Why am I not losing weight when I feel like I barely eat?

This is a common question that we get when people are trying to lose weight or modify their body composition. There are a number of things that go into weight loss but ultimately it comes down to total energy expenditure versus consumed energy. It is very difficult for a lot of people to out exercise a diet that is not set up for weight loss. Energy expenditure varies enormously from person to person but most people can only burn 300-500 calories in an hour of moderately difficult exercise. Over a week a 500 calorie deficit will amount to a pound of fat loss a week (there are 3500 calories in a pound). The issue is that many people struggle with appetite increasing and calories burned doing other non exercise related activities going down. If you go really hard in the gym you are also less likely to spend your other free time being as active as you were. Most of your daily calorie burn is going to come from your body and brain functioning. This could ultimately be a much longer post but I think having some basic information like the above, combined with what you can do about it is a good place to start. So what should you do first? The first thing you need to do is start tracking calories for a couple weeks, get an average as well as a daily weight. That will give you a baseline. Do this without modifying calories much so you can truly set yourself up to make meaningful modifications. Once you do that, modification of the types of food can make a big difference in satiety and cravings while being in a deficit. It is also important to get a weekly average of weight and calories, because many people will maintain a significant deficit for most of the week and then way over consume on the weekend, which negates the deficit. Adding foods that are rich in fiber, high in protein and high in water content can help you feel full. 100 calories of nut butter is roughly a tablespoon, 100 calories of strawberries is two full cups worth. It is easy to eat 500 calories of peanut butter, it is not easy to eat 500 calories of strawberries or watermelon. Small changes to snacking habits can lead to meaningful weight loss without making it feel so painful. I would consider this enough information to get started. Instead of eating less and exercising more, I would focus on eating differently and exercising in a way that feels sustainable.