“I go to the gym almost every day, but I still can’t seem to lose weight!” Part One

“I go to the gym almost every day, but I still can’t seem to lose weight!”  I hear this a lot from when clients first come to see me and just people I chat with in general.  I am sure there are many of you that have experienced this frustration.  I often follow up with some key questions that make it pretty clear what may be going on. 

Here are some key things I ask or that you can look at yourself to determine why you may not be seeing the results you are looking for.  I will divide this article in several parts over the next few days.  Today let’s look at the major one:

 Your diet

You can be at the gym, working up a sweat all you want, if you are not consuming the right foods at the right time, your progress will be very slow, or may even stall after a while.  Your diet is more than 70% of your training.  This is particularly true, the leaner you are.  For many people that just start exercising for the first time, they will see some initial results, especially if weight loss is their goal, but can be discouraging when the progress stops.  Some people even start eating worse or more when they start to workout  - bad idea, as this will definitely hinder your progress. 

Also I find are many many people also that think they are eating well, I know because they tell me so.  Once I take a look at what they are eating, this becomes very questionable.  I can’t blame them for thinking they are picking the right stuff, because of all the marketing that goes into making people believe that some of the foods out there are good for you, when in fact they are just junk.  These include many of so called “low fat”, “no fat”, “whole wheat”, products on the market, that are usually full of preservatives, sugar and chemicals.  Thinks like rice crackers, low fat fruit yogurts, whole wheat breads, veggie chips, 100% juice,  generic peanut butters, are some of the common offenders. 

I usually recommend to my clients to start making small changes, like focus on getting 80% of your food intake from “natural” food.  What I mean by “natural” is anything that grows, swims, walks/runs etc  (basically veggies, fruits, fish, & meat).  An easy rule to go by is asking -  did this come from nature? If yes, good!  Did humans have to do something to it to make in a different form than it naturally comes in it’s usually not so good for you.  The more processed, packaged and the longer  the food can be stored, the worse it is for you.  So many of those “healthy” foods out there are really not that healthy after all. Buy your food fresh and make it yourself.  Read the ingredients, the more ingredients there are that you cannot understand, the most processed the food is (especially if it has ingredients that you cannot pronounce!).  Those types of foods do nothing for you, they are waste and cannot be utilized by the body for energy, so as a result they are simply stored as fat…

For those that are looking for really great results and are really serious about getting that lean, bikini ready bod, well a little more detail may be required.  You want to make sure you are eating the proper micronutrients for your body type, current shape and size as well as your goals.  You will need to understand how to best fuel your body, before and after workouts, what foods to avoid at certain times and what foods will give you the maximum results…Everyone is different, I strongly recommend to anyone with specific goals to educate themselves on this or seek help from a trainer who understands food chemistry or a nutritionist.

Tomorrow we will discuss “What does your workout routine look like, and common mistakes people make”