SCENARIO 1

You’ve nailed the diet all week, it’s been absolutely perfect. You’ve refused treats and cheats, weighed your food and completed all your exercise. You’re expecting fireworks and celebrations when you step on the scales and when you do, you’ve put ON 1lb.

SCENARIO 2

You’ve had an awful week. Cheated loads, not weighed anything, there’s been no exercise and quite literally you have had a week off, just couldn’t be arsed. You get on the scales anyway expecting the worst and BANG, you’ve lost 2lb. 

SO WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

Well first of all we need to understand the human body better, and we need to realise that it does not want to lose weight, in fact it doesn’t actually want to gain weight either, it simply does not like change. It likes things to stay as they are, giving it no cause to worry or panic. 

This means that it will fight against you wherever it can to prevent your weight moving up or down. It’s a constant battle and one that you CAN win, but only if you are consistent and keep plugging away.

Your body has a self preservation system built in called your metabolism, and the body can speed it up or slow it down according to how much food it is receiving from you. This all happens autonomously and there isn’t a lot you can do to control or manipulate it. Your metabolism controls how many calories your body burns in its day to day activities.

When you REDUCE your calories…

The body slows down its metabolism so that it burns fewer calories to prevent it having to eat into its fat reserves and causing you to lose weight. So in essence, if you eat less calories the body makes adjustments so that you NEED less calories. This is exactly what you do NOT want when you are dieting. It’s actually a miracle at all that anyone loses weight if you think about it.

When you INCREASE your calories…

The body speeds up its metabolism so that it burns more calories meaning that all the food you are giving it gets used up and none gets stored as fat, stopping your weight going up. So in essence, if you eat more calories the body makes adjustments so you BURN more calories. The reality is you have actually had to FORCE the body to become overweight. Well done you, victory!

But the system is not perfect…

Sometimes the body gets it wrong and it over compensates. It adjusts your metabolism too much and then the scales throw out a strange result.

When you eat too much for example the body speeds up its metabolism to burn off those calories, but if it speeds it up too much then it actually means you are now burning more than you have eaten (even though you have eaten more this week) and this results in unexpected weight LOSS. It’s a surprise as much to the body as it is to you!

When you eat too little, as in you stick to your diet, this means you are eating fewer calories than the body needs, so it slows down your metabolism, but if it slows it down too much then it means you are now eating more calories than your ‘slower metabolism body’ needs (even though you have eaten less this week) and as a result you actually put weight ON, and again, it’s a shock to your body too!

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Well first off let’s deal with

What NOT to do if the scales are being mean…

Don’t give up. Don’t assume the diet is wrong, the world has it in for you, that there is no point anymore and you go off and drown your sorrows with FOOD, the very thing that got you in this mess in the first place!

If you think all those things then you are going to lose the weight loss battle. This is the point at which 95% of dieters give up, or jump ship, or lose their focus and drive and enthusiasm and just give in. They have a period where they simply don’t diet, putting loads of weight on because they binge eat and drink preparing themselves to start dieting again. This is a continual cycle for virtually every dieter and it is the ONLY REASON you NEVER REACH YOUR GOALS. The ONLY reason.

What TO DO if the scales are being mean…

Accept defeat gracefully. Your entire fat loss journey is a war between you and your body and each week a new battle is fought. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose but don’t be a jerk on the weeks you are defeated. Take it like an adult and move on because…

You have a secret weapon on your side, an ally who will ultimately win the entire war for you, assuming that you listen to what it has to say. That ally, is SCIENCE (primarily Physics but a little biology as well). SCIENCE knows a couple of key things here that you will need…

ONE: Your body MUST have fuel to survive, it can ONLY get that fuel from calories you feed it or the fat it is storing, so if you consistently eat fewer calories than the body needs week in, week out your body has NO CHOICE but to burn its fat stores to make up the shortfall and you will lose weight. Even though some weeks the scales may not show it, if you are sticking to your diet then every week you are getting closer to your goals. In short, if you CONSISTENTLY eat fewer calories than your body needs you WILL reach your goal, there is no doubt about this, YOU WILL.

TWO: Fat does not materialise out of thin air, in fact nothing does in life. To store fat your body MUST have a surplus of energy (calories) being fed to it. If the scales have gone UP but you have stuck to your diet then it impossible, and I repeat, it is impossible, that this extra weight is FAT, it can ONLY be water or muscle. This isn’t up for debate, it’s fact. To become overweight you have to consistently, repeatedly, eat more food than the body needs until it has no choice but to store this excess as body fat (see how hard you had to work to become overweight in the first place!!!)

Despite the fact that it appears some weeks that your body has broken the laws of science when you step on the scales I assure you it has not, the problem lies in the final part of this post…

WATER

You’ve heard it said enough times I am sure BUT in addition to your body getting its metabolism adjustments wrong the other, and often the main reason why the scales don’t show you the figure you were expecting is simply because you are holding a different amount of water today than when you stepped on the scales last time.

A million things can affect how much water your body stores (salt, stress, sleep, temperature, food choices, fluid intake, time of the month, energy expenditure) and bearing in mind you could normally store around 60 litres of the stuff, simply losing or gaining 1 litre (an amount that your body can fluctuate by easily) would represent almost 2lb on the scales, up or down. So you can see how easily water throws things off.

THE TAKE AWAY..

Ultimately what I am trying to say to you is this: 

Dieting is a a massive war campaign that you are waging against your body. Some battles you win, some you lose. If you give in each time you lose one of those battles then more fool you and you deserve to fail at reaching your goal. Nothing in life comes easy and dieting is certainly one of them. Science is on your side though and it will win every time but ONLY if you let it. 

If you keep swapping and changing diets, or having periods ‘off plan’ when things do not go your way you will NEVER EVER EVER be successful, ever. It’s like firing your gun at your enemy but missing and actually deciding that the gun is faulty and giving up.

You HAVE to be consistent, which is easy when things are going your way (but any fool can do that), but it’s remaining consistent and focussed at the other times, when things go against you, that will ultimately see you are in the 5% of dieters who reach their goals and go on to live full and happy lives free from food relationship issues and in a body they are proud and confident in. 

Give up at the first sign of trouble, throw your dummy out the pram, and you will be reading dieting posts and blogs from guys like me for the rest of your adult life!

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