Why Your Weight Loss Might Be Stuck (And How to Fix It)

I’m Doing Everything Right… So Why Am I Not Losing Weight?!

Do you ever feel like you’re doing everything right – eating to a calorie deficit, busting your butt in your workout, accounting for every bite – yet the scale refuses to move?
And it’ll never begin to describe the frustration!
I’ve been there, and so have so many clients.
There’s Sandra, a client of mine (not her real name, but for today that’s OK). She worked hard on meal prepping & tracking, weight training, hydration and sleep – but after a few months, things slowed down to a halt… no progress at all. Her body simply wouldn’t budge.
We went through the list:

• Diet and calorie deficit?
• Still good.
• Workouts? No problem.
• Hydration? On point.
  Sleep? Solid.

But then I asked, “What about your daily activity level outside of the gym?”
She pulled our her phone, checked her step count and… Bang!
Since reducing her calories, her average daily steps had decreased by almost 1,000 without even realizing it. And it wasn’t just her steps…it was so much more. 

Does this sound familiar? Let’s break down what’s actually happening.

The Sneaky Tactics Your Body Uses to Obstruct Your Efforts to Lose Fat 

When you reduce food intake, your body senses the energy shortage and tries not to waste anything. And one of the first things it stills?
Your movement.
It’s not just your workouts. It’s all those little activities that you didn’t realize were calorie-burners:

• Fidgeting
• Taking the stairs
• Even talking with your hands (no joke, I knew my Italian friends had something going on 😂)

The problem? When you cut your calorie intake, your NEAT naturally goes down—sometimes by hundreds of calories per day (Rosenbaum et al., 2008). And often it lowers your output so much that is will match your deficit – completely stopping any weight loss!

The Solution? Step It Up – Literally!

Since your body is working behind your back to get you moving less, the trick is to go out there and move on purpose more often – and the simplest way to do that is?

Track and increase your daily number of steps!

With every client of mine, I insist on this – and the results are extraordinary.

Research has found that people consistently taking 10,000+ steps every day burn significantly more calories than those who don’t (Dwyer et al., 2014). And if you’re really serious about stepping things up, pushing for 12,000 – 15,000 steps/day could almost double your calorie burn compared to being sedentary (Levine et al., 2005).

So if the scale isn’t moving for you, maybe you should ask yourself this:
“How many steps am I actually taking every day?”

How Many Steps Should You Aim For?

📉 Sedentary? 3,000–5,000 steps/day
Moderately Active? 7,000–10,000 steps/day
🔥 Fat Loss Sweet Spot? 10,000+ steps/day
Pro tip: Don’t leap straight from 4,000 steps to 12,000 the next day. It’s like going from the
couch to marathon training in a week.
Instead, increase by 1,000 steps every few weeks until you reach your target. Sustainable
growth = long-term success.

Best Ways to Sneak More Steps Into Your Day (Without Feeling Overwhelmed)

I understand—10,000+ steps does sound like a lot. But don’t worry, you don’t need to commit a
whole hour on the treadmill every day. Here’s a simple way to gather up steps
without realizing it.

• Post-Meal Walks – Just 10 minutes after eating food helps with digestion and also adds to
  the number of steps taken.
  
  
• Pace While on the Phone – When you’re making a business call, simply walk around a bit. Bingo—steps.
  
  
• Park Farther Away – A few extra steps now mean something later.
  
  
• Use the Stairs – Even climbing up one flight makes a difference.
  
  
• Hourly Step Breaks – Set a reminder to stand up and walk around for 2 minutes every hour.
  
  
• Walk During Commercials – Watching Netflix? Get up and walk around after every episode.
• Get a Walking Pad – For between $100-200, you can get a walking pad to skyrocket your steps while working on the computer, watching TV or death-scrolling social media. You’ll be blown away at how fast you will double your steps!

How Walking More Helps With Weight Loss

You see, when you aim to increase activity to lose weight without a gym, walking more often is an easy solution. It’s effective without adding stress or overwhelming your routine.

Tracking Your Steps for Fitness Progress

The best way to know that you are really reaching your step goal? Keep track of it.
🧐 Don’t guess—wear a fitness tracker (Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin – choose your favorite).
📱 Use an app like KEPT to set a daily step goal and keep at it.
📊 At night, check the number of steps you’ve taken – if it’s low, go out for a quick walk for 5 minutes before going to bed.

The Bottom Line: Keep Moving, Keep Losing

If your weight loss has stalled, it might not be your diet – look at your movement. Your body naturally reduces NEAT in a calorie deficit, but you can override this by tracking and increasing your daily steps.
The fix is simple:

• Track your steps
• Move more intentionally
• Aim for 10,000+ steps per day OR increasing your daily average steps by 1,000 at a time.

This move has broken plateaus for hundreds of my clients, and it can work for you too. So…how many steps do you take in a day? Drop your number in the comments—I’d like to know! 🔥