When someone starts a new “diet” they often ask about results 1st thing. They want to know if they put the time and effort into it, is it going pay off? The next thing they ask is “Why are my results different?”
With the Ultimate Portion Fix/21 Day Fix, people are often mistaken about how their weight comes off and how slow the process is most of the time. The 21 Days is to TEACH you how to make this a lifestyle. It will get you in the habit of eating clean for 23 1/2 hours and to exercise for 30 min. If you follow the program as written it will work. PERIOD.
If you are reading this you probably already know what the 21 Day Fix is. If you don’t here is an informative blog post about it.
What made my results different than others?
I lost a total of 55lbs doing the 21DF. AMAZING RESULTS. It took me 9 months/ 12 full “Rounds” to do it in but those numbers don’t sound near as exciting as 55lbs does! OH, I had my days of doubt and had to get real with myself more than once. I had to be honest with myself and that is hard sometimes. And I had to kick my own ass now and then cuz no one that loves me will!
If you went to a doctor and told him that you wanted to lose a lot of weight he would caution you to only lose 1-2 lbs per week. I lost 1 1/2 lbs per week. Which was just perfect for me. BUT it felt so dang slow.
Some Rounds I would struggle and only lose 4lbs, other Rounds I would soar and lose 8 lbs. There were never any drastic amounts, but there was always a loss (full disclosure about my Round 4, I had an ulcer act up and I didn’t have a loss but I didn’t have a gain either 0/0)
But I would see someone else proclaim they had lost in the double digits and I would think HOW?!?! There is where the trap lays “someone ELSE’S results” not mine. This was not reflecting my journey and my choices but it was looking at their journey and wishing for the same results.
Did I let it discourage me and cause me to stop because “Suzy is losing faster than I am”?? HELL NO!! What it did do for me was to make me examine some of the reasons people were getting different/better results than me. In doing so I had to stop believing certain things and I had to examine just how strict I was being with myself in other areas.
I tried to keep this list down to 10 basic reasons. I am sure there are plenty of other reasons like “medical” ones but this information is for “average” person doing the Ultimate Portion Fix/ 21 Day Fix.
Why are everyone’s results different?
1) The more you have to lose, the faster you may lose in the beginning.
Someone with only 10lbs to lose will find it harder than someone with 30lbs to lose. Someone with 20lbs to lose may find the 1st 10lbs come off faster than the last 10. When someone in Bracket D is dropping major pounds round after round, a person down in Bracket A might be discouraged trying to take off just 5lbs. I changed my way of thinking about it. The way I began to look at it was that the person up in Bracket D probably WISHES she weighed down where Bracket A does….but the Bracket A person probably wishes she could eat MORE like Bracket D. To me that meant that I had better be happy RIGHT where I was, because it is all about the journey, not just the destination! Find the joy in your journey.
2) Your frame.
150lbs on one person does not look the same on another person because of the difference in height and bone structure. My 5’5″ and 150lbs will look completely different than YOUR 5’5″ and 150lbs. I might be in a size 10 jeans at that weight and you may need a 14. We are as unique as snowflakes….even in weight loss!
3) People who diet once and get the weight off can lose weight faster than those who do the “yo-yo” style of starting and stopping OFTEN.
By starting and stopping over and over your body just learns to ignore a drop in calories because it knows they WILL go back up in just a few days. Making it 21 full days of eating your containers will help retrain it into knowing it is going to get the same amount of calories every day and it will then get easier. Part of why we stop a few days into trying can be because of the sugar withdrawals we can suffer from. The “carb flu” is a REAL phenomenon. Breaking the 1-week mark of clean eating usually means you have detoxed the sugar out of your system and the cravings will have decreased!
4) If you are already exercising and eating fairly healthy but THEN you try to lose weight… it can be harder.
If you are inactive and overweight and then you start exercising and eating right your calorie deficit is almost always easier to achieve. Does it mean if you only have 5 lbs to lose that you will never lose it? No, it just may take more effort.
5) Family history and genetics.
We inherit body traits from our parents. I thank my mother for my “batwing” arms LOL. As with any other trait, weight gain/loss can look like our parents too. I put weight on in the same places my sisters do too. Accepting your genetics is a huge step in your weight loss journey. I have a pear-shaped body like my mom does and wanting an apple-shaped one is just never going to happen for me. Finding the good traits I got from my parents helped me. I can be as stubborn as my mom, and as practical as my dad and that all helped me on my journey! Find YOURS!
6) Too many changes at once.
It can make you feel overwhelmed and cause you to stop before you even get started good. Some people start off by mastering one meal at a time. Or doing ONLY the diet side of our program but adding the exercising in on the second or third round. Our weight loss results come from our food side of this program. The exercising helps burn a few calories and tones you up. But our weight loss comes from 80% diet and 20% exercise. Get that food side down pat! Drinking water is such a HUGE part of our program too. We need to be drinking 1/2 of our body weight in ounces. If you weigh 160lbs you need to be drinking 80 ounces of pure water.
7) Hormones…enough said.
But there is a bit more to it than that. Educating myself on why my body craves certain things at certain times of the month gave me the power to control those things a little more.
Hormones can cause stress, some people gain weight when stressed and changing eating habits can be stressful so you are adding stress to stress. DESTRESS! Use exercise as a de-stressing tool. Remember the quote “Food is the most ABUSED anxiety drug, and exercise is the most underutilized antidepressant.”
8) Thinking that this is an exercise program…with a diet side added in.
When, in reality, this is a DIET PROGRAM with some exercise added in. Beachbody has MANY exercise programs and a good many of them use the container system we do because it works. Different exercises, the same diet. And if you thinking that you can just exercise away that extra food or fast food, think again. I dive into how the sodium in foods can work against your results here.
YOU CAN NOT OUT EXERCISE A BAD DIET!
9) Sleep
Sleep deprivation can change our hormonal responses and increase cravings, making it harder to lose or maintain weight. A sleepy brain has less impulse control and is actually craving carbs for energy. Exercising during the day helps you be tired at night. So BUST it up! The average advice, avoid caffeine in the evening, stop using devices (haha), don’t exercise right before bed works if you can it. Even stopping eating 3 hours before you lay down to sleep (doctor’s advice 30 years ago for an ulcer) will help you stop nighttime eating and give your digestive system time to do the job it is supposed to do! I use intermittent fasting to help me with the “when” of my eating habits and it has worked for me and my lifestyle. I did a post about that here.
10) Effort makes your results different!
Some people are trying harder than you are. If you are “cheating” and the guy next to you isn’t…well, it will show up on the scales. You will notice that I am ONLY talking about the FOOD SIDE here because skipping a workout won’t make you gain weight but eating junk will!
How was I able to figure out where my trouble spots were?
I found that if I kept an accurate journal of every single bite of food I put in my mouth, it really brought my problem spots to light. A few bites while meal prepping, a few grapes while putting them away from the store, tasting my family’s food for salt…writing all that down showed me where to tweak my food for my best results. It also made it easy for me to repeat a really good weight loss week! I paper tracked my entire journey. My mantra was “IF YOU BITE IT, WRITE IT!! IF YOU NIBBLE IT, SCRIBBLE IT!! IF YOU SNACK IT, TRACK IT!!”
It seems like Beachbody agreed with me because both the 2B Mindset and the Ultimate Portion Fix have paper tracking logbooks included in their programs. I review both of them here and here.
Be honest with yourself while you examine these 10 areas and it will help you to get YOUR results. Remember don’t let comparison to other people’s results steal YOUR joy! Enjoy your journey to a new you!
[…] If you are trying to go by the “chart” that we have all seen at the doctor’s office, you might want to research those numbers a little bit. That chart would put me at 5’5″ all the way down to 115lbs to be my healthiest weight.HMMM… at almost 60 years old I would look like a worn-out old scarecrow at that weight. Every human is different. I cover the subject in a post about results. […]