3 Reasons Why Your Body Isn't Changing (Even Though You Go To The Gym Consistently)

One day I was lying down in bed and I was out of breath.

What the fuck.

I'd be out of breath walking up a flight of stairs.

I couldn’t even push myself on a bicycle.

Bro.

Something had to change.

So I got my ass a gym membership for the first time in my life and started hitting the gym 5 days a week.

Finally, I was determined to make a change.

Couple months passed.

I stepped on the scale in the locker room. Weight hadn’t changed.

Fuuuck.

My heart sank.

You probably feel the same. That’s why you’re reading this, yeah? You’ve been consistently going to the gym but you’re not seeing any results. Shit sucks. I know.

Here’s the 3 reasons why you’re not seeing results (even though you’re going to the gym consistently):

Let’s countdown from 3 shall we?

3. Not following a structured program.

A lot of people tend to go to the gym— get on whatever machines and do whatever exercises/movements they feel like that day.

No structure.

No plan.

No direction.

What’s the goal that you’re trying to achieve? Get a plan. You can google one online or create your own. Make sure it’s one you’re going to follow so start small if you have to.

In my case I was only doing cardio 5x a week for about 45 minutes. I didn’t lift any weights. (Which I now regret.)

Okay, I mean I did get on the machines sometimes. I heard that having muscle helps burn fat faster, but I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I didn't understand how muscles grow. I’d get on whatever machine I felt like that day, if I did get on a machine, but I mostly stuck to cardio.

2. Progressive Overload

You should be progressively overloading. What does this mean?

You should be making your movements more strenuous over time. Overloading the muscles.

Let me explain.

You need to be doing the same movements for at least 4-6 weeks.

Let’s say you’re doing 3 sets of 10 reps for dumbbell bench press. Next week you may want to do 3 sets of 12 or 4 sets of 8.

You could even stick to 3 sets of 10 but up the weight.

Makes sense?

You’re gradually increasing the difficulty over time. This is done by increasings sets, reps, or weight.

Take notes! Jot down how many sets and reps you are doing and at how much weight so you know where you’re at each week. (I started using the app Hevy to keep track of movements / sets + reps )

Most people are not keeping track of what they are doing week by week or they think they will remember. You won’t.

Whenever I did get on the machines I would not keep track of any sets or reps. Like I said I didn’t understand any of that stuff. I was lifting the same weight damn never every week without progressively overloading—thus of course I wasn’t building muscle.

1. Nutrition.

80% of it. You can go to the gym consistently and even follow a plan but never see results because your calories + macros are off.

You’ve probably heard, “You can’t outwork a bad diet.”

Or, “Abs are made in the kitchen.”

Yeah. All that.

To calculate caloric intake google, “tdee calculator” (total daily energy expenditure).

Input height, weight, etc.

It will tell you your maintenance calories (calories that maintain your current weight).

Now if you want to lose weight, lessen the calories.

Want to gain weight? Add to maintenance calories.

It should tell you this too. It’ll be under cutting(lose body fat) or bulking(gain muscle mass) with all the macro info.

There’s a variety of these calculators and they vary slightly. Mine shows maintenance calories slightly higher than what it really is. So play around with it for a few weeks and see what works for you.

This was the number 1 reason I wasn’t losing weight.

I hadn’t changed my diet. Sure I was going to the gym 5x a week but I didn’t change the way I ate.

After noticing my weight wasn’t changing that’s when I started to look into calories. When I originally lost a lot of weight I did CICO (calories in, calories out). Simple. Eat less calories than what you burn in a given day.

Although, now I would recommend weight lifting and paying more attention to macros— specifically protein. Especially if you want to have a muscular look or even if you want to be a little toned. I lost almost 90lbs over the course of 3-4 years but I just got skinny. (lol)

The past few months I’ve been putting on muscle mass while trying to stay as lean as possible. Now I’ll focus on cutting body fat again.

If you're a beginner get yourself a food scale. Often people try to eye the serving size but most of the time you are eating more calories than you may think.

To be honest, I don’t weigh out all my food anymore. I do a mix of weighing food, checking macros, and intuitive eating. After a while when you’re eating the same foods on a daily basis it becomes intuitive. (If your goal is to be super lean and shredded you definitely need to stick with weighing out food. This will cut out any possibility that you are overeating calories.)

I use the app MyFitnessPal to keep track of meals/calories.

Those are the 3 reasons why you don’t see changes in your physique (even though you're going to the gym consistently.)

Now let’s jump into the bonus tips because I want to see you succeed with your fitness/physique goals. 🤗

Bonus #1 to seeing results:

Weigh yourself. Everyday. (Or at least 4-5x a week)

Why?

Because your weight fluctuates everyday for a variety of different reason. Just because your weight went up doesn’t mean you are gaining fat. Your body could be retaining more water or you might be gaining muscle to name a few reasons.

So weigh yourself at least 4x a week then take the average of that weight.

Example Week 1: 170.8, 172.6, 172.4, 170 = 171.5

Example Week 2: 171.2, 170.9, 169.5, 170.5 = 170.5

As you can see even though the weight fluctuates the weekly average has gone down. Focus on the weekly average, not the day to day weight.

Sidenote: A good rule of thumb for weighing yourself is right after you wake up before you eat anything.

Bonus #2 to seeing results:

Take progress pics (and measurements).

Seriously, take them once a week on the same day (every Monday for example). In the same area with the same lighting if possible.

The reason why is because sometimes your weight will not change very much, if at all. If this happens you could be experiencing body recomposition. This is when you are gaining muscle mass and losing body fat at the same time.

Your body weight might not be changing but check the progress pictures. You might see slight changes week by week or month by month. Taking measurements of waist and other areas you’re interested in (like biceps, etc.) will also help you see that changes are actually taking place.

Got everything?

Cool.

I hope this helps you get to your physique goals this year!

You can let me know in the DMs on Instagram @parkourwrites_

Let’s crush it this year! ✌️

Podcast

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🎥 Video: "Importance of Progressive Overload"

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