The End
If you're reading this then that means you, unlike the majority of the
internet, don't have an attention span shorter than a Goldfish. Which I
guess is a compliment in a really weird way. So well done.
Seeing that you're here you might as well share this with your friends
and tell them to read it, I mean, unless they like being bested by a fish.

Notes

1. On the contrary, faster weight loss actually improves ​long term

weight maintenance​;