Frustrated that the scale isn’t moving? It’s common, but fixable. Here are 5 ways you are sabotaging weight loss progress and how to fix it.

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The formula for losing weight is pretty simple.

You know the basics by now:

• Eat in a calorie deficit
• Try to get enough protein
• Strength train
• Sleep well
• Walk as much as possible
• And do these things consistently.

As I always like to point out, it’s the consistency part that trips people up. You’ve probably started a diet with the intention of nailing everything above.

And you’ve likely been really awesome at crushing those pillars for a few days.

Then something derails your progress and weight loss slows. Or stalls altogether.

Today we’re going to dive a little deeper into the many ways that you could be preventing yourself from success by sabotaging weight loss progress.

Everything kind of ladders back up to the original pillars of fat loss. But, you’ve masked those reasons in some avoidable approaches that are complicating the weight loss journey.

I’m going to simplify this stuff for you again.

Let’s get into it.

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The 5 Ways You’re Sabotaging Weight Loss Progress

You are your own worst enemy

The biggest obstacle of the entire fat loss process is the not the lower calories or the workouts. It’s the tricks your mind plays on you throughout the journey.

• Your mind will tell you that you are hungry … all of the time
• Those snacks will look good enough to indulge in, even though you know better
• Skipping a workout sounds like a good idea
• Weekend is approaching and boozy brunches followed by date nights at restaurants are all you can think about

If you can battle back the mind and stop it from sabotaging your fat loss, you’ll be well on your way to success.

But, what are some additional ways you are wrecking your weight loss progress?

I have a few unpopular ideas here.

Too rigid and restrictive

Somewhere you’ve been convinced that dieting is a form of punishment. You tell yourself that you’ve gotten fat. And now you must pay the price by eliminating all things good from your diet. It’s on to bland chicken breast and boring ass broccoli for every meal.

I hate this mindset.

While it’s probably a good idea to cut back on some of the junk food when you are trying to get back in shape, it’s destructive to try and remove everything.

You should have some more moderation in your daily diet.

Look, the science is always undefeated: eat in a calorie deficit, hit your protein. Do this consistently and weight loss happens.

This is freeing.

It means you have more wiggle room for enjoyment than you think.

You can have a piece of chocolate and still lose weight. Or a glass of wine from time to time (just drink in moderation because excessive alcohol can slow progress).

No diet will be successful unless it is sustainable.

And it won’t be sustainable unless you can enjoy it. So add more foods that you enjoy into your diet.

When you do, you’ll be more likely to stick to it and see it through to the end.

Too focused on calorie deficit, while ignoring the other pillars of fat loss

The only way that weight loss happens is when you establish a calorie deficit. This is scientific fact.

If you’ve made this happen for yourself, that’s awesome and you’ve embraced the most important part of the process.

But, it’s not the only part of the process.

As I’ve laid out in countless articles, in order to truly see it through to a full body transformation that you can maintain for life, you’ll need to embrace the other pieces of the puzzle:

• Adequate protein intake
• Strength training
• Daily movement like walking
• High quality sleep
• Stress reduction protocols

If you’re just crushing calorie deficits without being mindful of the additional pillars of overall health, you’re sabotaging your weight loss progress.

View your journey as a new lifestyle. A holistic approach to overall health that will keep you lean for life.

When you do that, the scale will move in the right direction again.

Too dogmatic and not applying what works best for you

This is a common thread with the Paleo, Vegetarian, Vegan, Whole30 and Keto crowds.

You get so caught up in the official rules of the diet you’re following that you forget the most important part of this stuff. No diet will work unless it is something that you can follow for life.

And you won’t follow a diet plan for life if you are stuck in dogmatic, rigid rules that don’t exactly meet your goals, needs and your personal tastes.

For instance, if you are pushing yourself with grueling workouts several times per week, but still restricting carbs because of your Paleo or Keto mindset, you could be stalling out.

This stall out will prevent lean muscle tissue from improving. Remember, metabolism runs more efficiently with the preservation and improvement of lean muscle. And while your strength training programming and adequate protein intake will play a role in the lean muscle tissue equation, so will carb intake.

Your body can run on little carbs. In fact, carbs are the one macronutrient that are simply not essential like protein and fats.

But …

Your body prefers carbs as an energy source. Especially when you’re pushing yourself with daily WODs and HIIT and full body workout splits that kick your ass weekly.

Be comfortable with adapting the diet to your own personal needs. Maybe you operate really well by having a little pasta from time to time. Or perhaps you’re like me and grew up in an Italian culture, so pasta is a way of life.

Imagine being half Italian and never eating pasta because the Keto Gods said no. Couldn’t be me.

Too impatient

This one is more common than you’d think.

Too many fitness pros are telling you that you should lose a pound or even two pounds per week. So, you crunch the numbers to set up your calories utilizing my handy equation on setting up your fat loss diet.

Of course, you also set it to lose the most amount of weight in the quickest amount of time. Which goes against my recommendations to take things slowly, but that’s another discussion altogether.

Hit those calories. Do it for a week, maybe even two. You hardly lose a pound. Definitely didn’t lose the two pounds that Becky promised in her TikTok video.

Now you’re pissed. This shit didn’t work. You curse my name, click out of my site, unsubscribe from my emails and go find another calorie calculator and start again.

Sound about right?

The problem here is that you aren’t giving yourself enough time to see results. In many cases, weight can stagnate for several days, even a couple of weeks.

You must give yourself a solid three to four weeks of consistency before you make a change.

Read that again.

Three to four weeks.

Basically a month of effort.

If you’re abandoning ship after just two weeks, you could be missing actual progress waiting for you just a few days later.

Stop rushing the process. You didn’t gain this unwanted weight overnight, you will not lose this unwanted weight overnight.

Be patient.

Too much food … aka, you are eating too much and that’s what is sabotaging weight loss progress

A lot of people don’t want to hear this one.

They’ll shoot me direct messages on the social media drug of choice frustrated that they’ve tried everything and can’t lose weight.

Me: “Do you know how many calories you are eating right now?”

Them: “I’ve been eating 800 to 1,200 per day. Still nothing. I’m just not that hungry.”

Me: Facepalm.

Look, for one: eating 800 to 1,200 calories per day is disordered eating, unhealthy and unnecessary to lose weight.

And two: you are not eating 800 to 1,200 calories per day if you are not losing weight.

You are eating far more than that.

Maybe one day you ate 1,200 calories. Perhaps you even managed to hit that number Monday through Friday. But when you average all of the food consumption over the course of a week or two, I can promise you that it will add up to far more than that.

The law of thermodynamics never lies

The science is undefeated.

If weight loss is not happening, then you are eating too many calories.

Period.

A few common mistakes that lead to this:

• Eye-balling portion sizes (get a food scale to help)
• Not tracking every bite of food (even that Lifesaver from Stacy’s desk counts)
• Blowing it up on the weekends
• Eating more than once per week from a restaurant
• Drinking too much alcohol (and not tracking the calories because it was a clear liquor)
• Something here is the culprit. Most of which falls under the umbrella of consistency.

Clean this up. Set a much more moderate calorie deficit. Then stick to it, consistently, for three to four weeks (even weekends) and the results will come.

Promise.

Let me help you learn how to stop sabotaging weight loss progress … 

I’m here to help you out. 

If you have any questions, reach out. I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “Sabotaging Weight Loss Progress” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Or you can hit me up anytime on the socialz on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

If you enjoyed this post, maybe you’d like more knowledge bombs from me. I’d be honored if you join my mailing list to get regular updates every time I post something pretty dope.