Where am I going wrong?

I’ve realised now that there has been over 2000 women through The Furnace in the last two years.

These are not women who have never dieted before.

These are women who are frustrated after feeling they’ve tried everything but are still not happy with their bodies.

I see some common themes that I thought might help a few others feel a little less frustrated with their efforts

You are eating too much 

It might sound obvious to many people but if you aren’t actually aware of how much fuel you are taking in, you might be consuming more energy than you are expending. Women often say they feel like they are being “good” and not seeing results. Tracking calories, while measuring progress, is the easiest way to assess if you are in line with your goals. What gets measured gets managed.

You are eating too little

Well, firstly, if you are not seeing progress but are convinced you are in a calorie deficit - you’re not. Looking closer at the numbers will help. Secondly, eating too little during the day/week/month - can just lead to over-eating. Having a balanced approach to your nutrition can mean that you are able to lose body fat without feeling like you are having days of really low calories.

You are guessing

Now - I’m all for estimating calories (I do it for every meal!), especially as all calories are estimates anyway. But if you are estimating a lot and not seeing results, there might be a big error in something you are estimating (or a mistake in MFP) Spending a few days being a little more accurate by weighing your food etc might help you learn where you can tighten things up and you can go back to eye-balling your food.

You are not being honest with yourself

Just because you don’t track something doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect your energy balance. Tracking your weekends, even roughly, can be an eye-opener. So many women tell me they are ‘good during the week, it’s just the weekends’. But Friday, Saturday and Sunday are 42% of the week. I encourage my clients to have more at the weekend if that suits their lifestyle, but I do recommend tracking it. It can sometimes be a great way to learn how you can make a few small changes at the weekend to still enjoy yourself but make progress.

You are focusing on exercise

If I see another ‘fat-loss’ workout, I’ll go mad. Fat loss is mostly manipulated by your nutrition. Exercise is usually about 10-15% of your TDEE (the amount of calories you use each day), so if you train a lot, you can eat about 10-15% more and still be in a deficit. But there are lots of negatives to training too much, including breaking down muscle, too much stress on the body, not sleeping enough and of course, not enjoying enough free time. You *can* outtrain a bad diet - but it’s not worth it. I often tell my clients to take an hour off the gym and focus on planning their nutrition for the week.

You are being obsessive about it

I’ve definitely been there. I wanted to change my body so much that it was all I thought about. I was meticulous with tracking my calories. But when I ate out, or when I couldn’t track for whatever reason, I would be raging. I would either just eat loads (because it didn’t count?!) or I would try make up for it by reducing the calories for the next few days (which would lead to me over-eating again). It was only when I decided that I didn’t care as much any more, that I ended up being in a deficit in the long run. It’s about consistency over perfection (my clients are sick of hearing me say that!). The ‘all-or-nothing’ mindset does not work for fat loss. If you ‘give up’ after a day of high calories, you may end up in a surplus. If you try to ‘make up’ for a day of high calories, by reducing them too low on other days, you may end up in a surplus after the restriction. 

And lastly:

You might be doing it for the wrong reason.

You will never change your body (or your relationship with your body) permanently if you are doing it from a place of hate. I’m not saying you have to pretend to love your body all of a sudden, but if you come from a place of acceptance, you will see much more progress physically and mentally. If you think you will be happy when you get to a certain size, you need to work on your happiness now. Of course, when you implement healthy habits, and enjoy the process, you may be happier when you drop some body fat. But that should be your focus - not constantly chasing a smaller body. Chase health and quality of life.

I know this sounds very number-focused. I know so many people have tried counting calories before and didn’t find it worked or found it too obsessive, but I am a big believer in making informed and mindful decisions.

In The Furnace, I want to educate you, so that you are no longer guessing about how to get to your goals. You will have the knowledge and then you can do with it what you like.

I definitely don’t want you tracking calories in the long run, but putting in a couple of weeks of tracking and learning what works for your body, as well as working on your mindset around the numbers, will give you long term freedom from fad diets and frustration.

If you would like to get started today - you can join The Furnace here.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhan “Made all the mistakes so you don’t have to” O’Hagan