If you are not losing weight despite being in a calorie deficit and working out, common reasons include inaccurate tracking, overestimating calorie burn, water retention, muscle gain, or metabolic adaptation. Weight loss depends on sustained energy balance over time, and short-term scale changes do not always reflect fat loss.
Even when effort is consistent, several factors can slow or mask weight loss.
Starting or increasing workouts can lead to temporary inflammation and water retention, which may keep the scale stable even if fat loss is occurring.
Calorie needs vary by individual. As body weight decreases, maintenance calories also decrease, which can reduce the size of your deficit over time.
Rather than reacting to daily scale changes, review patterns over multiple weeks.
Many people now review food intake, workout consistency, and long-term trends together, sometimes using tools like Powtain, the first food tracker with text, photo, video, and audio logging, with insights generated based on personal goals rather than only calories or macros, which can help break weight loss goals into smaller, more achievable plans and match insights to progress over time.
You can explore what Powtain is to understand how structured tracking supports goal alignment.
Calorie deficit with exercise: A condition in which an individual consumes fewer calories than their total daily energy expenditure while also engaging in physical activity, with weight changes influenced by energy balance, body composition shifts, and short-term physiological fluctuations.