When the number on your scale won’t budge.

If losing fat were easy then we'd all look like fitness models, right?

Unfortunately, the fat loss game is more frustrating than most care to admit. The scale quickly becomes a dreaded enemy—a constant bearer of bad news.

If the number on your scale won't budge then read on for an explanation:

Possibility #1: You're Not Eating Enough Calories
This only happens in cases of severe calorie restriction, so don't take it as a license to eat whatever you'd like. When you're trying to drop a few pounds by eating next to nothing, it actually counteracts your efforts.

There's a base number of calories that you should be eating in order to maintain your proper bodily functions, including fat loss, so check with a doctor or nutritionist to make sure that you're eating enough.

Possibility #2: You're Eating Too Many Carbs
Processed carbs will promote fat storage quicker than you can say the alphabet backwards. Blood sugar and insulin levels always respond the same to processed carbs – whether those carbs are in the form of a FiberOne bar or a Twinkie.

You're fooling yourself, but not your scale, if you think processed carbs should be included in your fat loss diet.

Possibility #3: You're Doing Too Much Cardio If you're doing hours of steady-state cardio, it's gonna end up working against your fat loss efforts. All that cardio promotes the release of stress hormones in your body, which counteracts your ability to lose fat.


Possibility #4: You're Not Getting Enough Sleep
You may not see the connection between your sleep patterns and the number on your scale, but it's there. Sleep patterns have an impact on your hormone levels, and hormones are a huge factor when it comes to losing fat.

Be sure to get a full eight hours of sleep each night to boost your fitness results.

Possibility #5: Your Snacks Have No Protein
Small, whole foods snacks throughout the day can help maintain your metabolism and encourage fat loss, but it all depends on what you're snacking on. Fruit-only snacks quickly break down to sugar, which causes insulin to be released and potential fat storage to occur, much like when you eat processed carbs. Sure, the fruit will make less of an impact than a candy bar, but you could be snacking smarter.

Only eat snacks that contain more protein than carbs, and also some fat. This will help to stabilize your blood sugar levels while also keeping hunger at bay longer.

Possibility #6: You Eat Diet Foods
I get it, you have a fat loss goal so it's tempting to fall into the trap of purchasing foods that claim to help dieters. The problem lies in the fact that these ‘diet' products have been highly processed and contain potentially harmful chemicals and artificial sweeteners that will confuse your hormones and promote fat storage.

The best diet strategy, when working towards a fitness goal, is to stick with real, fresh, whole foods. Steer clear of anything fake or processed.

The Stress Factor

I didn't forget about the elephant in the room...your stress levels.

Sure, life can be overwhelming and stressful, but understand that mismanaged stress will have a negative impact on your hormones, which can promote fat storage.

Find ways to relax every day, in order to give your body a break from 'fight of flight' mode. Your scale will thank you!

From the Desk of John Hall Studios

What to do when you fall off your diet

Whether you’re dieting to lose weight or maintain weight, everyone falls off their diet from time to time.  Know what your triggers are, and how to deal with a momentary diet lapse.

Your day started out great.  You got up early, did your workout, had your protein shake.  You showered and dressed, packed a healthy lunch and headed into work feeling energized and ready to tackle the day.  As you go through your emails, you find one from your boss asking for the report you promised her – the one you thought was due next week.  Your stress level skyrockets.  And in a panic, you get to work – but not until you’ve grabbed a donut from the break room.

It only takes a moment for your diet to go from terrific to terrible.  You have a bad day and think a bowl of ice cream will make you feel better.  Your movie companion offers you some buttered popcorn and you just can’t resist.  You cook too much food for dinner, but rather than packing it up for tomorrow’s lunch, you just finish it off instead. 

No matter how good your intentions, you can’t expect to follow your diet perfectly every minute of every day.  There will be those times when you have something you shouldn’t – so the trick is figuring out not only what gets you into trouble in the first place, but also how you can talk yourself back down.

If you’ve fallen off your diet – and everyone does – here are some tips to help you get back on track:

Know that lapses happen.

Everyone makes diet mistakes from time to time.  What you don’t want to do is beat yourself up about it, because you’ll feel as if you’ve failed – which could lead you to just give up and lose control completely.  A single event – eating something you shouldn’t, or exceeding your calorie limit for the day – is simply a lapse.  Recognize it for what it is, but don’t let things get out of control.  String enough lapses together, and you’ve got a relapse – and you’re back where you started.

Know what triggers you to eat something you shouldn’t.

Most people can identify what it is that triggers them to eat when they shouldn’t.  Stress, for example, is a big one – when people eat in response to stress it’s because they think a treat will make them feel better.  And it might – at least momentarily.  But then the guilt sets it, which stresses you out, which causes you to eat more … and the cycle continues.   Fatigue, loneliness, frustration, boredom – there’s a whole host of emotions that can trigger you to eat.  Sometimes there are people in your life that are the problem – like the ones who are always urging you to have something ‘just this once’.

Figure out how you can change your response next time.

If emotional eating is a problem for you, you’ll want to work on finding other ways to deal with your emotions that don’t involve food.  It’s been said that people eat to ‘stuff down their emotions’ in order to avoid feeling sad or lonely or frustrated.  But many people also say that it’s really the fear of experiencing the emotion that makes them eat … and that when they simply let the emotion happen – and learn how to deal with it – it’s never as bad as they thought it would be. When your emotions are getting the best of you and food is calling to you, try writing your thoughts down, calling a friend, turning on some soothing music, taking a walk, or having a cup of tea instead.

Talk nicely to yourself.

If you’ve eaten something you haven’t and the little voice in your head is saying, “You’re such a failure, you’ll never lose weight!” you need to be a little nicer to yourself.  Instead, say the same thing to yourself that you’d say to a friend if you were offering support.  “So you got stressed and grabbed a donut – it’s not the end of the world!  Let’s take a walk at lunch to burn off some extra calories and stop for a salad on the way back”.

Wait it out.

Delay tactics can work really well when you’re feeling tempted to eat something you shouldn’t.  If you’re keeping a food diary, take a look at it before you indulge.  Just taking a moment to consider what you’re about to eat – and why – can be enough to stop you in your tracks.  The other thing that often helps is to tell yourself that you’ll wait 10 minutes once the urge strikes, to see if you still feel the need to indulge.  Most of the time, you’ll get busy doing something else and just forget about it.

Get back on track right away.

Don’t let the day get away from you.  A slip is one thing – just don’t let it turn into a fall.   If you ate something you shouldn’t have, just get over it and pick right back up at the next meal.  It’s too late to do anything about the last meal you had – focus instead on the one you plan to have next.

Remind yourself of how much you’ve accomplished.

Sometimes after a slip, it helps to do a little ‘system reset’.  Think about what motivated you to make changes in the first place, about how far you’ve come, and the accomplishments you’ve made.  You have the know-how and the commitment – and you know you can achieve your goals because you’ve been making progress.  And remember that progress is measured in many ways – not only by what the scale says.  Every time you make the best choice in a restaurant, pack a healthy lunch, turn down an offer of food you don’t want – or skip the donut when you’re stressed and take a deep breath instead – you’re making progress.

Written by Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD.

How to eat less overall … by eating more protein

Another reason to eat protein at breakfast. Protein helps keep you full and satisfied until lunch – and a new study suggests it might even help curb snacking at night.

If you keep up with the latest in dietary advice, you can probably list a few reasons why protein is such an important nutrient.  It’s necessary, of course, to help you build and maintain your muscle mass, and it’s also known to be a much better at filling you up than either fat or carbohydrate – which is why we suggest that people aim to have a good source of protein at each meal or snack.  The idea is simply this:  high carb meals don’t stay with you, while higher protein meals can help control hunger from one meal to the next.  But here’s something else… a recent study by Heather Leidy¹ suggests that a high protein breakfast not only helps control your appetite until the next meal, it might reduce unhealthy snacking in the evening.

Your must-have guide to smart ordering in restaurants

Keep a few smart ordering ideas in mind when you’re eating out and you’ll stay in control of your calories, your appetite and your waistline! 

Here are some ‘little things’ you can do every time you eat out – and rack up plenty of calorie savings in the process.

Smart ordering tip 1 – spoil your dinner

One frequent problem with restaurant dining is that it takes time to get seated, look over the menu and place your order –  and by the time your meal arrives you’re starving.  That’s why many restaurants pop down a basket of bread and butter or some tortilla chips and salsa to tide you over.  So, spoil your dinner a little bit – have a piece of fruit, a few bites of cottage cheese or yogurt or a small handful of nuts before you go – and turn down the bread and the chips which can add hundreds of calories to your meal before you’ve dug into your first course.
Calories you could save: 150 (1 slice bread + butter) to 500 (basket of chips)
Smart ordering tip 2 – the water’s fine
Cocktails, wine, soda, and sweet beverages like lemonade don’t fill you up, but they can sure fill you out.  And, in the case of soda, free refills are often the norm in America – and that could mean hundreds of extra calories.  Instead, ask for unsweetened iced tea, plain water or mineral water with a slice of lemon.
Calories you could save: 100 (glass of wine) to 400 (large soda + 1 refill)
Smart ordering tip 3 – skinny dip
Starting your meal with a salad is a great habit to get into – as long as the salad isn’t loaded down with fatty ingredients and heavy dressing.  Opt for plenty of greens with an oil and vinegar dressing – served on the side – and ‘do the dip’.  Dip your fork in the dressing, then pick up some greens with your fork.  You’ll get a little taste of dressing with each bite, but you’ll use far less.
Calories you could save: 200+ (75 calories per tablespoon – most restaurants add about 4 tablespoons of dressing to the typical dinner salad)
Smart ordering tip 4 - go fish

Many people I talk to know they should eat more fish, but they don’t cook it at home – either because they don’t know how to cook it properly, or they say it makes the house stink….two good reasons why it’s a good choice when you go out.  There’s another good reason, too.  As long as it’s grilled and broiled – rather than deep fried – fish has a lot fewer calories than an equivalent serving of red meat.

Calories you could save: 200 (4 ounces grilled fish vs. 4 ounces broiled steak)
Smart ordering tip 5 – take the first crack
If you’re dining with a group, try to order before everyone else does.  If you’ve planned ahead, and have a pretty good idea of what you want to eat, it’s a lot easier to stick with your agenda if you place your order first -  before you get swayed by everyone else’s choices.  When dessert time rolls around, you can ask for fresh fruit or coffee before you even peek at the menu – and before everyone else orders pastry.
Calories you could save: 300 (piece of layer cake) to 1000 (piece of cheesecake)
Smart ordering tip 6 – do the splits
It’s been said before, but it’s worth repeating – restaurant portions can be huge. Split an entrée with a dining companion and order an extra side of veggies, or have your leftovers packed up as soon as you’ve eaten your portion.  Those in the restaurant business know that customers want value – in other words, they want big portions at a reasonable price.  And since it costs the restaurant much less to buy the food than it does to cook and serve it to you, most places are more than happy to super-size portions.  They may be able to afford to “pile it on” – but can you?
Calories you could save: Hundreds.  Restaurant entrees can easily run 800-1000 calories.  

Written by Susan Bowerman