This Is Why Women Can’t Lose Weight! The 7 Myths Of Female Fat Loss

Warning: This post is probably going to be completely different to what you expect. This is not about ‘eat this; don’t eat that’ or ‘do this; don’t do that’. This is about the deeper underlying reasons why women often don’t lose weight despite doing everything right. And it’s very very real.

Last Wednesday evening I gave a Woman Incredible seminar on female fat loss. There was a great turn out of readers and clients, and everyone seemed to be super-attentive and interactive throughout the evening. Of course it was a little strange that most people rocked up in their PJs, as did I! Yes, it was the first ever Woman Incredible webinar and I think it was just fantastic!

I don’t just mean the content (keep reading for that), but also the whole concept of sitting there engaging with an active audience without any of us having to leave our homes. Very cool! I loved sharing my knowledge and thoughts in this way, and so if you missed out then fear not – you can expect plenty more of this sort of thing over the coming months. Here is what one webinar attendee had to say afterwards:

A very feel-good email for me 🙂 But enough about me; let’s talk about you, and more specifically about some of the major myths about women and fat loss. Otherwise known as the stuff that nobody talks about which is actually holding you back! Unfortunately I can’t upload the actual webinar because I found out yesterday that the program I used doesn’t store files and I hadn’t exported it yet. Live and learn, huh?

So – if you’ve had about enough of the info overload and hearing the same stuff over and over again then this is definitely for you. And if you make it all the way to the end of this post I do have a very cool and kinda limited offer for a few lucky women.

I should mention that this post is a little longer than usual because I really wanted to pack in all the content from the webinar. Because of that, as well as the short week, I’ll just be posting once this week so feel free to bookmark this one and come back to it! If you think you might forget to finish reading it then share it on your Facebook profile as a reminder for later and a nice bonus support for my blog 🙂

the 7 myths of female fat loss

Myth #1: You are not doing enough. Verdict: FALSE!

It’s safe to say that you put pretty much constant pressure on yourself to achieve. Not just when it comes to fat loss, but for your health and fitness in general and probably for pretty much every aspect of your life. At least all the stuff you care about (or think you should care about!). Am I right? Whilst striving to better yourself is admirable and certainly preferable to sitting around with no goals or aspirations, the constant pressure from within to always be more/better/different? I’m not such a fan. The truth is that if you are the kind of women who is reading this blog then you are doing enough. Maybe there’s room for improvement, but embrace the ups and downs as part of your journey rather than beating up on yourself for what you could be doing. It’s time to recognise what you are doing and let go of all the fat-storing stress hormones associated with that pressure-cooked mindset of yours!

Myth #2: Women should focus on circuit training. Verdict: it ain’t all about the sweating baby!

This is really the only nuts and bolts point that I covered on the fat loss webinar. I felt it was important to touch on because I’ve noticed that whilst we’ve come a long way in terms of realising it’s not all about aerobics and cardio, so many women still seem to differentiate between ‘boy-style’ weight lifting and what girls should be doing. Circuits are certainly great fun, awesome for variety, and play a part in your fat loss program, but if you are only ever doing circuit style training and never experimenting with heavier weights, different rep and set ranges, and slower more controlled tempos, then you are missing out. One of my favourite ways to train is German Body Comp, which is a method of alternating lower and upper body with specific sets, reps, rest periods and tempos. It’s kind of like old school weight lifting combined with circuits but in a more metabolically enhancing way. The key goal of your gym sessions should be not just to sweat and feel empowered and out of breath, but also to optimise post-workout metabolism and growth hormone production. Growth hormone is paramount to your ability to build lean and toned muscle and to burn more fat, and you produce it when you lift heavy weights and when you sleep. One way you can learn more about this style of training and experience it for yourself is to work with a Poliquin practitioner such as myself or to attend the Woman Incredible Transformation Workshop – one of your take home bonuses from that day is 4 full programs based around this style of training. It’s the ultimate for fat loss and body sculpting! Keep reading for more on that!

Myth #3: Food is a reward. Question: but do you enjoy it?

I’m all for the concept of treat meals, but the whole mindset of food being a reward or a stress release is an iffy one. It’s interesting to think about how we are conditioned towards this from a young age – I even find myself giving my daughter her favourite treat (blueberries) if she has hurt herself and is crying! As grown women we need to learn to develop a healthy relationship with food, one in which we can eat the junk/treat food now and then without beating up on ourselves afterwards and without having to eat the whole packet afterwards! In my experience this comes about when you learn to never demonise any one food or idealise it as a treat food, but rather to focus on how you feel after you eat certain foods. Over time you will naturally gravitate towards fresher, leaner foods and there will also be occasions when you choose to eat something more carby/sugary or even refined. Ideally you’ll learn to do this more for the variety rather than an emotional need. You won’t feel bad about it because you’ll automatically be veering back towards your healthier foods the next day!

Myth #4: If you slow down, you risk falling behind it. Point to ponder: the greatest risks also often have the greatest payback.

This is major for women. How many times have you pushed yourself to get up early or hit the gym after work even when you’re exhausted? How many times have you tried to restrain yourself on holiday or workout every day while away because you have some kind of deep fear that if you just relax for a week you might undo all your hard work and instantly gain 10 kilos? The truth is that pushing yourself to always do more more more is a sure-fire recipe for both physical and emotional breakdown. Professional athletes are forced to take every 13th week off – not a bad idea for all of us I think! Focus on quality rather than quantity and you will reap the rewards.

Myth #5: There are certain rules you can’t avoid. Verdict: rules are made to be broken!

I’m all for rules. Yes, we should eat protein and green veg and good fats regularly, no we should not eat trans fats and uber-refined carbs, yes you do need a certain amount of sleep and so on. But you know what? All rules and no variety not only makes you a little dull, but it can drive you both to insanity and to breaking point. Even if you don’t mind being a robot, the reality is that doing the same thing over and over again will ramp down your metabolism in a major way. It’s vital that you mix things up now and then. Go vegetarian for a day. Stay up all night regardless of the consequences if you feel like it. Let your hair down while at dinner with the girls and order like a ‘normal’ person. And let go of the guilt! Embrace the fact that you invest in yourself day after day after day and that in order to turbo-charge that investment (your metabolism) now and then you need to shock the system. Yes you could even eat the occasional trans fat and you will not die or get fat! The key is to make rule breaking the exception and not the norm of course 🙂

Myth #6: It’s harder for women to lose fat. Verdict: BAH!

Okay. We know all the rules and theories of how women store fat more readily than men in case they fall pregnant, and how as a woman you have more fat cells and less muscle building ability in the first place. I’m not going to refute that. But you know what? Getting caught up in that sort of stuff is not much different to using it as an excuse. That aside, the real issue here is that when you focus on the negativity, when you focus on how tough it is, you bring that stuff into your reality. It’s like you’ve made up your mind that it’s always going to be hard for you, and you have no reason to ever think otherwise. What the mind perceives the body will achieve … and it works both ways. Which leads me to my next point –

Myth #7: Getting lean and easily staying lean is not really possible for YOU.

This 7th myth is the most important of all. When I asked on the webinar how many people believed this, over half the hands went up. And I can’t tell you how many women I’ve coached who do literally every little thing right and yet still struggle to get results. I understand how tough it can be to think positively when you feel as though your efforts are getting you nowhere, but this just comes back to our first point about taking the pressure off now and then and giving yourself recognition for both all the good things you’re doing as well as for all the amazing things you have already achieved. I don’t just mean food recognition either! I’ve always found it interesting how some people seem to effortlessly stay in shape. Yes, they may have great genetics and yes they may train tough and eat well but so do loads of people. The main point of difference? The claim being healthy and in great shape as their birthright. Sometimes they’re even downright arrogant about it! The confidently and absolutely believe that they are and always will be in amazing physical shape. So ask yourself this – what do YOU confidently and absolutely believe about yourself? And how is it affecting your success?

what frustrates you?

One of the questions I posed on the webinar was ‘what frustrates you when it comes to getting lean?’ The cool thing about a webinar is I can ask you questions live and you type your answers in so we can be very interactive. I actually typed some of those answers in on my slideshow as we went, so everyone got to see them. Some of the points that came up:

• Information overload; conflicting advice
• Not knowing who to listen to
• Feeling like nothing is working anyway or no matter what you do
• It’s all too much; feeling overwhelmed
• Spending money on things and not knowing if it’s worth it

So how about YOU; what frustrates you? What keeps you up at night, or eats away at you no matter how much you try not to think about it? I don’t know about you, but I am so over being told a different thing every day or in every magazine I pick up. And I’m the ‘expert!’ I know from personal experience in my past how frustrating it is to put so much effort in – doing all the right things – and yet still find that your body doesn’t change. Often despite hours of effort and hundreds of dollars, right?

It probably doesn’t bear thinking about how much time and money you’ve wasted on trying to apply the rules of conventional nutrition and weight loss, does it?

I mean sure, investing into your knowledge is not waste, but the time spent trying to wade through conflicting and confusing advice? Definitely a killer. Especially when you’re smart enough to know that the stuff in magazines and on TV isn’t true and that often the ‘transformation pictures’ are completely doctored, but being smart doesn’t mean you have the time to go out there and research every little element of nutrition, exercise and how to manipulate your hormones so that you actually get your body to do what you choose, does it?

And really, who does have the time?

It’s not as though it’s your career, and realistically it would be a full-time job to try and get through all the information that is out there on these topics. But you’ve probably tried. You’ve probably carefully followed the advice on detoxing or fast fat loss or curbing your cravings, or whatever the latest trend is, and maybe it’s worked for you a little bit. But in the end you’re still looking for the answer; for something that actually makes a lasting difference and is easy to stick to.

Believe me, I have been there. I know it might not look like it on the surface, but I didn’t always look this way and it is NOT always so easy for me either!

But that being said, I have figured out a lot of it. Not all of it, and I probably never will. But certainly I feel that I’m miles ahead of where I was 5 or 6 years ago when I was stuck in conventional nutritional and fat loss wisdom! Slowly but surely I’ve been able to separate the rubbish from the stuff that actually works, and slowly but surely I’ve been able to recognise my true calling, which is not to try and help everyone but rather to focus purely on the sort of people I’m passionate about working with. Which is women. Driven women. Women with a similar mindset, similar challenges and triumphs to myself. Which is why I created this blog and community – I did it for you, but let’s be honest I did it for myself because you’re the kind of person I want to engage with and share my own wins with. And hope that maybe I can save you some of the time and heartache that I’ve gone through over the years.

If that sounds appealing to you, then keep reading –

the woman incredible transformation day could be for YOU!

I want to tell you about a day that I’ve created for you to take back control of your body and dare I say even your life.

Perhaps I’m a little bit odd, but I think that as a health coach I should know more about getting in shape than you do 🙂 Right? I guess I like to think that having spent 12 years now studying and applying this stuff that I should be your trusted consultant and adviser – and you should be able to count on me as well as look to me for guidance or advice.

Of course there’s only so much I can give you through a blog, a webinar, and even my book. One of the things you should know about me is that my philosophy is not to wait for you to contact me after all else has failed but rather to give you every tiny little detail that you need to know about transforming your body and then show you how to do it. Unfortunately I run out of time to write about all that stuff, and as much as I get great feedback on my blog posts I also know that you’re busy and there is only so much you can read!

That, along with a recent increase in requests to run a full-day workshop, has led me to create the Woman Incredible Transformation Day. It’s basically where everything I have ever blogged about and taught my clients becomes live – I actually show you how make all this stuff work for you by having you live a day with me. I’m talking about food, about training, about lifestyle and how to once and for all take control of your body from the inside out. It was initially one day on May 14, but that sold out so quick I decided to release just one more – 8am to 4pm on May 21st, at my South Melbourne location.

So. I’m going to be very quick and upfront about some details here, but first –

Just imagine how you would feel after a full day of inspiration, of learning, of challenge, and of empowerment to realise that you actually can be ‘that girl’. Imagine if you no longer had to spend hours of time and oodles of emotional energy stressing about what to eat or how to train. Never mind about how to put it all into practice in your busy life! Imagine having complete and utter certainty about what to do, how to do what, and where to turn for added support, inspiration or with your questions. I’m talking about finally having all the tools you need for your personal transformation, not just on the day but also in the over $1600.00 worth of take-home bonuses! For not even a fraction of that cost 🙂

I don’t want to go on and on about this because I have posted all the details over here. I have just 9 spaces left for this life-changing day in May, and I can guarantee that it is going to be life-changing. This is the kind of day that – if you want it to – will mark a major turning point in your life. And there is a rock-solid money-back guarantee just to back that up!

my thankyou and a special offer if you’re a fast action-taker!

As a thankyou to all the incredible women who registered for last week’s webinar and then showed up, I offered $100 off either the basic or the high-performance package for the Woman Incredible Transformation Workshop. I am now extending that offer to 5 more incredible women. If you want that to be you then simply contact me to find out more!

Thanks for reading this far!

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