If you're eating clean, exercising and feeling like you're trying it ALL, yet the scales aren't moving or you've hit a plateau, there is a super common mistake that I have seen many women make that is holding them back.

In this episode, I will share what it is and give you practical solutions so that you CAN see results from your hard efforts!

 

00:00 Intro

02:40 Who This Podcast Relates To & The Woman That Health With Bec Aims To Help

05:20 Bec’s Personal Experience With Weight Loss/ Weight Maintenance 

06:30 What You Might Be Missing If You're Not Getting Weight Loss Success

07.10 Calorie Misinformation/ Confusion On The Internet

08.28 Additional Episodes On Calorie Counting & Calorie Tracking Apps 

09.25 The Science Behind Weight Loss 

10.50 How Not Counting Calories Could Be Slowing Weight Loss Results

13.12 Eating With Balance & The Health with Bec Approach

16.38 How To Ensure You Are Staying In A Calorie Deficit

17.52 How To Track & Count Calories Without Obsession & Overwhelm

21.26 Advice For Women In The 3 Week Body Reset & Health With Bec Tribe

25.58 Reminder To Those Trying It All But Struggling To See Weight Loss Success

 

Links:

More podcasts to help you learn about calorie deficits and 80/20 living:

#120: Is calorie counting & using the apps ACTUALLY useful? What are the pros and cons? 

#119: How to actually 80/20 and quit the 'all or nothing' cycle to lose weight effectively

87: Thinking Of Doing a Fad Diet or Cutting Calories Super Low? 3 Reasons Why This Will HARM Your Progress!

Podcasts that share my own gut health & slow thyroid journey: 

#129: Why you should never stop searching for answers. My vulnerable gut & dieting journey and how it lead to a life-changing approach for both myself and thousands of women)

Start your weight loss, gut healing and anti-inflammatory journey now with my 3 Week Body Reset

Continue your journey and figuring out YOUR own balance in the Health with Bec Tribe

Explore my free recipes & website: Click here 

Follow me on instagram: @health_with_bec

Download my FREE eBook with 4, 15 minute meals: click here

Read This Episode:

In this episode today, I'm going to be talking to those of you who feel like you're trying everything, but you're not seeing success on the scales or in your body. You feel like you’re not losing weight, maybe you are eating really healthy, doing all the right things, going to the gym, you're even watching your portion sizes and you just feel like something's missing and you're starting to feel very frustrated? Maybe you have lost weight, whether it's been with me or my programs or someone else or you have lost weight for a certain period of time, but you've hit a plateau?

Let's say, you've been doing my program - so you've done the 3 Week Body Reset and then you joined the Health with Bec Tribe. Maybe you've got lots of success, but maybe you started to go off on your own a bit more, and you've been using my philosophy and my recipes, but you're starting to not look at the recipes, you're starting to just wing it and you've reached a plateau and you're not losing any more weight? 

If any of these scenarios relate to you, there is one key thing that I have seen many women do over the years that holds them back from losing weight after they've been losing it for a period of time, when they start to wing it by themselves and that's what I'm going to be talking about in this podcast today, because it can make such a big difference and this is going to sound quite simple because it is …

I realised how prominent this was after I worked with women one to one for the first two to three years of my business. I used to work with women one to one in a very intensive capacity where seeing five women kept me full time because I would spend so much time getting to know them, so much time developing personalised meal plans, and then I would do follow up consults and what I'm talking about in this podcast is one of the things that so many women were doing wrong because I've always liked to work with the women who have tried it all.That's always been my thing. That's always been my jam. It's what I'm passionate about. I really like to help women who have tried it all, who are already health conscious, who feel like they're doing everything, but they're just not seeing success in their weight loss and they're feeling really defeated about it. 

They are the people that I help and so I would take on women like that as clients. I wouldn't just take on anyone and so I really got to know the mistakes people were making and I would see their results after I'd give them their plans, I'd listen to their feedback and this really helped me. I wouldn't have been able to build my 3 Week Body Reset and then the Health with Bec Tribe, if it wasn't for working with hundreds of women one to one first, it really enabled me to understand their lifestyles, the mistakes they were making and the most common things that women were doing that were holding them back and also to obviously learn exactly what works for so many women as well, which is how I could build the 3 Week Body Reset and the Health with Bec Tribe and in a way, yes, it's a one to many plan, but there are so many ways that women can customise the meal plans and the recipes to their own lives, which they learn in my program.

Also, I love working with women who have tried it all. I'm passionate about it because I've got my own journey myself, so I completely understand how it feels to be health conscious and to try everything, but not see results or feel like you're just gaining weight, even though you're being really healthy, you're not able to lose weight and that was me in my late teens, early twenties and that went hand in hand with my chronic gut issues. It was before I had my diagnosis of having a slow thyroid. I share my story in depth in other podcast episodes (Episode #129: Why you should never stop searching for answers. My vulnerable gut & dieting journey and how it lead to a life-changing approach for both myself and thousands of women) 

I just wanted to share that because I do understand and that's what gives me my passion to keep teaching this every single day and to help other women out there who are trying it all finally see weight loss success and just feel confident in their skin. 

The other thing that I want to say, and I'm going to be getting into it a little bit in this podcast too, just to remain my weight, I still have to be conscious and try hard because I eat the way that I teach women and it's a very yummy, enjoyable and easy way to eat but I have to stay really conscious still to remain my weight because like I always teach with weight loss, the way you lose weight should be the way that you keep it off. It's so easy to gain weight, especially when you're a foodie and especially when you've got a slow thyroid like me. So if you've got a slow thyroid, your metabolism is a bit slower and I have always had to be very conscious to remain at a healthy weight that I feel comfortable with and so that is another reason why I empathise with women. I love coaching women. I love doing these podcasts. I love working every day. I love reaching more and more of you because I get it and I'm in it. I'm living and breathing the exact approach that I teach women inside my programs and on the podcast on here. 

Okay, if you are someone that is trying it all and you're not seeing success, a lot of the time it’s because - you aren't counting calories. Now don't freak out and end this episode just after you've heard me say that because it can be more simple than you think, and I'm going to be walking you through this, but to just pre-empt this chat, I need to say first of all, there is so much advice out there - other weight loss plans or nutritionists or people on Instagram say you don't have to count calories and if you count calories, it can lead to eating disorders and all of things and there's absolutely truth to that. 

So what I'm saying is just remember, like every other podcast episode, it's not going to be the advice that works for every single person, we're all unique, but I need to share my experience and my knowledge and what works for other women so that you can give this a try. If not, you can listen to someone else's advice, but there is a lot of advice out there that says, if you just eat clean and watch your portions and listen to your hunger signals, then that can be enough to lose weight and you don't need to count calories. 

If you are someone that has a lot of weight to lose, if you are someone who is already eating a diet that is rich in sugar, refined carbohydrates, lots of takeaway, maybe lots of alcohol and you want to lose weight, then simply limiting or reducing a lot of those foods and eating clean can absolutely be enough for so many people to lose weight, right? It absolutely can! By just reducing your calorie intake without you even thinking about it, you can absolutely receive success, but I'm not really talking to those women in this podcast. 

I am talking to the women who have perhaps already cut all those foods out, who are eating really clean and healthy, who are exercising and just feeling like they're trying it all. If this is you and you are not yet counting your calories or tracking your food so that you don't know if you're in a calorie deficit or not, then that is one thing that you should absolutely try to do now if you want to see results because you can't defy science. I have a few other episodes where I talk about calorie counting apps and calories and how it's important to not under-eat too much and how to find your own balance - (Episode #120: Is calorie counting & using the apps ACTUALLY useful? What are the pros and cons? & Episode #87: Thinking Of Doing a Fad Diet or Cutting Calories Super Low? 3 Reasons Why This Will HARM Your Progress!)

I'm not going to be getting into what calories are and what your deficit should be and all of that chat too much, but it's more so a reminder episode that I need to share because you physiologically can't lose weight unless you are putting yourself in a calorie deficit. You need to be consuming less calories than you burn each day because that is how you lose weight. It's a scientific equation and it's so important, necessary and it is the central key to weight loss. If you eat the same amount of calories that you burn in a day, you'll remain weight and if you eat in excess, that is how you gain weight. So if you're eating more calories, because calories are energy, they need to be stored somewhere, so it will be stored as fat. If you are eating in weight maintenance, you remain weight. If you are eating less, then you burn fat. So that is a very simplified way of explaining it, but so many people forget that or maybe you know it, but you have just forgotten about it for a while, or maybe you know it, but you actually think that you're eating in a calorie deficit, but you might not be.

I'm going to throw out a few scenarios here that I see all the time and I've been guilty of it in the past too. I always need to rein myself in sometimes and if I gain a kilo which happens to me too, then I look back and I think - oh yeah, I wasn't as conscious. I have been having a wine or two at night or I have been picking at more food and it's something to stay conscious of. 

I'm going to give a few examples to see if you relate - maybe you are someone who is eating regular main meals, but you're picking a lot mindlessly when you're stressed or when you're bored? Maybe you're having a few bites of your kid's leftovers after they finished dinner? Maybe you're just having some cheese and crackers before dinner, thinking that's nothing? Maybe you're licking peanut butter off the spoon? Maybe you're having a glass of wine at night? You think you're having one glass, but the glass that you're pouring yourself is actually big and it could easily be two glasses? That means it’s maybe 300 calories instead of about 100 (anywhere between 100 to 150 for a glass of wine). Picking at some leftovers could be a couple of hundred calories, having some cheese with some crackers could be one or 200 calories minimum. The peanut butter, that's got a hundred calories per tablespoon.

So if you're picking, you can see how that would add up and look, this is why I'm glad that I'm actually recording a podcast about this because writing it in an Instagram caption can be too hard because there is nothing wrong with those foods and I really never want my advice to sound restrictive or harmful in a way that it could promote eating disorders or restrictive eating or obsession because that's absolutely not the way that I am personally and it's not what I teach. There's nothing wrong with those foods, if they're eaten in moderation and we need to take it one step further, if you're trying to lose weight. 

Let's say you're just doing two of those things, like you're having a bit of wine at night and maybe a bit of peanut butter. Let's say the wine has a couple of hundred calories and the peanut butter has a couple of hundred calories. That is actually enough to keep you in weight maintenance for the day, even though you think you're eating really healthy and you're possibly eating in a calorie deficit, it is just so easy. Unfortunately, it's too easy, especially when you're a foodie and especially when you like some wine or to slightly over-eat to the point that you're just in weight maintenance instead of weight loss.

If you're new to this podcast, I really just want to say as a quick side note, I don't promote being in a calorie deficit for weight loss every single day of the week. I'm absolutely all about women finding their 80/ 20 balance and going out for dinners and getting takeaway and having at least one or two days off a week where they are actually eating in weight maintenance and they're not thinking about a calorie deficit much because it's super important for so many reasons and I've got podcasts about that too and that's exactly what I teach in my program - (Episode #119: How to actually 80/20 and quit the 'all or nothing' cycle to lose weight effectively)

I leave blank meals for them to choose whatever they'd like to have. I educate them on how to eat at those times and enjoy themselves without going OTT whilst the rest of the plan is a bit more calorie controlled, but in a very yummy and tasty way. I just wanted to say that too, because I am talking about calories and being in a calorie deficit in this podcast, but I just want to say that I'm all about balance too and it doesn't have to be every single day of the week, but if it's 80% of the time Monday to Friday and you're aiming for weight loss, it's very important to put yourself in a calorie deficit so that you actually are losing weight and it is a very frustrating feeling when you are eating really healthy, thinking that perhaps you're on a calorie deficit and thinking that you should lose weight because you’re not eating much and maybe you're exercising …

If you're doing that and you're being conscious and you're actually really trying, but your weight's just plateauing or you're not dropping any, then it is a very frustrating feeling. It frustrates me too, because it's actually so easy. If this is the thing that you're getting wrong, because there are so many other pieces of the puzzle of course, it's not just about what I'm talking about in this podcast but if this is you, and you're just mindlessly picking or you're having that glass of wine, you're cooking dinner but you're not really thinking about the amount of olive oil you're putting in, you might just drizzle heaps over the top, so instead of wanting to add one or two tablespoons, you might be adding four or maybe you're not being conscious about the size of chicken that you're cooking for yourself or the steak because the difference between a 150g piece of chicken and a 250g could be a couple of hundred calories …

Maybe you're not being as conscious as you should be and when you feel like you're eating really healthy, but you're eating in weight maintenance, that is very frustrating because if you make some very simple tweaks and you're a bit more conscious so that you actually are truly eating in a calorie deficit, then you will run mate, you won't lose it and it's frustrating. If you are conscious and you are in a calorie deficit from making some tweaks and being conscious, then you might start to lose weight and see results, so why not put your good efforts to use and see results for yourself? 

That's what I really want for women and in this calorie deficit that you're going to be trying to get into, of course, there are so many other things to focus on so that you stay full, so you're meeting your nutrition needs, so that you're not losing muscle mass, you've got to make sure you eat a lot of protein and that's very important too but I'm just going to be sticking to reminding you how important it is to count your calories and to track your food sometimes. 

So how do you ensure that you are staying in a calorie deficit and how do you start to count calories without getting obsessed and without getting overwhelmed? 

The easiest way to do it is obviously to join my programs because that's exactly what I do for you. So with every single recipe, I give you the calorie and the macro breakdown, but you just need to look at the calories because I take care of everything for you and then, because you've got meal plans that are designed for you, the recipes add up to an exact amount of calories and if you cook what is on the recipe, then you know exactly what you're eating. So that's what I love teaching women because I've done all the hard work for them. 

A lot of women that go through my programs come back to me and they say - this is actually very similar to how I was eating, but what I've learnt is my portions were too big or I was snacking too much because I'm finally losing weight and it's very similar to how I ate but now that I'm actually eating in this controlled way, it must just be the fact that I was eating more calories. So that is obviously a very easy way to do it and I have to say that because that's what I do and that’s one of the reasons why my program is powerful. That's just one of the secrets in my programs. 

If you don't want to join my programs yet, I've got a few ideas - 

One idea is to look at the free recipes on my website - healthwithbec.com. There's quite a few to get started with and there's calories attached to each of those as well. You could cook those for dinner. There's some breakfast in there too. Get a piece of paper out and just write it down or if you're a bit more tech savvy, download a meal plan template and write the meals down from my website with the amount of calories and then to fill the gaps, you might want to find some other recipes that have the calories attached, or taking it one step further in the other spaces - you can create your own recipes or buy your own food and make sure you start to track calories.

Now you can do this in a few different ways - there's a couple of apps that I would recommend. MyFitnessPal is one and Easy Diet Diary is another and I'm sure there's lots of others but they're the two that I often recommend and the two that are most widely used. You don't have to do this, every single day of your life forever. You absolutely don't! When I was starting to get into my own nutrition research, going through my nutrition degree, learning about my body, learning about food, learning what works for me, I would use a calorie counting app but then after about a month or two I really started to learn, especially if you're someone that's having the same kind of breakfast every day, obviously you're not going to have to input that every single day. If you build a meal in one of these apps, let's say it's a smoothie, you put the ingredients in, you save it as a recipe and then that's something that you can just repeat, right? So if you are someone that's having similar breakfasts every day, similar snacks, similar lunches, it gets easier and easier the more you use it and then after a while, it just becomes second nature. 

With some of the things that you cook, you won't have to actually put it in the app. You'll just be able to work it out in your head but I would absolutely recommend it if you are someone that is trying it all and you're not seeing success to start doing this and writing down your meals and tracking your calories so that your hard efforts are actually way more guaranteed to work now.

I just want to go back to what I was saying about weight maintenance and calorie deficits, because I want to help it make sense to you for a bit - 

We're all different but the average woman needs around 2,000 calories to maintain weight and to lose weight at a healthy pace (anywhere between half a kilo to a kilo a week max. per week), it's recommended to reduce your weight maintenance amount by about 75%. So if it's a 2000 calorie weight maintenance amount, you want to be aiming for approximately 1500 calories, five days a week, right? Remember 80/20 always, so 5 days a week! So let's say you're aiming for that and then you're picking and you're having a bit of wine, it's so easy to consume 500 mindless calories and you will just stay in that weight maintenance amount. So when you start tracking, you can make sure that you actually eat the 1500 so that you do get success. That is somewhere to start. 

Now, if you're someone that has done my 3 Week Body Reset and maybe you've joined the Health with Bec Tribe and you feel like you've hit a bit of a plateau because you've started to go off the meal plans, like I recommend for everyone to do whenever they feel ready and you started to plan your own meals a bit, but maybe you're not really looking at the recipes? Maybe you're deciding to wing it a bit more? There's so many other things that cause plateaus but this might be holding you back - maybe you do need to rein it in and ask yourself - am I actually following Bec’s recipes or am I not looking at them and just having as much as I feel like? For instance, I am starting to create my own recipes with similar principles, but I'm not tracking my calories. If this is you, you might just want to start tracking again. 

So, if you found a recipe that you're experimenting with that follows all of my principles why not put it into My FitnessPal and work out how many calories it has so that you know the portions to eat of that meal or why not go back to one of the meal plans that you've got and follow that for a week or two and see if it helps? The point being is that I just want to remind you to stay conscious to be in a calorie deficit because it is so damn easy to slightly over-eat on the healthy stuff and stay in weight maintenance instead of weight loss and if you do this for a week or two and you realise that is the answer for you, then that is just another step forward in figuring out your own balance and what works for you.

You might want to not stop using the apps for a bit and think to yourself - I know what I'm doing now, I'm going to repeat what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks and that is fine because if you're eating similar meals, you'll be eating the same amount of calories and that's all good but then when you start to find different recipes to cook, just remember to track and look. You don't have to track forever, absolutely not. You will get to a point where the meals and recipes that you're cooking and finding your own balance will be second nature. It'll be ingrained into your brain and you'll know what you're doing, but inevitably there will come a point, like it has to me so many times in the past and lots of other women, where you might gain a kilo or two and you might need to come back and ask yourself - have I been accidentally over-eating if you're gaining weight?

If you go through a period of time and you think - oh gosh, I feel like my jeans are getting tighter or I've gained five kilos or whatever it is, then it's important to come back to my meal plans again, or use the apps again and track so that you are actually in a calorie deficit and these times where you're not losing weight or you're gaining weight, and then you need to get back to basics and start counting again, it's all important. It's all great. I always say it's really good when women don’t lose weight, and they don't know what they've done wrong because when you look back to see what you've been maybe picking on, or is it too much alcohol, or have you stopped doing as much exercise, or are you starting to eat more of your partner's or kids leftovers? When you look back and you realise what you've done, and then make changes to go forward, that is what growth is called. That is how we all learn from making “mistakes” and then learning from them. 

So that's what I've done for the last 10 to 12 years. That is what I teach women inside the Health with Bec Tribe. I help them find their balance in far less time than it took me. When I was really truly finding how to find my healthy weight, what to eat, how to eat to stay full and remain a healthy weight - it took me about three years. I really like to help Tribe members learn that in six or 12 months, sometimes two years, but it's definitely a lot less than it took me.

Today’s episode was just a reminder of the importance of being in a calorie deficit, if you are someone that is trying everything and not losing any weight. It is science. It is what has to happen if you're looking to lose weight, so unless you are focusing on that, as well as so many other things that I hope you're focusing on too, like meeting your protein needs and eating lots of vegetables and focusing on your gut health at the same time, like I do in my programs too, then you won't see success. 

If you feel like you're relating to what I've said in this podcast and you do this and there's something else that's going on - if you really are counting your calories and things aren't adding up, please stay patient.

Please don't stop searching for answers. There's so many things that you can try and that is why I have my programs. That's why I'm on the podcast all the time, bringing you all the different reasons that hold people back from losing weight and I really encourage you, if you truly do feel like you've counted your calories and you've done everything possible, then I always encourage women to book in to see an Integrative Doctor, a Functional Medicine Doctor or a Naturopath and get lots of tests done. 

Get your thyroid checked, get your gut health checked, get your hormones checked. There's so many things that can be going on in your body that can cause issues. A slow metabolism can just make it harder to lose weight for so many people, so stay patient. There's lots of answers that will be coming for you. It takes time to find your balance.

Now, if you did enjoy this episode, it would mean the absolute world to me, if you left me a quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Another thing that really helps me is if you take a screenshot of this episode and share it to your Instagram stories. If you're not already following me at @health_with_bec, come and follow me over there. 

Also, my free4x 15 minute dinnersis a great download if you're not ready to invest in my programs. That gives you a taste of four easy 15 minute meals. There's a shopping list & there's a glossary of my favorite foods in there so you can use those, plus the ones on my website to get started.