Never Diet Again with Max Lowery

I’ve Helped Over 1000 Women Lose Weight - These Are The Biggest Mistakes

• Max Lowery

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In this hard-hitting episode, weight loss coach Max Lowery exposes the 21 most common mistakes that keep women over 40 stuck, frustrated, and constantly starting over. Drawing on over a decade of experience helping women lose weight without dieting, Max explains why conventional strategies like over-exercising, cutting out favorite foods, and relying on willpower are not only ineffective—they’re damaging.

Max unpacks the deeper truths behind fat loss, including how emotional eating, sleep, identity, and all-or-nothing thinking quietly sabotage even the most dedicated efforts.

You’ll Learn:
 ✅ Why eating too little slows your progress
✅ How snacking—even on healthy foods—can prevent fat loss
✅ The problem with relying on personal trainers and nutritionists for weight loss
✅ How to finally shift your mindset, habits, and identity for sustainable weight loss

If you’ve ever thought, “I’m doing everything right but still not losing weight,” this episode will show you what you’re missing—and how to fix it for good.


Watch my The Cravings & Fat-Burning Masterclass:   https://www.neverdietagain.uk/register-podcast

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/max.lowery/

Book a Food Freedom Breakthrough Call: https://calendly.com/maxlowerycoaching/food-freedom-breakthrough-call

Max Lowery:

In my 10-year career, I've helped over 1,000 women lose weight and keep it off without dieting. I've compiled a list of the 21 biggest mistakes that most women over 40 make when it comes to weight loss. Not only do these mistakes make the weight come back on, but they can actually damage your body. I'm going to warn you, some of these might feel confronting, triggering or even surprising, but this is exactly the point. If you want lasting change, you must face the truth. So take notes and watch this with an open mind. How do you create a life that allows you to lose weight, eat the foods that you love and sustain the results? Over the last 10 years, I've helped thousands of people do exactly that. I'm Max Lowery. I'm an author, personal trainer and weight loss coach. In this podcast, I'm going to share my top tips and tricks from within my one-on-one coaching program. It's my goal to give you the tools and understanding so that you never diet again.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number one you don't address your core beliefs. This is one of the most important and most overlooked mistakes. A lot of the women I work with have been overweight for their entire lives. They've always been the chubby one. They've always been emotional eaters. They've always told themselves. Stories like this is just how I am. I've always struggled with food. I'll never be someone who can lose weight and keep it off. Over time, these stories become your identity, they become part of who you are. They get locked in as core beliefs and once that happens, it doesn't matter what diet you follow, how motivated you feel or how hard you try, because deep down your subconscious is saying what's the point? This isn't who I am. It's never going to last. So it ends up with self-sabotage. You stop showing up. You never go all in because part of you already believes you're going to fail. So if you don't shift your identity, you'll always back to the version of you that feels safe, even if that version is unhappy, unhealthy and overweight. So start by getting brutally honest what stories are you telling yourself about who you are? And then ask are these beliefs helping me or hurting me? Because until you change the story, you'll never change the outcome.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number two not eating enough. Yes, I said it not eating enough. Most of the women I speak to are trying to lose weight, so they restrict their food, they skip breakfast, they eat tiny lunches and maybe they have a small dinner, and it works for a few days, maybe even a week, but behind the scenes, something's building Hunger. They're obsessing about food. They can't stop thinking about it and at some point usually in the evening or the weekends it all unravels. They overeat, they binge and they feel like a failure all over again. But here's the truth you're not broken. Your body's just starving. So eat more at mealtimes. Build your meals around protein, healthy fats and whole carbs. Eat enough to feel satisfied. This one shift will reduce your overall hunger, give you more control and stop the late night and weekend binging. And, as a consequence, even though it feels like you're eating more food which can be quite scary overall, you will eat less.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number three cutting out your favorite foods. Diet culture has taught you that weight loss equals restriction and deprivation. Cut out the chocolate, cut out the wine, cut out the pizza, cut out everything that brings joy. Sound familiar? This is exactly what diet culture, the media and society have drilled into your brain. But let me be blunt this is a recipe for failure. It's unsustainable, it's unenjoyable and it leads to short-term success, if any at all. And even worse, it's powered by motivation and willpower, and both of those run out very fast, especially if you've got children, a job or elderly parents to look after. Weight loss comes from being in a calorie deficit, not cutting out everything you love. Real success lies with learning how to eat your favorite foods and lose weight at the same time. That's what creates long-term, sustainable success and that's exactly what I teach my clients. If you want to get one-on-one coaching and support from experts, click the link below to book in for a food freedom breakthrough call with myself or one of the team.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number four stop fucking snacking. Yes, I said it Stop fucking snacking. Snacking is a huge problem. I cannot overstate this. I'm not just talking about crisps and chocolate. Even healthy snacks the nuts, the avocado, the hummus are all part of the issue, because in the last 20 years, snacking has become completely normalized, and that's not by accident. Big food has made it that way. They want you eating their processed, addictive food-like products all day long. You could be consuming an extra 500 calories every single day just from snacks, even if you're eating healthy and exercising, and that's enough to put on a pound a week. This is a pound of body fat 500 calories extra on top of your maintenance calories. So if you've ever thought, why the hell am I gaining weight even when I'm trying so hard? This could be it. So ditch the snacks, eat larger satisfying meals with protein and fiber, and when you really eat until you're full, three meals a day you'll realize you do not need to snack.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number five exercising too much. Yes, I know this view might be controversial, but exercise is a terrible weight loss tool. It will improve your life in thousands of ways. It is literally a magic pill for health and happiness. But as a weight loss tool it's pretty shit. You can't out-exercise a bad diet. It takes an hour of hard exercise to burn 500 calories An hour, but you can eat 500 calories in 30 seconds. And let's be honest, when you exercise purely to burn fat, it turns into a punishment. You start resenting it, you hate how you look, so you try to burn it off and suddenly exercise becomes a chore, not a lifestyle. And even worse, it drastically spikes your hunger levels. You eat more, you crave more and you undo the hard work without realizing it. So our clients lose up to 30 pounds in 90 days without doing a single workout, and they do that just by upping their general movement. They aim for 7,000 to 15,000 steps per day, and once they've lost weight, then they get into exercise. If you get 7,000 to 15,000 steps in per day, you will burn more calories than a hard exercise session.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number six you only address surface level issues Meal plans, workout routines, cutting out carbs, sugar or your favorite foods. These are all surface level fixes to deep-rooted problems. They do nothing to address why you gain weight in the first place. They won't fix the fact that you turn to food when you're stressed, bored, angry, sad, lonely or as a reward at the end of the day. They won't fix the hormonal changes that happen to women over the age of 40. They won't fix your mindset. They won't fix your all or nothing thinking and they won't fix your lack of self-belief or inconsistency. And as long as you keep ignoring the real issues, you're going to stay stuck in the same loop, no matter how hard you try. So stop hiding from the truth, stop running in fear and start going deeper. When you finally address these real issues the identity, the mindset and the emotional barriers that keep you stuck not only will you lose weight, but every single area of your life will get better. If you want to understand more about how we do this with our clients, click the link below to get access to the free Cravings and Fat Loss Masterclass.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number seven getting less than 5,000 steps per day. The modern world is designed to keep you sedentary. You sit on the train or the car on the way to work, you sit at a desk all day, you sit on the way home and then you sit in front of the TV until bed, where you lie down for eight hours. If you're getting less than 5,000 steps per day, you're not just burning fewer calories, you're doing long-term damage to your body Back pain, knee issues, hips, wrecked mobility and that's just the physical side. Here's what most people don't talk about. When you barely move, your health suffers too. Anxiety increases, stress builds up, you feel stuck, tired and disconnected. Most people are literally living in boxes all day the box at home, the box at the office, the box on wheels aka your car and then back to the box at home again. If you locked your dog in a box all day with no exercise, it would go mad, and you are no different. So up your steps, build activity into things you're already doing and aim for 7 to 15,000.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number eight going to a personal trainer for weight loss. This might surprise you and just to be clear, I'm not bashing personal trainers. I used to be one. Pts are amazing for getting you fit. If you want to build strength or train for a marathon, go and see a personal trainer. But if you're seeing a personal trainer for fat loss, you are likely wasting your time and money. Here's what usually happens. They give you a strict meal plan. You're pushed to smash your body in the gym several times a week and you'll probably lose some weight at first, but the second your motivation dips or life gets stressful. You'll gain it all back Because the real reasons you put on weight are never addressed the emotional eating, the identity issues, the stress and here's the part nobody says out loud.

Max Lowery:

Most personal trainers are in their 20s. They have zero understanding of what a woman over 40 is actually going through Perimenopause, menopause, metabolic changes, energy crashes, mood swings. They don't get it and they can actually do more harm than good. So work with someone who specializes in helping women over 40. Someone who understands your hormones, your lifestyle and your mindset and goes deeper than just eat less and move more. That is the only way you'll lose the weight and keep it off. Really quick one for me, guys. I don't run ads on this podcast and I do aim to give you as many high-value tips and tricks as I can for free. All I ask in return is that you help me spread the word. That way I can help as many people as I can to never diet again. The way to do that is to rate, review and share this podcast. A review will only take 30 seconds, but it would mean the world to me. But, more importantly, it could help change the life of someone else.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number nine going to see a nutritionist for weight loss. This one might trigger a few people, but it needs to be said. I've worked with thousands of women over 40, and I've had to undo the damage caused by nutritionists more times than I can count. So I'm not saying all nutritionists are bad people. They mean well. They're often highly qualified, highly intelligent and genuinely want to help. Many even specialize in working with women over 40. But here's the key problem Most of the time, all you get is a strict meal plan and maybe a very long list of supplements and zero understanding of what's actually going on beneath the surface. They don't have the tools or training to address the real issues we've been talking about in this video. And, what's worse, when you don't get results, they blame you. You're told you need more discipline, more motivation, and you walk away feeling like a failure. But you are not a failure, it's the approach. You need more than just a strict meal plan to get you out of this. So don't make this mistake.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number 10, not adjusting your approach now that you're 40. This one comes up all the time. I've worked exclusively with women over 40 for the last 10 years and I constantly hear the same thing what I used to do just doesn't work anymore and what they used to do Smashing HIIT sessions, cutting out carbs, skipping meals, extreme diets and brutal gym routines. It worked back then for two reasons you had the energy and the motivation and you also had the time and fewer responsibilities. But now you're in the perimenopause or menopause, you're more sensitive to stress, physically and mentally. You've got a career, children and possibly aging parents. Your plate is full and your body has changed. And what happens? You try to force the old approach. You can't keep up, so you do nothing, and then you beat yourself up for doing nothing and it's a vicious cycle and it keeps you stuck. So let go of what works in your 20s and 30s. It's not about what you can't do. It's about what you can do now. Maybe hit is off the table, but long walks or gentle jogs are doable. Maybe you can't starve yourself, but you can cut out snacking and eat mindfully. Do what you can. Something is better than nothing.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number 11, forgetting that healthy food still contains calories. This one comes up all the time. Max, I don't get it. I'm eating healthy but I'm not losing weight is what I hear constantly. But here's the truth. Healthy food still contains calories, and calories count, even if it's organic, clean or nutrient-dense. So if you're snacking on nuts, peanut butter, avocados, granola, all the healthy snack bars, or pouring olive oil over everything, you're probably consuming way more calories than you think, and that can absolutely stop fat loss in its tracks. So if you've never tracked your calories before, even just once, just do it, not forever, just for two weeks. Get clear on what's actually going into your body and I'm willing to bet that it's going to surprise you.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number 12, lying to yourself about emotional eating. A few months ago, I sent out a survey and 500 women filled it in, and here's what shocked me 90% of them said they weren't emotional eaters. But in the very same survey they said they turn to food when they're stressed, bored, procrastination or as a reward at the end of the day and let me be clear that is emotional eating. If you're eating without physical hunger, you are emotionally eating, and here's why this matters. If you keep lying to yourself and saying I'm not an emotional eater, you'll never actually fix the root cause of your weight struggles and diets. They don't touch this. They just give you a meal plan and a workout which is dependent on willpower and motivation. So if you eat when you're not physically hungry, you need to address emotional eating. When you're not physically hungry, you need to address emotional eating. And remember you don't have to do it alone. If you want my help book in a call for a food freedom breakthrough, call by clicking the link below.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number 13, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You've probably heard the quote insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Supposedly Einstein said it, but I'm not really sure. But it applies perfectly to weight loss. Every January I see the same thing, the same women doing the same diet, following the same fads, cutting out the same foods. And every year that woman ends up in the same place, frustrated, exhausted and stuck and blaming themselves. If what you've been doing actually worked, you'd be done by now. You wouldn't still be searching, you wouldn't still be starting over Surface. Were it you'd be done by now, you wouldn't still be searching, you wouldn't still be starting over Surface. Level fixes lead to surface level results. You're trying to solve a long-term problem with short-term thinking. So stop hiding from the truth, stop blaming yourself for not sticking to broken strategies and start asking for real Change your approach Mistake number 14, thinking you've done everything and there's nothing new to learn.

Max Lowery:

This is one of the biggest mental blocks I see in women I work with. They tell themselves why would I need coaching? I've already tried everything. I've read all the books, I've done every diet, I've bought every meal plan, I've joined all the local gyms and look, I get it. You're probably drowning in weight loss information. You feel like there's nothing new left to learn. You know what you need to do, you're just not doing it. But here's what I've learned after coaching thousands of women you know how to lose weight, but you don't know how to lose weight and keep it off. These are two completely different things. One relies on cutting out your favorite foods, restricting and depriving yourself, and using motivation and willpower, and the other one involves peeling back the layers, addressing your identity, rewiring emotional habits and solving the real reasons behind your weight gain, because, in reality, if you really knew everything, you wouldn't still be stuck. So maybe, just maybe, you don't need more information. You need a new approach. You need expert help and support.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number 15, telling yourself you can figure this out alone. We work with smart, successful, intelligent women, women who are used to figuring things out. And because you're smart, you tell yourself this shouldn't be that hard, I just need to try harder. I should be able to do this alone. But long-term weight loss has nothing to do with intelligence. It's not about more information. It's not about more willpower and trying harder. If it were, you would have solved it already and you wouldn't be watching this video. It's about shifting your identity, rewiring your mindset, breaking your habits and healing emotional eating and building a sustainable lifestyle, all while juggling kids, work, parents and everything else. And that's very difficult to do alone. It doesn't make you weak asking for help. In fact, it makes you wise. The most successful people in the world don't ask how can I fix this. They ask who can help me fix this? You wouldn't try and highlight and color your own hair, would you? No, you go to an expert. If one of your children needed extra tutoring at school, you wouldn't tutor them yourself, you'd hire a tutor. So why is it any different? With your weight loss, get help and support from experts.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number 16, you don't prioritize yourself. This one is huge. For whatever reason, whether it's societal, psychological or physiological, women are taught to put everything else first. Your kids come first, your partner comes first, your boss, your colleagues, your parents all before you. And somewhere along the way you lost yourself. There's often guilt attached to prioritizing your own needs. You tell yourself it's selfish, you feel bad saying no to your children. You think it's your job to hold everything together for everyone else. But here's what happens when you do this for years you end up overweight, you end up unhappy and you end up unhealthy. And, worst of all, everyone just expects it from you. They get used to you never putting yourself first. If you want to lose weight and become the best version of yourself, you must learn to prioritize yourself, not in a selfish screw everyone kind of way, but by setting boundaries, learning to say no, claiming time and space for your own needs without apology. Put it this way let's visualize 5, 10, 20 years in the future. What does life look like for you if you continue to prioritize others and forget about yourself? It's likely not a good vision.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number 17,. Depending on willpower to get results. The willpower method does not work and, deep down, you already know this. Willpower is a finite resource. You don't have endless supplies of it and it cannot be dependent on the long term. It will eventually run out, no matter how strong you think you are Sure. There are moments in life when willpower works a burst of motivation in January, a holiday coming up, a special event you want to look for. But what happens when life actually happens? Your child gets sick, something blows up at work, your parent ends up in hospital, you're overwhelmed, tired and stressed and just like that, your willpower to lose weight and prioritize yourself disappears. It gets diverted to the urgent stuff and your health drops to the bottom of the list again. Willpower might start the engine, but it won't take you to the finish line. So stop focusing on willpower and start focusing on systems. Build habits, create structure. Automate the process of fat loss. Click below to get access to the free Cravings of Fat Loss Masterclass, which will teach you exactly how to automate the process of fat loss. No willpower necessary.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number 18,. You let the scale dictate your worth. So many of the women I work with have a strong emotional attachment to the number on the scale. That number has the power to make or break your day, to fire you up or destroy your motivation. While the scale controls your emotions, you'll never find consistency. One bad weigh-in can send you into a spiral. You start questioning everything, you restrict more, you beat yourself up and eventually you give up. So here's a better question Is the goal just to lose weight or is the goal to become the best version of yourself? Because if all you care about is that number, you could lose the weight. But the second you hit your goal, the motivation disappears and you return back to your existing behavior. But when the goal is has become the strongest, healthiest, most confident version of you, you keep going, no matter what the number on the scale says. The weight coming off is a byproduct of the changes. So stop weighing yourself every day and switch to once a week and try as hard as you can to remove the emotional attachment to the number on the scale.

Max Lowery:

Mistake 19, waiting for perfect conditions. This is one of the most common patterns. I see Women waiting for life to calm down before they take action. I'll start when the kids are back at school. I'll start after Christmas. I'll wait until work slows down. I need to be in the right headspace first. Deep down life is never going to hand you perfect conditions. If you only know how to lose weight when life is easy, guess what happens? The second life gets hard. The weight comes back on every time. Long-term success doesn't come from doing the work when it's convenient. It comes from doing it when it's not. If you can learn how to stay consistent and how to adapt when life is difficult and chaotic, then think how easy it'll be when life actually gets calm and easier. So stop waiting and start learning how to take imperfect action. Focus on what you can do, even if it's small, because consistency during hard times is the ultimate superpower.

Max Lowery:

Mistake number 20, aiming for perfection. Let's get one thing straight Perfection doesn't exist. Telling yourself I'm going to walk 10,000 steps every day for the rest of my life might sound committed, but the second you miss a day, you're going to feel like you failed. This is also known as all or nothing thinking, and it's one of the most emotionally draining cycles to be stuck in. You go all in life happens. You mess up once and suddenly you do nothing for weeks. Fits and bursts of intensity followed by burning out guilt and giving up. You don't need to be perfect. You just need to be consistent enough. 80% consistency is more than enough to see incredible results. It's what every single one of my successful clients masters. So stop chasing perfect and start chasing progress. Remember consistency beats intensity.

Max Lowery:

Mistake 21, not prioritizing sleep. Sleep might be the most underrated tool for fat loss. It doesn't matter how perfect your diet is, it doesn't matter how well you train. It doesn't even matter how good your mindset is. If your sleep is off, everything else will fall apart. If you get a poor night's sleep, it's going to impact hunger, cravings, willpower, motivation, mood, emotional regulation, decision-making, fat storage. It is a big problem and the worst part, you'll blame yourself when that's your fact. You're just exhausted.

Max Lowery:

So start prioritizing your sleep like it's a non-negotiable, and the best place to start is go to bed and wake up at the same time every single day, even on weekends. It resets your body clock and improves sleep quality fast. Sleep isn't optional. It's the foundation for everything else. So that's it 21 of the most common mistakes I see every single day. Let me know in the comments which one hit you the hardest and let me know what you're going to start doing differently from today. If you found this helpful and you're ready to learn the fastest way to lose weight without dieting, make sure you check out this video right here, because most women think they're doing everything right, but they're actually doing the slowest, most frustrating way to lose weight the outdated old school approach that's keeping them stuck. So this next video breaks it all down. It shows you what to do instead to finally get lasting results. Click here to watch it. I'll see you there.