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The 3 Fat Loss Mistakes I See Every Week

After 27 years of coaching, the same three culprits show up almost every time someone tells me they're doing everything right and nothing is moving.

When a client tells me they're doing everything right and the scale won't move, I don't start by changing their plan. I look for three things. After 27 years of coaching, one of them is almost always the reason. And all three are fixable this week.

1. You're averaging too many calories

Notice I said averaging, not eating.

Fat loss is calories in versus calories out over time. Your current shape is the average of how you've eaten and moved, not any single day. Say your daily calorie limit is 2,000. That's 60,000 for the month. Come in under that and you'll be leaner on day 30 than you were on day 1.

Here's where it goes wrong. Monday through Friday you're good. You come in 200 under each day, which is a 1,000 calorie deficit for the week. Then Friday dinner, Saturday drinks and Sunday brunch each land 500 over. The weekend erased the week, and you're left wondering why five days of effort did nothing.

That's why "cheat days" and "the diet starts Monday" never work. It all counts.

The good news: once you understand the average, you can plan for the big nights instead of fearing them. If the weekends are bigger for you, build slightly bigger deficits during the week. I break it down in The Law of Averages.

2. You're not drinking enough water

If all you did for the next 30 days was drink more water, you'd be in better shape than you are today.

Your body's process for breaking down fat doesn't run well when you're dehydrated. Enough water also helps your sleep, your energy and your skin, and it cuts down on the hunger that's really thirst.

Make it easy. Set a reminder on your phone every two hours, and when it goes off, drink 10 ounces or more. Keep a big bottle with you everywhere; I've had my 40 ounce bottle for years and I know two of them a day is my bare minimum. Add lemon, mint or cucumber if plain water bores you. The more you drink, the more your body asks for it.

One tip: front-load it. Ease off in the few hours before bed so you're not up at 3am.

3. You're guessing instead of knowing

I put this one last so it sticks.

Right now, could you tell me roughly how many calories you ate yesterday? And how many grams of protein? If you can't give me a close answer to both, you're guessing. Almost every client I've worked with is under on protein at the start, and most are over on calories without knowing it.

Eating "clean" doesn't fix it. Salmon, avocado, nuts, olive oil, granola: all healthy, all calorie dense.

So download any free calorie tracking app and log everything for two weeks, including the bites and the drinks. Think of it as a crash course. We're creatures of habit and eat the same handful of foods over and over, so once you know them, you know them. You won't have to track forever.

And one warning: don't eat back the calories your watch says you burned. Those numbers run high, often by a lot. Count the food. Let the movement be a bonus.

What to track against

Tracking only helps if you know the target. You need two numbers:

• Daily calorie limit: your goal weight x 12.
• Daily protein minimum: your goal weight x 0.7, in grams.

If your goal is 170 pounds, that's 2,040 calories and 119 grams of protein a day, as an average over the week. Plug yours in here and you'll also get sample days built on them.

Your takeaway

This week: know your two numbers, track honestly for seven days (weekend included) and add one glass of water a day. That fixes all three mistakes, and it usually gets the scale moving again.