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Why haven’t I lost weight?!

Andrew Taylor - Spud Fit | May 10, 2021

 

 

Diane asked:

I’m on day 6 of the Mega Foods Plan. I’m loving the simplicity, I’m full of energy and I’ve found it relatively easy to follow the rules 100% and say no to temptations. My only problem is that I haven’t lost any weight and I feel bloated. What am I doing wrong?!

My answer:

You’re doing absolutely nothing wrong! Most people lose weight straight away in the beginning but not everybody does. Some people maintain their weight for a little while before losing and some people even gain weight in the beginning. What’s most likely happened is that you have lost fat but gained weight in other areas to make up for it. Let me explain. Weight has many variables, the main one that you’re focused on is fat. Other variables include:

  • Food. A major cornerstone rule of the Spud Fit Challenge and the Mega Foods Plan is that you should eat as much as you feel like, as often as you feel like it. This is great because you never have to go hungry, ever. It also means that since you’ve stopped restricting your intake, you’ll have more actual food moving through your digestive system at any particular point in time. This can easily add up to a couple of extra kilograms/several pounds. 
  • Fibre. When you suddenly add extra fibre to your diet, it may get things moving and instantly improve your digestion, which would result in extra weight loss straight away. It may also clog you up for a little while, until your digestive system adjusts. You may be constipated while as your body figures out how to handle the extra fibre. This would explain why you feel bloated and it could again easily account for a couple of extra kilograms/several pounds. 
  • Hydration.There’s a good chance you’re much better hydrated now than you were before you started. This is because you’ve probably continued to drink the same amount of water that you did before, while also eating food that is much higher in water content than you’re used to. Your previous diet would’ve demanded a lot of water be drawn out of your bloodstream to aid with digestion, while the foods you’ve been eating this week contain plenty of their own water and actually help hydrate while you eat. Again, this could easily add a couple more kilos/ several pounds.
  • Water weight. This is distinct from hydration, because water weight is often accompanied by dehydration! When you eat inflammatory food and a lot of salt, that encourages your body to hang on to excess water. When you greatly reduce or even eliminate inflammatory and salty foods then you also release a lot of water that your body was hanging onto. This is a major reason why some people see more rapid weight loss in the beginning. 
  • Glycogen stores. Glycogen is essentially just a fancy word for carbohydrates. Our body stores carbs in our liver and muscles so we are always ready for action. This is especially relevant if you’ve been following a keto or other low carb kind of plan that thinks carbs are the devil. If you haven’t been eating enough carbs then you would’ve had low or even empty glycogen stores before you started and now you’ve gained some weight as your body replenished it’s glycogen stores. 
  • Muscle mass. If you’ve also started exercising then you may have gained a bit of muscle mass over the past week. Changes in muscle mass happen much more slowly than the other variables mentioned above but could still be a factor. 
  • Fat. This is the one we’re most interested in. If you’ve followed the rules 100% then you’ve most likely lost fat! You may not see it on the scales because other variables have gone up at the same time.

Your previous diet is the biggest factor in how these variables change, which is why it varies so much between people. A low carber will see gains in glycogen stores and fibre, probably also hydration while a typical junk dieter will react completely differently. It’s important to remember that whatever is happening with the other variables, it’s positive and these changes are important for your health. Your digestive and cardiovascular systems are running more efficiently and bathing every cell in your body in glorious oxygen and nutrition. It may take 2-3 weeks for all these variables to adjust and stabilise to their new, consistent levels. Once you settle into your new eating pattern then you’ll start seeing more consistent downward movement on the scales. You will still see daily fluctuations where some days your weight goes up a little and some days it goes down, but the overall trend is what’s important because that’s more reflective of your fat level.

Most importantly, relax. Trust that when you give it the right fuel, your body knows exactly what to do and it will figure everything out for you. 

Spud up!

Andrew

P.S. If you have any questions you’d like me to answer then please let me know!

Mega Foods May is in full swing now and we’d love you to join us! Click HERE.

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