You’re Doing Everything Right, and Still Not Seeing Results

You’re Doing Everything Right, and Still Not Seeing Results

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in this situation, but if you have, I’m here to tell you that:

a) It’s OK. You’re not “messing up” and
b) You’re not alone

Over the years I’ve had women email and message me asking why, when they’re doing everything right, they’re just not seeing the results they feel they should be seeing.

Before we go into troubleshooting mode, let’s talk about two things.

1. What does “doing everything right” mean?

For some this means eating what they perceive to be healthy and working out. If this answer were on a continuum of vague to specific, it would be on the end of the ‘vague’ side.

That’s not to say this answer shouldn’t give you any credit. Eating more healthy foods than you were previously eating and exercising regularly is a HUGE win, in and of itself.

On the other side of the continuum we have someone who defines ‘everything right’ as tracking everything they’re eating and doing every workout in their program written to a t.

Neither is right or wrong; I just want to lay some context for how much variance this phrase can have.

2. What are realistic expectations for results?

Most of my clients want to see steady, sustainable results that don’t lead to them yo-yoing. And if a client wants super fast results that aren’t sustainable, I usually refer them to another coach.

Realistic results will vary depending on your goal. But for the sake of fat loss, let’s say a realistic goal is .5-1 pound a week, knowing that scale weight especially is NOT linear and some weeks will be more or less than this.

And sometimes, you might notice that your clothes are fitting better even on a week(s) the scale didn’t move. That’s still awesome progress. This is why I don’t put too much stock in the scale. It’s a good measurement tool, but I prefer the month to month progress view even over week to week. Especially with women who have hormone fluctuations throughout the month that influence the number on the scale, but don’t necessarily have anything to do with true fat loss.

Ok, now that that’s cleared up….

So when one of my clients’ progress stalls, before automatically adjusting their intake, macros, or nutrition guidance, we do a quick troubleshoot. A little back and forth Q&A.

These five areas have a tendency to get a little misconstrued, and are common reasons why you might not be seeing the progress you “should” be seeing.

1. Logging Retrospectively

For my clients who are tracking their food (intake, protein, or all 3 macros,) I ask them to log their food for the next day the night before. This way they have a plan for what they’re going to eat, and it’s already all plugged in. If a meal changes, NBD. They can go back in and change it.

Accuracy really starts to plummet when you track your food for the day at the END of that day. Not only can you likely not remember every bite, but the accuracy in your portions eaten is likely off, as well.

Something as minor as this could end you up back at maintenance.

2. (Mis)eyeballing portions

What we often think is a serving of food is actually far more than one serving.

Case in point: peanut butter, and anyone who’s measured out 2 tablespoons/32 grams of PB vs eyeballing it with a kitchen spoon.

A little measuring or weighing can go a long way in ensuring accuracy, especially when first starting out, regardless of whether you’re tracking your intake or macros or not.

3. Bites/licks/tastes throughout the day – and not accounting for them

Before I had kids, I’d always have clients who said they always pick on the food on their kids plates – or leftover from their plates. And I never got it. Like….why?

Then I became a mom and started doing it myself. I still can’t really explain it, but when an entire serving of chicken is left on the plate that you just cooked for them, and you didn’t have time to actually make your own lunch and sit down to eat it, three chicken nuggets can become your lunch.

And some animal crackers.

And then as you’re cooking dinner cheese and crackers because you’re so hungry because you didn’t sit down and eat an actual lunch like an adult.

At least this is what I hear.…ahem 😉

4. Not accounting for higher calorie condiments

I don’t have my clients track fibrous veggies or low calorie condiments like mustard. But mayonnaise and mayo-based sauces can pack on a good 300-400 missed cals when not portioned out and accounted for. (And I’m not hating on mayonnaise – it’s probably my favorite condiment!)

5. Just not being as consistent as you think you’re being

This is a big one. We tend to over-inflate the days we acted in a way to move toward our goals and down play the days we didn’t. I ask my clients to adhere to the plan at LEAST 80% of the time. That means if you’re on plan Mon-Thurs but not Fri, Sat, or Sun, that’s only 57%, which could land you at maintenance – or in a surplus. Even 5 days out of 7 is still only 71%.

As a last little factor here, I will say that one other possible contributor is a subconscious decrease in NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis.

Here’s the thing – the body naturally wants to take the path of least resistance. Burning body fat (and conversely, increasing lean muscle mass) is NOT that path.

So the body tries to adjust for this by automatically decreasing (or increasing, if you’re in a surplus) NEAT.

NEAT is just the amount you move throughout the day that’s NOT your actual workout, and it accounts for the largest part of your total daily energy expenditure (outside of your BMR.)

And circling back to the beginning of this post….you’re not “messing up.” You’re setting a goal and striving to make steps in the direction toward that goal. You can’t mess this up! You learn and apply and keep on applying 💗

I hope this is helpful for you! XO
Paige