Why don’t I lose weight if I eat healthily?

A question that often plays on the minds of many of us. Why don’t I lose weight if I eat healthily?

Bad eating habits

At this point, it comes as no surprise that the consumption of ultra-processed foods sabotages our fat loss progress, even leading to more fat gain than we have lost.

This fact (among others) has led many health professionals to take to social networks to defend the consumption of “real food”, or in other words, the food that our grandparents ate. Obviously, this idea has been accepted by most people, since when we talk about nutrition there should always be a base of vegetables with quality proteins and fats.

Do you know what is Real Food?

This change in eating habits usually leads to a physical improvement and the loss of several kilos in the first few months, however, many of these people see a point where their weight stagnates even though all the ultra-processed foods have been removed.

It is not enough to just eat healthily

As I have mentioned on previous occasions, the statement – Diet is 90% of the success when it comes to losing fat – has done a lot of damage to a sedentary society like ours.

Why is physical exercise important to improve body composition?

To explain this issue, I want to outline the following example.

Imagine for a moment two overweight twin sisters whose resting expenditure is identical, at 1520 calories/day. The difference is that one of them has decided to carry out strength training and walk 1h a day (Twin 2), while the other works in an office and is unable to find time to train, so her activity is sedentary (Twin 1).

If both decided to create a deficit of 500 calories, the sedentary twin would have to consume 1320 calories/day, while the one who has decided to train and walk 1 hour a day would be able to consume 1930 calories/day.

What happens when you lose weight?

The reality is that in a scenario in which you start to lose weight, you feel more tired, with a greater appetite and a worse mood,

The risk that you exceed that caloric intake is very high, which will prevent you from achieving the caloric deficit.

In the other scenario, the situation changes drastically since, in general, an intake of 1900 calories for a woman is quite reasonable when it comes to losing body fat, which will mean that even if you plateau, you can drop down to 1,600 calories a day and still lose weight without having to eat broccoli and boiled chicken.

Even with this in mind, not everything related to fat loss is a matter of numbers

Calorie deficit and strength training: success

In the case of the twin who trained, not only is she making sure that it is easier to achieve a caloric deficit, but she is also making sure to maintain muscle mass and, therefore, the weight you lose is fat.

Strength training is the guaranteed way to achieve a better body composition

Its for certain that, if after 4 weeks, we were to compare both twins, the sedentary twin would lose more weight but would have worse body composition and more body fat, which on an aesthetic level would look worse even if she weighed less.

Conclusions

The solution to the problem of being overweight encompasses much more than a single factor such as exercise or nutrition:

It is the combination of all the factors that will ensure that we maintain progress in the long term

Best regards!

Related Posts

• Strength Training for Fat Loss
• Cardio for Fat Loss
• How to Lose Fat and Maintain Muscle?
• Lose fat in women