⚖️ A few of you replied to the last two emails with a week I hadn't thought of, and it turned out not to be a week at all:

"The one where I'm doing everything right and nothing's happening."

That's not a week, it's the thing that makes people quit. So it gets its own email, and I'm going to do both halves of it — the half where nothing's wrong, and the half where something is. Most coaches only do the first one, because it's the nice one.

First: the scales are the worst measuring device you own

Not broken. Just measuring the wrong thing. They weigh all of you food in transit, water, glycogen, a full bladder, what you had on Friday and somewhere in that total is a bit of fat that changed by about 100g since yesterday. You cannot see 100g of fat loss through two kilos of noise.

Things that put the number up this morning while you were losing fat:

• 🧂 Salt. A takeaway, a bag of crisps, a meal out. Water follows sodium around. Two days.
• 🍝 Carbs. Every gram of stored carbohydrate holds about three grams of water with it. Eat more than normal, carry more water. Eat less, drop it which is the whole of week one of every diet you've ever started.
• 💪 New exercise. Started walking more, started the gym, did something you haven't done in years; sore muscles hold water. The number goes up because you did the right thing.
• 🚽 Being bunged up. Unglamorous, very common when you suddenly increase your veg, and it's a couple of pounds of nothing.
• 😴 One bad night's sleep, a long flight, a hot day, alcohol, a stressful week. All of it moves water.
• 🩸 Hormonal fluctuation across the month, if that applies to you; for some people that's 2kg of swing and back again, every month, on a perfect diet.

None of those are fat and all of them mask fat loss on the scale

So here's the rule, and it's the only one in this email

One weigh-in is not data. A week of weigh-ins is data. Four weeks of weeks is an answer.

Weigh yourself daily if you can stand it — same time, out of bed, after the loo, before anything else, and then ignore every single number and only look at the weekly average. Then compare that average to the one four weeks ago.

Daily readings go up, down, sideways and up again. Four-week averages barely ever lie. If that line is going down, you are losing fat, and this morning's number is none of your business.

The reason I'm making a fuss about this is not that it's clever. It's that "nothing's happening" is nearly always "nothing's happening since Thursday" and people quit a working plan on a Monday because of a number that was a curry on Saturday.

Second: the half nobody writes about

Sometimes the average really is flat for four weeks. Not two. Four, properly measured. In that case I'm not going to tell you it's water, because it isn't.

But I'm also not going to tell you it's your metabolism, your hormones, your thyroid or "starvation mode", because it almost never is, and the entire internet is waiting to sell you a supplement for all four. 🙄

When the average is genuinely flat, it's one of these, in this order of likelihood:

1. "Doing everything right" is Monday to Thursday. Four good days and three normal ones is a normal week. You remember the four. Nobody's ever told me about their weekend first.

2. Invisible calories. The oil in the pan, the splash in the coffee, the handful while you cook, the kids' leftovers, two drinks on Friday. None of it feels like eating and all of it counts.

3. Portions crept. Same meals, same plates, more of it. Six weeks in, nobody is still being careful in the way they were in week one. That's not a character flaw, it's just what happens, and it's invisible from the inside.

4. You're eating less and moving less. The diet's holding and your steps quietly halved since August. This one is the sneakiest and it's the one I did to myself.

The move: before you change your plan, spend ONE honest week writing down everything. Not forever. One week, no judgement, including the bits you'd normally not bother logging, especially the bits you'd normally not bother logging. Nine times out of ten the answer is in that week and you won't need me to point at it.

And measure something that isn't your weight

Because fat loss shows up in places the scales can't see:

• Waist, once a fortnight, same spot, first thing. Often moves when the weight doesn't.
• One pair of trousers you keep as the honest ones.
• Your steps and your strength — more weight on the bar, or the same walk feeling easier.
• A photo every four weeks, same light, same spot. You will not see a change in the mirror, because you look at it every day. You will see it in two photos a month apart.

⚠️ So,

If your four-week average is going down, nothing's wrong and you need to stop reading the scales daily like a share price. If it's flat, nothing's broken either but something's going in that you haven't counted, and one honest week will find it.

What it isn't is a sign that you're one of the people this doesn't work on. I've never met one of those, and I've been doing this for years. 📉

Remember; the scales always lag.

It might take two good weeks for weight loss to start showing up

It might take two bad weeks for weight gain to start showing up

So you just need to pick a step target and calorie target and give them a chance for AT LEAST two weeks before you make a call

Trapped in a never-ending battle with the scale? WhatsApp me and we'll get you pointed in the right direction

Joe

WhatsApp: +447590988201

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/joe_johnson_9_to_5/​

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Website: 9-to-5-nutrition.com​

Email: joe.johnson@9-to-5-nutrition.com
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