I’ve met countless people in the gym during my 22 years working as a personal trainer, and many of them were struggling with weight loss.
The more people I met, the more I started to notice a trend.
You see, the vast majority of people who were constantly struggling with weight loss goals usually fell into one of these three “traps” written below – and even though I’ve now retired as a PT, I still see this stuff happening all the time!
Let’s take a look at them, shall we?
1. Thinking Supplements Will Get You There
Losing weight and keeping it off requires a change of lifestyle.
Supplements may be part of that new lifestyle, but don’t overestimate their importance.
The marketplace has been flooded with so-called “fat burners” which claim to help you lose weight without any effort on your part, but this is absolute nonsense. You see, even if you only use the supplements which are backed by rock solid science (e.g. creatine, whey protein, multivitamins) they are only part of the healthy lifestyle jigsaw. The bulk of your results is going to come from your ability to to be consistent with your diet and get regular exercise.
2. Pushing The “Fuck It!” Button Too Often
Many of us turn to junk food when things get difficult.
Heck, you can probably name a whole bunch of people at your workplace right now who seem to stick to their diet for the first few days of the week and then go absolutely wild every single weekend, yes?
I’ve got nothing against a cheat meal, or even a cheat day, but if you find yourself pushing the “fuck it!” button every single week it tells me that you are trying to diet too hard.
People who do this tend to attempt very restrictive diet plans in the hope of losing as much weight as possible in the shortest amount of time, and it’s this over-restriction which causes them to feel like absolute shit, until they inevitably crash off the rails. Worse still is that these people often beat themselves up after their failed weight loss attempt, but in reality it’s those silly diet models which are the root cause of the problem. (1, 2, 3)
3. Not Tracking Your Nutrition
Simply put; numbers don’t lie.
I don’t think you’d embark on a road trip without checking if you had enough fuel in your car, but people make this mistake on a daily basis when it comes to food and water.
Not to sound harsh, but we have so many tools available to help us get a handle on this, it shouldn’t be an issue. Honestly, I die a little inside every time I hear someone bemoan that tracking their food is too hard. Too hard? You should’ve been doing this stuff in the early 2000s, mush, we had to use a fucking XL spreadsheet and add it up ourselves!
Anyway, the reason I recommend using an app to track your nutrition is because people are quite rubbish at “winging it”. A recent study showed that we tend to under-estimate how much we eat by as much as 50-63%, and this is something I saw time and time again on the gym floor over the years. Sometimes the error was down to their daily eating habits, and other times it was just their weekend food intake. (4, 5)
As my clients are probably tired of hearing me say, “If you don’t track, you don’t know!”
“People love to say, “Oh, I’m eating low calories but can’t lose weight!”
But are you REALLY?
Weekends are a huge trigger point for most people. If your maintenance calories is 2300 but you only eat 1800 calories per day Monday-Friday this puts you in a calorie deficit of 2500 and that’s more than enough to help you lose weight. The problem is most people will then eat 3500 calories on Saturday, and again on Sunday, which actually takes them out of their weekly calorie deficit and their weight stays the same (or goes up).
That situation can be mentally crippling for a person who, in their minds, has worked hard for 5 out of 7 days, and it usually causes them to either try an even more restrictive diet model next time, or to binge eat. In reality it’s the overall numbers that really count.”
– Dr. Layne Norton, PhD
Let’s Make Some Positive Changes
Let’s try a new approach.
What would you say if I told you I could help you lose weight:
- Without cutting out any of your favourite treat foods!
- Without making you diet on an absurdly low number of calories per day!
- Without making you pop so many supplements you sound like a human rattle!
That’s exactly what I’m about to show you, and the good news is you don’t need to pay me or try any fucking stupid nonsense!
I just want you to do these four little things, my friend:
- Stay in a calorie deficit for an entire week. If you need help setting that up, just multiply your target body weight (in lbs) by x11 and start with that. Also, read this.
- Make sure you eat plenty of protein each day. Also, read this.
- Track your food intake with an app. Also, read this.
- Don’t cut out any of the foods you enjoy. Also, read this.
Further Reading:
If you enjoyed this blog, then you’ll probably also like reading these.
>> 5 Fitness Myths You’ll Hear In Every Gym
>> The 7 People You’ll Meet (And Hate) At The Gym
>> Workout Programs Now Available On RussHowePTI.com!
References:
- Ogden J., et al. Cognitive changes to preloading in restrained and unrestrained eaters as measured by the Stroop task. Int J Eat Disord (1993).
- Klok M. D., et al. The Role of Leptin and Ghrelin in the Regulation of Food Intake and Body Weight in Humans: A Review. Obes Rev (2007).
- Smith C. F., et al. Flexible vs. Rigid dieting strategies: relationship with adverse behavioral outcomes. Appetite (1999).
- Bajunaid R., et al. Predictive equation derived from 6,497 doubly labelled water measurements enables the detection of erroneous self-reported energy intake. Nat Food (2025).
- Patel M. L., et al. Comparing Self-Monitoring Strategies for Weight Loss in a Smartphone App: Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth (2019).