Tuesday Tip: Common barriers to sustainable fat loss

Tuesday Tip: Common barriers to sustainable fat loss ⛔️

This may be hard to hear but here are a few of the common barriers to fat loss.

#1 Expectations

Most of us assume that not only will we lose weight quickly and easily, but that it will then stay off without a thought. This is a dangerous mindset to cultivate. Be realistic with your rate of loss – a realistic weight loss per week would be 0.5% of your bodyweight (rising to 1% for a really aggressive calorie restriction) and that’s an average – so you won’t see that every week. To put that in perspective – if you weigh 65kg that’s 650g a week. Trying to go faster than this will get you nowhere – all that will happen is you’ll lose muscle as well as fat, and encourage disordered eating and binge:restriction behaviours. You should be developing new habits and a new lifestyle – you can’t do that when you’re just trying to shift weight asap.

# Short term

This isn’t short term – the things you do in order to create the change are things you will have to keep doing – forever. Can you go for the rest of your life without ‘carbs’? If not then cutting carbs/ keto is not for you. If you tend to overeat in the evenings after starving all day then fasting isn’t for you etc. Be realistic – make small changes to create a calorie deficit, that you can sustain – forever.

# Refusing to adapt

You have to be prepared to adapt and you have to accept that life won’t always be the same and it won’t always be easy. There will be periods of time when you’re busy with work, having a personal crisis, or some family disaster etc. That doesn’t mean your diet/ fitness/health should automatically get thrown off track! In fact during these times sticking to some healthy habits may help keep you going but that doesn’t mean the methods you use need to stay the same. You may not manage to track calories when you’re busy, or you may not make it to the gym 5 days a week so make adjustments – use some go to meals you know are lower calorie, decide to aim for 1-3 workouts instead etc.

# Starting Monday

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “It’s Monday, I’m back on it.” A lot of people go full out during the week – smashing those calories, working out etc but then come the weekend social events/ family life etc takes over and it all goes out the window. Instead look at your entire week – all 7 days and adopt a balanced approach. Set realistic goals for all days, and DON’T just give yourself a pass because it’s the weekend.

# Be honest

If you can’t be honest with yourself, without berating yourself, then you’re probably not

looking at long term sustainability. You have to be able to see where you are falling short and make honest adjustments. You have to know yourself, know your weaknesses, and be willing to make changes.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx