4 Reasons Why You Can't Lose Belly Fat (Even Though You're Eating "Healthy")
You are doing everything "right." You are skipping breakfast for a smoothie, ordering the salad at lunch, snacking on almonds instead of chips, and crushing High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) classes three times a week.

Yet, the scale barely moves. And more frustratingly, the belly fat isn’t going anywhere.
If anything, you might feel softer and more tired than when you started.
Most people assume the solution is to just try harder by eating even less and training even more. But if you are already dealing with high stress (most people living in metropolitan cities are let’s be real), that is likely the exact opposite of what you need to do.
Here is the truth about why your "healthy habits" might be keeping you stuck.
1. You Are Chasing "Weight Loss" Instead of "Fat Loss"
The biggest misconception I see is people obsessing over the number on the scale.
When you go on an extreme crash diet and do tons of cardio without strength training, you will lose weight. But a lot of that weight is going to be lean muscle mass, not fat.
This is a disaster for your physique. Muscle is what gives you a "toned" look. Being "toned" is simply having muscle with low body fat covering it. If you strip away the muscle, you don't look athletic; you just look "soft and pudgy" or "skinny fat".
More importantly, muscle is "metabolically expensive tissue". It burns calories just by existing. If your body senses starvation and you aren't lifting heavy weights to signal that you need that muscle, your body will shed it to save energy. The result? A slower metabolism and a harder time keeping the weight off long-term.
2. The "Healthy Food" Trap
Just because a food is "healthy" doesn't mean it’s free of calories.
A common mistake I see is people snacking on nuts or "healthy fats" thinking they are being good. While nuts are nutritious, they are incredibly calorie-dense. A handful can easily be hundreds of calories. If you are eating more calories than you burn, even if they come from almonds and avocados, you will not lose fat.
On the flip side, if you are just eating salads with very little protein, you are running into a nutrient deficiency problem. Without adequate protein, you cannot build or maintain the muscle tissue that drives your metabolism.
Download my free guide, Why Clean Eating Isn't Working (And What To Do Instead): The Energy First Framework
3. Your Workouts Are Spiking Your Cortisol (The Stress Hormone)
If you are a busy professional, you are likely already under significant mental stress. If you combine that with low sleep, low calories, and punishing HIIT workouts, you are creating a "chronic stress state".
When you are in this state, your cortisol levels spike. High cortisol and chronic stress can wreck your sleep and throw off your hormonal profile, often leading the body to hold onto fat, especially around the midsection, as a survival mechanism.
This is why I often tell clients to stop the excessive HIIT and start walking. Walking burns calories without the stress impact on the body, allowing you to recover while still moving the needle.
4. You Cannot "Eat Intuitively" (Yet)
I love intuitive eating as an end goal, but you cannot be intuitive if you are uneducated.
Most people’s intuition is inaccurate because they have no idea what is actually in their food. If you don't understand that fat has more than double the calories of protein, or how much energy is actually in that "healthy smoothie," you are just guessing.
We track food not to be obsessive, but to build education. Once you know what a portion looks like and how it fuels your body,
then you can graduate to intuitive eating.
The Counter-Intuitive "Metabolic Repair" Strategy. Here's Why You May Need To Eat More (Not Less) To Finally Drop The Fat
So, how do we fix it?
For many of my clients, we don't start by cutting calories. We start by eating more.
We need to repair your metabolism by slowly increasing your food intake (sometimes up to 2,500 calories) and focusing on strength training to build lean tissue. Once your engine is running hot again, we can diet you down on a sustainable amount of food, like 2,000 calories, rather than starving you on 1,200.
This requires a strategy, not just "willpower."
If you are sick of guessing and want to know exactly what your specific roadblocks are, whether it's your sleep, your gut health, or your training programming, I can help you find them.
I’m currently offering a
Clarity Call to identify the "Big Rocks" holding you back and give you a clear roadmap to fix them.
FAQ
No. I don’t believe in high-pressure sales. This call is more of a Lifestyle Assessment. We look at your training history, nutrition, sleep, and stress levels to identify exactly why you are stuck. I will give you a clear roadmap of what you need to do to fix it. If you want my help implementing it, we can discuss that. If not, you walk away with a plan you can use immediately.
Absolutely not. Most of my clients are busy professionals who don’t have time for 6-day splits. We focus on the "Big Rocks"—the 3 or 4 things that actually move the needle. Usually, that looks like strength training 3 to 4 times a week and increasing your daily steps, rather than endless hours of cardio.
This is the most common fear I hear, especially from women, but it is a myth. "Toned" is simply muscle without body fat covering it. It is extremely difficult to build "bulky" muscle; it doesn't happen by accident. Lifting weights will give you the shape and athletic look you are actually after.
Yes. Most people who think they have a slow metabolism actually have a down-regulated metabolism from years of under-eating and chronic dieting. We often start by increasing your food intake to repair your metabolic baseline before we ever try to diet, which makes the fat loss phase much easier and more sustainable.
No. We build a lifestyle, not a prison. While we prioritize whole foods, the goal is to give you the tools to be flexible. I want you to eventually be able to eat intuitively, but you need the education on how to manage those social events without derailing your progress first.
I train clients out of the Feelgood Hood in Hawthorn. The Clarity Call is done over the phone, so we can chat regardless of where you are right now.
Recent Posts
