Reasons Why Your Nutrition Plan Isn’t Working with Your Fitness Program

There are many factors that affect your daily nutrition program and calorie intake.  Any of the following can be why you aren’t losing weight or gaining lean muscle.  It may also be a combination of any of the following.

1. BOREDOM. When you are bored you need a distraction and that is when we mindlessly eat.  To resolve this obstacle we need to find another distraction.  Go for a walk, drink water, make a tea or coffee before you grab a snack when you are bored.  Most of the time hydration is the cure.
2.  HUNGER.  This is one of the most obvious we eat.  Build your meals around protein, add lots of fiber, heart-healthy fats (olive or avo oil, nuts, etc.), this will keep you satiated longer.  Make sure meals are balanced and enough to just make you full.
3.  LOW-FAT MENTALITY.   Higher fat foods contain more calories and provide greater satisfaction and satiety when portioned properly.  Eating lower fat foods, may trick you into eating more of those foods, consuming more calories than initially intended to reach that satisfaction goal.
4. MEAL FREQUENCY. Eating more often will help you avoid over eating, but watch you don’t consume over your calories.  Splitting the macros up evenly is important to stay on track. Adding in a couple of snacks between meals may help to bridge that gap and reduce your hunger.
5. STRESS. Don’t manage your emotions with food! Find a healthier outlet to reduce your stress, workout, going for a walk, talking to a friend or doing something that makes you happy.
6. FATIGUE. If you are lagging and tired, don’t head to the kitchen searching for food.  Most of the time it’s back to boredom.  A snack may be the answer if the timing is right, or a quick 15-minute power nap could do the job.
7. PORTION SIZE AND CHOICES. There are many infographics online that show portion sizes if you are unfamiliar.  If you have a hard time determining the proper size, buying a digital scale may be a great option for you to learn sizing.  Most of us when we eye food, eat more than a serving, adding unwanted calories to our daily totals.  Small adjustments could make a huge difference.  Healthy foods have calories too!  Eating too much healthy foods can add up, so make sure the quality of those healthy foods contain quality nutrients  and you are within your calories for the day.
8. INTENSE WORKOUTS. Make sure your workouts are balanced.  Too much high intensity without proper recovery can lead to injury, so adding in some  moderate activity is what’s needed for balance.  Also, your nutrition program needs to be designed with recovery in mind.
9. NON-EXERCISE ACTIVITY LEVEL (NEAT). If your workouts are making you sit out on the couch all day, your NEAT is not benefiting you.  NEAT can account for up to 2000 calories burned each day.  The key is to keep moving all day, stand when you can, park far away at the store, take stairs when you can, or walk around the block.
10. SLEEP! This one is HUGE.  Not only with this effect your daily activity and workouts, it will affect your NEAT. Get some rest!
11. BODY COMPOSITION. Muscle burns more calories than fat.  Boosting lean muscle mass will boost your daily caloric burn. Not sure how to add lean muscle properly, hiring a coach may be the answer.  Participating in a regular strength program will help increase metabolic active tissue and support muscular strength.
12. EXERCISE HABITS AND OVEREATING. Scheduling your workouts is important and may determine the caloric burn during each one.   If you plan on doing a long cardio session and strength session.  You may be too tired for one of the other to really benefit.  Try scheduling a balance to ensure you maximize every activity, with consistent results.  If you had a long double session, you may feel overly fatigued and justify a larger meal with choices you would normally not make.  Well I just did a hard workout and burned 1200 calories, I can go have pizza or a burrito. Proper pre- and post-workout nutrition is important to eliminate the need to binge later on.

Guidance is just a click away.  Let a coach guide you along this tough journey to ensure you are getting proper nutrients to support your lifestyle and activity level.  We can design customized macros based on your workout days to make sure you have the fuel to conquer your workout, recover from your workout and create a deficit that yields the results you desire.  Set up a nutrition consultation and custom macro calculation today.