Cutting Calories but cannot cut inches off waist

Sounds familiar? A lot of my clients struggle with weight plateaus,  they cannot lose a single pound even after trying several strategies and believing that they are on a very low kcal diet. So what is the problem??

Researches have shown that even though people believe to be consuming a low calorie diet of 1200 kcal but in reality  they are consuming upto 50% more than they believed to be consuming. 

So why does this happen? There are several reasons but lets focus on some of the common ones for now.

1.Extreme dieting: Sometimes an extreme measure to lose weight can fire back resulting in over consumption of calories. For fast results, people follow unhealthy ways of losing weight for example skipping meals to cut calories which then results in mindless eating. E.g.; skipping breakfast and lunch may result in binging on cookies which can easily add upto calories worth in 2 meals.

2. Notion that I am eating healthy:  but not realizing that some of the very healthy food can be packed with calories. E.g. nuts, do you know just a handful of nuts have 175 calories and what if you had 2 handfuls of healthy nuts, that’s 350 calories right there. A person on a 1200 calorie diet is recommended to consume <400 kcal per meal. Another example is avocado salad, a bowl of which can have upto 400-650 calories. Similarly grilled vegetables and halloumi cheese sandwich can have 400-700 calories.

3. Unable to keep track of your meals: Research has found that many people fail to lose weight  because they are unable to track how much they eat which often results in overconsumption of calories. Keeping track of your food intake helps with weight loss. 

Even though time consuming and tedious at first, it is one of the most effective weight loss strategies.

It can be done by simply writing what and how much you eat on a daily basis or logging your meals in various nutrition app available.

A registered dietitian can always help you with your health goals.