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Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I

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Share all my free workout

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And nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

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I eat so clean, I train five to six days a week. I lift heavy. I don’t eat any junk food. I just don’t understand why I’m not seeing results. Many of us have felt frustrated in this exact way and we wonder why can’t I lose weight? And we think about all the things we’re doing right, the hard work we’re putting in the gym, the ways that we’re adjusting our nutrition. We even sometimes feel really restricted because we’re trying to make so many changes and in the end we sort of feel like we must be broken because we’re doing all these things right? But going to what we’re doing right doesn’t allow us to see the opportunity and probably some of the inconsistencies that are there or even the ways that all of our systems aren’t working together. Instead, we start to even think like maybe I’m broken.

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Maybe there’s a hormonal issue. Maybe it’s my age. Maybe it’s just previous dieting practices that have hurt my metabolism and I’m just doomed, but we’re not doomed. And while there can be other struggles that make things a challenge or make us have to adjust how we fuel and train and meeting ourselves where we’re at is super key and might be holding us back. So often we don’t control what we can control. So I really want to dive into why we can think I’m doing all these things right, but I can’t lose weight so that you can actually see the results that you deserve. So some hard truths that you have to embrace, some things you have to overcome, some things you might need to assess to see the results that you want. Number one, this is a very hard truth to embrace, but eating clean doesn’t mean that your macros are in line with what you need.

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Our portions can be off. You can be eating really high quality food and still overeat. You might be eating nuts and fruits and all these different things and your protein might be low despite getting great protein sources and all these other foods being healthy. But often too, we think I need to get in all these fruits and vegetables and I don’t have room for protein, but protein has micronutrients too and we can have that balance. But eating clean does not mean that your portions are right for your needs and goals. You might need to adjust your calories. You might need to increase your protein, you might need to reduce your carbs or even increase your carbs. You might need to change up your fat, but you need to adjust your macros to make sure they match your workout routine and your lifestyle. And as your activity level changes, as your goals change with your workouts, as your body changes, what portions are right for you might need to adjust what worked for you.

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Maybe when you were training for that marathon or younger and super active might not work for you as maybe you’ve become more sedentary or during menopause, you might have found that you are less able to utilize carbs as efficiently, especially with changes in your workout. You might have a little insulin resistance you need to address, so our portions will even change over time. So we can’t get married to one ratio. We have to recognize that eating quality food is not the be all and end all. We can still be overeating and not eating portions in line with our goals. Number two, you’re trying to add exercise your diet, and I think this is something we got away with a lot when we’re younger and we see it adding up as we get older, and it’s why I can feel like all of our hard work in the gym is not paying off, but you simply can’t out exercise your diet.

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Your nutrition needs to be paired with your workouts to see the best results as fast as possible. Now that being said, you might be like, well, I started training this other time where I started training for this race and all of a sudden I did lose weight. Yes, you can create that calorie deficit initially through your training. We can increase our training to create more of a calorie deficit, but unless you’re doing more, more, more, more as you advance, not only do you adapt to the loads to be more efficient, so you’re burning fewer calories doing the same things, but you’re constantly in the cycle of having to add on more time, do more reps, which will hit a point of diminishing returns anyway in order to create that calorie burn through your activity. So while it can be nice starting out, and if you’re really easing back in, maybe you do adjust your workouts first because you’re more comfortable being uncomfortable in that way.

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But if you’re an advanced trainee, if you’re seeing that plateau, you can’t out exercise your diet. You got to match your diet to your activity level, to your workouts, and seeing our workouts just as a chance to burn more calories ultimately holds us back. Next, you’re focusing on doing more. So this is like training longer, adding in more reps sets, moves to your workouts over dialing things in strategically, everything included. Your workout should be designed with purpose and it’s not just about doing more. Honestly, just because you have six days a week to train in an hour every day doesn’t mean you’re going to use that time trying to do high intensity interval training. A tabata workout that’s really meant to be like eight minutes and spreading that out for an hour unless you’re doing more mobility work or adding in longer rest periods between things.

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It’s just a lot of wasted volume that can ultimately hold you back. And people talk about all the time right now, cortisol levels and working out being a stressor on your body. And yes, it is a stressor and a good stressor as long as it is done strategically. But if you are trying to do some of those high intensity things that are meant to be 10, 20, 30 minutes and spreading them out of the hour over your workout being an hour because of more mobility work rests all those things, you are going to raise cortisol levels and potentially not be optimized to utilize growth hormone and testosterone as well as you can be and see the full benefits from your training. You’re going to be beating yourself down, hit that burnout point of no return both mentally and physically. So you want to be designing everything strategically.

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Do not see your workouts just as a chance to burn more calories because this is very limiting in how you’re actually using them versus if you’re trying to build lean muscle move better, you’re going to ultimately have more energy for everyday life because we’ve even seen with studies that if you try and burn more calories in your workouts and you completely deplete yourself while you’re under fueling, you’re going to actually fidget less in everyday life. So you’re not going to be seeing that calorie burn. Your body will find ways to conserve energy, so make your workout strategic so you’re building that lean muscle to utilize more calories even at rest to not only fuel that muscle, but all the other bodily processes. So don’t just focus on doing more design with purpose for everything you include and really be strategic in using the time you have.

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Then another pitfall we often see is we’re doing more of the same. We think, well, I’m eating so clean. I’m training hard. I ultimately just trying to do more of the things we’re really comfortable with making changes then versus looking at the hard changes we have to make. And I can tell you the change you’re probably resisting making the most is the one you need to make the most to see the results that you want. If you’ve been resisting increasing protein because you’re like, well, there’s no point in increasing protein for X, Y, and Z reasons that you found, you probably need to increase your protein most. If you’re like, well, hey, I’ve never tried cutting back on my workouts, I’m scared to do this because what if it doesn’t work? Often you just add in more training and that’s why you’re not seeing the results you want because you’re not truly doing something different.

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So often we look at making changes, and so yes, we’re making changes, but we’re making them in the same way. We’ve always made them. We’re doing more of the same things versus truly doing something different. We’re cutting our calories lower because we’re comfortable doing that versus saying, Hey, we’re doing more of the same with restriction. We cut out other food groups instead of saying, Hey, how can I work in a diversity? How can I change my macros? How can I actually eat more to fuel? So really take that step back to say, Hey, I’m making changes, but am I doing more of the same that I’m comfortable with or truly making a change that is outside my comfort zone, that is in a new direction that has purpose towards my goal? Then think about, are you being as consistent as you think being? Are you suffering from the good all week?

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I can tell you a lot of times there’s just inconsistencies adding up and that’s part of the problem. We don’t see those 1% deviations. We say one being good enough or this is okay, or one thing can’t hurt and one thing won’t hurt. Overall, we do have to strike that lifestyle balance and not just think about days and weeks, but months and years. However, those inconsistencies, the more we allow them to add up and they allow for more 1% deviations. That one thing that you’re like, oh, I’m just not going to track this becomes, oh, well this other bite doesn’t count and this other sauce doesn’t count, and all of a sudden we have thousands of calories potentially over the week that we’re not accounting for. So be conscious of those inconsistencies. I bring up the good old week thing because a lot of times what I will see is people will be like, well, I’m good Monday through Friday and it’s just Saturday and Sunday, so it’s five and two.

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But what we don’t recognize is that if we’re creating that smaller calorie deficit over the week to try and retain lean muscle, not hit that starvation, not feel restricted, ultimately what we’re doing is only building up a very small calorie deficit over the week, which is very easy, amazingly easy to blow over the weekend with those two days, and then with a couple of vacation days and a couple days that don’t quite go as planned here and there all of a sudden over the month, that consistency really isn’t there. So you have to think not just in terms of five and two, but also the actual calorie intake, the actual macro impact, because a lot of times on Saturday and Sunday too, we’re not chowing down an extra protein. It’s extra carbs and fat, which can dramatically impact the ratio we’re seeing over the course of that week.

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So we can’t ignore those inconsistencies. I know a lot of times it can feel like we’re beating ourself up over not being perfect, but you’re not seeking to be perfect. You’re seeking to see opportunity and ways to improve. You’re already doing over having to make dramatic changes because it goes back to the thing of we need to be reminded more than we need to be taught. We often need to tweak more than we need to overhaul. We need to make those small improvements that really add up that are meeting us where we’re at. Also, I’ll tell you, and this is tip number six, you’re not recognizing the other ways that results are building. So I’ve kind of beat us up a little bit over all the little things that might be off, but I also think a lot of times we don’t see the way that results are snowballing, so we throw out things that are working because we just don’t see progress in the exact way we want to, and I think that’s where we can even think programs have worked.

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I can tell you I’ve done a lot of different things, and if I only had one vision for what my goal was, one outcome that was satisfactory, I wouldn’t have gotten the benefit of a lot of things that I have. But I’ve always sought to learn one thing, even if it’s something I didn’t like from everything I’ve done. And so when you’re seeking a goal like weight loss, you have to celebrate the other wins. Are you doing things like including more micronutrient diversity that’s going to help for your health? Are you feeling more energized? Are you sleeping better? Are clothing items feeling better or fitting better even though you might not have seen that change on the scale yet? Are you lifting more in your workouts? Are you able to run faster? You have to find these other ways to measure progress, to know that the habits are paying off for your body as you make those little tweaks and keep moving forward towards your goals.

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But we have to find ways to celebrate the changes we’re making, and sometimes that even means just giving ourself credit for stepping outside our comfort zone. Hey, I’m tracking. No, I’m not yet making any changes to my diet, and I know that tracking itself can feel overwhelming and I’m putting in a lot of effort for this, and it doesn’t feel like the outcome quite matches it, but I’m going to celebrate that I’m making this one habit because as this habit becomes easier, I can make more changes that truly snowball towards my goals. So you have to find other ways to celebrate the wins in the habits that you’re implementing. Otherwise you’re not going to stick with them and you’re not going to enjoy the journey because often there are a lot of other ways that we’re already seeing results. We’re just not recognizing them, and that makes us throw out things that are working and try and tweak those things that don’t need to be tweaked.

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Then the other hard fact to own because none of us like being patient myself included, is that we simply haven’t been at things long enough. I’ve had clients be like, I’ve done this for a week. Why am I not seeing results? And I know we want to see instant results, but that’s just not the way it works. And sometimes yes, with glyco depletion because we’ve cut our carbs or yes, because we’re finally tracking and more aware of our intake, we make little changes that do add up so we can see that initial little pop of results from making those healthy swaps, but sometimes we don’t. And even if we’ve been seeing great progress, at some point we’re going to hit a plateau or things just aren’t snowballing the way we’d exactly like. Again, it doesn’t mean that progress isn’t building, it’s just not building in the exact way we want it to on the scale, but trying to rush that could ultimately sabotage our body comp.

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So we have to find ways to be more patient with it, and we also have to recognize how long did it take us to get into the position we’re in now, we don’t often recognize that. Sometimes we’ll think about, oh, well, in the past when I’ve died it down, it’s taken 30 days to get this off. Well, how long did you actually have that weight on before? Only a couple months that time. Okay, well now you’ve done that crash diet which has impacted your metabolic rate, and now you put the weight back on and now you’ve had it on for three or four months or three or four years. So all those things change. And so each time we diet down, not only do we impact our metabolic health and potentially implement improper dieting practices that might’ve served us to get the weight off but not served our overall muscle or metabolism.

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And that can make it harder now, but how long we’ve had the weight on can impact the rate at which we see it come off. And then yes, age does factor in our training practices and lifestyle do factor in. All these things are going to impact how the systems have to work together, and if we clinging to old practices, that might even be holding us back. So you have to recognize that sometimes you just have to stick with something longer and you have to trust the process despite it feeling like you’ve been at it for a while and you’ve been consistent and you want the results yesterday. So sometimes you just have to own, Hey, I just need to stick with this a little longer. And that’s why I even saying I’m not going to even think about tweaking things for three weeks or four weeks and give myself that end date that I’m like, Hey, no matter what, I’m testing it out for this time because I know all these other habits are going to pay off even if this exact macro breakdown or this exact workout isn’t as perfect or there’s something else I can build upon.

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Because sometimes that even lays this foundation to see better results in the next four weeks because you did that hard to embrace. No one likes being patient, but sometimes we got to say, suck it up buttercup and stick with it. Number eight, you are not tweaking before freaking. It’s really easy to be like nothing is working or see the scale go up one time or your measurements go up one time and just want to throw everything away and just give up and start over. But that’s the worst thing you can do because we have to think, I haven’t come this far to only come this far. And every time you’re starting over, you’re not just starting over, you’re starting backwards because now you’re redoing everything and you’ve potentially done things in the meantime to sabotage yourself because we all have had those moments. The self sabotage, who cares?

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And then we go, maybe the pin of ice cream or the bag of chips, whatever your craving is, maybe both. That would be me. But we sort of end up destroying all the progress we’ve made. We even sabotage ourselves further and make ourselves start over more than just starting over because we’ve potentially negatively impacted our metabolic health. We’ve also really shifted our mindset, and I bring this up because I see it most often with tracking. People have tracked in restricted ways, it hasn’t worked. They’ve done the self-sabotage and they feel even more rebellious against tracking again because of the association than they then have. So we then even turn ourselves off from the habits even more feeling like they didn’t work and we have to start over. So I will tell you the best thing you can do is if you feel like something’s not working and you even might say, Hey, could I give it a little longer?

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And you’re like, yes, I can, but it’s really hard for me to want to give longer. Maybe do a little tweak. Maybe you adjust how you’re hitting your macros and adjust your meal timing a little bit. Maybe you do say, Hey, I’ve been on this macro ratio for a little bit. I’m going to tweak for one week because I need that break or change above things. Maybe, Hey, I’m going to add in just an extra walk per week. You do something minor that could have a major impact, but also give you that sense of control. Because I think a lot of times that’s also what we’re control over our results. It’s why we go to doing more, but find a little tweak, find a little optimization. Hey, maybe I wasn’t as consistent this last week. How can I be a little bit more consistent? Or, Hey, I fell off a little bit on Sunday or had that cheat meal and while that’s going to be part of my balance right now, I want to see results faster, so I’m going to tweak that.

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Find one little thing to tweak over freaking out and trying to overhaul everything because then you’re potentially throwing out really good things that we’re building. You’re not keeping the progress going and the momentum going, and you’re starting over and you’re creating that negative association which can really hold you back, and it could become the more you do, the more you do, but not in a positive direction, then you are not accurately tracking. This sounds really weird to say because you’re like, well, I am tracking. But I think we can let those little deviations add up where we don’t log the bites, licks and nibbles that really are going on throughout the day. We’re not logging the full sauce, we’re eyeballing things, we’re not truly measuring it out. And while there are times for that, and I think that can be part of maintenance, I think it can be part of our building process.

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The more we say, why can’t I see a result? Or you want a result yesterday, the more precise you do have to be. And just like you would measure a recipe, if you really want it to turn out, at least from my experience, if you wing it and throw things in, it can turn out dramatically different or not at all if you’re not really good at the eyeball measurements because you’ve done it so frequently. So this is also where those 1% deviations creep in of like, I’m being good enough. We need to log to really make sure that we’re holding ourselves accountable. And again, when you’re maintaining, when you get really comfortable with portraits for something, you might become more lax. There might be times that you’re not logging as consistently or as strictly. However, if you’re saying, why can’t I see a result? You need to track everything to make sure that everything is dialed in because those systems have to work together.

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And that being said, if you’re not tracking your nutrition and you’ve added in more workouts or you’re not logging the new workouts and holding yourself accountable for the new activity and you haven’t adjusted your macros to match what you’re not tracking, you can’t fully see the impact of, so you can’t make sure that it’s truly working together where things can be off, but often we’re not accurately tracking things are being missed, even we’re choosing recipes that aren’t our own that we’ve made. And in that those recipes be dramatically different macros. And I throw this out there not because I think that eating out is bad. I like to go out to eat at restaurants, but I also know that there’s going to be more deviation in that, that I can’t fully know how they’ve cooked something. And so the more you want results, the more you can really get precise in those measurements, the better off you’re going to be.

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If you’re going out consistently, you’re going to potentially want to create a little bit more wiggle room or really get consistent in where you’re going out so you can see the impact those restaurants truly have on your nutrition. But just knowing that creates a little less accuracy in your measuring. It’s not demonizing going out. You want to find your lifestyle balance. But again, it’s weighing how fast do I want to see results versus how sustainable do I want these habits to be? And you can sort of course correct along that continuum based on what you want to achieve and based on how many sacrifices you are willing to make because we do have to make more sacrifices along the way to see results. Now, last but not least, you’ve been focused on it best over dialing things in strategically together. And I say this because I will have people be like, what’s the best move for X?

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What’s the best macro ratio for X? What’s the best insert? Anything else there? And there is no one best. It’s about how everything works together. I can tell you I’ve even seen it where someone has a great macro breakdown technically for their age, for their activity level, for all these different things, and all of a sudden they come up with the stress at work and aren’t sleeping and things need to dramatically shift, or they have a great workout routine, but again, they’re stress and therefore not recovering optimally, and all of a sudden we need to shift it. So there is no one best. The best thing is something strategically designed to meet you where you’re at that is sustainable. I can tell you that three days a week are better than six days a week if you can do three days a week consistently and give your all to those three days.

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But I can also tell you that you can design really well for six days a week to make them better than three days a week. However, you’re taking your six day a week routine and only doing three of those days is probably not optimal because you’re not owning your reality and you’re not designing for the time you have. So you want to think about how is everything designed with purpose and strategy based on my lifestyle, based on my needs, based on my goals, and then be willing to evolve over time. Too often I do think we give very tied to tactics and tools, overseeing evolution in those things and realizing that we’re constantly going to have to be meeting ourselves where we’re at. So if you’ve been thinking to yourself, why can’t I lose weight? I want you to consider these different things and really take a hard look at your systems and how they’re all playing together to help you achieve results.

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Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the

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Life of someone you know.