1. You’re not consuming enough protein.

If you’re looking at optimizing your health and keeping lean, understand that what eating protein does for protein synthesis, lifting weights does for building muscle.

While you should be in a calorie deficit to lose fat, you should be focusing on healthy whole foods, with a good amount of protein. To help maintain or build muscle – Experts are still looking to understand the optimal protein dose for older people, however, the evidence is pointing to between 1.2 and 1.8 g/kg.

The Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise medical journal also published a study that showed the correlation between increased protein and “reduced loss of lean body mass.” Healthy, young, elite athletes that were given a high-protein diet lost more weight while still maintaining muscle over those who had a “normal” amount of protein in their diet.

2. You don’t do resistance training

If you won’t use and challenge your muscles on a regular basis, especially when you are in a caloric deficit, you don’t give your body any reason to keep your muscle mass.

This is a typical issue with people who only focus on cardio and end up looking small and skinny instead of fit and athletic.

Don’t forget to include strength training in your routine, and make sure your objective is to maintain your current strength.

3. You are not recovering properly

Recovery is the single most important part of any training or exercise program. Recovery allows for improved performance, permits time for our body to heal itself in preparation for the next training load, and decreases the risk of potential injury.  

Sleep provides crucial time to recover, with adequate levels of sleep allowing time for fundamental processes to occur. Sleep debt, or insufficient levels of sleep, impairs recovery, and hurt your fat loss efforts.