Raise your hand if you’re a box checker.

And by that, I mean, raise your hand if you like to do things RIGHT.

If you’re going to focus on losing weight, you’re going to follow ALL the rules and do ALL the things.

Count your calories. Check.

Exercise. Check.

Drink lots of water. Check.

Totally obsess over the number on the scale. Check.

Think about food all the time. Check.

After all, that’s what dieting is, right?  

It’s misery. It’s suffering. It’s equal parts discipline and deprivation.

And if you can just keep checking off ALL the boxes and doing the right things, you’re bound to see results.

Right?

But what if you don’t?  What if you feel like you’ve been doing ALL THE THINGS, but the scale just won’t budge?

What are you doing wrong?

Well, there’s a really good chance that you’re making one very big, and very common, mistake in your weight loss journey—one that I don’t think really gets talked about.

In fact, it’s probably a mistake that you’re not even aware you’re making at all.

I know I certainly wasn’t.

Honestly, for so many years, I was the Diet Queen, always ready to try the next new thing that I was sure would be the answer to my weight problem.

I can’t even tell you how many different diets I tried over the years, but they all pretty much followed the same blueprint, which went something like this:

Dramatically cut back on food and drastically cut your calories, while also trying to get more exercise—ideally lots of cardio, because that’s obviously what burns the most calories. And then be sure to drink LOTS of water, because you have to stay hydrated and fill your stomach with water if you’re not actually going to be eating enough food.  Eat lots of salads with low fat dressing. Rice cakes with fat free cream cheese. Lean protein and celery sticks and lots of apples.

And sometimes if I really wanted to mix things up, I’d do a 5 day juice cleanse or go on a green smoothie kick.

But I was always committed. I was always ALL IN.

At least until I couldn’t take it anymore. And then I’d fall off the wagon and eat an entire bag of Doritos in one sitting while lamenting the fact that I just didn’t seem to have enough willpower.

And then a few weeks later, I’d start the same cycle again.

Doing all the things. Making myself miserable for as long as I could stand it. Then falling off the wagon yet again.

And I don’t know if this has happened to you, but what I started to notice is that over time, my diets seemed to be less and less effective.

Where I used to be able to easily lose 5 or 10 or even 15 pounds by cutting back, I’d instead see the scale absolutely refuse to budge, no matter how hard I tried.

And yet, I had no problem packing on more pounds the minute I gave up.

So my weight just kept creeping up. And it got harder and harder and harder.

Sound familiar?

And I think the fact that this struggle is still so raw and fresh in my mind is what makes me so passionate about this work that we do at Thinlicious, and the way we’re helping women lose weight and get healthy FOR LIFE.

Because it wasn’t until I took a totally DIFFERENT approach that things turned around for me. Number one, I stopped dieting. I stopped trying to eat less and exercise more. And instead, I started doing real research into the actual science of weight loss, and into what causes us to gain weight in the first place, and why our bodies cling to fat, especially as we get older.

And what I discovered absolutely shocked me, because it was SO different from everything we’ve ever been told, and everything I was constantly trying to do.

Because, as it turns out, healthy sustainable weight loss ISN’T about calories. It’s about HORMONES.

And it’s about eating in a way that will actually support your hormones and reverse insulin resistance. And when you do that, the weight comes off pretty easily. Honestly, it feels like a miracle.

That’s how I lost more than 40 pounds, and have kept it off for years now. Without ever dieting again.

But let me tell you, after struggling for so long, it really does feel like freedom. And that’s why to me, the work we’re doing here isn’t really about weight loss. It’s about freedom. The freedom to look and feel your best. The freedom to stop dieting. The freedom to finally have the time & energy to focus on something other than losing weight.

But that’s also why today I want to talk about something that I think is going to be really eye-opening for a lot of you, especially if you’ve been struggling with losing weight and getting healthy for a while now.

Because honestly, this is a mistake that I see SO many women making in their weight loss journey, and it’s one that is so common that I honestly think that it can be pretty hard to even see it, or recognize that you’re making it.

But at the same time, it’s also a mistake that is pretty much guaranteed to hold you back from seeing the kind of results that you want.

And the mistake is this: Not eating enough.

Yep, you heard that right. The #1 mistake that most women are making in their diet—and the one that is almost guaranteed to keep you from losing weight in a sustainable way—is actually not eating enough.

And I know that probably sounds completely crazy and counterintuitive, because we’ve been conditioned to believe that in order to lose weight, we need to eat less. And yet, in reality, the opposite is actually true.

And here’s why.

Your Body Is Already a Calorie Burning Machine

First of all, our bodies need FUEL in order to function properly—especially if you want your body to be burning fat instead of sugar.

Did you know that on a daily basis, your body is actually burning thousands and thousands and thousands of calories just to keep you alive?  The amount of energy required to keep you heart pumping and your organs working and your brain functioning is actually MASSIVE, so much more than I think any of us really can even fathom.

And that’s without doing a single drop of exercise.  Our bodies are calorie burning machines.

It takes SO much energy to keep your body functioning that your body actually has to create more energy. Yep, that’s right—the food you eat isn’t even enough on a daily basis. It has to manufacture more energy within your cells, which is a process that happens in your mitochondria.

And this is the thing that makes me so crazy about everything we’ve ever been told about weight loss, which is basically “calories in and calories out,” right?

But that doesn’t even make any sense when you actually understand what’s happening.

Your body is already burning massive numbers of calories every single day, without even trying.

And unless you’re eating 10,000 calories a day or more, which is VERY unlikely, you’re not eating more calories than you’re taking in.

Your weight problem is NOT a calorie problem.

It’s a hormone problem. But I’ll say more about that in a minute.

Because the first thing you really need to understand is that your body is already burning plenty of calories every single day.

And because your energy needs are so great, your body is designed to crave sustenance in order to ensure your survival.

That means that if you’re not giving your body enough fuel in the form of the right kinds of nutrients and protein and healthy fat, then it will go into protection mode. Your metabolism will dramatically slow down, and your body will go into starvation mode, which means that it will actually start to hold on to all the extra calories and fat that it can, rather than burning it off.

In other words, it will start to hold on to all the weight that you’re trying to lose.

But not only that, it will begin sending out very strong signals that you need to eat.

Signals that eventually become too strong to fight against. You feel hungry all the time. You can’t stop thinking about food. You can’t focus. And eventually you have to give in.

And it’s not because you’re weak. It’s because your body is doing exactly what it was designed to do—ensure your survival.

You Don’t Need More Willpower

And I know for some of you reading this right now, this is a huge paradigm shift, right?

Because I think a lot of times, as women, we are so used to thinking that the answer to our problems is to simply eat less—that if we can just exert enough self control and willpower then we’ll be able to lose weight. That if we can just be hungry and miserable enough, then we’ll finally be skinny.

We just need a little more willpower.

But the reality is that this kind of thinking is really, really dangerous.

Because not only is it not true, but it’s also a really fast way to get yourself into a whole heap of metabolic trouble. Because when you’re not eating enough, your body starts to get really, really confused. It starts to think that there’s a famine, and that it’s not going to be able to get the nutrients it needs to survive.

And so it starts to hold on to every little bit of fat and calories that it can find. It literally starts to slow down your metabolism in an effort to conserve as much energy as possible.

And the more you do it, the more damage you’re doing to your body, and the harder it’s going to be for you to start losing weight, even if you DO manage to stick with your diet.

And this has actually been proven in study after study after study.

In fact, there was a really interesting study that came out a few years ago that I think did an amazing job of really proving this exact point.

Basically, researchers at the National Institute of Health were studying a group of former contestants from “The Biggest Loser,” which is a reality TV show in the US where overweight and obese contestants compete to lose the most weight.

And what they found was pretty shocking.

First of all, these contestants all had AMAZING results at the end of the show—many of them losing hundreds of pounds, just by cutting their calories and exercising more.

But what the researchers found was that six years after the show ended, almost all of the contestants had gained back most of their weight. Even more shocking, their metabolisms were so damaged that they were burning significantly fewer calories per day than they were before the show started. They literally could not burn off enough calories to maintain their new, lower weight.

In other words, their bodies had gone into starvation mode, and were holding on to all the extra weight and calories that they could find.

And so, it’s a pretty good example of what happens when you don’t eat enough. Because these contestants all had AMAZING results on the show, but they were also only eating about 800-1200 calories a day, which is WAY too little.

And so, I think this study is a really good example of why it’s so important to actually eat enough, especially when you’re trying to lose weight and get healthy.

But it also means that your weight problem is NOT a willpower problem.

It’s a hormone problem.

So let’s talk about that.

The Real Secret to Weight Loss That No One’s Telling You

Because, chances are, just reading this might be opening up a whole lot of cognitive dissonance for you right now, right?

How can this possibly be true, when it’s everything that everyone has told you your whole life? That weight loss is about calories, and about eating less and exercising more, and that your weight problem is a character flaw caused by your own lack of discipline and willpower.

And now I’m telling you it’s not.

That it’s actually your hormones, and the fact that they are all out of whack, and that your hormones being in crisis mode is what is causing your body to cling to every molecule of fat and making it SO hard for you to actually lose the weight.

And if you read this post, where I laid out the case for how Big Food and Big Pharma have ACTIVELY been conspiring for at least the last 50 years to keep us sick and fat, then you already know where I stand on this.

It’s not your fault that your hormones are a mess. You’ve been lied to, every step of the way, about what’s healthy and what’s not, and what will actually help you lose weight and what won’t.

So if you haven’t read that post yet, be sure to do that, because it’s pretty shocking.

But for now, let’s talk about the real cause of your weight struggles—the hormones—and what you can actually do about it.

Because what a lot of us don’t realize is that all the hormones in our body work together in a delicate balance. When one is out of whack, they’re all out of whack. But the converse is also true, when you start to improve ONE, you’ll begin to improve them all.

One of the main culprits, especially when it comes to weight gain, is insulin, which is produced by your pancreas in response to glucose (sugar) in your blood. When you eat too much sugar and too many refined carbohydrates, your body produces too much insulin.

And when this happens on a chronic basis, it leads to something called insulin resistance, where your body’s cells become desensitized to the effects of insulin and don’t respond properly. This means that instead of being used for energy, glucose gets stored as fat.

And just so you know, right now, due to the overwhelming amount of sugar and processed food that makes up the Standard American Diet, it’s estimated that 85-90{72d5e173e8c4d1d11371a54c0a67292f0b609b39497fc3de2ad0439cff8da78f} of Americans have some form of insulin resistance.

So this isn’t a small problem. This isn’t something you can listen to and think, “oh but this probably doesn’t apply to me.” I promise you, if you’re struggling with your weight, you have insulin resistance. It’s almost certain.

But to make matters worse, insulin is a powerful appetite stimulant. When your blood sugar levels drop after a meal high in sugar and refined carbs, it triggers your body to crave more of those same foods. And so the cycle continues.

So insulin is a big one, but not the only one.

Another key hormone involved in weight loss is cortisol, also known as the “stress hormone.” When you’re under chronic stress, your body pumps out cortisol, which can cause you to store more fat, particularly in the belly area. It also increases appetite and cravings for high-fat, high-sugar foods.

And let’s not forget about leptin and ghrelin – two hormones that control hunger and satiety. When you don’t get enough sleep or are constantly stressed, these hormones become imbalanced, which can lead to overeating and weight gain.

And on top of that, especially for women in their 40’s and 50’s, there’s all the other hormonal changes that start happening during this midlife phase of life. And those hormones play a role as well.

So when you really think about it, it’s no wonder you’re struggling and why you can’t lose weight, when you’re fighting against all these different hormonal factors that are in turn signaling your body to cling to fat.

The Solution

So what’s the solution? Well, it’s actually really, really simple.

It’s not about restricting your calories or punishing yourself with intense workouts. Because not only does that not work, it actually makes the problem way worse. It increases your cortisol and puts your insulin resistance into overdrive. It stresses your body and creates a state of crisis, where your body’s natural response is to cling to fat.

So the solution is to do the opposite.

It’s to nourish your body and your hormones with the RIGHT foods—to give it lots of nutrient dense proteins and also lots of hormone-supporting healthy fats, while at the same time eliminating the foods that are causing the crisis—getting rid of sugar and all the highly processed garbage.

And it’s nourishing your body in this way with PLENTY of food. Without restriction. You literally can eat and should eat as much as you want and as much as your body needs, as long as you are eating the right things.

It almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

I promise you, it’s not. I’ve not only experienced it, I’ve now helped thousands of women in our program experience the same results and the FREEDOM that comes from finally getting a handle on this piece of your life.

But here’s the thing – it’s not going to happen overnight. Just like it took years for your hormones to become imbalanced, it will take time to reset them.

So BE PATIENT with yourself and don’t give up if you don’t see immediate results. Don’t set yourself up for failure by expecting dramatic drops on the scale every single week. Just because the number is going down as quickly as you’d like it to, doesn’t mean nothing is happening. You’re actually healing your body from the inside out.

Slow and steady wins the race here, because it lets you win it for LIFE.

So keep nourishing your body with the right foods, and eventually, your hormones will thank you for it.

And the best part? You never have to make yourself miserable ever again. You can eat like a QUEEN with the most delicious, satiating and satisfying food.

You can actually enjoy your life again. 

Like I said, it’s freedom.

And by the way, if you want to find out more about our program and how Thinlicious can help you in this journey, I’ve actually put together a free video training that is super helpful. It’s called Healthy, Happy & Free and to get it, just fill in the form HERE.

And here’s to never “checking off all the boxes” ever again.