Blog - Skinny Fitalicious®

Do you have healthy habits, but no fat loss to show for it? Learn the one thing you're missing to get weight loss results!

Many women are doing all the things. They're eating hitting their protein and fiber goals, eating balanced meals, getting their daily steps, strength training but they have no fat loss results.

I've been working with midlife women on sustainable weight loss for 11 years and the common thing I see is women not understanding energy balance.

They may know about calories, or even have tracked calories on and off in the past, but they have calorie counted their way to no where and ended up working with me because they did not understand energy balance and the difference between maintenance and a deficit.

midlife woman doing a bicep curl wearing a purple shirt.

Many women I have had the pleasure of working with have also had a poor relationship with food, use food to regulate, suppress or distract from their emotions making it nearly impossible for them to stay consistent with any energy balance protocol.

Some women do not have the basic healthy habits down, often because they're not sure what they should be doing, and that lacking that foundational piece makes it extremely difficult for them to control their energy intake.

These are all reasons I have seen women stuck and frustrated in their midlife weight journey.

This podcast episode is specifically for those women who have a good relationship with food, who do not use food to regulate their emotions, suppress or distract and who have the basics of health down and execute them consistently.

If you are stuck in your fat loss journey as a midlife woman, this Dish On Ditching Diets podcast episode is for you!

Learn the missing piece of why you are stuck and what to do about it.

In this Dish On Ditching Diets Podcast Episode, You Will Hear:

Why You Aren't Seeing Fat Loss Despite Having Healthy Habits
What Energy Balance is
Difference Between Maintenance Phase and Fat Loss Phase
What You Need To Do Different In A Fat Loss Phase
Pre-Requisites Before Going Into A Fat Loss Phase

Never Miss An Episode! Subscribe to the Dish On Ditching Diets Podcast on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify or Amazon Music

Related Dish On Ditching Diets Podcast Episodes

Healthy Habits No Fat Loss Podcast Transcript

Hello Friends!

How are you doing? Today I have a great podcast discussion for you. I was chatting with a menopausal woman on TikTok last week.

She’s doing all the things and super frustrated because she’s gained 20 pounds and doing all the things and doesn’t understand why she isn’t losing weight.

There is nothing more frustrating than feeling like you’re doing all the right things and not losing weight or seeing any results.

It dawned on me when I was speaking to this woman that some women may not understand the difference between doing healthy habits and losing body fat, which is why I am talking about this topic today.

So, healthy habits are eating adequate protein and fiber, eating balanced meals, getting your steps, exercising and strength training. Those are the tactical things you do to take care of your health regardless of whether you need to lose body fat.

Many women think if they do healthy habits that they should lose body fat. That is false. Some people may lose body fat by changing their habits, but very few people will experience that.

If the only thing you do is eat your protein and fiber, eat balanced meals, get steps, exercise and strength train, it is unlikely you will lose body fat.

This is what I learned speaking to this woman.

She believed because she was eating protein and fiber and walking 10,000 steps a day and strength training four times a week… she believed she should be seeing weight loss. The scale should be going down!

But there is one thing she is missing if she wants to see her body fat reduce, and its energy balance.

Curious enough she told me she was a scientist and that she understood energy balance, but said it was not working for her. There must be something else I’m missing that has to do with my menopause she told me.

She told me she had never exercised or ate well until she began gaining weight in menopause and couldn't understand why she her entire life she never needed to do any of these healthy things and could be a good body weight.

This would be like someone never eating well or exercising and having a heart attack and not understanding that their heart attack was a result of poor habits accumulating over time.

This is what happens for women around the menopause timeframe. Their habits or lack of habits begin to stack up and is reflected in their weight.

What most women do not understand is energy balance. Our bodies are alive because of energy. Energy keeps our organs functioning. When there is an excess of energy, your body stores that excess energy as body fat.

When there is a deficit of energy, your body loses body fat. When your energy is balanced, your body maintains its body weight. Maintenance, surplus, deficit.

In podcast 111, I talk about energy balance for weight loss, I give an example using a car and filling that car with gasoline to illustrate the difference between maintenance, surplus and a deficit. I am not going to review that again today.

But if you need more help understanding those three things then podcast 111 is what I recommend you listen to.

So, I asked this woman what her calories were, and she told me 1400 to 1900 and after more conversation back and forth what became clear to me is that this woman did not understand that she needed to be in a fat loss phase for a targeted amount of time to lose body fat.

She was just doing a bunch of healthy habits and eating within this calorie range, but she did not understand that she needed to phase her nutrition into a calorie deficit or fat loss phase in order to see body fat loss.

I think a lot of women are like this woman. They just believe if they do a bunch of healthy habits they should see fat loss. But that’s not true. It doesn’t work that way for most individuals.

You need to for a targeted period of time go into an energy deficit to lose body fat. Typically, for several months and you are doing different things while in that energy deficit than you do while in maintenance.

By the way, energy deficit, calorie deficit, fat loss phase all mean the same thing so you will hear me refer to them interchangeably.

If your goal is to lose body fat, you then need to have an energy deficit and it should be a phase, or a targeted period of time where you are giving your body less than it needs forcing it to use stored energy from fat and muscle tissue to keep your organs functioning and support all the other activities you do in your life.

So, you have your health habits that you are doing all the time. But then if you have a goal to lose body fat, you go into an energy deficit for a period of time to lose body fat and then you exit that deficit and return to maintenance.

Understanding this is fundamental to you losing body fat, and it was clear speaking to this woman that she was missing this piece of the puzzle.

You know I’ve been working with midlife women in my nutrition practice now for 11 years and this fundamental piece is something I do see missing for a lot of women.

A lot of women understand they need a calorie deficit to lose weight. What they do not understand, is that it is a phase and they have to do some things differently in that phase.

You pick a timeframe and execute your deficit for that timeframe, and certain things need to change in that timeframe. Also, some women think they should be in a calorie deficit forever. No, it’s a phase.

You do a calorie deficit for a period of time then go to maintenance and maintenance is where you are living the majority of your life and your health habits you do them regardless of if you are in a deficit or maintenance.

So, what are the things that need to change in a fat loss phase?

First, are your calories. Calories are just a measurement of energy. You need to know where your maintenance calories are first and then from there you calculate a deficit. You can use the calculator on my website to determine your calories.

My calculator will tell you both your maintenance and deficit calories. The link to my calculator is in the show notes for you.

Also, your calories are always a range. Whether in maintenance or a deficit, your calorie targets are always a range not a specific number.

Our bodies do not burn energy the same every single day. Working within a range is also helpful to get out of all or nothing thinking when it comes to this stuff.

My calculator will give you a range for your deficit. It says calories to lose a ½ pound a week and calories to lose 1 pound per week. That is your deficit range.

The maintenance calories from my calculator you can add +/- 100 calories to that number and that is your maintenance range.

When you are in a targeted calorie deficit or a fat loss phase, your calorie deficit range are the calories you are aiming for while in your deficit. You will have to plan what you eat more closely during that calorie deficit phase to manage your calories.

That is the first difference from maintenance. You have your deficit calorie range, and you need to plan what you eat closer to manage those calories while still aiming for your protein and fiber.

Second, thing that is different in a fat loss phase than a maintenance phase is steps must come up. Not exercise. Steps.

Steps are part of your deficit. If you get 10,000 steps while in maintenance, that’s just where you live your everyday life then during a fat loss phase your steps must increase.

Something like 12,000 to 13,000 steps. That will not be forever.

It will only be while you are in that targeted fat loss phase for the period of time you designate for yourself. If your steps are on average at 4,000 a month then you will increase those to 6,000 or 7,000 while you are in a fat loss phase.

No matter where your steps are now, the bottom line is they must come up in a deficit. Steps are part of your deficit.

Third, you need to use a food scale and track your food on a food scale while in a fat loss phase. No measuring cups. No measuring spoons.

Those are highly inaccurate which means the calories you are tracking are inaccurate if you are not weighing food on a food scale and entering it into your tracking app in grams or ounces.

Cups and spoons you must limit that as much as possible while in a fat loss phase.

In maintenance, you can use those as you have more flexibility with calories, but in a fat loss phase you can’t do that. Your calories will be wrong.

I just had a client the other day who realized she was entering her peanut butter in her tracking app in tablespoons and when I pointed this out to her, she began weighing her peanut butter in grams and realized she was not reporting her calories correctly.

She was eating more peanut butter than she was reporting. This is a very common mistake so don’t feel bad if you didn’t know this. It’s quite commonly something people don’t know about.

But while you are in a fat loss phase, you need to use a food scale as much as possible to ensure your calories you’re tracking are accurate.

Now you don’t need to take a food scale to a restaurant but should probably limit eating out as much as you can while in fat loss phase to manage your calories.

So, those are the things that must change in a fat loss phase vs. a maintenance phase. You are always eating your protein and fiber. You are always getting steps, exercising and getting strength training regardless of what phase you are in.

But in a fat loss phase, steps must come up, calories go into a calorie deficit range for a targeted amount of time and a food scale is used. You track measurements while in that fat loss phase.

Do not just look at the scale, you must track measurements. Measurements are telling you if you are losing body fat and if your pant size is going down.

If the scale drives you crazy, get rid of it. The scale takes a very long time to catch up with what you’re doing. Some women logically understand this, but mentally and emotionally can’t handle the scale.

Fat loss takes a long time to reflect on the scale. I have seen multiple cases of clients drop 2 or 3 pant sizes, they literally are shrinking, but the scale doesn’t move at all for months. Sometimes a year.

That is simply because they are gaining muscle simultaneously, so the scale is breaking even and not moving.

If your measurements are going down, you’re losing body fat. It’s working. Regardless of what the scale says. The scale will eventually reflect what you’re doing. It may be months or even a year before that happens.

It just depends on where your body composition is at when you start all this. So, if the scale makes you crazy, get rid of it and only track measurements.

Let’s talk about food. The foods you eat in a fat loss phase are the same foods you eat in a maintenance phase. Now you are going to have a hint of hunger in a fat loss phase, remember you are in an energy deficit.

So, a small, manageable amount of hunger is normal. That means you may have to be much more dialed into eating nutrient dense foods and swapped certain processed foods for whole foods to ensure you stay full.

Example of this is a protein bar. Your protein bar may have the same number of calories as a meal, but the meal will keep you fuller so you will have to consider that while in a deficit to keep your hunger manageable.

But overall, the types of foods you eat do not change whether you’re in a fat loss phase or a maintenance phase. And you do not need to eat all healthy foods.

There are so many women who have think they have to eat all healthy or all clean foods and then they beat themselves up when they eat something less nutritious.

It is false that you need to eat only healthy foods while in a fat loss phase. You can lose body fat while still including foods you enjoy, and you should be doing that. Women tend to restrict too much then they go into cycles of overeating and blowing their calories.

Include the foods you love. All foods can fit whether you are in a fat loss phase or in maintenance!

This leads me to say that if you have a poor relationship with food you should absolutely not being going into a fat loss phase.

If you eat a food, then feel guilty for eating that food or you get around certain foods that trigger you and you overeat them, that is a sign that your relationship with food needs work.

Calorie counting and trying to be in a fat loss phase will get you nowhere because you have these patterns of overeating that will blow your calories.

You won’t be able to be consistent, so you need to work on having a healthy relationship with food FIRST before you ever think about being in a targeted calorie deficit phase. Podcast episode 117 I give you the steps to heal your relationship with food.

A lot of women are calorie counting their way to no where because they have a really bad relationship with food and there is just no way you can go into a fat loss phase until you improve that first.

It’s like having a bunch of cracks in the foundation of your house and wanting to put a new kitchen in. A new kitchen won’t work with a faulty foundation.

Additionally, if you have unregulated emotions and use food to suppress, distract or cope with your emotions. Use food to reward yourself. Have all or nothing mindset around food or your healthy habits.

Those behavior patterns need to be addressed before ever doing a fat loss phase. A fat loss phase will only make those behavior patterns much worse.

Podcast episode 119 I talk about calorie counting your way to nowhere. Many women are calorie counting their way to nowhere because they have a faulty foundation. I have clients who have tracked calories on and off for years, but haven’t gotten anywhere and it’s because their foundation needed work.

And as always, remember your foundation also includes your health habits. You need to have your health habits in place before jumping into a fat loss phase.

You can’t go into a fat loss phase, and you don’t have a routine around eating you protein, getting steps, strength training, eating enough fiber, eating balanced meals etc.

Those things are part of your foundation and should be in place before ever thinking about a fat loss phase. It is a pre-requisite for a fat loss phase.

Eating protein, I cannot stress enough for midlife women the importance of adequate protein whether you are in maintenance or a fat loss phase. Protein is the building block of our bodies and in fat loss your body will give up some muscle. Always!

You cannot afford to lose much muscle in fat loss, so you need to be eating adequate protein before going into a fat loss phase to ensure you have the right processes and routines around your meals for hitting your protein target, otherwise you go into fat loss and lose a lot more muscle.

I have a free protein guide in the show notes linked for you so you can grab that, and it goes into more detail about protein for you.

But the bottom-line ladies, is you need a dedicated fat loss phase for a period of time (could be 3 to 4 months or longer depending on your situation) where you are doing these few things differently from when you are in maintenance in order to see fat loss.

You shouldn’t expect to see fat loss from doing a bunch of healthy habits. You should be taking care of your health and hitting your nutrition needs regardless of fat loss. Remember, it’s about aging well.

Being independent as you age, being strong so you can carry your own groceries as your get older, having endurance to walk when you go on a trip, run around with your grandkids and stay out of a nursing home.

Your health habits and nutrition are things you always do.

But to lose phase, you need a dedicated fat loss phase for a timeframe and then you go back to maintenance after that timeframe. This applies whether you are in menopause or not.

Energy deficit always applies at all phases of life. You may not be burning as many calories in midlife.

Often, we are sitting more or on your phone more and not realizing it. That is less energy you are burning. You’re not running around chasing kids anymore. Less energy you’re burning.

More vacations and trips with more food and indulgences. That means you’re taking in more energy than you realize. Sarcopenia as you age so muscle loss making it easier to gain fat. All these things make fat gain easier as you get older.

The good news is you are not broken and hopeless, but you do need a dedicated fat loss phase, and you do need to take that phase seriously and treat it like a real goal to lose fat.

Okay ladies, hope that helps you. Reach out to me if you have questions and if you want to cut through the nonsense and learn how to do this responsibility and sustainably, schedule a free consultation with me.

The link is in the show notes so I can talk to you about your goals, where you’re stuck and how I can help. I’ll talk to you soon!