So what ya used to do to lose fat isn’t working anymore, but you want to lose fat and so what should you do? Let’s dig into it…

I hear a few things in relation to this topic quite often and they typically go something like…

In my 20’s and 30’s I did ‘x’ and I lost fat and now I do ‘x’ and nothing happens, I think my metabolism has slowed down, or…

The last time I was on a diet I did ‘y’ and got results and now I do ‘y’ and my weight isn’t budging, I think it’s my age.

There are 3 key questions to ask yourself here…

The first one is, ‘am I actually doing the exact same thing that I was doing before and getting a different result?’ Let’s say that the answer is yes…

The second question becomes, ‘how do I know that?’ The answer to this question is usually, ‘I remember.’

My follow up question would be, ‘what did you have for lunch on Tuesday 2 weeks ago?’

Unless you have the same lunch like a robot every single day or there was some standout thing or event that took place…it’s incredibly unlikely that any of us remembers with any degree of accuracy!

Personally, I have no friggin’ clue what I had for lunch on Tuesday 2 weeks ago, I couldn’t name one meal with complete confidence that I had at any point on Tuesday 2 weeks back, let alone the actual portions of any of those meals…and herein lyes the problem…

Human memory is wildly flawed and so if you can’t remember what you ate for lunch 2 weeks ago, how can you possibly accurately remember your nutrition and movement habits from 2 months ago, 2 years ago or 20 years ago!

I actually tested this recently because I was thinking back to how my nutrition looked in 2020/2021 and I thought to myself, ‘I was doing x, y and z and everything was going a certain way and now I’m doing x, y and z and the outcome is a little different.’

I’ve been periodically recording what and how much I’ve been eating and drinking over the years very accurately via My Fitness Pal and so then I thought, ‘I think I was recording then, I’ll go back in the app and take a look at that time period.’

Well, I did…and it turns out that what I remember doing was pretty darn different than what I was actually doing, it was eye opening to say the least!

Fortunately, I had that information and so I made the appropriate adjustments right away and shocker, the result changed and said result was exactly what I got in 2020/2021!

To take this a step further, I do this stuff for a living…I’m either talking about nutrition and lifestyle or researching nutrition and lifestyle virtually all day every day and my recollection was still that off, point being…

Relying on memory in regards to nutrition, movement, sleep and stress management data is unreliable at best. If you don’t have this data recorded and on hand, you can almost certainly assume that you’re missing something.

Also, even if you do have your nutrition info recorded let’s say, it’s important to consider it’s accuracy, for example…

Are the specific portions accounted for or are they guesstimated i.e. a handful of nuts or a scoop of peanut butter? Did you track 7 days per week or from Monday morning to Friday afternoon? How did the weekends look? Did you record your alcohol intake? Did ya account for your meals while you were drinking? How about eating out at restaurants as well as things like treat meals, were those tracked?

What about your step counts? How many steps did you average per day over the course of not just weeks, but months or even years during that time? How about workouts? How many times per week were you working out and how did those sessions look?

What is your current body composition and what was your body composition then? For example, if you are 20 lbs lighter right now, every single activity that you did then vs. now is going to burn fewer calories because you are doing those activities with 20 fewer pounds on you…and to emphasize this point, throw on a 20 lb weight vest for 24 hours and see what that feels like in terms of effort…it’s a whole different ball game!

The truth is that with stuff like this we tend to just go by memory and/or feeling and feelings absolutely have their place, however just like memory they’re super flawed and subjective…and it’s really tough to compare such subjective measures to very objective things i.e. what and how much you’re eating and how much you’re moving.

We’ve all experienced telling a story around a partner, friends or family and someone saying, ‘that’s not the way that that happened’ or vice versa…a partner, friend or family member is telling a story and you’re like, ‘that played out completely differently than you remember it.’

Humans also have a tendency to embellish more and more over time, for example…perhaps you’ve heard someone tell the same funny story over the years and each time it tends to get just a little bit more outlandish. I’ve caught myself doing this thinking, I’m almost positive that I’m quote unquote ‘remembering the story’ this way just because it sounds funnier lol!

Point being, human memory is imperfect and so is relying on subjective feelings from the past and when they’re combined, things tend to get even more convoluted!

What about the metabolism and how it may or may not relate to age, is it stopping you from getting results despite doing the exact same thing? Fortunately not and I say that from looking at the research, my personal experience and 12 years of coaching clients, for example…

The research doesn’t support the idea of a ‘slowing metabolism’ as we age hindering fat loss.

I’m in better shape than I was in my teens and twenties and I’m now in my late thirties. The same applies to a whole bunch of my clients, however what has changed in these situations are habits and lifestyle.

If you take a look at the transformations page on my website, there are folks that I’ve helped lose lots of fat in their 60’s and 70’s meaning, fortunately your body composition is a reflection of your habits and not solely how long you’ve been alive.

Now hypothetically even if age and/or your metabolism were actually deterring you from losing fat (which they are not)…it still leaves you in the same position in the sense that even if the rules of the game have changed ever so slightly (which they haven’t) the question still becomes do you want to play or not?

Do you want to lose fat and get healthier even if it is just a tiny bit harder now vs. before?

If the answer is yes…nutrition, movement, sleep and stress management are the things to focus on!

Forget everything else…forget supplements for fat loss that literally don’t exist and ditch ideas about needing to quote unquote ‘balance your hormones to lose fat’ because the 4 pillars are what do that.

Focus on the fundamentals, do them consistently and it’s only a matter of time until you get the result that you’re after and if results are your #1 priority, this info should be incredibly empowering because you CAN get the outcome that you want!

I’m definitely not saying that it’s going to be easy, but you can do it…if it’s a priority you will make it happen!

You are far more capable and resilient than you’re likely giving yourself credit for…I see evidence of this every single day!