Latest / Cameron's Conversations: The last weight loss podcast you'll ever need. / Episode 44: Do you need to do MORE when it comes to weight loss?
Transcript
- Cameron Cummings: Welcome to the Cameron's Conversation podcast. In today's episode, I want to talk all about how to know when you need to do more for weight loss. What I mean by that is really, really simple. As often as not, people will be progressing or potentially seeing progress slow down and they feel like they need to do more. And it can be hard because what can start to happen is, should I go to the gym more? Should I be doing more steps? Should I cut my calories down? Should I increase my protein? What can start to happen is you can end up in a place where you feel a little overwhelmed. So there's a few things that I like to kind of bring up because I've seen this before with clients and sometimes the best example is the client is doing really, really well. They're smashing their weight loss, they've been losing really, really steadily, they're seeing clear changes month to month, week to week. They're starting to see some subtle changes, month to month, bigger changes. They're quite happy with how everything is going, but they have this sense of, should I be doing more? Now, there's an element of, look, If you feel like I could easily get my steps up an extra bit, yeah, push them up a little bit more. Get another thousand and get an extra 500 in. But what we don't need to do is we don't need to make it into a mega struggle all of the time. There is absolutely a time to push, right? I know that I've got a little phase coming up because I'm obviously away to Spain over the next few days and then when I come back, I'm gonna be pushing a bit harder up until one of my best mates, Stag, do. So it's right at the end of April, actually. So I'll get back about the fifth and I'll be... tracking on for about 24 days and that will probably be me smashing a lot of steps and getting my calories that bit lower and pushing a bit harder. So yeah, over that time I might push myself a bit further. But if I was doing quite well, dropping weight, quite happy with where I'm at, I've not got any particular time pressures, I don't have something on the horizon like that that I may be aiming for, why would I want to change it up? Because sometimes what happens is that kind of thing of if it's not broke, don't fix it. I think sometimes people feel this obligation to do more. And actually sometimes that stems from feeling like dieting should feel really hard all the time. And of course what happens over time is I'll work with a client, we'll get them into better routines, get them into better habits, get them into a better mindset. And of course what starts to happen is it feels a little easier. I'm not saying it feels easy all the time. Anyone who tells you that weight loss is gonna feel easy 100 % of the time is telling porkies, right? They're just having you on. Like that's not the case, it's not always easy. You're have moments where you think, I can't be bothered doing steps, can't be bothered eating this, I'd like to have more of this, right? That's normal. But in general, it gets easier. They get into routine and rhythm. But if they're progressing really well, why would we change that up, right? If we are in a spot where you're cracking on, we're losing weight and we think over the next, like I always take that 10 week trajectory or eight week trajectory, depending on where you are, right? How far away your goal is. Take that 10 week trajectory. If I'm dropping 0.6 kilos per week, For the goals that I have right now, that's pretty good actually. Another six kilos off, that pulls me pretty close to my goal weight. So I know in 10 weeks I'm gonna be in a good spot. Now some people will be much farther away from their goal. Like I was at the start of this year, I mean it wasn't that far away, but I was farther away, right? was another five, six kilos, well six kilos heavier, right? So I was much farther away. So at that point I was thinking actually, do you know, I wouldn't mind losing that little bit faster, right? And that's also part of it is how far have I got to go, what time frame, what's the pressure. But even then, I kinda said to myself, do you know what, I want to go at a good pace at this, I want to lose enough weight that every month I can notice it. You know, every two, three weeks I'm seeing changes in my progress photos, and every month I put on a T-shirt and I think, what a difference. Like I'm a hoodie now that does not, did fit, sorry, didn't fit before, and fits really, really well. I said that really strangely, but anyway, this fits really, really well, is what I was trying to say. The caffeine clearly hasn't kicked in. and it didn't fit that well at all a month ago. That's pretty cool. I feel pretty good about that. That's a bit of a positive for me. So that's absolutely fine. So there's this bit of an interplay of yes, there's sometimes space and do you know what? If you're scoring something, if getting your steps is a three out of 10 effort, let's get this weight loss phase done then. Let's get that to a five or a six. Let's feel like we're trying a little bit, sure. But does it need to be a nine out of 10? If you're doing 8,000 steps and you think I could go to nine, nine and a half easy. Cool, do that, but doesn't mean you have to go to 12. You don't need to be running to the ground to be winning at this, and I think that's really important. And it's primarily going to be dictated by your timelines and your progress, and also the impact it has, because this is the other thing. For some people adding 1,000 steps, little impact. For someone else adding 1,000 steps, how do I find that extra 10 minutes? Quite strapped for time, finding it hard with the kids, getting out in the evening, because I can't leave them, so I'm not able to do that every night. So there's a bit of a limit, right? And that might actually cause quite a lot of stress and pressure. They might be able to win somewhere else with some other small wins, but what would be really, really important is the trade-off we're making. That extra thousand steps is gonna make you a little bit more progress over the course of a month. It'll make you a good wee bit, but you're not gonna see a drastic change today to the next day, right? So the juice has to be worth the squeeze. So there is an element here of if you are progressing really well, then. Often it's not, the answer is just stay the bloody course. And actually sometimes it's good to be able to ramp things up when you need it. Equally, if it feels like it's just not a challenge and you're like, think I could drop a bit and weight bit faster, cool, then push a little bit more. But you don't need everything to feel like a nine out of 10. And I apply that to nutrition. If you're finding that sticking to your calories is a nine out of 10, going hard or out at it and dropping your calories even lower is probably not good idea. Meanwhile, if you're on calories that you've not even felt hungry on because you're doing so well at eating loads of fruit and veg, you've not felt hungry for a better part of two or three weeks, pretty much any of the time, you feel very little hunger. Yeah, maybe there is an argument for, let's lean into it. This is a diet, it's okay to feel a little bit hungry. Let's push on a little bit more. Let's see if we can get that weight off a bit faster and get you done quicker. Cool, there's definitely a spot for that. Where it really comes into zone, this whole trying harder thing, is when we're not making the progress we want. But I want to kind of throw in little bit of a not controversial opinion per se. but a bit of a challenge to you there. If you are not progressing at the speed that you would like to, the first question I want you to ask yourself is super simple. How accurately am I tracking? Because the first thing people want to do is they want to pull their calories down. I have no issue with that. Pull your calories down if you need to. But you only have the right, if you like, to pull your calories down when they're being tracked accurately. I do not want to see someone who's saying 1500 calories on the tracker and actually what I'm seeing is what they're kind of. really eating is 1,900, pull your calorie target down to 1,300. What's the point? It's just gonna increase the amount of inaccuracy in their tracking. It's not gonna help them do anything. So ask yourself first and foremost, before you try and plug in more steps, more gym sessions, which by the way is the one thing that I wouldn't recommend for weight loss. If you want to speed up your weight loss more, people often say, oh, do I need to go to the gym more? If you want to see bigger changes in your body composition, if you enjoy your training and you're feeling really bloody good and you want to see even more progress, go and train more, do that. If you just want to see more weight loss, you'd probably be better spending an extra 10 to 20 minutes rather than an hour in the gym, getting more organised with food, getting a better weekly food shop, planning ahead, tracking for the next day or the few days ahead. Those things are probably more meaningful. So that's where I want your mindset to be with that side of it. That's not where I'd start. But before you drop your calories, check in with yourself. Often as not, if there was one area that I could get... almost everyone to work harder on is to track more accurately how good is your tracking. Because if it's 60 % rather than 100%, your weight loss is gonna be slow. It's gonna be slow. There's no getting around it. It's going to be slow. Because actually, weight loss isn't a particularly inherently fast process. Even when you're going hard at it, you're trying to drop a kilo a week, probably, if you can, or 0.6 or 0.7 kilos if you're maybe a 60, 70, or 0.8 if you're 80 kilos. the kind of upper end of weight loss, right? Even if you are pushing pretty hard, you'll see a difference over six to eight weeks, like a big difference as well, but it's still not an instant gratification thing. It's just not, right? It really isn't. So you cannot get away with, I'll go at it at 60%. I'm sorry, that's not enough. It's not enough. It's not going to be good enough to make you amazing progress. What you're going to find is you're going to find that your weight loss feels really, really, really slow. So that is the one area I would first focus on working harder on. So if you are in that spot where you're like, hmm, I'm losing weight, should I be doing more? Should I be doing more? Well, look at how hard it is already and look at the progress you're making. Because if the progress you're making is great, you're probably better not to change too much. If the progress you're making is middling, maybe you want to focus on a couple of key things, but often it's not. The key thing that you can do is tighten up on your calorie tracking accuracy. If however your progress is really slow and it ain't great at all, that's when you need to say, actually, you know what, my activity needs to go up and. I need to track more accurately. But make sure that if you are weight loss focused, when you talk about working hard, you don't, I know this sounds bizarre, don't pick the easy option. And the easy option is more steps. It's another gym session, which sounds bizarre to say as a coach, but it's true. It is easier for someone to go to two to three gym sessions a week than it is for them to track more accurately. Even though they're tracking more accurately, takes less time because it's just a decision. You have to consciously decide to do that time after time after time. or is going to the gym once a week, you you go in, get it done, come out, that's it, you feel really good from it. The impact of tracking more accurately, being more diligent, putting more effort in there, it's a minor thing, it's a small thing, it seems unsexy and subtle, but it's also the thing that I see, the amount of times, like in the last week, I can think of a client in particular who I've asked to tighten up on their tracking a bit, because we know it's been a bit lax, and they kind of, what's really good is they just said to me in the last check, and do you know what, Cameron? dropping weight nicely, I'm quite happy, but my tracking hasn't, it's not always perfect, I think I could do better at it. I've really pushed them on that, we've leaned into it, and they've had the biggest weight drop in a week that they've had in eight weeks. Now they've been dropping steadily too, so it ain't like they've been stuck, but they're doing even better than this last week, and it's not magic, could be magic, but it's not magic, it's the fact we've tracked more accurately. So if you are thinking working harder at your nutrition, maybe that's where you want to work harder, sorry, weight loss. that's maybe where you want to work hard is that your nutrition, not just the training and steps, start there. If your nutrition's bang on, then work your way up to steps, gym, all these other things that sit outside of that. Hopefully that was helpful. And if you are interested in one-to-one coaching, then the link is in the show notes as always, where I will help you get into the best shape of your life, have a better relationship with food, and of course, put you into a spot where you no longer feel like it's such a mental drain. to be thinking about losing weight and nutrition all the bloody time, because we'll get you into some good habits to take the stress away. That's where to start. So, if you are interested, show notes for that link there. Otherwise, have a great day.