I’m training and eating well, but I don’t have results!

For the past many years I’ve been working with clients, I’ve heard this almost every day. 

I will explain in my opinion, what is the case over here most of the time.  

First type of people who believe that they are eating well, but in fact they are actually not. 

1. Fault goes to the power of the media that makes us believe that everything that says “low/reduced calorie”, “low/reduced fat”, “high protein”, “fitness food”, “healthy snack”, etc. is  good for us, when in fact,  all this food is full of sugar, trans fat (the industrial fat) and other artificial ingredients that are main cause of metabolic diseases, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type II diabetes, stroke, excessive body fat etc.
2. Having too big meal portions by continuing to eat even after feeling full. It takes about 20 mins for the brain to receive signals from the stomach that it’s full and by eating fast we don’t give too much time to our body to tell us when to stop. 
3. Watching TV or being distracted in some other way while eating is also not allowing the brain to acknowledge that the stomach is full. So we keep eating because we still feel hungry although we are not.  
4. Snacking too much. It's very easy to lose track of how many snacks we have by not planning it in advance.  Grabbing a few almonds here and a few crackers there can easily add up to +1000cals a day on which is 7000cals on a weekly basis on top of main meals without even realizing. 
5. People forget that alcohol has calories. Also juices, sodas… So having too many “empty” calories, which means having foods or drinks just for pleasure, without any nutritional value but high in calories can add up to weight gain. 
6. People believe weekends are not “counting”. Eating well on weekdays but getting on loose during the weekend, as a “reward” for doing well throughout the week when you are actually spiking your insulin level on a weekly basis which will not allow you to drop a single gram of body fat no matter how “clean” you eat and how hard do you work out during the week. 
7. Not having fixed timing for meals and not knowing what time is your breakfast, lunch or dinner is one of the first things to be worked on. 

Second type where people actually do eat healthy , track their food in some way and train but still can’t make any progress. It might not be as easy to figure out what’s the problem there but for sure there is one and some reasons for it might be: 

1. Eating healthy food, but not enough. Many people relate less food with progress which is wrong. How much we need to eat depends on our height, muscle mass, age, gender, how active we are every day, what type of training we do, training intensity, volume etc. Anything less than what we need will not help us be fitter.
2. Importing every single thing we eat to a food tracker and only relying on it and forgetting to pay attention to do we even feel hungry or full.
3. Having the wrong macro split (how much protein, fat and carb) for the type of training we do. If you compare powerlifter to endurance athlete, they might be eating the same calories, the same food but their macro split will be completely different. 
4. Completing a one hour workout and then sitting for another 23 hours. It really matters how active we are during the day.
5. Elevated stress hormone - cortisol, will cause increased fat stores in the body. We can cause it by continuously stressing our body by training too much without proper rest, lack of sleep, having a stressful lifestyle etc.
6. Eating foods that make us bloated or uncomfortable and by doing that slowing down digestive tract.

Most of the time people will look for some complicated explanation, blame it on hormones, food intolerances, broken metabolism, busy lifestyle and refuse to believe it’s actually very simple. But simple doesn’t mean easy. To stay consistent is probably the most difficult part of the process. 

Keep it simple, plan in advance, repeat and be patient. Our body doesn’t know if it is Tuesday or Friday it will simply respond to whatever you are doing most of the time.