7 Reasons Hard-Working Trans Lifters Get Dieting Burnout

I’ve been on a diet for two weeks and all I’ve lost is two weeks.
––Totie Fields

You’re not lazy. You’re not inconsistent. And you’re definitely not “lacking discipline.”
 
In fact, it’s the opposite.
 
You work hard. You follow the plan. You push yourself.
 
And yet, every time you try to diet, you burn out. You either quit early, or push so hard that it becomes miserable… and you still don’t end up as lean as you wanted.
 
You don’t have a motivation problem. You have a strategy problem.
 
Since 2019, I’ve coached trans lifters exactly like you: people who do everything right, but still don’t get the return on their effort that they deserve.
 
If this sounds familiar, here are seven reasons hard-working lifters like you burn out dieting and what to do instead.

1. Your deficit is too extreme.

I get it: You want fast results and you’re willing to work hard for them.

But you can only work hard for so long before burning out… and, if you’re still not seeing the results you want, it’s because it’s not been long enough for you to get any.

Paradoxically, eating more calories will get you to your goal faster.

It sounds counterintuitive because, in theory, if you eat more calories – and you’re still eating below your maintenance calories – your deficit is smaller, so you lose fat more slowly than if you eat fewer calories and create a larger deficit.

But this is only true if you stick to dieting for the same amount of time in both scenarios.

If you can only stick to really low calories for two weeks before burning out, you’ll lose fat for two weeks. But if you can stick to higher calories for six months, you’ll lose fat for a whopping six months.

It doesn’t matter that dieting on higher calories yields slower fat loss in the short term, because being consistent for longer will help you achieve your goal faster in the long term.

As a side note, I’m not against a big deficit for a short period of time.

If you’re willing and able to work hard for two weeks, go for it! (Assuming this is a safe approach for you physically and mentally.)

But, once you reach your tolerance threshold for such an intense diet, don’t try to push through it until you crash and burn. Instead, increase your calories to a more moderate deficit, which you can then sustain for the weeks and months to come.

2. Your food choices are too unforgiving.

Chicken. Rice. Vegetables. Repeat.

You stop having chocolate, meals out, and any joy in your life because “they’re not worth the calories” or because “they’re not healthy”.

Extreme dietary restriction has a place when pursuing an extreme, short-term goal.

For instance, I was very strict while prepping for my 2022 photoshoot, when I got really fucking lean. (Which is the scientific term, obviously.)

And even then, I didn’t stop eating out at least once in a while until the very last four weeks.

If you’re not in the middle of a photoshoot or bodybuilding contest prep, and you’re trying to be this strict for months on end, you’re going to resent the process.

And you’re not going to last long doing something you hate.

To achieve a true lifestyle change, you need to build a way of eating you’ll want to stick to even after fat loss. The only difference should be that, at maintenance, you’ll be eating an extra 250 to 500 calories.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes restriction is necessary for a time even during a lifestyle cut.

For instance, if you’re dieting on 1500 kcals or less, you may choose to allocate the majority or even all of these calories to highly nutritious, low-calorie, high-volume food for two reasons:

• Manage hunger
• Ensure you cover as many of your nutritional bases as is realistic on lower calories

 
That’s a fine choice to make – and my personal preference when I’m losing fat – as long as you know that you could have something else.

Choosing to eat chicken and vegetables is very different from feeling like you have to.

In the first instance, you feel empowered. In the second, you feel restricted.

Empowerment will keep you consistent. Restriction won’t.

3. You train a lot… in ineffective ways.

If you’re reading this article, you’re not just dieting to look like a smaller version of yourself; you’re dieting to look lean and fit. To achieve this, you need to build muscle, which won’t happen if your training approach is ineffective.

Exhibit A: You plan to train five days a week when you only have time for four… and keep missing sessions.

Exhibit B: You program 15 exercises per session, which take two hours and so much energy you’re not training anywhere close to failure… and that’s why you’re not building much muscle. Volume – how many sets you do – is important, but volume without intensity means you’re just warming up for a long time.

Exhibit C: You’re doing a lot of cardio to help with fat loss, but it’s also too much for how busy you are… so you keep skipping it.

Or you’re doing it, but you can’t recover from this much activity plus lifting hard plus dieting plus living your life. As a result, progressive overload is stuttering or non-existent, and/or you keep getting sick or injured.

What you need is a program you actually have the time and recovery resources for.

As a result, you’ll be able to be consistent enough and train close enough to failure to see meaningful muscle growth.

More isn’t better. Enough is better.
 
And if you want not one, but four free programs you can choose from, designed to be effective and sustainable, click here to get your free copy of The Masc/Fem Physique Blueprint.

4. You’re a control freak.

I’m calling you out on this because I’m a Certified Control Freak, too, so I have first-hand experience overcoming this attitude through years spent coaching myself and others.

For a control freak, learning more about training and nutrition is incredibly empowering… but it can give you the illusion that you can force the body to do exactly what you want.

This backfires fast.

For instance, years ago, I’d get frustrated if I wasn’t losing exactly 0.8 lb every single week because “I calculated the precise deficit I needed to achieve this specific quantity”. Instead of celebrating the fat loss I was indeed achieving, I mourned the results I felt entitled to get based on my “scientific approach”.

While we know a fair amount about training and nutrition, there is also a lot we still don’t know. Furthermore, the body isn’t as simple as a mathematical equation, although dealing in calories and macros may give you this illusion.

Yes, calories and macros affect your physique in the long term, but there are many other factors influencing it on a shorter-term basis.

If you convince yourself you can control everything, you’re going to worry about everything, including things that don’t matter, like whether you’re two pounds up or down from Monday to Tuesday.

You have a superpower: you’re a hard worker.

But this superpower isn’t limitless. You have time and energy constraints: a job, a family, other hobbies and interests outside of fitness (I hope), etc.

Ensure you’re channelling this superpower into what truly matters.
 
The rest is a distraction.

5. Your targets are too inflexible.

That’s why targets like 1500 kcals and 10,000 steps per day are less effective.

If you maintain your weight on 1900-2000 kcals, 1500 isn’t your only choice for a deficit. You could eat 1800 kcals and still lose weight, just more slowly.

As for steps, the difference between 9,500 and 10,000 steps isn’t worth losing sleep over.

Your body doesn’t operate within such narrow parameters, so you won’t get better results by being more anal.
 
You’re just making it harder to hit your targets.
 
When you make it too hard and you’re prone to all-or-nothing thinking, you give up completely.

That’s why I use target ranges, like 1500-1800 kcals and 9,000-11,000 steps.

Moreover, the goal with calories and steps is to achieve a weekly average, not to hit these ranges on the nose every single day.

This approach isn’t just effective; it encourages you to fit your targets around your life instead of fitting your life around your targets, which gets ugly real fast when these targets are too inflexible.

For instance, if you have a really busy day and hardly any time to think about food, that’s an excellent opportunity to aim for 1500 kcals. You’ll lose fat a bit faster and won’t even notice that you’re eating less.

On the other hand, if you have a dinner date, 1800 kcals can make life a whole lot easier and still keep you in a deficit. Moreover, if you “borrowed” 200 kcals from another day, now you get to eat 2000 kcals and still be in a deficit because your weekly average is right on target.

Being flexible isn’t an excuse to be “lazy”.

It’s the only way to turn fitness into a long-term lifestyle.

6. You can’t cope with mistakes.

Exhibit A: You meticulously plan and prep your meals, but an impromptu takeaway on Wednesday night snowballs into going over your calories every day, because “you already fucked up once”.

Exhibit B: You put all your workouts on your calendar, but you missed one, so why bother with the rest?

Stop trying to make every day perfect and start focusing on how you can make shitty days less shitty.

Your results depend on the average of your behaviours.

A perfect average is impossible, but you can bring up the average by improving on your worst days.

7. You refuse to recover.

Most of us understand that rest days from training are necessary for progress.

You can’t grow without recovery.

Ironically, taking a similar approach to dieting prevents psychological burnout… yet so many of us hard-working lifters fail miserably at it.

Not that it’s your fault.

You’re just doing what we’ve all been taught. Most people in the Western world diet themselves into the ground until they either give up or they’re happy with their physique.

But that’s not how I coach.

In my experience, every six to 12 weeks of consistent, successful dieting, many people need a psychological break, which I call a Recharge Phase.

This isn’t “YOLO time” where you eat whatever you want without tracking anything.

It’s an intentional phase, during which you increase calories back to maintenance for a period of time in order to lower diet fatigue and restore your drive to diet.

This is also a great opportunity to practise what you’ll have to do the rest of your life after dieting: maintaining your fat loss.

If you want to learn more about how to identify when you may need a Recharge Phase and how to implement it successfully, listen to this podcast.
 
In summary:

These are seven common reasons why hard-working trans lifters like you burn out on dieting:

1. Your deficit is too extreme.
2. Your food choices are too unforgiving.
3. You train a lot… in ineffective ways.
4. You’re a control freak.
5. Your targets are too inflexible.
6. You can’t cope with mistakes.
7. You refuse to recover.

 
Thanks for reading. May you make the best gains.
 
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