As a personal trainer I get the “why am I not losing weight?” question a lot.  In fact, it’s probably the question I’m asked the most out of them all. I usually ask how if they’re busting their butts with resistance training and if they nutrition is on point.  If you’re working out with me 3x  a week then I can proudly tell you that it’s not the workouts fault. Many times it’s usually the nutrition part of the game which can be the hardest one to get around.  I can train your butt off in the gym or in boot camp but once you go home you’re on your own for the next 23+ hours. To be honest, it’s hard to find somebody who’s working hard and doing everything right 90% of the time.  Most think they’re doing great but in fact they’re not doing very well at all… And with that being said, I want to give you my top 5 reasons why you’re not losing weight.

1.  Your Nutrition Sucks.

This is the #1 problem I’m seeing when it comes to not losing weight and for a very good reason.  Most people either A) Don’t know how to eat to burn fat and B) Eating right 90% of the time is just too hard for them.  Learning to eat the right stuff and when to eat it is absolutely imperative to dropping dress sizes and burning fat.  I’m a firm believer you can’t out train a bad diet and if you’re stuck in a plateau or can’t seem to see ANY progress then I suggest you first look at your nutrition.

2.  You’re Not Working Out With Weights.

Weight lifting is another big one people wanting to lose weight seem to avoid because they don’t want to “look like” Arnold Schwarzenegger.  But resistance training is crucial to shape your body and build lean muscle to replace the fat that’s currently on your body or else you’ll end up with the “skinny fat” syndrome where you’ll lose weight through crazy dieting but you’ll still be flabby and mushy all over your body.  And you don’t necessarily have to work out with weights but you can do an incredible amount of damage just doing body weight resistance training.

3.  You’re Lazy.

Yep, this is another big one that seems to be a HUGE reason why people aren’t looking better.  They’ll do an aerobics class here and there and hang out on the elliptical for an hour but they aren’t doing any real training.  Train with me a couple times in my boot camp or in my Blast class and then you’ll think your workout is a piece of cake.  Losing weight and burning fat is on overall lifestyle change and even working out hardcore for an hour won’t be the same if you’re sitting around on your butt for the rest of the 23 hours.

4.  You’re Expectations Are Too High.

I’m going to come out and say this one but way too many people are watching The Biggest Loser and are coming away thinking they’re going to drop 50 pounds in a month.  Scientific research has found that you can safely lose 1-2 pounds a week and the stuff you see on TV or on marketing gimmicks will hold you down.  Constantly looking at the scale can kill your motivation because even though you dropped a couple pant sizes and you haven’t lost much weight, you’ll still be disappointed.  There’s a lot going on in the body when you first start burning fat such as replacing the fat with muscle and along with water weight can manipulate the scale so it looks like you’re not progressing but in fact you really are.

5.  You’re Paranoid.

What do I mean being paranoid?  When you have all the keys in place and are working your butt off in the nutrition and workouts then it should the results will come.  But if you’re impatient and aren’t seeing some crazy results fast then you’ll most likely start playing mind games with yourself.  You’ll veer off your nutrition plan and start starving yourself and you’ll ditch the HIIT training for running 10 miles with your buddy who’s training for a marathon.  Stick with what works and have patience.