Why Your Weight Won't Move The Conversation Nobody's Having

You've tried everything. The clean eating, the 5am gym, the macro tracking, the personal trainer. And for a while — some of it worked. 

Then it stopped.

If you're a high-achieving woman who's hit a wall with your weight and can't figure out why nothing is sticking, this episode is for you. And I'll warn you now: the answer isn't what you've been told.

In this episode I'm talking about what's actually behind weight loss plateaus in high-performing women — and why the standard advice keeps failing them. We go into the real physiology of chronic stress and what it does to your hormones, your hunger, and your ability to recover. We talk about the self-abandonment pattern that almost every woman I work with is living inside without realising it. And we get into the identity piece that nobody else is addressing — the reason every plan you start eventually collapses, no matter how good it is.

This isn't another episode about calorie cycling or metabolic adaptation. It's the conversation that comes before all of that. The one that actually changes things.

If you're done with programmes that treat the surface without going near the root, book a consultation call at HERE and let's talk about what's really going on.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Here's why the weight loss plateau happens and why it feels like you're always stuck. And this is a phenomenon that I see with every woman that comes to me. Every woman that comes to me is already performing at a very high level. They're already showing up, you know, in great ways in how they operate. But they all come to me with the same challenge. Greg, I know what to do, but I'm not doing it. And I can't seem to get past this weight problem. And it's like this, the only thing that I can't seem to get right. And in my 20 years of doing this work, I know exactly what happened. So I'm going to talk through the psychology and the physiology today. So first of all, though, I want to just talk about the woman who this podcast episode is for. So this woman is already a leader in her own life in some way, shape, or form. She's already in leadership positions or is seen as a leader by her teams, her fellow colleagues, etc. But she shows up. She does not miss a beat. She doesn't skip a meeting. And she's viewed by everyone around her as being like this powerhouse, this real like workhorse who just gets things done somehow, by hook or by crook, she always manages to pull it through, pull it around, right? And you know, she would have risen up the ranks or moved around different jobs to become the leader she is. She's doing pretty well with her salary, expectations, all that stuff. But there's one bit missing. She's not actually feeling like the woman she has in her head. So she knows who she is now, but she knows there's more and there's a gap. And what she doesn't know is how to get across that gap, which is the work that I do. And here's what's actually going on. And this is why weight loss plateaus come into this. Because I think this is very, this is all going to be very important. You'll see how it all links. So let's talk about the science of it, first of all. There is something called metabolic adaptation, right? So you would have experienced this every time you've tried to lose weight. What happens is this when you start at your particular weight, you have uh your metabolism needs a certain amount of energy in to equalize the amount of calories going out. This includes all of your hormonal activities, breathing, running, slaying it at work, everything, right? And then what happens is when you start to lose weight, you go on a weight loss journey, and you're like, Yeah, I'm gonna lose it. So you obviously you cut your food back, and then what happens is this your needs of your body go down, right? So the energy needs because you're now a smaller person, they go down. So therefore, you do not need as much energy in as you did before. That also comes with a consequence, is what we call metabolic adaptation, so that what you're experiencing there because you're now smaller, you need lower calories because there's less of you to move around in the world. But a couple of other things happen. So, firstly, ghrelin goes up, which is a hunger hormone that pushes you to go and seek food. There's also leptin, which looks at what energy is available in the system, and then what also happens is that your movement, so a very big component of the amount of energy you burn every day is your movement, right? It's about 15%, maybe 20%. So your movement goes down, so you fidget less, you don't want to go for walks, etc. So all of this combines to then kind of keep you stuck, and it's what we call metabolic syndrome, uh adaptation, sorry, not syndrome, metabolic adaptation, but also known in the world as starvation mode. Very different uh thought process and all the rest of it, but that's what it is. It's actually what we call metabolic adaptation. Your body is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing in the conditions you set it. But this is what's happening to the woman I described earlier. This woman, because she does so much for everybody, she overgives. So she sleeps late, she works late, lunch breaks are something she hasn't done in about 15 years. Um she's always responsive to everyone else's needs, and that includes family, but it also includes her work, and when that happens, something happens elsewhere, and this is the psychology of it all because here's the thing: you have been on a conveyor belt in your life, and this the conveyor belt starts at home, right? You know, the home you grew up in, then it moves on to school, right? What happens at school? You get rewarded for being the hardest worker, you get rewarded for doing the best homework. You go to college, university, university, what happens again? You get rewarded for staying up late and revising um your exams again, right? So you see the pattern. You get into work, and what happens? You are rewarded for being the person that's always in the office, that's always available, etc. So this pattern just continues and continues and continues, and it's just what I call a self-abandonment pattern. Okay, that's all it is, and what I see underneath all of that, this is the piece of work that I do with my clients. Because they all come to me with a weight loss plateau beer. It's like Greg, I keep kind of losing weight, back and forth. I don't really know what's going on. Actually, there's a belief in a story underneath that putting yourself first is a betrayal, and the people that you're often betraying is your parents because you would have seen them work extremely hard to help you get where you need to get to. They would have worked late, done all the hours, always doing overtime in their journey, always talking about the value of hard work, which is not um in itself a bad thing, but that's what you would have seen. And what happens when you see that is this you model your behaviors on those narratives so that subconscious story is running all the time, and then what happens is you go, right, I'm gonna work out hard, change everything, and then this with the physiology of it is you then kind of apply extra training, low-carb diet on top of an already stressed-out person. And things like uh your cortisol, insulin, sensitivity are all factors and hormones that play into this cycle where you work hard, lose some weight, stop. Work hard, lose some weight, stop. So it's just running a cycle all the time, and this all comes back to this conveyor belt. And the thing is that nobody talks about this in the world. Um, we're talking about the best meal plans, we're talking about hormone therapy, etc., etc. And all of those things are valid and important, but ultimately, if you do not, at your core being, think you deserve more, then you're gonna have a real hard time being able to break through a weight loss plateau. Because in your heart of hearts, you know that there is a version of you now, and there is a version of you that you want to be. It's like the operating system of uh of your phone, right? It's like your iPhone. You know, after a while, Apple always says we're gonna release some new software, but your old Apple phone isn't gonna work, so you gotta upgrade it. It's the same thing, but nobody's talking about this in the world um of health or in leadership. It's really weird. I don't see anybody talking about how all of this is all connected underneath. It's interesting. So here's what I want you to really understand you can't put those old beliefs and that old identity of who you are now, as awesome as you are, and then drop a load of training, exercise, and all the rest of it onto it without actually understanding who you want to be and being emotionally connected to that woman. You cannot do it, it will not work. And this is the work that I do because yes, the physiology that I uh talked about earlier is massively important, okay. But what happened, and and this is a true story, actually. I had a client who came to me again wanting to lose weight, and here's what I told her she's not gonna do any exercise for at least four weeks. And she was like, Are you crazy? Why? Why would I not do any exercise? Like, I'm coming to I want to lose some body fat. Like, why am I not? And I said, You're underrested, and I want you to have the skill of resting as well as you do your job every day. And she stuttered because the turmoil within her is like, what you want me to rest, but I've always been told to do more, discombobulated, head falling off, and she did it, and after the four weeks, she really started to lose weight because the issue wasn't the meal plan or whatever, it's because of the relationship with herself and the fact of being of resting is almost like a betrayal on the hard work that's come before her, the hard work that's got her to the level that she's at. And this is a bit that no one sees, no one talks about it at all. So, what we do is we throw more meal plans, more exercise, more steps at the issue when actually you're already disciplined. We know that you're disciplined. It's just that the way you're disciplined in your work is actually running a whole other pattern that's affecting your body as well. And I know there'll be a fear for you women listening to this podcast and be like, this is me. This sounds very, very, very, very familiar. Is he talking to me? And if it is, then I'll put my link in the bio for to have a chat about how we can fix those challenges and we can book a call and have a chat. But I really want you to understand that your plateau is physiology, but it's done through psychology. Because if you don't know who that woman is you want to be, you will always resist, no matter what tactics that people put out for you. And I think deep down, you already know this, you're listening to this and going, how does he know this? It's because it's what I do. The women that come to work with me, not all exactly the same boat as you. They're high performers who have put everybody first, always. And here's uh an anecdote when I ask a client who do they want to be, it shocks them because I'm not asking them, oh, do you want to lose weight? How well how much do you want to weigh? What do you want to look like? I'm asking them who do they want to be. And there's only a pause or a stutter, and it's like, what on earth are you asking me? But when we get into it and we actually understand who the person is you want to live, then all of the other things start to fall in place, and that's how that's the work that we do. So if you feel that this sounds like you and you're unsure about what the next step is, book a call. Let's have a talk. And I'll help you understand where the gap is and how we can help you get there. Thanks for listening. And if you aren't ready to book a call, that's fine. Keep listening. I'm gonna talk about this stuff on a regular basis. See you on the next episode. Bye for now.