5 Reasons Why You Aren't Losing Weight on Your Healthy Diet

Do you feel like you eat pretty healthy, but can’t seem to lose weight? Or maybe you’re even gaining weight on a healthy diet?

If that sounds like you, I want to share a few things that will likely change the way you think about “healthy eating” and weight loss. FTR they are not one and the same.

When someone tells me they eat healthy, it usually looks something like this: eats veggies every day, tries to stay away from red and fatty meats, doesn’t do a whole lot of fast food, doesn’t do a whole lot of sugar.

And while that is all great, it doesn’t necessarily equate to weight loss. And this is because healthy foods will still cause you to gain weight if you eat more of them than you need. And if you frequently under-eat at meals because you’re trying to “eat healthy,” you are far more likely to have binge episodes later on that lead to eating back those calories you were trying to save, and then some.

So here are the top 5 reasons I see why you may be eating healthy and yet still struggling to lose weight.

Your Portions Are Off

You may have heard of macronutrients before. These are the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats that your body breaks down for energy, or in the case of protein, to also build structures and components in the body.

You need a certain amount of each one to function optimally. Luckily, this is a range and not a super strict “If I don’t hit 175 g of carbs today then my whole diet is off.” The optimal ranges for most people look like this:

• Carbs: 45-65% of total calories

• Fat: 20-35% of total calories

• Protein: This one does have a recommended g target, is based on your lean weight, and varies based on your physical activity and body composition goals. The bare minimum recommendation is 0.8 g/kg/day for a sedentary adult, but most people do far better with 1.2-1.4 g/kg or more, and 1.7-2.0 g/kg for those who are active and looking to build strength and muscle. Some highly active individuals may need even more! Protein intake should be within 10-35% of total calories.

From what I’ve seen, most people under-eat protein and overeat fat and sugar. Sugar is a carb but messes with blood sugar which I explain later in this post.

A lot of women eat meals that are low in carbohydrates. They may then binge on sugar later and while they may hit their carb targets, sugary foods almost always come with additional FAT. Cookies, cakes, pastries; these are classic carb examples that are actually packed with fat.

The same is true with simple carbs in general. These are your white rices, white pastas, white breads. Who do you know that eats rice without butter or oil, pasta without sauce, or plain slices of naked bread? We almost always eat these simple carbs with additional fat.

The other piece of this is that you do want your meals balanced with the 3 macronutrients, otherwise you risk blood sugar fluctuations and being unsatisfied between meals. This typically leads to overeating later.

Eating enough protein at each meal is a key component to staying satisfied between meals and keeping that blood sugar in check.

Side note about protein: Your body can’t make protein from scratch. You have to consume a variety of amino acids from protein foods. Your body can make fat from protein or carbs, and your body can make carbs from protein. But your body cannot make protein from carbs or fat. For this reason it is very important that you consume enough protein at meals.

You’re Overeating Oils

Did you know that olive oil has 120 calories per tablespoon? I don’t know about you, but I can easily add about 4x that when I’m cooking and not even realize it. And while olive oil is known for its heart health benefits, those calories can still contribute to weight gain when eaten in excess of what your body needs.

Fats and oils are one of the easiest things to overeat, and when I look at clients’ food logs, this is the nutrient that I almost always see is being over-consumed. And with diet culture pushing the idea that carbs are the problem, you have probably been overlooking your fat intake.

Again, most carby foods that we think about come with a good amount of fat. Even foods like french fries, chips, and popcorn are fat loaded.

You’re Eating Out Frequently

When you go to a restaurant and order something like a salad, it sounds super healthy right? Notice how it ✨always✨ tastes better than if you would have made it at home. Restaurants tend to use a lot more oil, fat, add hidden sugars, and calorie heavy nuts and creams to make their food taste really really good. This ramps up the calories and can easily make that healthy salad a calorie bomb. For example, if you go to BJ’s and order their Caesar Salad with Oven Roasted Salmon, does that not sound like a great option? If you pull up the nutritional info on that salad, you’ll see that it has 1200 calories, and is one of the heaviest salads on the menu. Compare that to their Asian Chopped Salad, which is one of their lowest calorie salads at 540 calories.

I’m not sharing this to scare you away from eating out altogether. But it is important to recognize how easy it is to overeat calories when you order out, even if you order something that sounds healthy. My recommendation for those who are frequently eating out and trying to lose weight, is to pull up the nutritional info ahead of time, because relying on “healthy foods” and reasonable portions with restaurant foods is likely to still have you overeating; again with fats and sugar.

Your Blood Sugar is Off

Eating balanced meals and snacks every 3-4 hours throughout the day helps to keep blood sugar levels stable. What happens when you eat low carb, as most frequently do when they’re trying to eat healthy, is that blood sugar levels dip. That dip causes moodiness, low energy, and cravings for sweets-AKA quick carbs. This is your body trying to get blood sugar levels up to baseline.

Eating a balanced meal or snack every 3-4 hours that contains protein, complex carbs, and fat, helps to regulate the digestion and release of sugar into the bloodstream so that a steady amount is constantly flowing through. This keeps you feeling alert, energized, and satisfied between meals without having cravings for sugar or other simple carbs.

What happens when you do crave sugar and give in? Well typically, you get a blood sugar spike followed by a dip, and that dip again leads to more cravings. See the cycle?

Oftentimes people think they have a sweet tooth, when really they just need to regulate their blood sugar with balanced meals.

If you want to lose weight, you do have to be in a mild calorie deficit. The best way to do this is eat all 3 macronutrients at each meal, and just slightly shrink the carb and fat portion. That’s it. You may feel a little hungry at first, but once your body shifts into fat burning mode you should feel pretty good. Don’t eliminate an entire macronutrient or else risk blood sugar fluctuations, hunger, and eating more calories than you would have because now you’re starving and irritable and you just don’t care.

You’ve Started Exercising and Now You’re Hungry and Eating Back More Calories than You’re Burning

Here’s the thing, if you just started exercising you probably will feel more hungry at first. You probably will need more protein, and depending on the type of exercise you’re doing, you may need more carbs as well.

But this is the kicker: you probably don’t need THAT much more. Especially if you’re trying to lose weight. First thing’s first, compare your protein intake with my recommendations above. You can use MyFitnessPal to do this. Are you eating enough? If not, bump that up first.

Second, most people, especially exercise newbies, overestimate how many calories they’re actually burning. Treadmills are notorious for overestimating because most are based on a 150 lb male’s estimate.

You overestimate because, hey, you worked hard! But if you want to lose weight, having a cupcake because you worked out for 45 minutes isn’t really helpful. In most cases, especially if you’re a beginner, you are just eating back the calories you burned with that cupcake alone. And you may even be eating more. Just to give you an idea, a large cupcake has about 230 calories. A 45 minute weight training workout burns on average about 230 calories. This number will be much higher when you have more muscle and are lifting heavier weights. Which of course, takes time. When you have more muscle, you burn more calories at rest too. But again, this process takes time.

Eating enough protein will help you build that muscle as fast as possible. So, in time, you will be able to have that cupcake as a reward and still lose weight. But to be honest if you follow the guidance here, once you get to that point you probably won’t even want the cupcake anymore-because you’re getting the nutrition you need and your blood sugar is stable.

I hope this helps!

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