In this instructional video, Eric Roberts explains why many people fail to lose fat despite maintaining a calorie deficit and outlines four common mistakes that sabotage progress. The first mistake is inaccurate food tracking using volume measures (tablespoons, cups, ounces) instead of weighing foods in grams, which leads to significant calorie underestimation. The second mistake is over‑reliance on structured cardio while neglecting non‑exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT); low daily step counts and high‑intensity cardio can increase hunger and limit fat loss, whereas increasing daily steps and incorporating strength training boost calorie burn. The third mistake is misinterpreting short‑term weight‑plateau signals; true plateaus require at least 14 days of no weight change with ~90% consistency in calories and steps, and adjustments should be modest (±100‑200 kcal or 2‑4k extra steps). The fourth mistake is an unsupportive environment that forces constant willpower battles; keeping trigger foods out of sight and stocking the kitchen with low‑calorie, high‑protein options creates a sustainable setting. Throughout, Roberts uses client anecdotes to illustrate each point and offers practical, incremental fixes, plus calls to action for a free calorie calculator and coaching services.
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You've heard by now a calorie deficit is the only way to lose fat, but what most people still get wrong is how they go about it, and even more importantly, what causes them to unknowingly break their calorie deficit and stall their progress. So in this video, I'm gonna break down the 4 most common calorie deficit mistakes I've seen people make over and over, and these are the ones that quietly sabotage your progress even when you feel like you're doing everything right. And these are mistakes I've seen coaching over 20,000 people with their fat loss journeys, as well as my own journey of losing body fat. Knowing these are going to save you years of frustration and speed up your progress faster than ever before. The first mistake I see people make is tracking their calories using tablespoons, cups, or ounces. And most people think they're tracking accurately, but cups and tablespoons are wildly inconsistent based on how packed or full they are. And not to mention, ounces can be inaccurate based on water content as well. For example, one of our clients, Lewis, thought that he was eating 1 tablespoon of peanut butter at night, and he was just using the tablespoon and eyeballing it. When we had him switch to start tracking his calories, Calories, weighing his food in grams, he realized the one tablespoon he thought he was eating, which would be about 17 grams, was much closer to two tablespoons, which would be about 34 grams, and that would double the amount of calories that he was consuming than he thought he was. And that's just from peanut butter alone, not to mention all the other foods he was doing that with throughout the day. This meant he was eating hundreds of more. more calories than he thought he was, which is why before he started coaching with us, his fat loss was stalled. And immediately after he started weighing his food in grams with a food scale and tracking his calories like that, that's when his progress started to take off. And this is why you might be thinking you're eating 1,500, 1,600 calories, but in reality you could be eating over 2,000 calories And that's why you're not losing weight in a calorie deficit. And by the way, if you need to know exactly how many calories you should be eating for your calorie deficit, click the link in the description of this video. There's a totally free calorie calculator. Weighing your food in grams will give you the most accurate serving size, which will give you the most accurate calories. Every food label is based off of grams. So even if it says 3 tablespoons, in parentheses it'll say 30 grams. Or if it says 2 tablespoons, in parentheses it'll say 34 grams. Or if it says 4 ounces, in parentheses it will say 112 grams. So moving forward, track it in grams. And if you don't believe me, just try it for 7 days. I promise you, you'll be like, goddammit, Eric, you were right. Because I have no reason to lie to you. But here's the wild part. Even if you nail your calorie tracking, There's still another mistake that keeps people stuck, and it has to do with cardio. Let's talk about why the wrong cardio might be the biggest mistake you're making, which is leading you to burn out but not burn fat. You like that one? Most people overestimate how much your exercise impacts your weight loss. Your structured workouts and exercise usually account for just 5 to 10% of your daily calorie burn. I had a client one time, Nadia, who was doing 30-minute cardio sessions 3 to 5 times a week and was very frustrated with her lack of fat loss. We then looked at her daily step count and it was only 3,000 per day. Not to mention her cardio was high intensity, which meant she was always hungry, craving junk food, and made it impossible to stick to her calorie deficit goal. All we did to change that and get her seeing progress was increase her daily step goal to about 8,000 per day, and we swapped out her 3 high-intensity cardio sessions for 3 weightlifting strength training sessions instead. And the result? Well, she lost more weight in the next 4 weeks than she did in the previous 3 months and had more energy doing it. Your exercise takes up 5 to 10% of your daily calorie burn. Meanwhile, your non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which is just a fancy word for your daily steps and all the other movement that you take throughout the day, whether it be doing chores in the house, parking farther away, taking the stairs instead of the escalator, that takes up 15 to 20% of your daily calorie burn. You burn 3 times as many calories just moving throughout the day than you would in a dedicated workout. Plus, the strength training that we incorporated also helped her build muscle, which also increased her daily calorie burn. Now let me be clear, cardio isn't bad if you wanna lose weight on a calorie deficit. It's just the cherry on top of the sundae. Fat loss happens from managing your overall energy intake and output, and your steps are the real secret to work with you on a calorie deficit. Versus working against you with the high-intensity cardio. Now, even if you're tracking accurately and you increase your daily steps, there's still a fat loss killer that creeps up on everybody and for most people throws them completely off track. And that is what to do when you hit a fat loss plateau. So let's talk about why your body stalls out and the smart way to make adjustments that actually get the scale moving in the right direction again. Mistake number 3 is thinking you're in a plateau after just a few days of no scale movement. Most people panic way too early. If the scale doesn't move for 3 to 7 days, they assume something's wrong. But in reality, that's just normal fluctuations. You're not in a true plateau until you've gone at least 14 days with no scale movement And damn near perfect consistency with your calories and your daily steps. One of my clients, Ralph, checked in one week and was asking about why the scale stalled out because his weight hasn't gone down in a week. I told him, just wait one more week and let's see what happens. It turns out after the second week, his scale dropped by about 2.5 pounds and it's been dropping ever since. But we also had one client, Sarah, who also said she thought she was in a weight loss plateau. So we had her just double-check her consistency with tracking and hitting her goals. And it came to find out there was a couple of days during the weekend she didn't track, and there were a couple of busy days at work where she didn't hit those step goals. She got dialed in for the next 2 weeks and she saw her scale drop. Remember, your body isn't a machine. Water retention, hormones, Stress, eating out, hard workouts, women on your period— there's so many things that can mask your fat loss for a short period of time. But that doesn't mean you're in a fat loss plateau. It has to be at least 14 days with 0 pounds lost and at least 90% consistency. Now, you might be one of the few people out there, you special unicorn, you, who maybe that is you. And in this case, here's what you do when you actually hit a fat loss plateau. And it's not going to be what a lot of people try to tell you on the internet, which is reverse dieting. If you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat, why would you increase your calories? That doesn't make any sense if you're actually in a calorie deficit. Because like we talked about, if you haven't been consistent or if you're not tracking your calories accurately or not hitting your steps, then you might not actually be in a calorie deficit. But the answer wouldn't be to increase your calories. It would be to either decrease your calories by 100 to 200 per day max, or to increase your steps or cardio, usually at least an extra 2,000 to 4,000 steps per day or an extra 1 to 3 cardio sessions per week at about 15 to 30 minutes each session. Because remember, calories deficit means you are eating less calories than what you are burning. So to kickstart fat loss again, you would either need to decrease your calories or increase your calorie output, your calorie burn. And the goal here is small changes. You don't need to overhaul everything or cut out all of your foods or slash your calories by 500. If you actually are in a plateau, try those things and they're gonna help. But here's the thing, even if you're doing everything right that we talked about thus far— tracking your food, right, getting your daily steps, making sure you're actually in a plateau and/or adjusting if you are, you're still not going to see progress if your environment is working against you. Because most people aren't overeating or going off track because of hunger. You're going off track because your environment makes it impossible to stay on track. So let's talk about how your environment can sabotage progress And what to do instead to stay on track without having to rely on willpower 24/7. The truth is, your environment beats willpower every time. If the food that usually leads to you overeating is sitting in the pantry, fridge, or freezer, you're setting yourself up to lose a fight that never had to happen in the first place. One of our clients, Michelle, would do great all day, but every night she'd end up eating a whole bag of chips. We talked about it and she said, I always tell myself I won't, but I do it anyway. So we made one small change: the chips didn't get restocked. Instead, we made it a point to fill her fridge and cabinets with easy, goal-aligned snacks—ones that she enjoyed. But she could actually control herself with. And in the first 2 weeks alone, she mentioned she felt 10 times more in control, dropped 3 pounds, and found it incredibly easier to stick to her calorie deficit. Willpower is a limited resource. The more temptations around you, the faster it runs out. So those trigger foods that are hyperpalatable and delicious, high in calories and hard to portion control with, like chips, cookies, candy, ice cream. It's not about never eating them. It's about making it not easy to overeat them daily and instead build a supportive environment where you're keeping visible snacks that are low-calorie, high-protein, like Greek yogurt, beef jerky, fruit. By not leaving temptations sitting on your kitchen counter that you have to say no to walking past 40 times a day and making sure your environment helps you succeed, not have to test your discipline and willpower every day, all day. And remember, you don't rise to the level of your motivation, you fall to the level of your environment. So staying on track really starts and ends with what you're buying at the grocery store What foods you're bringing into the house, where you're going out to eat, and who you're going out to eat with. It's important to audit all of these things because losing fat is already going to be hard as it is. There's no reason for you to make it harder. If you've been making even one of these mistakes, fixing it could be the thing that finally gets the scale moving again. If you want help building a plan that's actually customized to you and your lifestyle, click the link in the description to apply for coaching. Or if you want to go even deeper on how to set up a calorie deficit, check out this video right here to maybe correct some of the other mistakes you've been making.
