eating less but not losing weight? here’s the first steps to getting lean without cutting calories

Emily Field 00:00:00  Hey there and welcome back to Macros Made Easy. This is episode 48 and today’s topic is one I think a lot of you need to hear, especially if you’ve been thinking the only way to get leaner is to cut more, restrict harder, and be even more disciplined with your food. If you’ve been stuck in that cycle of eating less and less, skipping meals, cutting snacks, slashing calories, but not seeing the results you expected, this episode is for you. Because the truth is that strategy is not working. And I’m going to be bold and say it’s probably one of the main reasons why you feel stuck. Most of the women I work with aren’t overeating, they’re under eating, and that’s exactly what’s holding them back from getting leaner, stronger and fitter. So if you’ve been thinking maybe you just need to try harder or be more strict, I want to challenge that today. This episode is all about what to do instead or before you try and cut more calories. Yes, we’ll talk about protein, but not in the vague just eat more kind of way.

Emily Field 00:00:55  I’m going to give you specific, actionable ways to use protein to your advantage. We’ll also cover why skipping meals might be backfiring. What kind of movement outside of the gym actually drives? Fat loss and why? Consistency with the right habits matters more than eating less. And if you’re thinking, I already do all of that, hang tight. I’m also going to talk about what might still be holding you back, even when it feels like you’re checking all the boxes. By the end of the episode, you’ll walk away with a clear set of steps to get leaner without cutting more calories. So let’s dive in. Welcome to Macros Made Easy, the podcast that takes the confusion out of tracking macros. I’m your host, Emily Field, a registered dietitian that specializes in a macros approach. In each episode, I help you learn how to eat in a way that supports your health, body composition, and athletic performance goals. We’ll cover the basics of macronutrients how to track for various goals, the role of macros in your health, and how to make sustainable changes to your habits.

Emily Field 00:01:50  I’ve helped hundreds of people experience more food freedom and flexibility while navigating their nutrition. So whether you’ve tried macros and it just didn’t stick or you just heard the word macros yesterday. I can’t wait to help you too. If you want to get leaner without cutting calories, protein is a non-negotiable. This is where I start nearly every client, and it’s usually the first place we see major shifts in how they feel and how their body responds. This is super important because most women are under eating protein, even if they think they’re eating, quote, healthy. Maybe they’re adding a little grilled chicken to a salad or having eggs for breakfast, but in total, they’re not hitting what their body needs to support fat loss, muscle growth, hormone balance, or energy. I recommend aiming for about 0.8 to 1g of protein per pound of body weight, not just as the daily total, but spread across the whole day. That means getting about 25 to 40g per meal, ideally 3 to 4 times per day. If that number, that 0.8 to 1g per pound of body weight feels like a huge number for you right now, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.

Emily Field 00:02:57  Maybe starting with 0.6. Maybe 0.7 is a good place. Get used to that total, and then try to push yourself up to that sweet spot where we have the research to show. It really promotes muscle protein synthesis and muscle maintenance. When you’re in a fat loss phase, when you’re trying to lose weight. Okay. And again, we’re trying to distribute that evenly throughout the day because your body can only use so much protein at a time for muscle repair and synthesis. And so when you space it out, it helps regulate your blood sugar, reduces your cravings. It can help increase that feeling of fullness after meals, which we know can be a problem when you’re cutting calories trying to eat less and less for the purpose of weight loss and fat loss. When women jump straight into a calorie deficit or skip meals, they’re usually reducing the very nutrient that would help them hold on to the lean muscle and to feel satisfied protein. And the result is that they get leaner temporarily but end up losing muscle. Maybe they would wreck their energy, they might slow down their metabolism, and that is obviously not helpful in their pursuit of getting leaner, stronger and fitter.

Emily Field 00:04:03  Balancing your meals. So combining protein, fat and carbs together helps your body feel fueled, not frantic, and keeps your blood sugar steady and minimizes that hangry mood and prevents that late afternoon crash when you’re reaching for snacks or sugar. It’s what makes fat loss sustainable rather than miserable. You might be familiar with the term macro Tetris. Even if you’ve never heard the word or heard the phrase, you’ve probably had experience with this at some point. If you are new to tracking macros, and I’ll say from when I started tracking macros in the beginning, I certainly fell into the trap of saving my macros for dinner or hoarding them because I didn’t know what I was going to have for dinner later. So put yourself in those shoes. You’re saving calories. You’re saving macros for dinner. You’re probably behind on protein because that’s the tougher macro to get if you’re not really planning ahead. And then you realize you have like 80g to eat up to at 8 p.m. and because I’m not a quitter and because I don’t want to fail, I’m making random, not so satisfying Franken meals where I was eating plain egg whites or protein shakes with mustard and pickles just to hit my numbers.

Emily Field 00:05:13  And not only is that gross, but it didn’t teach me how to build balanced meals throughout the day. And so when I give that recommendation to eat 8 to 1g of protein per pound of body weight, that can feel like an astronomical number, but when we divide it by 3 or 4 meals, it becomes much more manageable when we have that hearty source of protein at every single meal. And then we round that out with the fun macros, the carbs and the fats. That’s what’s going to keep your blood sugar stable. That’s what’s going to keep you energized all day. It’s going to prevent those crashes, the low energy. And as soon as I kind of got that concept down, everything kind of seemed to fall into place. Sure, I wasn’t hitting my macros exactly on the nose every single day, but in the pursuit Suit of eating up to my totals. I was much closer when I started to divide that across the day, and it’s one of the first places we start with our new clients.

Emily Field 00:06:02  You know, that number can feel really astronomical in the beginning. It definitely does become easier, especially if we break it down into 3 or 4 meals, maybe even five meals. If you’re somebody that really likes to have mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack or something like that, but you’re getting a hearty dose of that protein throughout the day, it’s going to serve you so much better than if you were to just off the bat, slash calories, skip meals, and try to wing it in the pursuit of your weight loss or fat loss goals. This is a foundational step because oftentimes you don’t need to slash calories to see body composition changes. And I know that sounds crazy. Often you just need to simply redistribute what you’re already eating into more balanced, protein rich meals. And that can lead to better energy, stronger workouts, fewer cravings, and easier fat loss. And the best of all, you’re going to feel much less restricted, not more restricted in this pursuit. And I have a feeling that that mindset could change everything for you.

Emily Field 00:07:02  All right. Next let’s talk about a super common but sneaky issue that I see holding women back from getting leaner. And that is a regular eating. It’s skipping breakfast, going six or more hours without food, eating tiny little meals throughout the day. A lot of times this is leftover from your previous dieting attempts. You don’t want to get hungry. You stay ahead of that hunger by having something really, really tiny, but then it inevitably catches up with you. Maybe that night, or maybe over the weekend. It’s a splurge. At the end of the night, it’s a snack attack after dinner. It’s a really big, high calorie meal on the weekend. That’s the pattern that I see all the time. So this is an important step to eat in regular intervals, because your body runs best on consistently being fed. Eating every 3 to 5 hours supports steady blood sugar, more predictable energy, and most importantly, muscle protein synthesis, which is the process your body uses to repair and build lean muscle.

Emily Field 00:08:02  So when you wait too long between meals, your hunger hormones ramp up and your blood sugar drops. And that’s when when the cravings hit super hard and you’re not just physically hungry, you’re in a state where it’s harder to make intentional choices, right? So maybe you’re not quite there yet. Maybe you’re in a phase where you are super dedicated to your diet, and you have been very consistent. You can probably use willpower for a few weeks. Depending on what’s going on in your life, it may be easier or harder, but undoubtedly it will happen. Those hunger hormones really catch up with you. Your low energy catches up with you and you’re going to binge, you’re going to overeat, and then you’re going to blame yourself in the willpower for not keeping you consistent. And even if you’re technically hitting your macros in a day when you eat matters more than you probably think, skipping meals or winging it creates that binge restrict cycle that messes with your hunger signals and makes it harder to stay consistent long term.

Emily Field 00:08:57  So again, you know you have the choice to eat your macros however you want. My strong advice before you adjust calories, before you restrict, before you go, even, you know harder and deeper into this deficit that you’re trying to create to lose weight. I would say try to make sure that your meals are balanced and that you’re eating in regular intervals. This works better than typical dieting advice that tells you to eat less, because it doesn’t teach you how to stay fueled. So we know, okay, maybe we need to eat less, but it doesn’t teach you how to eat instead. And while some people swear by intermittent fasting or skipping breakfast, the women I work with almost always see better results and feel better when they stop skipping and start feeling consistently throughout the day. This isn’t about eating tiny meals all day long to stave off hunger. It’s about eating enough at regular times so your body isn’t constantly swinging between those extremes. One of my Italian clients, Joe, came to me frustrated that she was always starving at night.

Emily Field 00:09:57  She was skipping breakfast most days, maybe grabbing a small snack in the afternoon and then eating like half her calories after dinner, usually from the pantry, grazing while making meals for her kids. And she thought she was being disciplined because she was recording everything and it was adding up, but her body was just trying to catch up. And once we got her consistent meal, rhythm breakfast within 60 to 90 minutes of waking up balanced meals every four hours or so, those nighttime cravings disappeared. She stopped thinking that I was a her problem. She realized that, you know, she’s working with her body, not against it. And ultimately that led her to feel much better. As you would imagine. She started sleeping better, feeling more control around her food, and finally seeing a fat loss that she had been chasing for months. I see this all the time in Italian. Once the client learns how to support their body with food, rhythm and regular meals, Things just start to click without needing to restrict harder.

Emily Field 00:10:52  Getting lean doesn’t mean eating less often, it means fueling better. Regular meal timing keeps your body in a steady state where it can build muscle, burn fat, and maintain energy throughout the day. It’s about making your nutrition work with your biology instead of against it. All right, so the third thing that I would say before you cut more calories is to choose more whole foods, more satisfying foods. So get more out of the food that you’re actually eating. The calories that you’re putting in this step is where we start leveling up the quality of our food choices, not with a restrictive like clean eating halo or rules on top of your food choices, but with smart, satisfying swaps that help you feel full fueled and in control. And this is important because processed foods aren’t bad. I’m never going to tell you to give up your favorite granola bar or protein chips, but if the majority of your diet is made up of ultra processed foods that are low in fiber. Low in water content. They are easy to overeat.

Emily Field 00:11:51  Your body doesn’t get the same natural fullness cues it needs. Whole foods things like lean proteins. Fruits. Vegetables. Potatoes. Oats. Beans. Full fat. Dairy. These are naturally more satisfying. They take longer to digest. Stabilize your blood sugar and send the Im full signal to your brain sooner. And what that means in practice is that you can feel full and satisfied on the same amount of calories, or even more simply by shifting the types of foods that you’re eating. This works better than traditional dieting advice, because most diets try to get you leaner by slashing your calories, but this step gets you leaner by making your calories work harder for you. You’re not restricting, you’re just choosing foods that give you more bang for your nutritional buck. You feel fuller, have better digestion, better energy, fewer cravings, all without cutting more calories. This is the kind of work we do inside of Italian every day, not labeling foods as good or bad, but identifying how to make smart choices or swaps that keep you satisfied and still allow for some flexibility.

Emily Field 00:12:54  It sounds just like a client I worked with in East d’Alene who was stuck in this loop of constantly snacking, mostly on bars, crackers, protein treats, and other convenience foods. They were hitting their macros. They were technically very consistent on hitting their macros, but their hunger never seemed to level out. So when we reviewed her diary, we realized that she was hardly eating any volume or fiber in her day. That was the kicker. Once we swapped out some of those snacks for bigger, more whole food based meals like a hearty grain bowl of chicken, beans, veggies, and avocado, she was shocked at how much more satisfied she felt even without changing her macro targets. The snacking disappeared almost overnight, and she felt like she could finally focus on living, not just food or what is my next meal? What is my next snack? Because those hunger hormones were definitely calmed down. She was getting much more nutrition Out of the meals that she was eating. This is a foundational step. This is something that I think you should focus on.

Emily Field 00:13:51  If your mindset is to go towards slashing calories, eating less, skipping meals. I want you to first ask yourself, can I get more out of the same calories that I’m eating? Improving food quality allows you to get leaner on the same calories that you’re already eating. It’s one of the most efficient ways to support fat loss without tracking harder or eating less. Think of it this way if you want to feel full on 1900 calories a day, you’ll feel way better doing that with potatoes, eggs, yogurt, veggies, and protein than you will on snack packs and shakes. This step gives you the freedom to eat more real food and feel really good while doing it. Okay, the next step to getting lean without cutting more calories is to move more throughout the day. This is going to hit on our non exercise activity. The step one that surprises a lot of people, especially those who are already working out consistently. Because the truth is, it’s not always about exercising more. It’s about moving more.

Emily Field 00:14:50  Okay, there’s a difference here. Leaner, more metabolically healthy people tend to move more throughout the day outside of their workouts. It’s not because they’re hitting two days or living in the gym. It’s because their overall daily movement, what we would call neat or non exercise activity thermogenesis, is higher. Neat includes all the calories you burn, just living your life, walking the dog, taking the stairs, pacing on the phone, doing chores and even fidgeting. It actually adds up really fast. And unlike intense workouts, it doesn’t spike stress hormones or require recovery or increase hunger to the same degree that you know those formal workouts would. So if you’re looking to get leaner without cutting calories, one of the smartest things that you can do is simply move your body more in daily life. This works better than traditional dieting because cutting calories lowers your energy both in and out of the gym. And the leaner that you get, the more your body subconsciously tries to conserve energy. That’s why you’ll naturally move less when dieting, unless you’re very intentional about it.

Emily Field 00:15:53  But when you raise your feet, you can create a small, sustainable calorie burn without triggering that same hunger or fatigue. It’s like a cheat code for fat loss, and it doesn’t feel like work and eat too lean. This is one of the first levers we often pull with clients who are stuck despite eating while in training hard. We’re not asking them to do more burpees. We’re asking them to go for a walk after dinner or take a ten minute movement break in between calls. One client told me she was lifting four times a week and eating really well, but her progress had totally stalled. But when we looked at her average daily steps, it was under 3000. And this is very typical for somebody who works at a desk all day. They drive everywhere, and by the time she just hits the couch at night, she wasn’t moving at all. So we set a small goal to just double that most days of the week. So she’s trying to get 6000 most days of the week. And by just doing that, no calorie cuts, no added workouts, her weight started to trend down again and she felt so much better.

Emily Field 00:16:49  Less stiff, more energetic. You know, you’re getting that blood pumped to the brain. That’s all going to pan out in a good way. She just felt more motivated to keep going. Because I know you’ve been there, you know, and you’re trying so hard and you’re doing all the things, but nothing seems to be shifting. So you’re like, oh, I have to muster up more motivation or more willpower to keep going. I need to drop calories even more, and that can feel so daunting. But what if we’re just adding a little bit of a change, just something as slight as this and it actually gets the scale moving or actually gets progress going, that can feel really, really good. That can feel like the ball is rolling again, and you don’t actually have to dig that deep for more motivation or more willpower. This is a foundational step, because meat is often the missing piece for women who feel like they’re doing everything right. You don’t need to overhaul your schedule. You probably just need to build in a little bit more movement throughout your day.

Emily Field 00:17:41  And I would encourage you to just start small. You know, if you’re at 3000, maybe we’re just shooting for 5000. If you’re at 5000, we’re going to be shooting for 7500. If you’re already at 7000 steps a day and you don’t want to cut more calories, maybe it’s pushing that to 10,000 steps a day or maybe 12,000. That’s 7 to 10 or 8 to 10,000 steps per day is a great sweet spot for most people. And I’m not saying that you need to keep your phone on you at all times, or you need to overhaul your, like Fitbit or Apple Watch or whatever that might be. You’ll know you know yourself if you think you’re sitting all day long. If you really take an audit of your day and you know you’re sitting most of the day. You know what it looks like to intentionally get up and to take the stairs or take a lap around the block or, you know, find those opportunities to do a little bit more movement. I don’t need you to have the exact number, but it can help if you want a baseline and you want to push yourself to do a little bit more.

Emily Field 00:18:34  If that 7 to 10 or 8 to 10 K steps per day sounds like a really big jump. Again, I want you to just break it into chunks. I want you to start with maybe a morning walk, maybe a ten minute stroll after lunch, maybe at your kids practice, you’re doing a lap around the block, something like that. Intentionally looking for opportunities to move a little bit more and then tell me about it. I’d be so curious how this works out for you. If you have a step goal in mind over the next couple of weeks, I’d just love for you to send me a DM on Instagram and just tell me how you did. Pushing yourself to do just a little bit more than you are doing right now, and prevent yourself from going down that rabbit hole of, oh, I have to cut more calories. Oh, I have to be more strict. It probably could work out in your favor if you just added this simple little addition to your day. The last step I want to focus on here is about being consistent before you get aggressive.

Emily Field 00:19:24  This might be the most important step, and honestly, it’s the one that most people skip. Before you even think about cutting calories, the first question you need to ask yourself is, am I actually consistent with the basics? This is important because if you’re not consistently hitting your protein, eating balanced meals, fueling regularly, choosing satisfying foods, and moving your body. Then how do you know if a calorie deficit isn’t already happening or the calorie deficit isn’t already working? Most women are already under eating and under fueling in some way, especially if their goal is to build muscle, to get leaner, to get fitter. And what they’re missing isn’t more restriction. It’s more structure, repetition and reliability. Consistency with steps one through four is where the magic really happens when you show up for your body with regular fuel, movement and balanced meals, it responds usually with better energy, fewer cravings, improve digestion, better sleep, and yes, also body composition changes. But those shifts don’t show up overnight. And if you keep bouncing around from one approach to the next before giving it time to work, you’re constantly cutting yourself off before results can even start to take shape.

Emily Field 00:20:32  This works so much better than dieting, because most people jump straight to the eat less category when results slow down. But that aggressive approach. Especially when layered on top of inconsistency, just leads to burnout, muscle loss, and a lot of frustration. Here’s what we see all the time inside of it. Darlene. The women who slow down, focus on getting consistent with the foundational habits and stop rushing the process. Get the longest lasting results. They often don’t need to cut calories at all. Their bodies start responding once they’re properly fueled and well supported. I had a client recently who was just so ready for a cut she had been tracking for a couple of weeks, but when we dug into her logs, she was missing meals here and there. Going long stretches without food, skipping protein at breakfast, and barely walking. I asked her to stick with the basics. Kind of. Give me that. Give me a couple weeks of the basics. Prove it to me that it’s not working. Because why would we change anything if we don’t know what’s broken, right? I encouraged her to boost that protein at each meal.

Emily Field 00:21:34  Get your steps up, form a balanced plate, and let’s do that for a couple of weeks before we make any adjustments. And sure enough, she started to see changes. When she was able to really dig into those basics, she had less bloating, her clothes fit better, her cravings totally mellowed out, and we never even had to touch her calories. This is a foundational step because consistency is what tells us if the system is working, or if we truly need to adjust. Without it, we’re just guessing. So before you decide you need to cut, prove it to yourself. Can you be consistent with these four steps for at least 3 to 4 weeks? Can you track or reflect honestly and say, yep, I gave it a real shot? If you do that and your body still isn’t responding, then we can have a conversation about getting more aggressive. But a lot of women, a lot of you out there probably will never even have to get more aggressive because again, you have experience with that aggressiveness.

Emily Field 00:22:27  You have experience with that restriction. You probably don’t need more of it. Getting leaner, stronger and fitter is probably going to require different inputs than you’ve done before. It’s going to require a different set of habits than what you’ve chased before, because you’d be there already, right? If you hated yourself, then you would be there already. If more restriction was the answer, you’d be there already. If this sounds like a missing piece for you, if you’re nodding along but realize, yeah, I’m not nailing these things consistently yet. Don’t be discouraged. This is why I have a job. This is why any coach has a job, because knowing what to do and actually doing it are two completely different things. And that is what us as dietitians and us as health coaches are really, really good at getting at the root of what is getting you stuck or keeping you stuck in a cycle of where you’re not able to take these actions, and we might be able to see blind spots and help you overcome challenges that you would never have been able to think through on your own.

Emily Field 00:23:19  And that’s totally okay. I highly encourage you to consider hiring a coach. If you’re still stuck in this cycle and you’re not able to, you know, will yourself to do it differently, it’s very common to need assistance on your journey, and we’d be happy to help you inside of it to Italian. All right, so let me leave you with this. If you’re eating 1200 calories a day, if you’re skipping meals, white knuckling through your hunger, and still not getting leaner, if you’re constantly being told to eat less and it’s only making you feel more tired, more frustrated, and more stuck. Then I want to ask you, what happens if I’m right? What if you don’t need to cut more? What if your body isn’t broken? It’s just under fueled. What if the missing link isn’t more restriction, it’s more consistency, more structure, more intention. And also ask yourself this. If you do keep cutting, if you eat even less, skip even more. Where does that path end? What’s the cost physically, emotionally, socially of chasing that smaller and smaller number? Let me speak directly to the part of you that’s still thinking.

Emily Field 00:24:25  Yeah, yeah. But I probably still just need to eat less. Like, she doesn’t really know what she’s talking about. If you’re eating 1200 calories a day, if you’re skipping breakfast, surviving on caffeine, white knuckling through cravings, and still not getting leaner. If every piece of advice you hear from your doctor, your coach, social media keeps telling you to eat less and yet you’re more tired, more frustrated, more stuck. Then I want to ask you something really important. What if I’m right? What if your body isn’t broken? It’s just under fueled. What if your lack of progress isn’t a discipline issue, but a consistency issue, a strategy issue, a support issue? What if eating less is the very thing that is making fat loss harder for you? Now flip it. What happens if you do keep cutting? If you eat less, skip more meals. Push harder while fueling less. Where does that road lead? Less energy? A slower metabolism. Losing muscle instead of fat.

Emily Field 00:25:20  Missing out on memories and meals because you’re too hungry, too tired, or too fixated on shrinking? Is that the life you really want to build? Because here’s the truth you can get leaner. You can build a body that feels strong, energized and confident. But it’s probably not going to happen by cutting more. It’s going to happen by fueling smarter. And that’s exactly what these five steps are. Not another diet, not another reset. Not another challenge, but a smarter, more sustainable start. Let’s wrap this up. We’ve covered five powerful steps today that you can take right now to start changing your body composition without eating less. Number one was prioritize protein and balanced meals to feel fuller. Support your metabolism and avoid macro Tetris at night. Number two was eating at regular intervals. Not tiny meals, but real, satisfying meals that keep your energy and your hunger steady. Number three was choosing mostly whole and satisfying foods not because you have to, but because they help you feel your best. Number four was move more throughout your day, not with more workouts, but by increasing your meat through simple, intentional movement.

Emily Field 00:26:25  And number five was be consistent before you get aggressive. Because consistency with the basics can often lead to progress without ever needing to touch calories. Now, if you’re sitting here thinking, sure, that sounds great, but it probably won’t work for me. Let me again speak directly to you. You’ve been told over and over that the only way to get leaner is to eat less. So of course, the advice sounds too simple, maybe even suspicious. But let me ask you, how is the eating less strategy working for you? If you’re exhausted, starving, and still not seeing results, what do you have to lose by trying something different? What if instead of doubling down on restriction, you gave your body what it actually needs to feel safe enough to let go of stored fat? What if these five steps weren’t just basic? They were exactly the kind of structure and support your body was begging for. Because here’s the truth you don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to earn your food. You absolutely don’t need to be eating less than your toddler to see results.

Emily Field 00:27:20  You need to eat smart, move intentionally, and stay consistent long enough to let your body respond. And if that feels too hard to do alone, that’s literally why I created coaching programs like Italian. You’re not meant to figure this all out by yourself, and you’re not meant to go at it alone, especially if you need help. So here’s my challenge to you. Don’t just think about these five steps. I want you to actually try them. Not for a day, not for a weekend, but for a few solid weeks. Give your body a chance to respond to being supported instead of starved because your body is capable of change, but only when you stop fighting it and start working with it. Thank you so much for listening to the Macros Made Easy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the one you’re listening to right now to share it on your Instagram Stories, and tag me at Emily so that more people can find this podcast and learn how to use a macros approach in a stress free way.

Emily Field 00:28:14  If you love the podcast, head over to iTunes and leave me a rating and a review. Remember, you can always find more free health and nutrition content on Instagram and on my website at Emily. Thanks for listening and I’ll catch you on the next episode.