Here’s why you’re not losing weight even though you’re eating in a calorie deficit

Now that summer is coming to a close, you might feel like the entire summer went by without making any progress in your journey OR maybe you feel like you put in a good amount of effort this summer, but nothing happened…

That’s exactly what we are going to be talking about today, because I know this is one of the most frustrating places to be and I’ve been here myself where you are working so hard, showing up diligently, saying “no” to things, tracking your food, working out hard - you’re doing A LOT but the results aren’t showing.

If you aren’t yet reaching your fat loss goals consistently, it means something is off with your current approach.

Whether it is fad diets, being overwhelmed with all of the conflicting advice out there, or just life being busy - something is holding you back from the results you want. Let's uncover this together!

There are common 3 gaps I see holding moms back from reaching their fat loss goals...

And we’re diving into what those are and how to fix them in today’s episode.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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 a body and life you feel confident in for good, you are in the right place. Before we get into today's episode, I'm gonna need somebody to explain to me right now how the heck this summer went by so quickly. My son goes back to school next week, and I am equal parts sad and excited. It's been a very chaotic summer, obviously, with us moving, and it's good for us just to all get back into our regular routines. My husband went back to work this week. Carter starts school on Monday. I will still have Chloe home with me, so I'll still have a child at home. It's bittersweet because I love having him home. I've gotten used to him being home all day, but I'm excited for him to go and make new friends and selfishly, hopefully I make some friends because I have no friends here yet. Um, through, you know, obviously he makes friends, and then you know, you become friends with the moms. But yeah, I'm feeling sad summer is coming to an end. I would say summer is my first favorite season. Fall is probably my second, so at least my second favorite season is coming. Um, and I think when I I think about summer, it's like the warm weather that I really like, and I get sad about that ending. But hey, we moved south for a reason. So our summer is stretched out longer. We have here what they call local summer. So if you're not familiar, I moved to North Carolina. We're in a beach town, and the summer there's like summer is a very touristy time of year here, and so in the fall, when everybody's done vacationing and it's still warm here, the beach is just way more accessible, there's less traffic, so they call it local summer. Um, so I feel like our our summer is kind of extended here, which will be nice. But now that summer is coming to a close, you might feel like the entire summer went by without making any progress in your journey. Now is the time when like schedules are changing, seasons are shifting, we're looking back at this past season, or maybe you're like, I feel like I put in a good amount of effort this summer, but nothing happened, Christy. My body doesn't look different. What gives? That is exactly what we're gonna be talking about today because I know this is one of the most frustrating places to be. And I have been here myself where you are working so hard, you're showing up diligently, you're saying no to things, tracking your food, working out hard, you're doing a lot, but the results are just not showing. And I was in this place in my journey, and so I want to sympathize with you and let you know that you are not alone in this, and I'm not just a coach who has always been, you know, it's never been easy for me. It's always been a struggle with my weight, and now I have the tools, now I know, but for many years I worked my butt off and I did a lot. I mean, I was in the gym every single day, I was doing a lot of the right things, but I was fluctuating between the same two to three pounds I would lose every single week because of you know some of the reasons that I'm gonna be going through here. So we're gonna talk today about why you're not seeing consistent fat loss results yet. I really want to emphasize the word yet because once we can unlock what's holding you back, your potential is truly gonna be limitless. And I want nothing more than that for you. So if you are not yet reaching your fat loss goals consistently, despite trying really hard, it means that something is off with your current approach. Whether that be that you're always relying on fat diets, you're overwhelmed with all the conflicting advice out there, or your life is just really busy, um, something is holding you back from the results you want. So let's start to uncover this together. There are three common gaps I see holding moms back from reaching their fat loss goals. We're gonna go through all of these. Starting off with reason number one, and that's not understanding where to start or what actually works. Now, there is a lot of information out there on the internet, more than ever. We have AI, we have five million and one different fitness influencers, but ironically, there have never been more women struggling to lose weight. And so not only is there a lot of information out there, but there's also a lot of misinformation. There's a lot of conflicting advice, there's extreme takes, there's like, this is the one thing, I swear. Or someone's like, carbs are the enemy, and then somebody else is like, you need 200 grams of carbs a day. And somebody's like, fasting is the best thing ever for you, and then the next person's like, fasting is so bad for your hormonal health. Like, we are left feeling so confused. And as a fitness coach, for it's crazy to say, but this winter it'll be seven years. That's crazy. Most moms that I talk to are not struggling because they lack willpower or the desire to reach their goals. They're really struggling because no one has ever shown them clearly what's actually going on in their own journey. You are constantly scrolling Instagram, looking for whatever advice you can, piecing things together on your own, but weight loss is not one size fits all. And what you need could be completely different to what somebody out there on the internet is recommending to you. And before anything can really click, you need one very foundational piece, and that is an honest picture of what you're eating every day. Not a guess, not, you know, I feel like I've been pretty good this week. You need actual awareness around your nutrition habits. And most of what we're gonna be talking today is about nutrition because that's gonna make up 80% or more of your results. And nine out of 10 times, if somebody comes to me and they're not seeing the results that they want to see, I most times can diagnose that it's it's the nutrition piece, you know, despite eating really healthy or trying really hard, it's because something is off in your current approach to nutrition. And so that's where the awareness piece comes in of okay, we need to figure out what we're doing on a regular basis, maybe what we're doing when we're trying to lose weight and where is the discrepancy. And this is what I do in phase one of my Forever Fit Mama method, which is my three-step framework. And in those first 30 days, we're really noticing habits and patterns. From what I see, most moms try to jump straight into making changes without even clearly looking at where they're starting or why things are going wrong or why they can't stick to it. And again, a lot of times we think it's a willpower issue, it's a motivation issue, it's not either of those things. It's probably that the approach was never built for you or your unique life or goals or circumstances. And so we need to look at the bigger picture goal where you are now, bridge that gap, create that step-by-step plan it takes to get there and figure out why what you're trying now is not working. And this is where calories and macros come in, um, but not in the way you might be thinking. I don't teach calories or macros as another diet or something where you have to obsess over everything you're eating or restrict yourself or feel like you know, you have to be really rigid. It's so that you can finally have you can feel informed. It's like someone handed you the map you've been missing this whole time. And this was really what unlocked my food freedom and my journey and finally seeing results. You know, I've lost over a hundred pounds after having both my kids, and I struggled to lose more than two to three pounds for over three years. And sometimes we've tried calories for macros, but we haven't done it in the most productive way. So this is getting into reason number two, and that is not being consistent enough with tracking macros in your calorie deficit. Okay, I know this one is obvious, but hang with me here because this one comes up a lot, and this is probably the number one reason. I know I'm putting it here as number two, it just made sense to put it in this order, but this is the number one reason I see mom stuck, and the reason why I put this second is because if we're struggling with consistency, it's likely because something is off with our awareness or our habits or the way that we're trying to dye it, and so that's why reason number one really is not understanding where to start or what actually works, because once we can, you know, check yes to that, then we can figure out the consistency piece. We can't really have one without the other, but consistent results are going to require consistent action, and you can't have one without the other. And the tricky part with this is that most moms think they're being consistent because they are trying or they are putting in effort, but it's just not where it needs to be. And this was the case for me in my journey where I was working my butt off, I was in the gym nearly every day, I was doing a lot of the right things, and I was tracking macros, but I wasn't doing it in the most efficient or productive way, which is why I wasn't seeing results. Fat loss really is calories in versus calories out, and so if you are not tracking consistently, you might not actually be in a calorie deficit, hence why you're not actually losing weight. And again, I've been fitness coaching for almost seven years, and as someone who looks at food logs on a near nearly daily basis, I can tell you that this is the biggest inconsistency with weight loss with your weight loss effort, likely. If we are putting a number to it, because it's like, okay, Christy, I know I need to be consistent, but like give me a number, like how consistent do I actually have to be? Because there's a fine line and there's a balance, right? Because I I will tell you you don't have to be perfect, but you do have to be consistent. So let's put a number to that. And I am a very, I don't know, I feel like having a number to it just makes it easier to conceptualize. So the number that I suggest is at minimum. Okay, at minimum we need an 80% compliance rate. Ideally, you're at 90% or above, but we're gonna give you a 20% buffer here. If we are to hit our macros consistently, let's say we hit them, we're looking at a 31-day calendar month. Let's say you hit your macros consistently 20 days. Now maybe you logged 28 days, but eight of those days you, you know, ate too far over or too far under. Let's say that you actually hit your macros 20 days out of 31 days. That's only a 64% compliance rate. So this is where it comes in of like 20 days is is a good effort, right? But it's not where it needs to be. That's a D, right? A D minus. And most moms, when they first start working with me, if I'm looking at the data, you know, it's they're typically hitting their macros between 9 to 14 days out of the month when they first start. Now, I think there's a lot of pressure when you go into a program of like, man, I need to have it figured out overnight, like I'm hiring this coach, I need it to come easily, and that's not the case. Like, it takes time to build that skill set and get have that process be easier. Um, but that's where having that support in the process really makes a big difference. But if we're looking at, let's say you hit your macros nine or 14 days out of the month, that puts you at a 29 to 45 percent compliance rate in a 31-day calendar month. That consistency is just not where it needs to be. And here's the thing too: those nine days, 14 days, 20 days, whatever, it feels like you're being consistent as heck. You're like, I'm really working, I'm really trying. Why am I not seeing results? It's still not enough. And let me be very clear on this as well. The goal is not to track your food for the rest of your life, absolutely not, and this is the beauty of tracking macros. There's multiple beautiful things about tracking macros. Number one, it gives you the flexibility, but number two, it gives you the awareness to create a new way of eating for life so that you don't have to track your food for the rest of your life. You know what portion sizes look like. When you reach your goal, you're not having to worry about maintaining it, like you've set yourself up to eat that way. But while you are actively pursuing a fat loss goal, you do need that 80 to 90 percent or more compliance rate. And this doesn't mean being perfect, but it again, objectively, if we're looking at numbers, we need to be hitting our macros 25 days out of 31 days minimum. And so, right now, if I were to ask you, take a look at the 30 last 31 days, how many days have you consistently hit your macros? Could you put a number to it? And is that number where it needs to be? Now that we can say yes or no, now we can move on to the next step of okay, well, if our consistency is not where it needs to be, what is the root cause of that? And there could be multiple root causes. Is it that you're winging winging food decisions and making them day of? That is what's gonna create a lot of friction and that constant decision making, which I talk about all the time at as moms, is this decision fatigue of having to make so many choices all day long. And when it comes to us, it's like I am burnt out. I don't want to have to think about logging my food or picking up a food scale or how many grams of protein is in this. So, what we need to do here is create simplicity and a plan that just kind of runs on autopilot. Is it that maybe you have little time to cook or take care of yourself? What we might want to do here is do a schedule audit, see what gaps in the day you do have, or we can create a go-to master meal plan of five to ten of your favorite quick, healthy meals that you can use to hit your macros, and we rotate between those and then swap them out. So it feels super easy to create your meal plan. Is it maybe more on the mindset side? Maybe that you're all or nothing, and then when you have one bad day, you let it turn into several. Is it that you're taking every weekend off because tracking feels too hard? So you need to build the skill set of how to stay more consistent on weekends. These are really just a few quick examples, but it's good to point out that your consistency might not be as good as you actually think it is. So again, I want you to take a tally of the last 31 days. How many days have you completed your daily tasks, meaning hitting your macros? We know that's going to dictate most of your results, and so this is where you want to put most of your effort. Good question you can ask yourself is what is the one thing I need to do consistently with my food choices, and what keeps getting in the way of that? Once we have identified that pattern, then we can work to overcome it. The last reason you may not be seeing results in your weight loss journey is because you are a chronic dieter. So I just said in point two that if you're not losing weight despite tracking, your consistency may not be where it needs to be. But on the flip side, it could be that you've wrecked your metabolism. Now, chronically dieting in very simple terms is if you've been dieting on and off for months or years, meaning you're swinging between this is what I see a lot of times. It's like when you're not trying and you don't care, you're overeating. But then when you start tracking your calories and trying to be good, now you're under-eating. Or maybe you've spent a good time eating consistently at lower calories, right? What this does is it down regulates your metabolism. Essentially, what that means is your body sees that as its baseline. One of two things can happen. If you're chronically dieting, meaning you're dieting on off, your body, you're teaching your body that your actions and your fueling of your body are very unpredictable. So every time you go to diet, your body kind of braces itself because likely you're jumping into way too big of a calorie deficit. You're not going into your calorie deficit strategically. So your body sees dieting as a threat, especially if it's not something you're consistent with. Because think about it, maybe you weigh under eight Monday through Friday, and then Saturday comes and you're like, oh, I was just so good all week. I deserve to enjoy myself this weekend. And so, you know, you go out and drink or you get McDonald's or pizza or you do whatever and you're overeating, and now your body's like, oh, she's finally feeding me. I don't know if she's gonna starve me again tomorrow, so I better conserve all of this food as body fat. And that is what happens when we have that unpredictability. Or if you've spent a good time eating at lower calories, let's say you are really consistent with tracking your food and you're just chronically eating at low calories, this is where plateaus happen. So sometimes you will hear, or maybe you've experienced where you have seen a good amount of results, but all of a sudden the things you were doing to see those results aren't working anymore. And so this is called the plateau where again your body has adjusted, your metabolism has downregulated. Let's say you've been eating 14-1500 calories, your body says, okay, this is my baseline, this is what I need to learn to maintain my current body upon. And then what your body does is it adapts because your body is extremely smart and extremely adaptable. And I see this many times where a client comes into my program, they want to jump straight into that fat loss phase, but their body doesn't respond. And because of of everything I'm describing right now, and that's a very frustrating, mentally frustrating place to be. So, what we need to do in this situation is bring you through a reverse diet, which means we work your calories up to maintenance calories, we hang there for a 30-day period at minimum before we go into your fat loss phase. And what this is doing is it's teaching your body safety and consistency through eating enough. And then when we go into a fat loss phase, we drop down very strategically. But one of the most common mistakes I see is a mom will go into a calorie deficit. They go into this massive calorie deficit, probably double or triple what it should be. Um, and now all of a sudden their body is fighting them, they're starving, they feel miserable. This is a very strategic process when it comes to losing weight. It's not just eat less, move more. Like the actual numbers behind what your macros are really matter. And a perfect example of this is one of my clients who came to me back in March. I remember her and I were messaging on and off the beginning of the year, and she was like, Christy, I'm literally I'm doing everything. Like, I'm tracking, I'm being consistent, my scale is not changing, and I'm so discouraged. I'm at the point of giving up. And she is a single mom. Like, for her, making this investment into her health was a really, really big move for her. It wasn't something she could necessarily do, but she was like, I can't not do this, like I have to figure this out. So when she came into the program, I was able to very quickly identify that she was under-eating, so we added in 600 extra calories a day, and now she's down nearly 20 pounds. So her body is responding well, and she's still eating 2,000 calories a day. So that is a perfect way to show you that it's the power of doing things the right way and playing the long game instead of ending up in the same place you are today in the next six to 12 months. It's the definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and over again. If you've been struggling for, you know, a certain amount of time, you really need to identify what's holding you back. And then from there, once you've identified what's holding you back, you need to create a plan or implement a process that you can stick to in any season of motherhood with flexibility. So a lot of what I'm saying to you is consistency. You need to be on it, you need, you know, to be 80% or more consistent, but you also need flexibility, especially as moms. And to me, flexibility is not following a really rigid meal plan, it's not having to say no to birthday cake at your kids' party, it's not feeling miserable around food, and it's not not being able to eat something because it's not on your meal plan. That is when you end up missing out on life, creating a bad relationship with food too, or you completely overdo it out of guilt. Instead, what you want to do is build a process in your life where you can still enjoy the birthday cake and still reach your fat loss goals. And this is exactly how I lost the weight. I lost 75 pounds after having my son Carter in 50s so far after having Chloe. Um, and again, I went three years without losing, I was struggling, same two to three pounds. I would lose and gain every single week. And now I eat more food I enjoy in a mindful way than I did back then. Back then it was chronically dieting. It was, you know, being on it all week, but then by the weekend I was sober out. I was like, I don't want to look at a food vlog. I want to have my cheat day. I want to eat to the point where I like feel like I'm gonna throw up, maybe TMI, but that's what it was. Um, you really do not have to choose between either or. It doesn't need to be reaching your goals or enjoying food you like, and that is the beauty of tracking macros. Yes, we do need to be consistent, yes, we do need to put in the effort, you're not gonna reach your goal if you're not, but that doesn't mean doing it at the cost of cutting out all your favorite things. And right now you might be stuck in that cycle of eating less, working out more, but you're like, I have no results to show for it, or you you're rewarding yourself with food or wine after a long week, then you're feeling guilty, you're starting over every Monday, or you're exhausted all day, and you feel like you're working so hard just to end up in the same place week after week. And if you're nodding, I see you because I was you, and I wish I could go back and just like shake myself and be like, this is clearly the problem. This is what you need to do to fix it, and that's actually exactly why I created coaching with Christy because I was in that place where I was doing everything, it felt like I was trying so hard and I wasn't seeing results. And now my private one-on-one coaching fitness and nutrition program is exactly what helps you overcome those same things. So, again, this is my personalized nutrition and fitness program. It gives you weekly direct coaching from me and real-time adjustments as you progress using my forever fit mama method so that you can finally lose the stubborn fat and build a body you love without sacrificing your life as a mom. In the first 30 days of my Forever Fit Mama method, we really focus on phase one, which is your metabolism reset. So that is where we are auditing those habits, those patterns, that stress, your intake. We're really just looking at like, okay, where are we right now and where do we need to be in order to reach our goal? And how do we bridge that gap, right? We also spot the patterns keeping you stuck, and this is also where we'll start creating simple behavior changes that'll get your body at burning fat again. And the beauty of having a coach is there's no looking at five million different pieces of advice on the internet, it's having that one very clear direction from one person and feeling really confident in exactly what you need to do to get there. Having, you know, my eyes in your food logs and making sure that you know you're having appropriate progressions and adjustments and all of that is so so important. And again, it's back to school. Somebody please explain to me again how we got here so quickly. But now is the perfect time, you know, as we are transitioning out of summer, sadly, into fall. Fall is a good season. Now is a good time to look back at the season and look into this upcoming season and kind of reset, hit the reset button on your journey and do start doing things the right way so that you can collapse time, be more efficient with what you're doing to build a body and life you feel confident as fucking. If you would like to learn more about working together, all you have to do is head to the show notes. Link for one-on-one coaching is in my show notes. And then if your application is accepted, I will follow up with you within 72 hours. But that is it for today's episode. So if this episode gave you an aha moment or helped you, I'd appreciate it so much if you shared it with a friend, left a review, or even shared it on your Instagram stories and tag me. I will be back next week. But until next time, keep becoming stronger within.