Far 2 Fabulous

Doing Everything ‘Right’ and Still Gaining Weight? Here’s Why.

• Julie Clark & Catherine Chapman • Episode 98

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A woman joins the gym, grinds 30–40 minutes of cardio every day, keeps the weights light, fasts four days a week, relies on laxatives, and gains two kilos. Familiar? We’ve seen this pattern again and again, and we break down why it happens—and how to turn it around with a plan that respects stress, hormones, and real life.

We start by dismantling the “eat less, do more” script that pushes women into chronic stress: steady-state cardio in the middle zone, under-fuelling, and long-term constipation that signals deeper gut and thyroid issues. Then we map a smarter training approach. Instead of daily drudge, use interval cardio with full recoveries to build fitness without frying your nervous system. Ditch light weights and endless reps; choose heavy, technically sound sets that hit failure around reps eight to ten to protect bone, support hormones, and actually change your body.

Food becomes a tool, not a punishment. Build a daytime eating window and let the overnight fast be your fast. Eat real food regularly—protein for muscle, plants for fibre, fats for satiety—and hydrate like it matters. We explain why daily bowel movements are a basic health marker, how fibre variety supports the microbiome, and why relying on laxatives for years deserves medical attention. Beyond the scale, we prioritise visceral fat, hydration, muscle mass, sleep quality, and how you feel in your clothes. Expect progress over weeks, not days, and add joy back into movement with walks, swimming, or Pilates to support recovery.

If you’ve been doing “everything right” and still feel stuck, this conversation offers a clear reset: fewer stressors, better signals, and habits that hold. Subscribe for more myth-busting advice, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show. What’s the first change you’ll make this week?

Got a question or comment? Send us a text message here!

Thank you for listening.

You can continue the conversation with us in the Far 2 Fabulous Facebook group. Come and connect with other women on a journey to empowered health.

For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE

We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello, hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the Far Too Fabulous Podcast. You didn't sing last time, I didn't notice that. And now you've been pull on singing. Right, but I thought I'd get my um my practice in for my uh choir audition for chamber choir. But if we do it now, do you think that Abby and Ross will take this as my audition? Probably not. No, no, I know. I usually squeeze it in at the last minute anyway. Anyway, so this week's topic is well, I was gonna say it's a little bit tongue-in-cheek because basically I've got something that I know will wind Julie up. I said, I said, I'm gonna read this to you, Julie, and basically I'm gonna just like light the touch paper and step away. Okay, which is, to be fair, what the entire concept of this podcast was based on, right? Yes. Was that we used to sit here and rant about things, and so we just thought we'd do it with with you guys listening in. So I was on Facebook, I think, and this post came up on my feed. Now it's a it was a recommended Facebook group, Women's Health and Fitness. I don't know whose group it is, or I don't know anything about it, it just came up on my on my feed. And this post was written by an anonymous member. So I'm gonna read it to you, and you just listen closely and you'll hear Julie's heart breaking halfway through it. I'm breaking embracing myself, and and then we're just gonna we're gonna talk about what what we would advise basically for this. And it's the reason I picked up on this is because I see this quite frequently. I've come out of lots of these groups because of this, really. When I was certainly when I was doing like network marketing and things, being in these groups was a was a helpful place to be. And this is not a one-off message, this is quite common, and the replies are quite common. So anonymous member says, Hey, I've recently joined the gym, and since joining, I have gained two kilos instead of losing. Why is this? I do 30 to 40 minutes cardio a day, cycle bike, treadmill, and recumbent bike, and weights, but not too heavy, and do three times 15 sets. I am in calorie deficit four days a week. I fast and I only have dinner under 4,000 kj for those days, and the other days under 8,000 kJ, which is recommended. Also, don't go to the toilet without laxatives and have been relying on them for years. And so, I mean, if that is not enough, the most of the replies were advising this person. I'm I'm gonna guess it's a woman. I don't know if we got any indication there. Oh, I think it probably is advising her to exercise more and eat less. There was the whole somebody actually said the calories in, calories out line. So when I first read it, I matched, I was actually shouting at the at the phone, which is really helpful. And it's just it's heartbreaking, it's it's so sad, and I knew that you would feel the same.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think my first thought was thinking that it's a lady. I'm gonna assume it's a lady because it's a women's health group for a start. We don't know how how old this a lady is. Yeah, I feel really sorry for her because she is following the format that we've been conditioned over years and years that if we exercise more and we eat less, then we're gonna lose weight. And that weight loss is the goal, and that weight loss is the goal. Yeah, I just feel really, really sorry for this lady. There's lots to unpick there. I think the numbers, the kilajoul numbers, the KJ, I don't know if that can't be calories because that's too that is too much. So that doesn't sound right. So I don't know, I can't figure those numbers out.

SPEAKER_01:

But if she is in calorie deficit and then she's fasting as well, so she's basically doing all the things wrong, yeah, without realizing she's doing the absolute opposite of what she is doing, isn't of what she wants to be doing. So straight away, 30 to 40 minutes cardio a day, how I just I feel for her body, her body is in total stress, yeah. And just to make this real, let's say, for instance, she is in her mid-40s. Yep. Let's let's go for it. The stress of 30 to 40 minutes cardio on a on a bike or a treadmill or a common bike, you're in that zone two, constant. So you're not absolutely blasting it, but you're not resting, you're in that middle point, and your body doesn't it doesn't understand what you're doing anyway, because it just we haven't evolved to that point anyway. So you're just under 30 to 40 minutes of extra stress on your body every single day.

SPEAKER_00:

Every day, she says every day, and on top of that, four of those days she's exercising without eating, yeah, according to that post. Yeah, which we know is does the complete opposite for women to what you want it to do. Yeah, so there's even more of a stress situation as far as her body's concerned. I'm having to run whatever the cycle by the things that she's doing cardio for 40 minutes a day on top of being empty of fuel to actually do that. So yeah, and the fact that she's constipated as well is very, very telling, isn't it? Isn't it? For 10 years. She can't let go. So she can't let go of weight either. Yeah, the body is not able to let go, and that needs that really needs looking at because to have using laxatives every day to go to the toilet is not right.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, it's really yeah, it's really dangerous to be relying on them for that long. Yeah, and then the weights, uh lifting weights but not too heavy. Yeah. I wonder I just I wonder why she's satisfied that.

SPEAKER_00:

I think she said that because she's gained weight. She's probably thinking, oh, but I'm not weight training. If I was weight training, then I would gain weight because we've also got this misconception that by weight training we're gonna turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger, we're not ever gonna do that. No, so I think that's why she's put that. She's saying, you know, because she doesn't want people to say, well, of course you put two kilograms on because you've been, you know, building your muscle.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. And there definitely were some comments about the whole yeah, muscle is is heavier than fat narrative. Yeah, so really, really interesting. And so, if this person came to you, what would be your sweeping advice to?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so very generalized because we don't know all the details for a start, we don't know how long. She says recently joined the gym. So we we're looking at our expectations there as well. Has she done a week at the gym and expecting to suddenly lose a load of weight?

SPEAKER_01:

You are so right, yeah, absolutely. We want this to happen. This is where we think that motivation is gonna take us all the way, and we have this motivation for what, maybe one or two days maximum, and then we're like, oh, it's not working, I'm gonna give up. And that's just not how it works at all. Absolutely, it takes a good two weeks for your body to be able to fully what's the word I'm looking for, like process and feel and gain from what you are doing. So if you do something in the gym, it's gonna take two weeks for you to feel the benefits of that. So, yes, if she's been there for one week and it's not working.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we do again, we don't know because it's uh I recently joined the gym, but I think my approach would be if I was on a call, like a discovery call, if because I do those all the time, whereas someone may come on and say that, then I'd be looking at what is going on with the bowels for a start. I'd really want to tackle that because, like I said, it is such an indicator for not being able to let go. Yeah, and that would include weight. If your body is not able to process waste out, goodness knows what you know, the body's having to use fat to store things that it would normally process out of the body, because fat is a great place to put toxins and all sorts for a start. Yeah, that's what I'd be thinking. Um, we've got to sort out the gut health to find out what's been going on there for 10. Does she say for 10 years? For 10 years. For 10 years. So, yeah, something's going on there. I would want to know where she's at with her hormones, because that's obviously going to play into that, and that maybe have an impact on the on the bowel. But the main thing here, I think from my perspective, and you'll probably agree, is to get that cardio and fasting out straight away. Straight away, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Making sure that so as we're gonna generalise and say that she's around 45, making sure that she is doing some cardio, but she's doing it in blasts, so that you do like a couple of minute blast on something, and then you pull right back and you recover, and you do that, and just try and improve on that so your heart's still getting that that workout, but you haven't got that constant stress, and the type of stress that you're then putting your body under is something that it can respond to and and grow with rather than just like a drudging on for 30 to 40 minutes stress with yeah, without a doubt, and and then the weights. Same sort of thing, you need to be lifting a lot heavier, but you need to, and I've come across with this, and I know what I'm doing. You need to be able to make sure that you start small, make sure that you are like doing body weight squats, doing doing body weight push-ups, all those sorts of things, and getting your technique really, really good, and then adding some badass weights to it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but we need to lift heavy for less reps, yeah, and she's done it the other way around. She's got low weight, but more reps. More reps, yeah. Yeah, so she's she's got that round the wrong way. But what she's actually put there is what a lot of women would think is the right way to go. Yeah. Up my cardio, yeah, do more exercise, do the fasting, yeah, put myself in calorie deficit. I mean, that is just screaming stress to me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, without like, yeah, stress because you're not fueling yourself, stress because you're doing that that cardio, and the the weight set will just will just count as just a constant stress. It won't be that you're challenging your muscles enough to actually grow them. No, it would just be another addition to that stress, and yeah, your body is just it just screaming, screaming out. Do you when you are doing your consultations, uh is the gut the place you kind of go first?

SPEAKER_00:

Not always, because it depends on the person, but really most things will go back to the gut, so you do have to look at the gut, and there are some general things that you would look for that people are able to achieve, and having a bowel movement every day is absolutely crucial, it is such an indicator for health, and going more than once a day is actually even better. So if you're in a position where you you can't, you're relying on laxatives, that's a massive red flag for me.

SPEAKER_01:

It's so uncomfortable as well, isn't it? I know if you I don't know, like when my hormones are having a nice little jump around, and or just before you're gonna come on your on your period, you feel so so uncomfortable if you're constipated. And and then if you ever have to take laxatives, they're not kind, are they? They're not comfortable, and then the after effects of them is not comfortable as well. It's just it's just not a nice, nice ride to be on.

SPEAKER_00:

No, exactly. So, yeah, it'd be interesting. I'd be really interested to know what she eats. So, of course, that's another thing that I will obviously go through with people. What are you actually eating? Get them to write a food diary. But if I'm if I'm just having a a discovery call, I would just say on the call, just tell me a typical day. Because a lot of people will say on a call, and she might be one of these people where she says, I eat really healthy, I eat really healthy, and then when I say, Okay, what are you actually eating? Then we discover it's not as healthy as they think it is. Normally there's too much sugar, yeah, and not enough actual food. Yeah, actual food, and lots of processed stuff potentially, yeah, and she's she's probably got some fibre issue going on there if she's not able to go to the toilet. So I'd be really interested to know what she is eating, given that four days a week she is fasting. Yeah, she's definitely not nourishing herself, she's in stress, and yeah, she's just got it all around the wrong way for her. So I feel really, really sorry. Yeah, I feel really sorry for her. I hope I hope someone's put up some good advice on that. On those comments, did you see any good comments? So were people generally again just too uh too old school?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, that is was still the narrative. Eat less, do more, punish yourself in the game. Punish in the gym, punish yourself in the kitchen, and yeah, and it all just relies on on willpower. Yeah, there was no talk about sort of getting the subconscious on board or good habits or or just being kind to yourself, and still, and that it starts off with I've gained two kilos, and it's all it's just all about the like the overall body weight. Like there's no discussion about body fat percentage, there is no discussion about how much her muscle mass weighs, there's no discussion about her visceral fat. Yeah, that number, that visceral fat number for me, hands down, is the most important thing from a body competition point of view, and the second most important number, as far as I'm concerned, you isn't the muscle mass or the body fat percentage, it's the hydration number. Yeah. That's always that one. If you get to move that number, it changes all of the other ones for good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, what would you give her to do from an exercise perspective in order to turn this around?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'd certainly change the the cardio so you were having more of a hit version of cardio, so you were sort of really pushing yourself to the max for sort of one and a half, two minutes, and then resting recovery back off again, and then and then doing that sort of three or four times. So again, how long is she staying in the gym for? I imagine she's spending hours a day in the gym, which is totally unnecessary and really mind-numbing, and exactly and adding those weights, making sure that she can lift properly, but really challenging herself. So reducing the sets down to about eight to eight to ten, and by that eight and tenth rep, like you've got full on ugly face, you can't you can't push up or squat anymore, you've come to your absolute max, and that is where the change is gonna happen, yeah, and that is where your body is gonna go, oh hang on, we've got to do something about this, and that's why it supports your hormones as well. Whereas, yeah, the other version is just another stress. Also, with the fasting, if people are set on this fasting, then just change when you are fasting to a natural time. So from eight in the depending on what time you get up, from what, seven or eight in the morning to seven or eight at night.

SPEAKER_00:

No, that's your eating window, yeah. And then you just you just fast overnight.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you don't have to do this through the day when you are supposed to be eating and when you are supposed to be fueling yourself, like also she can't be getting a good workout because she's not fueling herself. You can't possibly get the most efficient workout if you haven't had anything to eat. No, that is like running a car without any petrol in it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it doesn't happen. And you know, before when we were speaking about, I was saying about when the adrenals are really going crazy, that's like the accelerator of the car, yeah, being the the pedals flat down. Yeah, you've got to fuel that pedal for a start, yeah. But if you don't, and that pedal's flat down, the thyroid will step in and it will put the brakes on, and the thyroid directly impacts the transit time through the bowel. So I wonder if there might be something going on there as well. Yeah. Because she's going to impact all of that mechanism through the endocrine system by doing that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. All connected. And also, if she is doing any good in the gym with her 30 to 40 minutes cardio a day and her three by 15 sets, she's then not fueling herself enough to have any benefit from that. She may as well just not bother. Yeah, which is really sad, isn't it? Because she yeah, because she's spending hours and hours in there. Actually, that would almost be my first thing was just don't just don't bother. Because if you're gonna starve yourself and stress yourself, it's not doing what you want it to do. So actually, just don't bother, don't spend that time in the gym.

SPEAKER_00:

No, but you can understand from her perspective, she is actually putting a fair amount of effort in. Huge amount. And it must be uncomfortable to do that fasting four days a week and to go and pound the the treadmill, etc., for half an hour, 40 minutes a day without the fuel, and then just not have the result that you're looking for at the end of it. Oh, it's fucking miserable. Yeah, that is miserable, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

Utterly miserable, yeah. So so as a blanket statement, we're gonna sort that cardio out so it's actually actually efficient. Definitely not doing it every single day, twice a week. Yeah, twice a week. Your weights, what, three times a week? Go and do something nice as well, please. Get out of the gym, go and go and walk or swim or go do some Pilates because it's bloody lovely. Do something you like, yeah. Really, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00:

But we're not we're not we're not saying that cardio is an absolute no-no. No, no, it's necessary, hugely necessary. Yeah, but it's just in this case, she's just focused on doing that every day because that's what we've been told as women. We go do more cardio and we eat less. That's basically what she's done there, yeah. And the outcome is that she's gained weight by doing that, and that's what we see all the time, don't we?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I mean, once upon a time, this would have worked for me when I was 20 or 30. It's amazing what punishment you can put yourself through at that age, and and it all completely different, yeah. Yeah, but uh yeah, definitely, definitely not. I'm just I I just feel pain and misery in this whole post. And that is still the overarching theme around sort of health and fitness when people are talking about weight loss and stuff like that, is that they just punish themselves and they put themselves through misery.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So if you're listening and you're thinking, hang a minute, that's what I'm doing. I'm trying to lose weight.

SPEAKER_01:

I should have written this post.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I've just upped everything and I'm trying the fasting and everything. You've got to come at it from a different way, especially if you're you're in your 40s or beyond. You just it's not the right way to do it. Yeah. And what would you say for her for her diet? Well, it's it it's very hard to say because I don't know anything about her. I don't know if she's a meat eater, a vegetarian, I don't know what she's eating. No. Um, so it's really, really, it's really hard to comment on anything to do with diet based on that post to be honest. But she needs to up the fibre with we would assume. Yeah, definitely need to do something to support the the gut and just eat regularly. Cut out the snacking if snacking isn't is is an issue. I I just think she's not eating enough from that post.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. Just good, clean, normal food. Yeah, just just normal food. Actual food. Actual normal food, and maybe paying a bit more attention to your protein. I do know what I this is totally I'm I'm tangenting again. I'm off. I'm off. I think that fibre is gonna be the next protein.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think you're right. Bandwagon. Yep, fibre is such a crucial. Oh my goodness mate, I spend my life talking about fibre because it is so crucial. It is crucial for so many things.

SPEAKER_01:

But do you not think I feel like the food industry is gonna jump on it and do the same as what they've done with like the protein pots and the protein bars and the protein. You're right, yeah. I think that there's they're gonna start advertising things that this has got fibre in it.

SPEAKER_00:

I think you're definitely right there. Yeah. And then they will use those powders from the laboratory to put the the fibre in. It won't be like eat your vegetables and things, it will be the fibre from the chemistry set.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We do like to make things difficult for ourselves, actually. I mean, like it is so simple. Fibre is so simple. You've just got to eat normal food.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think it's that difficult, but normal food. When yeah, we we I do know that actually across the world we do struggle to get enough fibre.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it's yeah, it is very important. So, yeah, that was that that went pretty much how I thought it would go. Like you were quite calm, actually. I feel like she's not crying or I mean it does, it does break my heart.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, mine too. Yeah, it it's sad. And but the thing is, is that that post is one of many, many, many, many thousands, hundreds of thousands that women are are trying to lose weight and that's what they think they should do, and that is not the right way to do it.

SPEAKER_01:

No. Uh yeah, so come and carry on the discussion in the Far Too Fabulous Facebook group. Could you have written this post? Or if you'd seen it on a Facebook group, what would have been your answer to her? That would be really interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

That would be really interesting. Yeah, do come and tell us. See you next week. See you next time.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much for joining us today. We love creating this for you. We'll be back next week with another great episode.

SPEAKER_00:

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