
1 Youâre not consuming enough calories.
One of the biggest mistakes I see with people trying to lose weight is that theyâre actually not consuming enough calories! I know this sounds crazy, but give me a second to explain.
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We all know that to lose weight and to burn fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit. But creating too big of a calorie deficit can cause you to lose the wrong type of weight and potentially make it harder to lose weight in the future {1}{2}. This is because your body doesnât like to be in a calorie deficit. Realistically, if you were in a calorie deficit indefinitely, you would die! This is also known as starvation. When youâre in a large calorie deficit, your body will make certain adaptions such as using muscle as energy and decreasing your metabolism to reduce the number of calories you burn throughout the day. This in turn, will be a problem when your calories return to normal but your muscle mass and metabolism is slower than before, making it hard to lose weight the next time around {1}{2}. As you may know, calories are what give us energy. If your calorie intake is low, your training performance will also severely decrease, resulting in fewer calories burnt per session and a higher risk of injury. Another problem with calorie restriction is that itâs not sustainable and you will have to relapse at some point. We canât help it, we all love food!
CONCLUSION:
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Low-calorie diets can be very harmful to your health and long-term fat loss. Ideally, create a calorie deficit by burning more calories rather than eating less.
2 The secret behind liquid calories.
Juices, smoothies, sodas and energy drinks. Could they be the single thing stalling your fat loss? When people are on a diet, they cut back on their food intake and often start calorie counting. The problem is, they forget to count the calories from drinks! Just take a look at whatâs in some popular drinks:
Orange Juice from concentrate (1 cup) – 110kcal (28g sugar)
Lucozade sport (500ml bottle) – 140kcal (32g sugar)
Average Juice smoothie – 150kcal/300kcal
Coke (1 can) – 140kcal (36g sugar)
Beer (1 pint) – 220kcal
White wine (medium glass) – 120kcal

As you can imagine, these can easily tally up throughout the week. In fact, one study showed that women who increased their intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, including sodas or fruit smoothies, from one per week to one or more per day added 358 calories daily and gained significant weight. {3}
CONCLUSION:
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If you are on a diet with the aim to lose weight, make sure you include your calories from drinks as well as food. Ideally, I would suggest water or sugar-free alternatives.Â
3 Youâre taking on more than you can handle.
I see this problem over and over again, and Iâm sure many of you are guilty of this too. You wake up one morning and have an epiphany, you need to get back to the gym and burn some fat. You have a holiday/wedding/birthday approaching and you’re going to be in the best shape of your life! This is it this time, no excuses! You decide you will train 6 times per week and never eat carbs again. Chocolate is out of your life for good.
 The first week goes well, good start! Week two, you miss a workout because itâs raining. Week three, one chocolate bar wonât hurt will it? By week four youâve given up!
Before you start any fitness regime or change your nutrition, ask yourself if you can really still see yourself doing it in 6 months to 1 yearsâ time. If the answer is no, then youâre setting yourself up to fail.Â
CONCLUSION:
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You know yourself better than anyone else! Try to find a way to fit your training into your lifestyle, even if it’s only 1 – 2 times per week. The same goes for the diet, if you love chocolate and need it in your life, find a way to fit it in. Think about it, training 1 – 2 times per week with a balanced diet for 2 years is far better than training 5 – 6 times per week with a faultless diet for 3 weeks and failing.
4 Youâre not eating enough protein.
Calories are made up of 4 macronutrients: Carbohydrates, Fat, Protein and Alcohol. Now, ignoring alcohol, our diet should be made up of the other 3. Usually when looking at a clientâs nutrition, theyâre super high in carb and fat but low in protein. By making a simple change of increasing your protein, it can make a big difference. A high protein diet has been shown to help fat loss in many ways, e.g. to decrease appetite, protect muscle mass in a calorie deficit and also increase metabolism {4}{5}. In fact, in a 12-day study, people ate a diet containing 30% of calories from protein. They ended up consuming an average of 575 fewer calories per day then when they ate 15% of calories from protein.{6}
CONCLUSION:
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High protein intake helps with weight loss by reducing appetite, preserving muscle mass and boosting metabolic rate.
5 Youâre not lifting weights.
Thereâs been a myth in the fitness industry for some time now that lifting weights will make you âgainâ weight and look âbulkyâ, and if you are going to lift weights to âtone upâ, then you need to lift really light and complete a high number of reps. Both of these statements are false! Muscle plays a big role in our metabolism. With fat loss, muscle is a precious commodity and we need to keep as much of it as possible, adding resistance training into your program will help you maintain muscle whilst burning fat. Lifting weights can also help burn fat during your session. In fact, a study of 741 participants showed that combining cardiovascular training and resistance training is one of the best strategies for weight loss. {7}
CONCLUSION:
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Lifting weights should be a staple in your training program, whether itâs fat loss, muscle tone, or anything else. It can help increase your metabolism and energy expenditure, increase the efficiency of your workouts and reduce the risk of weight gain in the future.

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