Ever been in that position where you’re discouraged because you think that you’ve put in too much effort into losing weight but can’t seem to see any results? We all have. One thing you should realize is that when you lose weight, your body fights back. You may be able to lose quite a lot of weight at first, without much effort, however, weight loss may slow down or stop altogether after a while. Read on to see 5 reasons why you might not be losing weight:
1. Wrong Diet
Eating the wrong foods or at the wrong time might be one of the main reasons why you’re not really losing weight. Dietary awareness is incredibly important for people trying to lose weight and many people don’t actually have a clue how much they’re really eating. Try to be as meticulous as possible at monitoring what you eat and how much you eat.
Another reason you’re not losing weight might be because you’re not eating much protein. Protein is the single most important nutrient for losing weight. Eating protein at 25-30% of calories can boost metabolism by 80-100 calories per day and make you automatically eat several hundred fewer calories per day. If you eat breakfast, then this is the meal where you need to load up more on the protein. A high protein intake also helps prevent metabolic slowdown, a common side effect of losing weight. It also helps to prevent weight regain.
Are you eating more of natural and whole foods? You should try as much as possible to avoid all these processed foods labeled as “health foods”. Eat more of natural and whole foods. These foods improve your health and help regulate your appetite. They also tend to be much more filling than their processed counterparts.
Your sugar intake has a lot more to do with your weight than you think. Sugary beverages are the most fattening food items, and this isn’t only true of sugary drinks like Coke and Pepsi; it also applies to “healthier” beverages like Vitamin water- which are also loaded with sugar. You should lessen the amount of fruit juice you take into your system. A single glass can contain a similar amount of sugar as several pieces of whole fruit!
2. Insufficient Sleep
A lot of people seem to think that training really hard and without getting sufficient amounts of sleep, it somehow going to aid in the quest of losing weight. But this is actually not true. As a matter of fact, good sleep is one of the most important things to consider for your physical and mental health as well as your weight. Studies show that poor sleep is one of the main risk factors for obesity. Adults with poor sleep have a 55% greater risk of developing obesity.
Chronic levels of sleep deprivation cause the release of cortisol. The biggest spike in (fat-burning, anabolic) growth hormone plasma levels occurs in deep sleep. And a recent sleep study showed that truncated sleep patterns are linked to weight gain. Get seven to eight hours of sleep a night.
3. Too Much Stress
Stress causes the body to produce cortisol, which in excess amounts, catabolizes muscle, worsens insulin resistance, promotes the storage of fat and increases cravings for carbohydrates.
Too much cortisol can cause metabolism levels to slow down. Even worse, excessive stress causes a build up of fat in the abdominal area, where weight is harder to lose. High stress levels are bad for the body in a number of ways and you should take care to avoid piling on stress.
Conclusion
Weight loss is about a lot more than just working out, so make sure you get all important factors mentioned here right. You might be thinking of hiring a professional fitness instructor to help design and manage a fitness plan that works just for you, and we think this is a great idea. We would be glad to connect you with someone you can trust. Please get in touch with us at: