Stronger Than Your Boyfriend
Stronger Than Your Boyfriend
Top 10 Weight Loss Mistakes That Prevent Real Results
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Today, we share the top 10 weight loss mistakes that are preventing you from losing weight. If you follow the guidance laid out in this episode, you'll learn the truth about “losing weight” and leave with THE tools to help guide your relationship with your body, fitness, and food far into the future. It’s time to start busting some of the myths that are keeping you stuck!
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why is Weight Loss So Hard?
- The Most Common Weight Loss Mistakes
- How to Lose Weight the Right Way
- Redefining Success Beyond the Scale
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Welcome to the Stronger Than Your Boyfriend Podcast, a podcast for anyone in the fitness, especially for those of you who are still getting your weight loss tips from celebrities.
SPEAKER_00We are Heather and Katie, not celebrities, owner of Barclay Fitness here to help you maybe we are. Maybe we are. We are, we are. Small local ones. Yeah. So today we are talking about the top 10 weight loss mistakes that are preventing you from real results.
SPEAKER_02So we're gonna tell you the mistakes, so don't do them anymore after today. Correct. All right, number one.
SPEAKER_00Number one, coming in at number one. Coming one at number one. Uh caring too much about the scale. You had to know that was coming. Yeah, of course. Of course. If you've listened to us at all, you know that we hate this. Yes. Um, first of all, if you're focusing on weight loss as your goal, you're already set up to fail. Yes. So if you're listening to this podcast because you're like, ooh, weight loss, that's my goal. Sorry, I'm gonna give you some bad news. Yeah. You should be focused on fat loss, not weight loss. Yes. And it's not just semantics. Muscle builds metabolism. If you aren't building muscle, you're sabotaging your goals from the start. Yes. The scale doesn't tell the whole story. Weight loss isn't what you want. Fat loss is. Body reconp is a process. We've talked about it on a previous podcast. Go listen to it. You need strategic phases of programming for both your training and for your nutrition. Yes, building phases, cutting phases. Basically, nutrition, yes. Eat in a surplus to build muscle, use that fuel by training with intensity and volume when you have the extra calories. And then after improving your muscle and increasing your ability to eat more because your metabolism is higher, now you can shift to maintenance mode and then maybe a small cut. Yes. Right? And make your cut strategic and shorter. Listen to our body recomp versus weight loss episode.
SPEAKER_02That was a very quick. Yeah. I also do feel I feel like we're kind of shitting on people who weigh themselves, and we're not. It's and I and I I weigh myself occasionally. Yeah, yeah, and we do. Like it's more so it just sucks that this has been fed to women for so long. Up until probably our generation or maybe even the generation after us. It's just what's your number on the scale? Be really skinny, and that sucks. And it's a it's hard to break, especially when society feeds that you should be a certain weight, or you have this certain weight that you were in high school and that you really liked how you looked, etc. But you can't focus on high school anymore and what celebrities say who are stick thin and who don't look that good, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_00And what sucks is you can see that it's still an issue. Like we we had such a great with CrossFit, honestly. Yeah. I give CrossFit. Shout out to CrossFit for that. For bringing like women into like women more and making that more of a thing, right? But you could still see that weight loss is still important to people by the way that they uh market GLP ones. Like there's so much more benefit to GLP ones than losing weight. Yeah. And all the time, that's all you see is lose weight. Lose weight, weight. That's not what it's for.
SPEAKER_02And I fucking called this two years ago about all the companies that would be popping up selling GLP ones, and that is all they fucking promote. I get served it all the time because I literally talk about it with clients, and I get served it, and I'm like, ooh, it's just annoying because there's more benefits to them, and there are also other peptides that you could use. There's a bunch of different things to do, but man. Yeah. I mean, we did all we can get into this. This would be a whole other episode about GLP1s. Yes. But, anyways, let's move on to number two. Mistake number two. Yes. Overdoing cardio. Okay. I would even recommend once you embark on a fat loss I did that for you. Journey. Journey. Exactly. That's where I was going. Yes. I would argue that you shouldn't do any cardio. I really don't, I don't even think that I mean It's the last thing you add in. It's the last thing you add in. I don't, okay, I immediately regretted saying that because cardio is good for your health. Yes. But if we're talking about losing body fat, there's a period of time where you don't need to do any. And I think you get away without doing any. So your body, because if you just start doing a bunch of cardio, your body's gonna plateau and you will will require more and more and more and more and more to lose weight. Yes. And your body will get used to doing all this activity as you're losing body fat. Therefore, you won't be able to not do the cardio anymore. So and you'll be even hungrier. So again, you still need to prioritize strength training no matter if you're building, no matter if you're cutting, no matter if you're in between. And also focus on just walking and neat throughout the day. Energy just moving throughout the day. Right. It's not a shit ton of cardio that you hate. That's that's a recipe for disaster, even for fat loss. Not saying it won't work, it will work initially, but then it'll stop working really quickly. Yeah. And then instead of running a couple times a week for 20, 30 minutes, I'm gonna have to run fucking six days a week. And then that's gonna suck because when you don't get it in, you probably gain some weight. And you don't want you, you don't want to do that because your body's an adaptation machine and it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. So it's adapting to what you're giving it. Yes. So if you're doing all this activity, it's gonna start to expect that. Right.
SPEAKER_00And honestly, spoil your material. Everyone I know who runs, they get hungrier. They eat more. Like that's adding that cardio is gonna make you hungrier. So I know you're trying to cut. Is it really the right idea?
SPEAKER_02I never do it. And when I do do it once in a blue moon, I'm like, wow, I'm so hungry. Why do people do this? Yeah. It's annoyingly, like you're annoyingly hungry. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like you ate a big meal and you're like, wow, I can eat that again. It is interesting because I feel like I do the opposite of what everyone else does when people are like, oh, I'm I'm bulkan. So I'm just gonna eat a bunch of crap and I'm gonna get really strong, and then I'm gonna cut and I'm gonna do all this cardio. I feel like I'm the opposite. Like sometimes I'll get in the mood to do cardio. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna bike, I'm gonna throw in some Metcons here and there, like I'm gonna do occasional cardio. And when I do that, I eat a shit ton. So it's like the total opposite of the cardio. So like you're like cardio bulk. Yeah, because I know I'm gonna be hungrier. Yeah. You might as well eat more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So number. Number three, cutting too many calories too fast. Big mistake. Yeah. You don't want to just go in and be like, cool, I'm gonna cut a thousand calories. Oh. Well, I picked a big number. Yeah, that's a big number. That's a big number. I know, but no, a lot of people do do that. Yeah, they they really do, and it's not sustainable. That I mean, that's I I feel like this is just simple. Like, it's not sustainable. Everyone should know that. People don't. They think they can they think they can keep it up. Right. No, you wanna do it slow, slow and steady.
SPEAKER_02And it there's a difference between, okay, let's say you're you're maintaining your weight around 2,500 calories, going down to 2,000 when you didn't need to, when you could have been losing body fat at 2300, why would you do more than you need? Yeah. You know what I mean? So you wanna eat as many calories as possible all the time. So doing more than you need, well, you're just gonna plateau faster. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? It's kind of like burnout, right? It's the same kind of concept as like if you go all out on anything, like your job, whatever it is, you're gonna burn out. Yeah. It's kind of the same concept here. Yeah. So yeah. Okay, number four. Number four.
SPEAKER_02Focusing only on high rep ranges. Ah, the burn. We all need the burn and the sweat and the pump when we are losing body fat. So it don't don't just do that. I mean, you're what you need to think about is what are you training? So when you're training high reps, you're training muscle endurance. So are you in a muscle endurance phase and you just have to be cutting? Okay. I would argue you're probably gonna be more tired if you're on low calories and doing a bunch of high reps. You're kind of burning yourself out. I also understand that when you're doing heavy squats, you can burn yourself out. But if you're doing less volume, it's probably better when you're doing low calories or when you're eating lower calories because you don't have as much energy coming in to recover. So just food for thought on that. You still need to be doing progressive overload. If you're doing like a three-month cut, which is kind of long, you're not gonna be doing high rep ranges for three months. Right. You're gonna, you're not gonna be doing shit for yourself. So you need to, you need to adjust your reps, adjust your sets tempo, etc. And just because something burns more doesn't mean it's burning more calories. Just because you have more lactic acid in a muscle after a set doesn't mean it's burning more calories. Follow your program. Don't change to high rep ranges just because you're trying to cut. And I know that people who are in this mindset are probably very fitness-minded. So they know they understand it's not weight loss, it's fat loss. But even still, you're you're not burning more calories just because you're maybe a little more out of breath during a set. Right. Because you're doing 15 reps instead of six.
SPEAKER_00So all right, number five. Number five. Neglecting neat, non-exercise activity thermogenesis. This is the biggest lever for fat loss. Absolutely big. Other than diet. Yeah, right. Diet's the biggest in strength training. But as far as movement goes, neat.
SPEAKER_02Yes. That's why track your steps versus just doing a bunch of cardio. Yeah. Because that's an easy thing you can add in throughout your day that's not super intense. Moving throughout the day, so, so important. I mean, maybe it was Lane Norton who talked about it, but literally just like sitting there like I don't know, we don't know. Fidgeting? Yeah, like even just like tapping, I don't have it, I'm someone this is my makeshift pen, but like tapping your pen burns a shit ton. Yeah. Like just like doing stu shit like that throughout the day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Not to say that you shouldn't sit there in a meeting and just be like, just to burn more calories because you're like, oh, I'm in a fat loss space. But if you're just one of those like naturally fidgety people, like, you know, maybe you bounce your leg, which sometimes that can be annoying.
SPEAKER_00So like maybe don't do that, but somebody's gonna come to us and be like, I got fired because you told me.
SPEAKER_02No, we're telling you to not do that. We're telling you to not do that. No, no, be that person, an annoying person doing that. But if you just happen to be doing that, you probably are at I fidget a lot. Yeah. So I mean And it's like it's not a it's not a ton, but when you do that stuff throughout the day, it can kind of add up.
SPEAKER_00So just movement. More movement. Movement. Clean your house, walk your dog, don't walk around.
SPEAKER_02Don't sit there and look like a lunatic, though, like where you're like, you're just like moving your hands and like you're shaking. Okay, don't do that. Just like little movements throughout the day. Okay, number six, not tracking your calories. Shocker, if you don't know how many calories you're taking in, how will you know how to burn body fat? How will you know how many how much to take in to burn body fat? So again, you have to know your daily maintenance calories first, or around how many you're you're taking in to maintain your weight, give or take a couple pounds, and then you can cut from them. But again, if it's too low of an intake, you're probably gonna have to build. Sorry, to burst your bubble. Yes. But you have to track, you have to track, track, trackity, track, track.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Number seven. Yes. Jumping immediately to a GLP one. Nope. Don't do it. Don't like it. Do the big rocks first. Yes. You have to put in some work. You have to track your food, you have to hit your protein, you have to strength train two to three times per week. Then let's talk about adding in the peptides.
SPEAKER_02I I I wish I could go back time, go back in time and prevent my mom from going on a GLP one. Because she she was having some some she was getting really tired throughout the day. She got some bad blood work because she was like, Why am I falling asleep at work? And then she was like, Oh shit, I need to do something about my health. She got on a GLP one and then she changed all the things. So, like, she started strength training, she's doing the program I wrote her, she's walking a shit ton, she's doing all the right things, but she was on the GLP one, so she wasn't eating a lot. So she did lose a lot of weight. But now she's off of it. And now she's like, I'm hungry all the time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I'm like, you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to gain some weight. Yeah, and we would have started with the muscle building. Yes, even though she had weight to lose body fat to lose. Yeah. If she could have just done the big rocks first and then like noticed a little body recomp. But it's just one of those things where like you can't really tell family like what to do. It's hard. Now she's at the point where she listens to me and I'm like, well, now because you were eating so little, you're probably gonna get. I told her, don't fucking get on that scale. I will throw it away. So it and it's kind of messing with her. She's like, work so hard, and I'm like, it doesn't mean you're gonna throw away your progress. And you're following my program, so you're gonna be gaining muscle. So it's like it's hard, and it's hard to wrap your head around being that person who's unhealthy. Yeah. And you change all this stuff and you see progress at first, and then you're like, well, how come I don't see any more progress? But you do, it's just a different kind of progress. Just because it's not weight loss on the scale doesn't mean it's not progress. Right. So you exactly but that's what people, that's what happens to people when they jump right to a GLP one. Yeah. They're not changing anything, they're just like eating less. Right. And maybe they're maybe they're strength training and you know, focusing on nutrition, but it doesn't tell the whole story. And you're probably eating not that much every day. Right. So you're gonna have to come off of it and you're you're no matter if you're on a GLP one or not, your body will plateau. So you will have to go back in the other direction and build muscle at some point. Yes. Yes, definitely. All right, which kind of leads me into the next mistake. Number eight. Neglecting muscle building phases. It's not all about weight loss. You can't continue to cut your calories and lose weight forever. Nope. Even if you have hundreds of pounds to lose of body fat, you will plateau and you will need to go into some kind of a build phase. It doesn't work, it's not a linear progression. It's gonna look like down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up forever. You're not just gonna continue to lose weight forever. Your body doesn't want to. Your body doesn't want to be lighter. Your body wants calories. It wants to-body wants to be substantial. Your body wants to be fat. Let me just be real. Your body wants to be fat. Your body wants to store calories. Like our bodies are literally made for survival. So you have to be patient with it. And you need to build muscle. That is the only way, I will say this a million times, you're probably annoyed with it, but as the only way to build and or to increase your metabolism. You can't just eat more without strength training and expect you to build muscle. Like it you will store that, those extra calories as body fat. So you need to strength train, aka build muscle. So yes.
SPEAKER_00Okay. All right. Number nine, neglecting recovery and your health. Yes. Right? So caring too much about your measurements, caring too much about the scale, not feeling not caring enough about feeling strong or caring about your health in general. Yeah. And that is like not getting enough sleep, too much stress. Like maybe you're like, no, I'm doing this, so I'm gonna wake up at 5 a.m. for my workouts. Yeah, four hours of sleep, don't care. Right. No. Now you're not gonna actually recover from the workout, which is when the actual muscle building happens, is when you're sleeping. So do not neglect the sleep.
SPEAKER_02I don't remember who made this, but it was like a triangle. It was like, you know, you're in one part of the triangle and that's aesthetics, and then you lose some of these. You lose sports performance, then you lose health. And then you shift to health, and then you lose some aesthetics, but and then you lose some performance, but your health is optimal. Yeah. And then you go to sports performance and you lose health and you lose aesthetics because that's what you're focusing on. So think of it like that. You can't have it all. But I would argue that if you're gonna focus on one of those, it should be your health. Yeah. And then you could have it all. You could have a lot of all of them. Right. I should say. You could have enough of the others. Yes.
SPEAKER_00If you focus on health.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Yeah. So that's what you should. It's not all about the metrics. It's not all about the progress in one direction. I think this is the most important mistake. Because if you neglect your health, eventually it's gonna catch up to you. Yeah. And I would argue, even if you're super lean, go get your blood work done. Let's see what your health is actually looking like. So, which I got my blood results back, and I'm pretty healthy. Ooh, that's great. Although my I I have a in a follow-up appointment. My red red blood cells are a little bit elevated. I don't know what that means. So any doctors out there, no? Let me know. Just kidding. But all like hormone, like just get your get your get your blood work done, and then whether or not you're overweight or underweight or in between, you should always check in if you can. Yeah. So okay, number 10. This could have been in the cardio one from earlier, but I wanted to make it its separate one because it sucks doing cardio you hate. Do shit you enjoy or don't do it at all. End of story on that one, mic drop. I just how how horrible it would be for me personally to have to come into a gym and put that treadmill on like 5.0 speed and run. That sounds absolutely terrible. I would hate my life. Now, hiking, love that. Would love to hike. That's great. Even like a trail run, maybe down. I like down better than up, but trail running is better for me or is more fun for me. Just like being in the zone. That's the only time I would run. But, or you could just hike it.
SPEAKER_00That's fine too. I mean, for me, I can run on the treadmill for like a very short amount of time. I can do some sprints, I can do a little jogging to make sure my heart rate's good. But what I would prefer is to stick my headphones in, get on a spin bike. Yeah, you would like to spin. I love spinning. I love biking outside too, obviously more, but I can do the indoor spin bike because I can put my head. I used to teach spin all the time. So I just create classes. I create classes, I create playlists, I share them with people, and then I'm fucking teaching as I'm a DJ on the bike. Yeah. And it's fun. Right, it's fun for you. If you enjoy it, do it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like I can walk on a treadmill. Yeah. Not for an hour.
SPEAKER_00Like to walk at an incline.
SPEAKER_02But that's like I could zone out, but I would prefer to be outside, but kind of the same, similar for your biking, but or like an elliptical.
SPEAKER_00I have to do more cardio because of my blood work. Yeah. I have like some blood work where they're like, you need to be doing more uh zone two.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Going back to health and getting your blood work done. Maybe, maybe, maybe that's what it means more cardio. Because I think I was gonna need something that's we need you have less oxygen controlling.
SPEAKER_01But I don't know. Report back to you. Yeah, and rebuild it up from a doc. But cool. Okay, all right. If you okay, if you have any more, if you missed any off this list, throw it up in the Facebook group. Or just uh start discussing around it. Yeah, something like that. Happy to chat. Happy to chat. Alright, alright, let's go.