Exercising and not seeing results? Read this.

There may be several reasons why you may not see results even if you're exercising...

And it's not because you're not trying. There are levers you can pull to start making progress, but first you have to know what they are and start implementing them sooner rather than later. In my experience, the results are the reward, and the sooner you see progress, the more momentum and drive you have to keep going. When you spend too long NOT seeing results, it can be defeating. So here are some things I've seen with both friends and clients that have hindered progress, despite valiant efforts in the gym.

1. Not paying attention to nutrition (this is probably the one I see most often):
   Nutrition plays a critical role in weight loss and overall fitness. For example, you could be lifting weights several times per week, but if you aren't eating adequate protein, at a certain point, adding muscle to your body will be impossible, because a certain amount of protein is needed for that process to happen. If you want to lose weight and are only adding exercise without any thought to your eating habits and the types of food you're eating, exercise will only take you so far. 
   
   The fix: You can log your food in a calorie app for a couple weeks as accurately as possible to get an idea of how many calories you eat in a day. Analyze what you eat, and cut portion sizes, make swaps for healthier alternatives, or use it as a tool to be mindful of your eating habits (i.e. you tend to snack in front of the tv or late at night, you skip lunch and overeat at dinner, etc.). Make small changes and build on them over time.

2. Inconsistency: Consistency is key to achieving results. Even if you consistently do something 1% better than you did before, over the course of months to years, this adds up to progress made. The problem with on-again off-again exercise is each time you feel like you're starting over. And technically you are. And every time you start over, the perception of the level of effort you have to put in to start again is very high. It feels hard each time you do it, and so you're likely to fall off track again.
   
   The fix: Do a deep dive into how you're prioritizing your day. There are some non-negotiable things that take up your time (work for example), but creating a routine for exercise is about prioritizing and trade-offs (more on tradeoffs here). Schedule your workouts on your calendar as non-negotiable appointments, just like you do for work meetings. And look around corners for events, travel, etc. that may derail you and plan accordingly. Stick to a routine for at least a month to start building on the exercise habit. Even when you don't feel like going, that first month is crucial to go as consistently (and frequently) as possible, even if it's just for a 15 minute walk on the treadmill.

3. Lack of intensity: Exercise intensity is an important factor in achieving results. If you're going to the gym and just going through the motions, picking up the same weights week over week, you're not giving your body a reason to change and adapt to a progressively more difficult stimulus. Challenging your body - purposely making the work hard - week over week is essential to changing your body. It's the same as runners who want to run longer distances - each week they try to run a little bit further or a little bit faster.
   
   The fix: What do I mean by intensity? It doesn't mean doing HIIT cardio all the time, or beating yourself up on the treadmill. Intensity in lifting weights means you're choosing challenging weight, taking most of your sets to *almost* failure (meaning you couldn't do another rep if you tried), utilizing slow tempos and not momentum to lift the weights, focusing on the mind muscle connection, and using full range of motion in most of your exercises. It's pushing yourself in any given exercise endeavor to get stronger, faster, move more efficiently, etc. It's also using progressive overload, meaning each week you try to lift more weight or do more reps with the same weight. This also requires logging your workouts -weight used and reps. Stick to the same resistance training program for a minimum of 4 weeks to gauge strength progress.

4. Overtraining: Sometimes we're actually overdoing it on training volume. We're lifting too much, doing too many exercises, and doing it too often. Every time you lift weights, you're breaking down the muscle tissue, and doing this too often without recovery time will actually yield diminishing returns.
   
   The fix: If you find yourself so sore from a workout that you have to skip the next one, you may need to adjust your training volume. Choose 4-5 exercises instead of 7-9. Monitor how heavy you're lifting by keeping track of your weights. If you're working out 7 days per week, and trying to lift heavy while also doing intense cardio, it may be time to look at your training schedule. Overtraining can actually stall your progress, make you less consistent, and cause fatigue and burnout. Sleeping 7-9 hours per night and mitigating stress is also part of the recovery process. Remember, you can only make progress from the workouts you can actually recover from. It's important to take rest days to allow your body to repair the muscles and lay down new tissue.
   
   It's important to note that genetics and medical conditions can also play a role in stalled progress, and if the above fixes still don't yield results, you could seek advice from a doctor. I like to take the approach of getting these baseline variables in order first, as most people will start to see better results when they take a wholistic approach to diet, exercise, recovery, sleep, and stress management.
   
   I hope you found this helpful. If you have questions, feel free to reach out.
   
   All the best,
   Megan