Why You’re Not Losing Weight (Even Though You Eat Healthy)

In this episode, I address one of the most common frustrations I hear from women over 35: “I eat healthy, but I’m not losing weight.”

The truth is, weight loss isn’t your core problem. Weight gain when you’re not dieting is the real problem.

Instead of chasing another diet, we need to identify what’s actually driving that weight gain in your normal life, whether that’s low daily movement, inconsistent meals, not enough protein and fiber, or years of restrictive dieting. When you fix the root cause, fat loss becomes much more straightforward.

I also explain why eating healthy doesn’t automatically mean you’re in a calorie deficit. Food quality affects how you feel, but energy balance determines fat loss.

Plus, the scale doesn’t always tell the full story especially for midlife women who may be gaining muscle while losing fat. If you’re feeling stuck, confused, or discouraged, this episode will give you clarity, practical direction, and a more sustainable path forward.

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

• Weight Loss Is Not The Real Problem, Weight Gain Is
• Eating Healthy Does Not Mean You’re in a Calorie Deficit
• How To Create A Deficit
• The Scale Does Not Accurately Reflect Fat Loss
• Lasting Results Require Clarity, a Clear Plan, and Confidence – Not Dieting Harder

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

• Why Successful Women Struggle with Weight Loss
• Fat Loss Is Simple But Not Easy
• Is Healthy Eating Getting in the Way of Your Weight Loss
• The Mental Diet
• Are Your Expectations Sabotaging Your Weight Loss Results
• Is The Scale Ruining Your Progress

Why Fat Loss Feels Harder After 35 & What Actually Works Now

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Why You’re Not Losing Weight (Even Though You Eat Healthy) Podcast Transcript

The most common thing I hear from women over 35 is I eat healthy foods and I’m not losing weight. Two specific things I want to cover today on this topic because I hear this so much from women that I’m going to start sending this episode to other women so that they can have clarity on this. But before I get to the two specific things let’s first discuss something.

When you want to lose weight, the first thing to do is get clear on the problem. Right away you’re probably thinking well I need to lose weight, so the problem is I need to lose weight. No, it’s not. Your weight is not the problem; it’s a symptom of other problems. Let’s think of weight as a headache.

The headache is a symptom. The diet is the aspirin that makes the headache go away, but when the diet wears off the headache is still there. What I’m getting at is, the first problem to solve is not getting the weight off the body.

The first most important problem to solve is the underlying cause which is the weight gaining problem. Whenever you’re not losing weight or on a diet, you’re steadily gaining weight over months and years.

First thing to do is create awareness of what is causing this weight gain. One example is recreational eating.  

A lot of women try to figure out how to keep their chair-to-chair lifestyle and lose weight. Or they try to figure out how to keep their recreational eating and manage it with calorie tracking, guilting and shaming themselves and cutting out certain foods they think are bad.

You can’t keep playing tricks like this to lose weight. If you’ve gained weight over time, the first thing to figure out is what is causing that weight gain?

Are you not sitting too much and not moving your body? Are your steps below 7,500? Are you not eating three balanced meals every day? Are you not meeting your protein and fiber goals most days? Are you demonizing foods and feeling guilty when you eat certain foods?

Those are examples of underlying issues that create weight gain over time. Fixing those problems are what you should be focused on. The weight gain is simply a byproduct of your lifestyle. I think it’s important for you to get clear on the real problem vs. simply focusing on your weight.

So, let’s talk about what I tell every woman over 35 who tells me I eat healthy but I’m not losing weight.

Number one while it is great you’re eating healthy foods. That does not mean they’re energy free. Healthy foods still have energy and saying you eat healthy foods tells you nothing about HOW much you’re eating over the course of a month, 3 months, 6 months.

Energy balance dictates your body mass. Food quality dictates how you feel.  

This seems to be a huge misunderstanding woman over 35 have. They seem to think eating healthy foods should automatically result in weight loss. It does not.

The best way to determine how much you should eat to lose fat is to audit how you currently eat and take a small deficit from that. Most women are getting recommended deficits off online calculators or apps which are not that accurate because they’re across an entire population and apps are notorious for putting people into deficits that are too extreme.

I also talk about this in my DIY weight loss workshop that again is in the show notes for you. These apps are notorious for putting people into steep deficits. I never ever recommend going off them. You want to eat as much as you can and still lose fat.

Also, understand that movement is part of your energy expenditure so walking more than you do now on a consistent basis along with adjusting how much you eat will add to your energy deficit to lose fat. Not only that you will get stronger and healthier just from walking more and sitting less, but you will lose fat.

Number two – many women do not understand how the scale works when it comes to fat loss. I always see women expecting to see it go down and that is not how the scale works in fat loss. This is another thing I go over in my DIY weight loss workshop that again is in the show notes.

Most midlife women (most of you) are lacking muscle mass. As you have aged and lost muscle mass, you now have a much high body fat percentage. This body fat percentage is often 40% or greater with the women over 35 clients I’ve seen. A higher body fat percentage means the scale is going to work differently.

So, let’s review an example. If you have two people and both lose weight over 6 months. The first person who is not paying attention to her protein intake and not doing any form of resistance training, they dropped 15 pounds on the scale. They lost, 8 pounds of muscle and 7 pounds of fat. They lost more muscle than fat.

Now the second person was very mindful of their protein intake, and they began resistance training, but only lost 7 pounds on the scale. Let’s say that person lost 10 pounds of fat and gained 3 pounds of muscle. But on the scale, they only lost 7 pounds. Which of these two women are healthier with better health outcomes?

Person number two who gained 3 pounds of muscle and lost fat is way better off in every way, from health, physique, the way their body looks is going to be much healthier even though the scale only decreased 7 pounds.

This is a big issue a lot of women run into when they’re trying to lose weight because they’re just focusing on weight, and you must focus on body composition. My clients Robin and Karrie both spoke about this when they were on this podcast – in episodes 118 and 126.

Their scale weights didn’t change much in the beginning, but their measurements did. This happens when you have very little muscle mass and a high body fat percentage. A lot of women get frustrated because they don’t see the scale going down, but it’s because they don’t understand this.

When your body fat percentage is high, you can’t focus on just losing weight because that won’t improve your health. The focus should be on losing body fat and that may mean the scale may not change the way you think it should.

Taking measurements is how you measure if you’re losing body fat and tracking scale trends. I talk about that in my DIY workshop, which is linked in the show notes for you if you want to grab that do-it-yourself workshop where I share more details on how fat loss works.

If you’re a woman over 35 going on a weight loss journey, I highly recommend you understand what your body composition is now. A DEXA scan is the most accurate way to measure body composition. The at home scales are not accurate. Typically, what I see working with my nutrition clients is 40-50% body fat.

That higher body fat percentage means when you start eating the appropriate amount of protein you may not see the scale move for a while because you’re gaining five pounds of muscle while losing five pounds of fat. Negative five plus five equals zero scale change.

Many women will assume nothing’s happen, feel discouraged and give up. Again, it’s because they don’t understand.

I have a protein guide in the show notes as well that you can grab that teaches you how to calculate your protein needs. This is always what I work on with my clients first because so many women are under muscled, and protein stabilizes blood sugar and keeps you fuller.

Many of the women I work with are complaining of hunger, cravings and snacking. That is from not consuming enough protein and fiber. I have 11 year’s experience, and I have yet to see a client consuming enough protein and fiber.

Now, there are a lot of women I’ve talked to throughout the years who are consistently attempting to lose weight who aren’t carrying that much excess body fat, whose health isn’t being negatively impacted by excess body fat, and who have been dieting their entire lives and always striving for a goal weight.

And this goal weight is very difficult to achieve, and they’ve been trying to achieve this for years or decades. You probably do not need to be losing weight. You probably need to be focusing on nourishing yourself and creating a healthier relationship with food and your body. Not losing weight.

I can’t tell you how many women think they need to lose weight, when really their issue is their relationship with food, and they’re constantly trying to restrict food and lose weight to feel more control around food.

They’ve been restricting calories their entire life practically, and they’ve been struggling, and they’re sacrificing a big percentage of joy and happiness from constantly trying to get the scale to go down.

They’re sacrificing so much life experience and mental health for a superficial goal weight.

Typically, that is not something that is going to make they healthier. Getting to that lower number is all psychological. If you’re in that boat, I don’t recommend continuing to go down the path of trying to lose weight and rather working on nourishing your body and having a good relationship with food.

If you’re in the larger percentage of women who are carrying excess body fat, then the things I discussed today which are based in evidence and are proven for body fat loss, they are exactly what you need to start working on to make progress towards losing body fat and improving your health.

Now the reality is knowing what to do doesn’t equal results. Lack of information is not why women (and so many people honestly) struggle with doing the things I spoke about today.

The things I spoke about today that result in fat loss are basic, but not easy to implement and I spoke about why fat loss is simple but not easy a few episodes ago. If you want to go listen to the nuance I discuss about this topic.

A lot of women know what to do, but lack clarity, confidence and a clear path. Imagine trying to drive your car from California to New York without a map or phone. You’re just hoping you’re on the right path and you’ll get there, but you have no clear path or data to validate you’re on the clear path.