What to do when you're putting in the work but not getting results quick enough

Diet culture has constantly marketed to us the flashy tactics like "lose up to 10 lbs in one week!" and have conditioned us to believe that quick fat loss is the best way to go. But if that were the case... would women be struggling to lose weight more than ever?

You're a hard worker but you're struggling to stay patient and trust the process, your consistency may not be where you need it to be, and your current ways of dieting and measuring progress don't work for your life as a mom.

In this episode I'm going to share the process your body goes through in the first 8 weeks of your fat loss journey, what sustainable fat loss actually looks like, and the mindset shifts that help you stay patient in the process.

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Transcript

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Hey friend, welcome back to Stronger Within, the podcast for women who are done chasing quick fixes and are ready to build real strength and lasting change from the inside out. I'm your host, Christy Magri, and here we talk about becoming stronger within in your body, your mindset, and the daily habits that shape your life. If you're ready to build the body and life you feel confident in for good, you're in the right place. So today's a podcast is actually inspired by a few conversations I've had recently with clients, and it got me thinking about okay, if my clients are struggling with this right now, then you're probably struggling with the same thing. I know that I have struggled with this in the past, and that is when we are showing up, we are putting in the work, and we expect overnight results. And it's not our fault. I I want to preface by saying that, and it comes back to the diet culture like it always does, where we see this these flashy marketing tactics and lose 10 pounds and two weeks and all these crazy things, and it's like, okay, well, if this worked so well, would people really be struggling to lose weight more than ever? I mean, I don't think so. We have been so conditioned by diet culture to expect fast, dramatic, linear results, and it just does not work that way. And even if you know logically that the results that you may want are not realistic, you still kind of like benchmark that in your head. You still want it, you still have that little little glimmer of hope because you see these cases and these people who do that. Now, let's also preface with most of those people end up gaining the weight back because their method of dieting was not sustainable, and sure it got them quick results, but now they have to lose all the weight again because they revert back to old habits because it was never sustainable and they can't keep the weight off. Okay, thank you. So when you were doing everything right, uh, and I have this conversation multiple times because the clients that come to me, they're like, Christy, I don't want to do a weight loss medication, and there are so many people in my life who are doing it and they're like barely doing anything, they're losing 10 pounds in a week, and I'm over here struggling to lose half a pound a week. And I'm like, Okay, well, first of all, let's kind of zoom out. You just told me your clothes are fitting better, your energy is better, but you're pissed off that you only lost half a pound this week. Like, let's first of all take a step back from the scale. We have been so conditioned to wrap up all of our progress in this number on the scale. So I want to talk about that today because I want to talk about what sustainable fat loss actually looks like. And before you roll your eyes at me, I know that the things I'm gonna tell you, maybe they aren't what you want to hear, but they're what you need to hear. And if you want to do this differently, if you want to not only lose the weight consistently, but be able to keep it off, let's just wrap our head around it a little bit. So sustainable fat loss is roughly half a pound to one pound per week, sometimes less. And sometimes, here's the kicker, okay? Sometimes you can lose body fat and gain muscle and have that number on the scale not reflect that. Here's what I mean by that. I have worked with countless clients who, when I used to work at the gym, we had a machine called an in-body scan. And if you've ever heard of a DEXA scan, it's kind of similar to that where it doesn't just tell you your weight, but it also tells you your body fat percentage, your muscle mass, the breakdown of like each side of your body. It's pretty cool. But I would have so many clients who would step on that thing and it would say that they hadn't lost any total weight, but their body composition had changed. They were losing fat and gaining muscle. I see so many before and after pictures. Um, and I have so many client examples of this as well, where these to the two pictures of somebody, they look completely different, but sometimes the numbers are not any different of what they actually weigh on the scale. And so I want us to recognize that weight, weight loss, and fat loss are not the same thing. You can lose fat without the total number on the scale changing a ton. And I know that's hard to wrap our brain around because we've been taught for so long progress equals a lower number on the scale. But even so, let's say you lost half a pound every week, or let's just say a pound, an even number, right? Let's say you well, that's not an even number, that's an odd number, whatever, an easier number to conceptualize. So let's say you lose one pound per week. That is 52 pounds in a year. That is crazy because in that process, and here's the number one thing my clients tell me: I don't feel restricted, I don't feel like I'm on a diet, these habits feel easy, this feels automatic. Oh my gosh, I can enjoy pizza with my family and ice cream with my family instead of sure, I lost five pounds this week, but I was miserable doing it, and I couldn't enjoy pizza night with my family, and I'm starving all the time and my hair is falling out. We have to detach from the number, guys. We have to detach from the number and we have to treat this journey as a marathon, not a sprint. And so I want to walk you through what um like a real rate of sustainable fat loss can look like because I want you to really be able to recognize that progress even when it doesn't look like what you expected. So week number one through two, your body is starting to adjust. So in the first couple of weeks, your body's kind of figuring out what's happening. So you might notice you feel a little bit better, maybe you have more energy, or your bloating has gone down, or you're falling asleep quicker, or waking up more well-rested, but the scale might not move much, or it might even go up slightly before it comes down. I actually had a client ask this question in the group today. She was like, every time I start a program or start doing something, the scale starts going up. What the heck am I doing wrong? Um, your body is literally recalibrating. So, what you should notice in those early first few weeks is you're having less energy crashes, the cravings are starting to go down, you're feeling more in control around food. We want to focus on those process outcome wins rather than just the outcome of the number on the scale. Because if we are just basing it off of the number on the scale, it's it's not reliable. And so you're gonna feel like you're not making progress. It's like a farmer planting a seed, they don't plant the seed and then expect the crop to be there overnight. That doesn't mean that nothing's happening underneath the surface, and so then in weeks three through four, this is typically when the scale starts to move, your body's getting used to things, but it is not a linear journey. And here's where a lot of people also get discouraged because they're like, I I hit a new low way in yesterday, and the scale was back up today. That is very normal. The scale is not going to go down in a straight line, it's gonna go down, it's gonna go back up, it's gonna plateau for a few days, it's gonna drop again. You could do perfectly on a particular day. Like, let's say you're perfect today, and then you step on the scale um tomorrow and you're up two pounds, and you're like, I gained two pounds in a day. What the heck? I was perfect yesterday. But what you don't see is maybe you had more sodium, you're about to start your period, you had a hard workout, and your muscles are retaining water to repair, or you're more hydrated than usual. The number on the scale does not tell you the full story. Repeat after me. My total weight on the scale is not fat. Some of it is, but if the number goes up, it does not mean that you gained fat. So if you're only looking at the number, then you feel like a failure. And so this is why I always tell my clients to look at your weekly average, not your daily number. Take your weight every single day, add it up, divide by seven. That weekly average trending down over time is the data that actually matters. And some clients, I'll be real with you, they get so wrapped up in the scale. And my girlfriend, put that scale away. We are not doing the scale. We're basing off of your progress photos, your measurements, how you feel, how you're close to it. We can measure your progress off of so many other ways. If the scale is dictating your mood, meaning if you step on it and the scale is up, you're pissed off, you're already in a bad mood that morning, or you see it go down, you're like super, super happy. We can't, we we can't do that. We can't go there. So then week five through eight is usually when progress because starts to become more visible, but motivation gets harder around this point. And this is the phase that I noticed that most people quit, and it's so frustrating because this is when things actually start working, but really at this point the novelty has worn off, you're not riding that motivation high anymore, and the results are happening, but they're not dramatic enough yet to be super visible. This is what I like to look at as like the messy middle, and this is where you're either you build the body in the life that you want, or you just you give up. And the moms who go through this phase are not more motivated than you. I'll tell you that. They just decided in advance that this phase was gonna come, and they were not gonna let it stop them, no matter how they felt they were gonna keep going. So that's a little overview of how it can look like, you know, in the beginning, things aren't changing a ton, and let's also get realistic with our expectation here, and I covered this a few weeks ago, but you didn't gain the weight in two months. You're not gonna lose it in two months either. So be patient in the process. So, as I just touched on with the scale, we just have to we have to focus on other things. Yes, we can use the scale as a measure of progress, but the scale's not gonna measure how strong you're getting. It's not gonna measure how your genes fit, it's not gonna measure your energy levels, your confidence, your muscle tone, the fact that you did something hard today. A few things that can make the scale go up, I just touched on slightly, but eating more sodium, hormonal fluctuations throughout your cycle, a hard workout, eating more carbs, stress, elevated cortisol, not sleeping well, literally just drinking more water, all of these things can really affect the scale. So before you step on the scale and freak out because it told you something you didn't want to hear or see, ask yourself Did any of those things I just listed happen in the last 24 to 48 hours? Because I'd bet my money at least one of them did. And on-scale victories, in my opinion, are so much more worth it. And I believe truly that they can often be better data because all those things I just listed, like your clothes fitting differently or you're sleeping better, or having more energy, not thinking about food constantly, feeling strong in your workouts, those are signs your body is changing, even when the scale is not showing it. So when we think about progress and really zooming out, I want you to also recognize that you do not need a perfect week to make progress. What you need is a good enough week over and over and over again. You need to get really freaking good at mastering the basics. So, what I see so often is that we think we're being consistent, we think we're mastering the basics, but what does the data say? Have you actually consistently tracked your food the last 14 days? Because if we are only showing up 60 to 70% of the time, well, we can't expect the full result then because our compliance isn't where we need it to be. And the problem I see is that a lot of moms have that imperfect moment and then they freak out, they're like, I missed my workout today, or I went over on macros for today, they feel like a failure, and then they let that bleed into the rest of the week, and then they find themselves starting back over again every Monday. What I want you to do is view your days in quarters. First quarter of the day, second, third, fourth, every single quarter, maybe that's every like three hours during the day. Every single quarter is a new opportunity to do better. Because we don't have to be perfect, but we do need to build that consistency in order to get the result that we want to see. So last I want to touch on the mental side of things, which you knew obviously, I was gonna end on this note. I'm always about the mindset and making sure that that piece is strong because the process and the strategy doesn't mean much if we don't have the right mindset to go with it. So when I think about fat loss the way that most people talk about it, we talk about it in almost like an entirely physical sense, meaning we eat this, we move like this, we follow this plan, but honestly, the mental side is where most of the work happens. It's learning to trust the process even when the scale isn't moving and saying, This is really frustrating, but I'm gonna choose to show up anyways. It's not letting one off day ruin you for the rest of the week, like I just touched on. It is continuing to show up on the days that you don't really feel like it because you are that mom who does that. You are the mom who says, I made this commitment and I'm gonna follow, I'm gonna see it out, I'm gonna follow through because that's just who I am and that's what I do. It's learning that even when your head is telling you, this isn't working, it's happening too slow, nothing ever works for me, I'm inconsistent, all these annoying little nagggy thoughts in your head, you learn to not completely shut that off. I'll be real with you. That doesn't really ever fully go away. You just learn to get really smart at like my brain is trying to trick me. Anytime a negative thought pops up about yourself, your ability in this journey, my mind is trying to trick me. I'm not gonna let my mind trick me. I am smarter than that. And especially in that messy middle, like I talked about, where it's like you've been doing it for weeks and weeks and you're like not seeing that crazy visible progress, but you've been working really hard, that is where the journey is gonna make or break you. And ultimately, at the end of the day, that is your choice. It's almost like building a muscle, the consistency. It's like every time you go in the gym, imagine the first time you went in the gym, or maybe you work out at home, whatever, but think about a squat or a bicep curl. The first time you did that squat or that bicep curl, it didn't feel great, you were wobbly, you didn't know what the heck you were doing. Now you're probably you can show up for that exercise better. It feels easier, you added weight to it, because you showed up and you kept practicing that movement over and over again. And so those times that you choose to stay consistent, even when it feels hard, even when progress feels invisible, that is what's going to actually change you long term. Because when we think about the goal, yes, we hyperfixate on the fat loss and the gene size and whatever it look it is we want to achieve. Typically, when we think about fat loss, it's how we look. But isn't it also to become somebody, especially the mom who knows how to take care of herself even through every season of motherhood and modeling that example to our kids? Isn't that so much more important than how fast it's gonna take? Because really the journey is about becoming that person. It's not just about the end goal, and you and I realized that when I got to I'm very close to my goal now, and I'm like, hold on, it was never about the goal. It was truly about the process of who I became during this. And if you're listening to this and you're like, okay, Christy, well, I hear what you're saying, but I am showing up and I'm doing a lot, but things genuinely are not changing, the scale's not changing, my clothes aren't fitting differently, I don't feel any different, the food noise is still bad, then there is clearly a gap somewhere in your process. Something is off. And it's either your consistency, it's the method that you're using, and so this is what we want to look at in terms of your nutrition specifically, because your nutrition is going to make up 80% of your results. That is typically the culprit, not the workouts you're doing, the water you're drinking, all of these other things while they do matter, nutrition is gonna be the biggest mover of your progress. And so, again, if you feel like you are genuinely not progressing, that is the first thing that I would take a look at. And the process that I bring my clients through specifically is tracking macros. That is also what I did myself to lose over 100 pounds after I had both of my kids. And I am a huge believer in counting macros because it allows for that flexibility where if you want to get, for example, I'm getting Chick-fil-A tonight with some friends, you can have that, but you can also stay in that calorie deficit that you need for fat loss. We can have both. We can have our Chick-fil-a and we can lose weight too. It is very possible. And so it when we look at why we're not seeing progress, it's either we're not actually in a calorie deficit or we're being too restrictive, we're placing too many things off limits. And in case you missed it, I am hosting a free three-day training event called Ditch the Diet Mom Edition, and it starts June 9th. This is for moms who are ready to learn how to ditch the constant dieting cycle and lose fat for good while balancing mom life. This is where I'm gonna be bringing you through the exact process and strategy that I used to lose over 100 pounds after having both of my kids. We will walk through why the constant dieting cycle is keeping you stuck, how to fix it, what macros are, how to track them efficiently, helping you come up with your number, when to adjust macros. Like we are literally covering every piece of it. The link to register is in the show notes. Sign up and then make sure to put it on your calendar for June 9th, 10th, and 11th. And there's gonna be prizes, there's gonna be opportunities for coaching with me and behind the scenes. So I would love to see you there. It is free. And if you are ready to break this constant dieting cycle, this is the perfect training for you. I cannot wait to see you there. If this episode gave you an aha moment, please share it, screenshot it, share it on Instagram, tag me at ChristyFit, send it to a mom who needs to hear this. The more moms we can get out of this diet cycle, the better. I will talk to you soon. Until next time, keep becoming stronger within.