You’ve Been Dieting for Months. But Have You Actually Been Consistent?
You’ve been trying to lose weight for months and you’re not seeing results.
Have you actually been in a calorie deficit consistently?
Do you even know what a calorie deficit means?
Maybe you just know you’ve been eating better, cutting back, going to the gym and trying really hard for what feels like forever, but the scale is barely moving.
So now you’re wondering what the hell is wrong.
Has my metabolism slowed down? Is menopause making this harder? Do I need to cut out something else? Do I need to eat less?
And after a while, it starts to feel like your body just won’t lose weight anymore.
But before going there, take a look at what your last month actually looked like.
Were you consistent for more than two weeks? Were weekends part of the plan too? Were meals out included? Did you loosen up for a few days and start back on Monday, then off again the next weekend for a day or two?
And if you aren’t tracking anything, how do you actually know how much you’re eating?
You can spend months trying to lose weight without actually spending months in a calorie deficit.
Those are two very different things.
So what actually is a calorie deficit?
A calorie deficit just means you’re eating less than your body needs to maintain your current weight.
That’s it.
You don’t need to cut out carbs. You don’t need to eat as little as possible. You don’t need to live on chicken and salad.
But you do need to be eating less than your body is using often enough for your body to start using stored energy.
And this is where consistency really matters.
You can have the right calorie target, but if you’re hitting it four days out of seven, then starting again Monday, you may not actually be creating much of a deficit by the end of the week.
So the question isn’t just, “Do I have a calorie target?”
It’s, “Am I actually following it consistently enough for it to work?”
This is how a weekend can change the whole week
Let’s say your calorie target is 1,800.
You’re pretty close Monday through Thursday. Friday is good until dinner. Saturday you’re out, so you don’t really track. Sunday is brunch, a few snacks, maybe a bigger dinner.
Then Monday you’re back to 1,800 again.
That can easily feel like you had a good week, but let’s actually look at the numbers.
If your body needs around 2,100 calories a day to maintain your weight, eating 1,800 puts you about 300 calories under each day.
Do that for five days and you’ve built up around a 1,500 calorie deficit.
Now Saturday and Sunday you end up around 2,600 calories each day.
That’s not some crazy amount of food. Dinner out, a couple of drinks, brunch and some extra snacks could get you there pretty easily.
Now most of the deficit you created during the week is gone.
So you can feel like you were “in a deficit all week,” but when you look at all seven days, you may have barely been in one at all.
And that would explain a lot more than immediately assuming your body isn’t responding.
Consistency does not mean being perfect
You do not need to hit your calorie target exactly every single day.
You’re going to eat out. You’re going to have dessert. You’re going to have birthdays, vacations, dinners with friends, and weekends where your food looks a little different.
That’s normal. What happens after that is what matters!
If you go out for dinner Saturday, enjoy it, estimate it as best you can, and then go back to your normal meals Sunday, that’s very different from deciding the whole weekend is off and starting again Monday.
You do not need to eat as little as possible all day before dinner. You do not need to do extra cardio the next morning. You do not need to make up for one meal.
But if two or three days disappear from the plan every single week, that has to be part of the picture when you’re deciding whether the diet is actually working.
If you’ve never tracked, maybe it’s time
Maybe you’ve never tracked calories or macros. You’ve just been trying to eat better, have more protein, cut back on takeout and sweets, watch your portions, maybe drink less.
Those are all good changes.
But if you’ve been doing that for months and your weight is barely changing, you need more information.
You may be eating less than you used to. But are you eating less than your body needs to maintain your weight? You really don’t know unless you track it.
You can absolutely lose weight without tracking, but if you’ve been trying that way for months and nothing is changing, guessing is probably not helping you anymore.
Track for a while. Not forever. Just long enough to see what your normal intake actually looks like and whether you’re actually in a calorie deficit.
Tracking gives you a much clearer picture of where your calories are coming from.
You may realize your weekends are higher than you thought, your portions are bigger than you realized, or certain foods are adding up faster than expected.
Using a food scale is the best way to track your portions accurately so you actually know how much you’re eating.
Give it more than a week
Even if you were completely consistent for one week and the scale didn’t move, that still isn’t enough time to decide your calories are too high.
Your weight can fluctuate from a salty meal, a hard workout, eating more carbs, digestion, or just holding more water. None of that means you suddenly gained body fat.
Give the same calorie target at least two weeks, and often closer to three or four, before deciding it needs to change.
Look at the trend over that time. What is your average weight doing? Are your measurements changing? Do your clothes fit differently?
One week gives you a snapshot. A few consistent weeks give you something you can actually make a decision from.
Your activity matters too
Food creates the calorie deficit, but how much you move still affects how much energy your body uses.
You can work out three or four times a week and still be moving a lot less overall than you used to. Maybe your job changed, you sit more, you stopped walking as much, or your daily steps have dropped without you really noticing.
That happened to me after we closed our gym. I went from being on my feet all day coaching, demonstrating exercises and moving around constantly to being much less active overall.
At the same time, I was going through perimenopause and I was in a bit of a funk. My body changed, but my lifestyle had changed too.
Once I started following a plan, tracking my macros, prioritizing protein, strength training and staying active consistently, my body changed a lot over the next six months.
It wasn’t perfect. It was just consistent enough to actually work.
What if you really have been consistent?
If you’re being completely honest with yourself and you really have been doing all of this consistently, then we’re looking at a different situation.
You’re tracking your food, weekends are included, your portions are accurate, you’ve followed the same calorie target for several weeks, and your activity is pretty consistent.
And still, nothing is changing.
Then your calorie target might need adjusting. Calorie calculators are only estimates, and your actual intake, weight trend and activity over time give you better information.
There can also be medications, health conditions, poor sleep or other things affecting your progress.
If you’ve truly been consistent and the numbers still don’t make sense, don’t just keep cutting calories lower and lower. That’s when it makes sense to look deeper and, if needed, talk to your healthcare provider.
If you’re ready to track, know your numbers first
I know counting calories and macros can sound like a lot of work, especially if you’ve never done it before. It does get easier once you’ve been doing it for a bit, and if you’re trying to lose weight, it gives you something guessing never will: actual information. You can’t really know if you’re in a calorie deficit, or even close to where you should be, if you have no idea how much you’re eating. Guessing will only take you so far.
If you’ve been trying to lose weight for months without really knowing how much you should be eating, my One-Time Macro Count ($79) is a simple place to start.
You’ll get personalized targets based on your body, activity, and goals so you know what numbers you’re actually aiming for. Plus, you’ll get automated check-in forms at Week 1 and Week 3 so we can see how the numbers are actually working in your real life. No long-term commitment, just total clarity on your baseline.