«"If I eat very little... why am I not losing fat?". This is one of the phrases I hear most often in therapy. If you've ever said to yourself... «"I eat very little and I'm not losing weight"», It is usually accompanied by something like this:
- «"During the week I take very good care of myself.".
- «"I hardly eat carbohydrates.".
- «"At night I try to eat very little for dinner.".
- «"There are days when I even skip a meal.".
But weeks go by and the belly is still there, the clothes fit practically the same, and that feeling of making a huge effort without getting results starts to drive you to despair. Then comes the conclusion: «"My body is not responding"».
But the problem probably isn't that you need to eat even less. The problem may lie precisely in... how are you trying to lose fat?.
You start Monday determined to do it perfectly
Monday arrives and this time it's for real. You have a "good" breakfast, eat a salad, eliminate bread, try not to snack, and have a light dinner.
Tuesday is the same. On Wednesday you start thinking about food a lot more. And by Thursday you're tired of eating the same thing all the time, you're hungry, and you start craving chocolate, pizza, bread, or any food you've been trying to avoid for days.
And then the famous one appears: «"Well, one day won't hurt."».
The problem isn't the food itself. The problem is that often that food becomes a "since I've already started..." situation. On Friday you eat a little more, on Saturday you go out, on Sunday you take advantage of the fact that "you'll start again tomorrow," and on Monday you're back to an extremely restrictive diet.
And so it begins again.
You can eat very little from Monday to Thursday and not be in a deficit at the end of the week
To lose fat, your body needs to consistently burn more energy than you consume. This is what we call... caloric deficit. But there's something important: your body doesn't start over every night.
Imagine that from Monday to Thursday you follow a very restrictive diet and achieve a 400 kcal deficit per day. You have accumulated approximately 400 × 4 = 1,600 kcal deficit.
But then the weekend arrives. Dinner out, some beers, appetizers, dessert, lunch with friends, snacking while watching a movie… You don't need to binge to make up for a good part of that deficit.
That's why you can have the completely real feeling that you "eat little" —because you actually spend many days eating little— and still not achieve the necessary deficit on a sustained basis.
The problem isn't necessarily how much you eat on a Tuesday. What matters is what happens across the entirety of your days and weeks..
And no, the solution is not to take away even more food
This is one of the mistakes I see most often:
- «"I'm not losing weight, so I'm going to cut out breakfast.".
- «"I'm not going to eat carbohydrates at night.".
- «"I'm just going to have yogurt for dinner.".
- «"I'm going to lower the amounts even further.".
It might work for a few days. But if that diet leaves you constantly hungry, with low energy and an overwhelming craving for everything you've forbidden yourself... how long do you think you'll be able to maintain it?
Because losing fat isn't about starving yourself for 15 days. It's about finding a diet that allows you to maintain a calorie deficit long enough to achieve results.
You don't need to eat "perfectly" to lose fat
There is also the idea that to lose belly fat or reduce body fat you have to live on:
- 🥗 Salads
- 🥦 Boiled vegetables
- 🍗 Grilled chicken
- 🐟 Fish
- 🥛 Yogurts 0%
And delete:
- ❌ Bread
- ❌ Pasta
- ❌ Rice
- ❌ Potatoes
- ❌ Chocolate
- ❌ Hamburgers
- ❌ Any food you really like
But one food alone doesn't determine whether you lose or gain fat. You can include bread. You can eat pasta, rice or potatoes. You can enjoy some chocolate. You can even go out to eat once in a while.
The difference lies in learning what quantities you need, how to organize your meals, and how often to include certain foods so that everything fits within your goal.
What you eat matters, not just how much you eat.
Two diets can have similar calories and turn out to be completely different when it comes to following them.
A diet rich in protein, fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and other satiating foods can help you control hunger much better. And if you're also strength training, consuming enough protein and maintaining a proper diet will help you preserve muscle mass while losing fat.
Because when you say you want to "tone up", what you're usually looking for visually is precisely this: reduce fat while maintaining or building muscle.
There's no single food that will specifically eliminate belly fat or cellulite. But improving your body composition, strength training, and maintaining healthy habits can produce significant changes in how your body looks.
The other problem: the calories we hardly count
There's something I see a lot in my practice. When we ask what you've eaten during the day, you remember perfectly: "a piece of toast," "salad with chicken," and "an omelet for dinner." On paper, it seems like very little.
But then small things appear:
- The oil you added to the salad.
- A handful of nuts while you were cooking.
- Two coffees with milk.
- A small piece of cheese.
- The three cookies in the office.
- The dinner sauce.
- Some potatoes that you took from your partner's plate.
None of this means these foods are "forbidden." The problem is that we tend to remember the main meals and forget many small extras. And some foods, even if healthy, can provide a significant amount of energy in relatively small quantities.
What if you do it perfectly during the week?
Then we must also look at other things:
- Your amounts may simply not be suited to you.
- You may be moving less than you think.
- Your weight may be temporarily affected by fluids, menstruation, salt, intestinal contents, or recent changes in training.
- Or maybe you're just looking the scale.
That's why we shouldn't judge your progress based on what happens in three days. It's much more interesting to observe the trend over several weeks, along with other indicators such as measurements, photos, clothing, performance, and adherence to the plan.
Your diet shouldn't make you wish for the day you can quit.
This sentence is important. Because if from day one you're thinking, "When I finish the diet I'll go back to eating normally...", we have a problem.
Your diet for losing fat should be quite similar to the diet you could maintain afterward. With more flexibility, of course. But there shouldn't be one world where you're "on a diet" and a completely different one where you're "eating normally.".
Because then you will always depend on your willpower.
Maybe you don't need more willpower. You need a better plan.
If you start every Monday super motivated and every Thursday you're itching to quit, maybe the problem isn't a lack of discipline. Maybe you're trying to follow a diet that isn't designed for your lifestyle.
A good fat loss plan should allow you to:
- Eat foods you really like.
- Arrive at mealtimes with a reasonable hunger.
- Having the energy to work and train.
- Going out one day without feeling like you've ruined the whole week.
- Learn what quantities you need.
- And, above all, being able to maintain it for months without feeling like you're constantly "on a diet".
Because the best diet for losing fat is not the one that makes you lose the most weight during the first week. It's the one that ensures you can still do it three months from now..
So if you feel like you're eating very little but not losing fat, before cutting out foods again or reducing your portions even further, ask yourself: Am I eating too little... or am I following a plan that's too restrictive and that I can't stick to?
That could be the difference between having to start all over again next Monday... or making sure you don't have to start all over again this time.
Do you want a plan you can actually stick to? I'm Marina, Dietitian-nutritionist and online trainer, And this is exactly what I work on with my clients: Look at their results And write to me whenever you want.