9 reasons why your workouts are not producing results: PART I

1. You Have Gained Lean Mass It is very likely that your body composition (ratio of muscle to fat) is changing. If you’re gaining muscle the scale may not show any weight change. In fact, it may even show some weight gain, since muscle is denser than fat.

2. You’re Not Moving Much Outside of When You Exercise NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis, is all of the movement you do throughout the day that isn’t exercise. When you go all "Tiger out of the cage" in the beginning of an exercise program, you end up fatiguing yourself. You may un-intentionally decrease the amount of effort you put into your non-exercise-related activity. As a result, your calorie expenditure is lower.

3. You’re Eating More Food Than you Realize Increased movement means increased hunger. Increased muscle mass means increased hunger and need for fuel/protein synthesis (don't get me started down this rabbit hole). Your body is working harder and requires MORE. More water, more fuel, more minerals and all the stuff you sweat out when you're training. But this also means HIGHER calorie intake than you may realize. This is where food tracking and measuring is VITAL.

I really like Amanda Meixner's images regarding nutrition @MeowMeix She manages to take a topic that can be overwhelming, and present it as appealing, easy to understand, and applicable.

Also take a look at my break down of 100 Calorie portion sizes and their protein totals. Really makes you think twice when you write down "A Handful of Trailmix". The numbers add up FAST and we don't pay close enough attention.

4. Your Diet Is Too Restrictive This one blows people's minds. Highly restrictive diets can leave us feeling malnourished, lethargic, craving foods we don't normally want, and a slew of other issues. As a result, your workouts may suffer. I have seen a lot of athletes gain weight and body fat from eliminating calories and becoming too "Selective". This can also throw us into episodes of over-eating (binge-eating).

5. Your Recovery doesn't match the intensity of your workouts

Soreness and muscle pain can linger for days after exercise. A number of factors can affect the speed with which your muscles recover including the intensity of exercise and your own physical fitness:

• Sleep

• Exposure to stress,

• Diet (See #4)

• Wellbeing

• Balance of Work and Play and shenanigans

• Flexibility and Mobility Work

• Hydration

• Sunlight/Vitamin D

• And so many other factors.
  

Figure 1: Phases of Adaptation (Bompa and Haff, 2009) As illustrated below, fatigue is at its highest immediately following an intense workout. This is when our bodies are at risk for injury and require adequate rest to restore the chemical imbalance, mental fatigue and the depleted muscle glycogen stores that resulted from the workout. The diagram also shows that recovery starts at 24-48hrs post workout and any positive adaptive gains that the body is making begins at the 36-72hrs timeframe.

6. You aren't sleeping enough (or getting quality sleep) I push this topic professionally because this is a huge one for me, personally. If you want to grow muscle, you need to get adequate sleep. It is one of the key factors in your recovery. You may hear the phrase, "Active Recovery" from time-to-time. I can typically predict my client's "burning out" or "not seeing results" based on their sleep and recovery. Sleep affects your results.

7. Your fitness/conditioning has improved This sounds so backwards, I know. This is one of the more common reasons in my professional experience. Your fitness level increases. Your resting heart rate decreases. Your body becomes more metabolically efficient (All good things, right?). As a result, you don't burn as many calories as you used to.

8. Your Goals May Not Be Realistic Maybe you want to run a marathon (in 2 months ). Or you want to get ripped and in the best shape of your life (in 2 weeks) or you want to lose 30lbs (in 2 hours). Are you picking up what I am puting down? Setting realistic goals is just as important as what you do to accomplish them.

9. You Need a Bigger Reason "WHY"

It All comes down to that. Why are you doing this? if You aren't sure, that may be a perfect starting point for you to do some reflection and brainstorming. If your reason doesn't keep you motivated... NEXT.

Just remember that,

Purpose is an incredible alarm clock.