You’re cleaning the kitchen in the dark, by yourself, after a VERY long day.
You’re alone, maybe kinda sad, stressed, exhausted, worried, anxious, really, REALLY tired…
When you find yourself,
Ten forks deep into leftover birthday cake.
Eating a slice of cold pizza from the fridge.
Emptying a sleeve of Oreos from the pantry.
And at the same time:
-Clocking the gym hours
-Macro counting your face off
-Practically sleeping in your walking shoes
And yet… the scale does. not. budge.
You are not alone, my friend. I have been in this position myself, and many of our clients have too.
A foundation must exist before we can sustainably enter a calorie deficit/cut/fat loss phase, and also, keep the weight off.
Overcoming overeating patterns is part of that foundation. Why? Take a look:
Emotional eating causes spikes in calorie intake.
Even if most days are near maintenance, just a few high-calorie emotional eating days (highlighted in red) can lead to a surplus over time. This may stall or even reverse fat loss progress.
A Success Story from Someone Like You and Me:
Before jumping into a fat loss phase, one of my clients and I spent their first two months of coaching focusing on something more critical: emotional and binge eating patterns.
Rather than diving straight into a calorie deficit, we worked on slowing down meals, eating mindfully, and tuning into fullness cues (aiming for ~80% full). I assigned some “homework” such as the book Brain Over Binge and used tools like hunger scale tracking (1–10 range) and self-reflection worksheets to better understand why certain eating episodes were happening.
The Surprising Part?
Even without a calorie deficit, they lost 2–3 lbs during this “maintenance” phase. Why?
With fewer emotional eating episodes and more consistent habits, intake naturally stabilized.
We also brought calories up to true maintenance levels to fuel muscle growth and worked on consistently hitting protein goals (~0.8–1g per pound of bodyweight for this client).
This wasn’t easy, they found, but higher protein meant better satiety, and better satiety meant fewer urges to overeat.
As intake normalized, so did physiology.
- Sleep improved
- Stress levels dropped
- Workouts got stronger
This client had been stuck in a frustrating cycle of under-eating followed by emotional eating. Once we broke that pattern and prioritized fueling enough, the body responded in all the right ways.
They felt better, moved better, and had the emotional bandwidth to be more consistent.
Only then did we move into a 12-week fat loss phase.
No crash dieting.
Just a modest 300-calorie deficit, with only two small adjustments in the entire 3 months (each just 100 calories).
The client was never FIGHTING for the deficit. Slow, smooth, intentional progress was the goal.
Results After 12 Weeks:
- Weight: ⬇️ 6.6 lbs
- Waist: ⬇️ 1 inch
- Hips: ⬇️ 1 inch
- Thigh: ⬇️ 0.5 inch
- Arm: ⬇️ 1 inch
This client earned the right to diet— and their body thanked them for it.
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