The 7 Reasons You Stopped Losing Weight (And How to Fix Them)
You step on the scale, expecting a drop. Nope—same as last week. Maybe even up a pound. Your jeans fit the same, and you swear you've been on top of your workouts and eating right.
At this point, it feels like your body is just refusing to cooperate. Are you broken? Is your metabolism damaged? Do you need to stop eating carbs or start doing burpees every morning before breakfast?
Take a deep breath. You’re not broken. You just need to know what’s actually going on. Let’s break down the real reasons your progress has stalled—and more importantly, how to fix it.
By the way… I’m Jonathan. My wife Blakley and I own Digital Barbell. For over a decade, we’ve been helping hard-working people get strong, fit, and look like they work out without getting bored, hurt, or wondering what to do. Our clients are all over the world, and we coach them all online. Check out our Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Since our coaching business is online, we live, work, and travel full-time in our Airstream.
Back to the topic at hand…
The 7 Reasons You Stopped Losing Weight
1. You Might Be Building Muscle and Losing Fat at the Same Time (AKA Body Recomposition)
If you’ve been strength training and eating enough protein, but the scale hasn’t budged, you might actually be in the best-case scenario: body recomposition—where you're losing fat and building muscle simultaneously.
Signs This Is You:
Progress photos: Same lighting, same pose, once a month.
Measurements: Waist, hips, thighs.
Clothing fit: Do shirts and pants fit better?
Strength gains: Lifting heavier? You’re building muscle.
✅ Fix it: Stop relying solely on the scale. Take monthly progress photos, and measure your waistline 1” above your navel every 4-8 weeks.
Here’s an example showing how I weighed the same thing at two different times of my life with a drastically different body composition:
2. You’re Eating More Than You Think (A Hard Pill To Swallow)
Even trained nutrition professionals underestimate their intake. In one study, participants underreported their calories by up to 50% (Lichtman et al., 1992). Your "tablespoon" of peanut butter? Probably two. That handful of almonds? More like two servings. The olive oil on your roasted veggies? Those calories count too.
If you’re tracking your calories and you’re estimating and/or using measurements by volume (cups and tablespoons) instead of weight (grams/ounces), you’re probably eating more calories than you realize.
✅ Fix it: Be honest about how many random tastes, bites and nibbles you’re taking, and start weighing your food on a food scale like THIS.
3. Those “Calorie-Torching Workouts” Don’t Burn as Much as You Think
Your fitness tracker is lying to you. Studies show wearables overestimate calorie burn by up to 93% (Shcherbina et al., 2017). And even if your workout burns 400 calories, what about the other 23 hours of your day?
✅ Fix it:
Aim for 8,000–10,000 steps daily.
Train for strength, not for calorie burn
Take a 10-minute walk after meals to improve digestion and nutrient partitioning.
Stand up more, take the stairs, park farther away.
Working out to burn calories is one of the “Top 10 Reasons You’re Working Out But Don’t Look Like It”.
Want to know all 10 reasons and how to fix them? We have you covered. Just hit the button below.
4. You’re a Weekend Warrior (in the Wrong Way)
Monday through Friday, you're disciplined. Then Friday night rolls around:
Burger and fries because you’re sick of chicken.
A few drinks to unwind.
Pizza on Saturday because you "were good all week."
Sound familiar? Research shows people eat 20-50% more calories on weekends (Zilberter et al., 2014), erasing their calorie deficit.
✅ Fix it:
Keep some structure on weekends. Eat your normal breakfast and snacks for example.
If you have a bigger meal out, adjust your other meals.
Don’t turn one indulgence into a weekend-long binge. Avoid the all-or-nothing mentality.
Don’t restrict so hard during the week that you go overboard on the weekend.
5. Your Sleep & Stress Are Sabotaging You
Poor sleep increases ghrelin (hunger hormone) and lowers leptin (satiety hormone), making you hungrier while feeling less full (Spiegel et al., 2004).
Stress raises cortisol, leading to water retention, making it look like you’re not losing fat.
Stress is one of the most common causes of overeating.
✅ Fix it:
Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep, by establishing healthy sleep hygiene.
Identify stress-eating triggers.
Work with a coach to build healthier coping mechanisms for stress.
Make life changes (even big ones) that reduce stressful situations. Change jobs, move… whatever it takes.
This Digital Barbell Client Has Worked Hard To Make Sleep a Priority
6. You Just Need to Be More Patient
Fat loss isn’t linear. Your weight will fluctuate due to water retention, hormonal shifts, and digestion. Some weeks you might lose two pounds, others nothing, then suddenly three pounds drop overnight.
✅ Fix it:
Track average weight over time.
Commit to the process regardless of your motivation and day-to-day results
Focus on clothing fit, energy levels, and strength gains.
Be Patient, Trust The Process, and Results Will Happen
7. Your Body Is Smarter Than You (AKA Metabolic Adaptation)
Losing fat is like getting a pay cut—your body learns to survive on less. This is called adaptive thermogenesis (Müller et al., 2013). What was a calorie deficit before might now be your maintenance calories because you’re a smaller version of yourself.
✅ Fix it:
Move more: Increase steps, lift heavier and/or add more strength training, or add strategic cardio during the week.
Eat slightly less: If you’ve plateaued for several weeks with no changes in weight, photos, or measurements, drop 100-200 calories via carbohydrates and reassess after two weeks.
Final Takeaway: Stop Guessing, Start Changing
If your weight loss has stalled, don’t panic. Instead, troubleshoot the real issue:
Eating more than you think? Get honest about random bites, and reassess your portions.
Focusing on burning calories? Switch your focus to getting stronger.
Weekends looking like a free-for-all ? Time to own it and adjust.
Only relying on the scale? You might be building muscle, and losing fat. Take progress photos and measurements.
Sleeping like garbage? Get to the root, and improve your results.
And above all—keep going. Progress isn’t always obvious in the moment, but the people who get results are the ones who stay the course.
🔥 Ready to stop guessing and start seeing real results? Join Digital Barbell