8 Reasons You May Not Be Seeing Results

If you have been exercising regularly or for some time, and not seeing results, there could be a few factors that could be hindering your results: 1. You haven’t changed your diet. You have probably heard the saying "you can’t out-train a bad diet". This could not be more true! If you are still eating the same amount, or the same nutritionally-poor foods, your training efforts will likely be negated. 2. You are not considering liquid calories. Milky coffees & teas, juices, smoothies and alcohol are generally quite high in calories, low in nutritional benefits, and are often easy to ‘forget’ in regards to your overall daily calorie amount, but they all add up! 3. You aren’t drinking enough water. Water is required to assist the process of fat burning and elimination. When you drink less than is required, the body feels threatened and retains fluid in self-protection, making it less efficient at burning fat. In addition, dehydration can influence physical performance. Losing as little as 2% of your body’s water content during exercise can lead to reduced motivation, increased fatigue and make exercise feel much more difficult, both physically & mentally. 4. You are doing the same thing. While you don’t have to change your entire workouts every single session, it’s important to continue to make adjustments and progressions in order to promote growth and change. Variations of or different exercises, increasing the weight when it becomes easy, changing the order you do exercises, varying the rep & set ranges, and changing rest times can all keep your body from plateauing. 5. You are rewarding yourself too often. It’s easy to think that because you worked out today it’s OK to have that treat. But often the treat is higher in calories than the amount burned during the workout. Therefore you will end up increasing your overall daily intake. 6. You aren’t getting enough rest. Rest is just as important to the plan as the workout itself. It is during sleep that our body repairs and grows. If you are not getting enough (or quality) sleep your body will not be able to maximize your training efforts. Additionally, it could cause fatigue which could compromise your future session(s). 7. You are focusing too much on cardio. While cardio training is great for heart & lung health, and can aid in fat loss, too much can start to eat into your lean muscle mass by using the protein in your muscles for fuel. Without sufficient weight training to maintain lean muscle, your metabolism slows down and your body will burn less calories throughout the day. 8. You aren’t working hard enough. You could spend an hour in the gym every day of the week, but if you are simply going through the motions, spending most of the time resting, or checking social media, you are not stimulating your body to make any changes. While you don’t have to smash yourself every session so that you are crawling out on all fours, you do need to push yourself hard enough to get your heart rate elevated and muscles working so that your body is forced to adapt and make changes.