By: Chris Gates

In this article, I’m going to help you figure out why you’re not losing weight in a calorie deficit.

This is a super common problem people run into, so you shouldn’t beat yourself up if you feel like you’re doing everything right, but you’re not seeing the progress you want.

Because being in a calorie deficit isn’t easy.

It requires you to carefully manage your diet every day, and you have to balance that with your job, school, family, friends, exercise, hobbies, and so many other factors.

But we can troubleshoot all of that and get to the bottom of why you’re not losing weight.

• Do you need to do something different with your diet?
• Should you add more exercise into your routine?
• Are your hormones playing a role?
• Do you just have a super slow metabolism?
• Or, do calorie deficits not actually work?

I’ll answer all of these questions for you, and more! By the end of this article, I’ll map out a clear action plan for you so that you can start moving in the right direction, and start losing weight in a calorie deficit.

Let’s go!

Why Am I Not Losing Weight in a Calorie Deficit? The Basics

First and foremost, we should go over the fundamental principle of what a calorie deficit is, and how it works.

You might be familiar with this information already, but it’s never a bad thing to do a quick refresher.

To be in a calorie deficit, you need to be taking in fewer calories from food than your body burns each day.

It’s the basic laws of energy balance — energy in vs. energy out.

If you are burning more calories than you’re eating, you will lose body fat. Plain and simple.

Now, if you’ve read any of my articles before, you know that burning more calories than you’re eating doesn’t mean you should go to the gym and try to burn as many calories in your workouts as possible.

Nope.

Not even close.

Instead, I’d recommend that you track your nutrition carefully and honestly (more on this in a second), and pay attention to changes in your body composition. I’ve got an article on how to know you’re in a calorie deficit that explains exactly what you should do, and what you should be monitoring, in order to make progress. Give that a read if you haven’t already.

And now that you understand what a calorie deficit is, how it works, and what leads to weight loss, let’s dive into some scenarios of why you’re not losing weight in a calorie deficit.

Why Am I Not Losing Weight in a Calorie Deficit? Scenario 1, Tracking Error

This first scenario is probably the most common reason for why you’re not losing weight in a calorie deficit.

You’re not tracking your calories, or you’re not tracking them accurately.

While you can lose weight without counting calories, my personal recommendation is that you give tracking calories a try. It’s going to be the most effective and efficient way for you to figure out what your average calorie intake is, and then figure out what you need to change to start making progress.

But you’ve got to invest the attention to detail necessary to make this process worthwhile.

If you’re just going to guess how much of each food you’re eating, and not weigh or measure things out to get your portion sizes correct, you’re going to keep spinning your wheels.

You’d be amazed at how even being off slightly with a few food estimations can lead to hundreds of additional calories in your diet. (That spoonful of peanut butter you eat, as compared to what an actual serving size looks like, is staggering!)

Get yourself a food scale that weighs things out in ounces and grams, and buy yourself a set of measuring cups. All told, this is going to cost you like $20, tops.

And then put that food scale underneath your plate each time you prepare a meal. It doesn’t take a lot of extra time or effort to do this. It just takes commitment to the process and attention to detail.

This will help you get an accurate read on how many calories you’re eating each day, on average. And from there, if you’re not losing weight, you can slightly reduce your calories, continue tracking, and see how your body responds.

Chances are, if you’re not tracking, and you aren’t losing weight, you’re not actually in a calorie deficit.

Scenario 2, You’re Not Monitoring Your Body Composition

Sure, monitoring your weight on the scale is important. Everybody should do it, and in my opinion you should do it on most days of the week.

But don’t stop there.

Make sure you’re monitoring other aspects of your body composition as well, like measuring your waist and taking progress photos.

Because get this…

Oftentimes, when someone is in a calorie deficit — I mean truly in a calorie deficit — and regularly exercising, they’ll build muscle at the same time they’re losing body fat.

And if that’s happening to you, it means the scale might not move at all. But it doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong, or that you’re not in a calorie deficit.

The end goal of this process of being in a calorie deficit and losing weight is to change your body composition, right? So as weird as it may sound, the scale may not always be the best measurement tool for you to use.

If you are:

• A beginner to strength training, or…
• Haven’t lifted weights in a while, or…
• Are legitimately pushing yourself harder than you have before with exercise…

You are a prime candidate for something called body recomposition, which is just a fancy term for building muscle and burning fat at the same time.

And if you’re only using the scale to measure your progress, you’re potentially missing out on a lot of change that’s happening to your body.

Which means you might end up quitting while you’re actually making progress.

Don’t make this mistake. Take waist measurements every two weeks, and snap progress photos of yourself once a month.

Make sure you’re capturing all angles of the progress you’re making, because if you’re truly in a calorie deficit and not losing weight, there’s a very good chance that your body is changing.

Scenario 3, Not Giving Yourself Enough Time

Any type of change that you want to create is going to take time.

Whether it’s building muscle, getting stronger, or in your case losing weight.

It doesn’t happen overnight.

It won’t happen in a week. Or two weeks.

And it probably isn’t going to happen in a month, either.

And that’s OK. Because this change you’re trying to make is a change you want for life, right? You want to lose weight and keep it off forever, don’t you?

A common problem people run into with not losing weight in a calorie deficit is that they’re simply not allowing enough time for their body to respond to the process.

Here are some common examples:

1. You set an overly ambitious goal of wanting to lose 20 pounds in a month, and after a week you haven’t lost any weight. This leads you to make drastic changes to your overall plan that make your diet overly restrictive and unsustainable, so you end up burning out and quitting.
2. You start your calorie deficit and see some initial progress with the scale going down, but the first time it spikes back up you freak out and think you’re messing up, when in fact you’re not. (More on how you can’t control the scale in a second.) Once again, you either make rash decisions or quit altogether.
3. You see your weight remain stable for 1-2 weeks and assume something is wrong, despite the fact that plateaus can last an entire month, and it’s completely normal. At this point, you know the drill… Rash decisions, restriction, quitting, etc.

You have to take a long-term approach when you’re in a calorie deficit to lose weight. Real, meaningful, sustainable change comes from months of sticking to the process and being consistent.

So if you’re getting all worked up over day-to-day weight fluctuations, or if you’ve created a super aggressive timeline, it’s time to rethink things.

You probably are in a calorie deficit, and you probably are doing everything right. You just need to give your body more time to adapt to the process.

Scenario 4, There Are Some Things You Have No Control Over

I’ll make this one pretty brief.

A lot of the time, you have absolutely no control over why you hit a plateau with your weight, or even why your weight spikes up. Especially when you’re in a calorie deficit and doing everything right.

Here are some common factors that will cause your bodyweight to spike:

• High stress levels
• Changes in your diet
• Strength training
• Physical food weight in your body
• It could be that time of the month
• Drinking a lot of water
• Not drinking enough water

The list goes on and on, but you get the picture. None of those things mean you are gaining body fat, but they can cause your bodyweight to fluctuate.

So if you’re in a calorie deficit but you ate more salt than usual, or more carbs than usual, or you didn’t have a good poop yesterday (yeah, I know, gross), or you did a heavy strength training session, your bodyweight is going to fluctuate.

That’s completely normal, and it’s OK.

And it doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.

No, your hormones aren’t messed up. And no, you don’t “just have a really slow metabolism.”

You’re just a normal, functioning human being, and this stuff happens.

So keep going. Don’t quit. You’re probably just retaining a little bit of food weight or water weight, and in a few days it will come off.

Why Am I Not Losing Weight in a Calorie Deficit

At the end of the day, there are a lot of different factors that determine when you’re going to lose weight in a calorie deficit.

But the same principle applies to everyone — first and foremost, you need to make sure that you’re actually in a calorie deficit.

You need attention to detail and commitment to the process to make sure your nutrition is properly aligned with your goals. If you’re not losing body fat long term, you’re not actually in a calorie deficit.

And beyond that, there are a lot of habitual things you should focus your routine, and your mind on to make sure you’ve got the right approach. Let’s recap in a quick list so that you’ve got a clear action plan moving forward:

1. Track your calories and make sure you’re truly in a calorie deficit.
2. Monitor your body composition through daily weigh-ins, waist measurements every two weeks, and progress photos once a month.
3. Give yourself time. Remember that this isn’t a race, and your body needs time to adapt.
4. Accept the fact that there ARE things that will occur day-to-day that make your weight spike up, and it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. Keep your focus on the long-term trends.

Good luck on your weight loss journey 🙂

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I hope this article helped! Like I mentioned at the top, struggling with not losing weight in a calorie deficit is extremely common, and it’s hard to deal with. But typically, one or more of the four scenarios we just ran through are causing that to happen.

If you’re interested in getting customized coaching to help you lose weight, burn body fat, build muscle, develop more confidence, and feel confident in your own skin… That’s what I do! And I’d love to help you make the progress you’re looking for. Check out my coaching page to learn more.

Thanks for reading!