Those Stealing Cheats

One of my clients has really been working on weight loss and exercising more each week. He is frustrated because the scale is not moving much. He asked me if his calories should be lowered.

As we began to discuss his eating, I asked him how often he eats off plan. He said a couple of comments that clued me in to what was going on.

Being recently divorced and on his own in a quiet house, there were feeling-blue times throughout the week when he ate out of emotions. “Sometimes I just say, ‘The h-ll with it,’” he admitted. The worst time was evening hours when he was alone and missing his kids.

Even though there were days he did great and made healthy choices, the emotional eating was keeping his weight on. He was spinning his wheels and going nowhere.

A pound is worth 3500 calories. Over the course of the week he would have to eat less and exercise more to create a calorie deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound. So, if on four days of the week he created a 700 calorie deficit, but on three days of the week he ate over for a total of 700 calories, he’d negate all the work he’d been doing.

When a diet doesn’t seem to be working, it’s usually because the diet is not being followed consistently. Many of my clients have this issue. They do great all week, but totally blow it one or two days. If they take in enough calories, they no longer have a calorie deficit. And no weight loss.

This is a painful thing to admit to ourselves. It seems like we’re working really hard, but when we look back over the week and are blatantly honest with ourselves, we can see how our cheats have stolen our weight loss.