Calorie Counting But Not Losing Weight

This is something I hear on a daily basis. Someone will tell me they’re eating better. Or eating healthy. Or eating less. Or eating “right.” Or following some type of diet that’s designed for weight loss.

Well, if you’re wondering the same thing, keep reading… because I’m going to show you every single possible cause there is, and how to solve them.

As you’re about see, there are many different reasons for why a person will be in a scenario where they’re eating right and/or exercising but not actually losing any weight.

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, but simultaneously gaining some other form of “weight” that counterbalances it and temporarily prevents any progress from showing up on the scale.

So, the person might lose X pounds of fat while gaining X pounds of something else (i.e. water, muscle, glycogen, poop, food, etc.), thus causing their weight to stay exactly the same or sometimes even go up (details here: 12 Causes Of Unexplained Weight Gain).

How can that be? Because they’re either A) not accurately measuring their progress, B) not accurately interpreting their progress (or lack thereof), or C) a combination of both… and it’s preventing them from actually seeing that it’s happening.

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Unlike the previous two categories, where fat was successfully being lost while a separate issue (gaining some other form of weight or improper tracking) prevented that fat loss progress from being known, this third category isthe only one where weight loss isn’t happening because fat loss legitimately isn’t happening.

), the excess is stored in the form of fat… which results in fat gain. But when you eat less than this amount (aka

), your body burns your stored fat for fuel instead… which results in fat loss. Full explanation here: Calories In vs Calories Out

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Because no matter who you are, what your diet or workout is, or what any other detail of your individual situation may be, I can promise you that the specific reason for why you’re not losing weight will always fall into one of these three categories.

Did you eat more salt than usual? Maybe more salty processed food (junk food, fast food, chips, etc.) than you normally do? Or maybe some otherwise “good” food that just happened to be extra salty (this is especially common when eating out at a restaurant)? Or maybe you just added more salt to your meals than you normally do?

If so, there’s a damn good chance that you’ve gained some temporary water weight, as any meaningful increase in sodium intake will usually lead to some temporary water retention, practically overnight.

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… all because the gain in “water weight” is counterbalancing the loss of “fat weight” on the scale, which will temporarily hide your progress.

Don’t allow temporary water retention caused by eating more sodium than usual to obscure your true fat loss progress. To do this, first be aware that a higher-than-normal salt intake can have this effect, this way you’re not surprised or confused if it happens.

2-4 consecutive weeks rather than caring about day-to-day (or even single week-to-week) changes. This will minimize the impact that any short-term “weight” fluctuations can have on your progress tracking.

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Did you eat more carbs than you normally do? Maybe you’re coming off of a low carb diet? Maybe you’re using some kind of calorie cycling approach that involves eating more carbs on certain days than on others? Maybe you’re doing a refeed? Maybe you’re taking a diet break? Or, most commonly of all, maybe you just “messed up” a little on your diet and unintentionally ate more carbs than you were intending to?

Whatever the reason, you should know that thecarbs we eat are stored asglycogenin our muscles and liver.And for every gram of glycogen being stored, about 3 grams of water are stored along with it.

This means that whenever your carb intake increases by any meaningful amount one day or over the course of many days, a temporary increase in your body weight will occur as a result of some temporary water retention.

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This, by the way, is why people lose a bunch of weight fairly quickly whenstarting a low carb diet. They will then falsely believe they’re losing a bunch of fat (when it’s really just water/glycogen) and see it as clear proof that it’s carbs (and not calories) that are the key to weight loss.

Don’t allow the temporary water retention caused by eating more carbs than usual to obscure your true fat loss progress. To do this, first be aware that a higher-than-normal carb intake can have this effect, this way you’re not surprised or confused if it happens.

On the other hand, drinking a sufficient amount of water on a daily basis will have the opposite effect and help to prevent and/or reduce water retention.

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Why does this matter? Because if an insufficient water intake causes some temporary water weight gain, it has the potential to temporarily hide your true fat loss progress (just like the water weight gain caused by an increased sodium or carb intake).

Don’t allow the temporary water retention caused by an insufficient water intake to obscure your true fat loss progress. To do this, the first obvious step would be to consume enough water each day.

Ever hear of the hormone cortisol? We often refer to it as the “stress hormone” because it increases in response to stress.

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The reason I’m telling you this is because one of the negative side effects of elevated cortisol levels is water retention. And as you should certainly know by now, one of the problems with water retention is the potential for it to counterbalance the weight of fat being lost.

First up, we have all of the usual forms of stress you’re probably already thinking of. Work, school, family, friends, husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend, and whatever other normal day-to-day obviously stress-inducing problems people experience.

Then there’s a weight-loss-specific subcategory of this type of stress that involves things like freaking out over normal meaningless fluctuations in your body weight (you know, like the kind caused by temporary water retention), freaking out over “messing up, ” freaking out about why you’re not losing weight, obsessing about your diet/workout, and whatever else people commonly and unnecessarily drive themselves nuts about in the context of weight loss.

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Then there are physical forms of stress, and you’re about to see some examples of that coming up next on this list.

First and foremost, avoid stress as well as you can. This is easier said than done, I know. But finding ways to at least minimize whatever stress you have in your life and/or finding better ways of dealing with that stress is the only true solution.

Insufficient sleep has a negative effect on damn near everything, including hormones. From lowering testosterone, to increasing ghrelin, to reducing leptin, to… you guessed it… increasing cortisol.

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And with that increase in cortisol comes the potential for water retention. And with that, the potential for water weight to temporarily hide your fat loss progress.

Sleep 7-9 hours a night. I cover some recommendations for how to do that here: How To Fall Asleep Fast And Sleep Better Through The Night

Most people who are trying to lose weight will incorporate some form of exercise into their program. This is a good thing.

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Whether it’s weight training for the purpose of building muscle, weight training for the purpose of maintaining muscle while losing fat, cardio for the purpose of burning calories, or whatever the hell else… it’s always a good thing.

Among the many things that makes too much exercise “bad” (e.g. exceeding your capacity to recover, not making progress, losing progress, injuries, etc.) is that it leads to elevated cortisol levels. Exercise is a physical form of stress, after all, and the more excessive it is in terms of how much you’re doing, how often you’re doing it, and/or how intense it is… the more stressful it will be.

And with that stress comes elevated cortisol levels, which leads to water retention, which leads to the potential for it to counterbalance the loss of body fat.

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This is one of a few reasons (the others will be coming shortly) for how a person can be in a scenario where they’re doing TONS of exercise (usually cardio) but yet not losing any weight. Their cortisol levels are simply through the roof, and they’re retaining a bunch of water.

Don’t do excessive amounts of exercise. For weight training, when weight loss is the goal, I recommend no more than 3-4 workouts per week. For cardio… I recommend doing

The actual act of losing fat (or, more accurately, the caloric deficit itrequires) represents a large form of stress to the body. After all, a caloric deficit is an

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Not to mention, you’re body can’t tell the difference between you eating a little less because you’re trying to look better naked, or because you’re about to starve to death. So, it responds the same way to both.

Which is all to say that there is quite a bit of physical stress involved in the weight loss process, which is why cortisol goes up during this time.

And the longer this stressful, calorie-deficient state lasts (and the leaner and leaner you get

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