Why your meal plan isn’t helping you lose weight

I see you! You’re desperate to lose weight, and you feel like absolutely nothing works. I know exactly what you’re doing, because I did the very same thing. You’ve tried so hard to figure out which meal plan will be the “right” one, or what else you need to do to actually start losing weight. But in reality, you can’t figure out why your meal plan isn’t helping you lose weight.

In desperation, you head to the internet. You look for meal plans on Pinterest. Eventually, you find something that you think will work for you. It’s an anti-inflammatory plan, or maybe a Paleo plan. Looks pretty good, right? 

The trouble is, you already have a dozen of these meal plans. You’ve downloaded guides that you think (hope!) will work. You’ve signed up for newsletters. At the end of the day, literally nothing is helping you lose weight. What’s going on? 

Let’s dig into why your meal plan isn’t helping you lose weight (I’ve got 10 areas for you to look at!), and what we can do about it.

Meal plans for hypothyroidism

In order to lose weight with hypothyroidism, it’s so important to follow a meal plan that is designed to support your thyroid issues. So many of the meal plans out there are designed for weight loss, but they’re not designed for hypothyroidism. You won’t always find a meal plan that has been designed by somebody who actually has hypothyroidism. 

It’s incredibly helpful to find a resource that has been developed by someone who has been through the same struggles with hypothyroidism. Otherwise, they may only be going on what they learned in nutrition school, and it might not be the right thing for you in your weight loss journey.

More information won’t help you lose weight

I want you to take a really good look at all of the meal plans you’ve collected over the past year. You probably have more than 10 downloads, right? Here’s a hard bit of truth: more information is not going to help you lose weight.

If it was as easy as collecting a bunch of meal plans, and following the plan, you would have lost weight by now. So if losing weight is not as easy as “just following the plan”, what’s the problem?

In my experience, I find that this is usually a mindset issue. You get a meal plan, thinking it’s going to be the thing that changes it all. When it doesn’t work, we believe it’s the meal plan’s fault! But in reality, there are stories or thoughts you’re having about yourself that are stopping you from seeing progress.

Ok, Ashley, this sounds a bit woo. Tell me, what does this look like? Have you ever said to yourself “I’ve tried absolutely everything, and literally nothing works”? If so, this is a story that is keeping you stuck at this current weight. I get it. It feels very true. However, working with a coach can help you uncover why you keep thinking this thought (and what to do about it!)

Meal plans don’t teach you what to cook

Meal plans are great when you need inspiration. They’re especially helpful when you’re learning new foods, and when you’re starting an anti-inflammatory diet. What they don’t do is teach you how to cook for yourself and your family. Every family looks different. Some families have a lot of food sensitivities or restrictions. 

What’s more common, is that as a mom, you need to eat one way, and your family wants to eat all of the gluten, dairy, and sugar. That doesn’t work for you. But, you don’t want to spend tons of time in the kitchen, trying to figure it all out. How do you make a meal for yourself, and make a meal for your family? How do you cook one meal every night, instead of two or three different meals?

You need a meal plan that helps you learn how to be self-sufficient in the kitchen, if you want to keep it going for the long term. (Want a meal plan that helps you do exactly that? Grab The Family Fork 7-Day Dinner Guide here!)

You’re not following the meal plan

Okay, this might be a tough pill to swallow, but here’s the deal. If you have a bunch of meal plans, and you believe that none of them are working, it might be because you’re not really sticking with it. 

If it’s an anti-inflammatory plan, designed for hypothyroidism, evaluate how closely you are actually sticking to that plan. Are you only sticking to it during the week, but kind of going off plan on the weekends? Is it a plan that calls for no sugar, but you keep sneaking flavored yogurt in before bed? That’s not really sticking to the plan.

A good coach can help you uncover why you keep doing that, but it’s important to take a really good inventory as to whether or not you are actually sticking to that plan. (It’s ok to be honest with yourself here!)

The meal plan isn’t realistic

If the meal plan is not realistic to the way you live your life, it’s never going to work. When I was first diagnosed with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s, I met with a nutritionist. She was part of my functional doctor’s practice. On her list of things for me was to eat was fresh liver three times a week. She also wanted me making my own bone broth. 

Seriously. At that time, I was a single mom, working 60 plus hours a week. Afternoons were spent driving my son to and from lacrosse practice and games, and supporting him in school and activities. I was barely keeping afloat in life. I definitely did not have time to find ways to cook liver, or to cook my own bone broth. In fact, that wasn’t even something I ever wanted to do in my life. My salary allowed me to buy bone broth, so it wasn’t something I would ever be doing!

If you’re wondering why your meal plan isn’t helping you lose weight, it could be that it’s not the right plan for you. It’s important to take a look at the meal plan and make sure that it’s hypothyroid friendly. But also, it needs to fit into your life, the things you have time for, and the things you’re willing to do. (Because to be honest, I’m not willing to eat liver!)

You can’t ask meal plan questions

A lot of the meal plans you have tucked away, you’ve probably snagged from Google or Pinterest. A “simple” 1-week meal plan, and that’s all you get! But what if you have questions? Or if you need to ask someone about the meal plan? Who are you supposed to reach out to? 

I have a client that emailed me nine times in the first four days of her anti-inflammatory meal plan. I couldn’t have been more excited to help her! It showed me that she was taking the plan very seriously. She was staying true to herself and her commitment to this new way of eating. I was so happy that she could reach out to me! She was able to connect with somebody knowledgeable, who had been in her shoes, and get answers to all the questions she had.

The goal of a meal plan should be for you to succeed! By having a coach to reach out to, there is a much higher likelihood of success and losing weight with that meal plan.

Portion sizes are unclear

When you first transition to an anti-inflammatory diet, it’s really easy to think that portions don’t matter. “Oh! I can eat all of the salad and avocado that I want!” The reality is that, if you are trying to lose weight with an anti-inflammatory meal plan, it is important to pay attention to your portion sizes. 

I know I’ve mentioned this before in a previous blog post, but it’s definitely worth mentioning here, as well. No thanks to diet culture (especially from the ’90s), we think that healthy food equals no limits. With an anti-inflammatory diet and hypothyroidism, there are certain portions that will help you lose weight. You should definitely be eating carbs, and healthy fats. But finding the appropriate balance is the right way to approach it, if you actually want to lose weight.

Workouts aren’t working with your meal plan

I know, it’s much easier to blame the meal plan! However, it could be that your exercise, or lack thereof, is actually making it hard for your really good meal plan to do its job! 

Are you of the mindset that more cardio, running, HIIT training, are the things that are going to help you lose weight? If so, you could be eating the cleanest meal plan in the world, and it wouldn’t work. 

Why? When you have hypothyroidism, you have to be mindful of your exercise intensity. When you increase your intensity, you increase your cortisol. More cortisol equals more inflammation. And the more inflammation you have, the harder it is for you to lose weight. So, it might not be your meal plan, but it could be the fact that your workouts are too intense.

Something else to consider is that you’re not exercising enough. If you’re eating too much food (see portion sizes above) and not moving your body enough, you’re not seeing weight loss. In which case it’s definitely not the fault of your meal plan. All you need to do is change up the balance of how much you’re eating and how much you’re moving your body.

Meal plan isn’t meant for long term

There are so many different meal plans out there. When you start looking around, it’s hard to know which is going to be the right one for you. In your search, you might run across meal plans like AIP (Auto Immune Protocol), or low-FODMAP. You might need a meal plan like these, but it’s easier to start with a less restrictive plan.

Meal plans like AIP and low-FODMAP aren’t designed to be long-term meal plans. With these specific plans, it’s important to recognize that there is an elimination phase, which must be followed by a reintroduction phase. 

If you’re not working with someone directly, it’s confusing to know when (and how) to start the reintroduction phase. If you find yourself trying to follow something like the AIP meal plan, you will quickly learn that it is very restrictive. It truly is not meant to be a long-term meal plan.

You need more than a meal plan

Okay, if you’ve been following a meal plan that’s designed for hypothyroidism, and you’ve been super consistent, but you still aren’t losing weight, it could be that you have other issues that need to be addressed. 

Without knowing it, you could be struggling with gut dysbiosis (which includes infections, imbalance of bacteria, parasites, etc.) There might be issues in regulating your blood sugar. Or, there could be something going on with your adrenal glands, deeper food sensitivities, and so on. This is why it’s important to have someone to ask questions, which is where a coach is essential.

Do an honest evaluation of your meal plans

Hopefully this gives you a bunch of different areas to dig into, to determine why your meal plan isn’t help you lose weight. As you’ll see, there are so many different places that could be making it hard for you to reach your goals!

If you see yourself in this article (10 meal plans, and still no weight loss), it might be time for you to work with a coach. Sometimes we get so dialed in to what we’re trying, and then get frustrated that it’s just.not.working.

In these situations it can be extremely useful to work with a coach who can help you examine all of these areas, get you started on the right plan for you, and help you clean up your mindset around your weight loss and health success. 

If you want to explore what it’s like to work with a coach, let’s talk! This is exactly what I do, and I’m deeply passionate about helping women to achieve their goals. I also know it takes an outside perspective to build a new path forward!