The body fights back if you lose weight.
You may be able to lose a lot of weight at first, without a lot of effort. Nevertheless, weight loss can slow down or stop after a while.
This article lists 15 common reasons why you don’t lose weight.
It also offers actionable suggestions on how to smash through the slump and get things moving again.
- You may be losing without knowing this
When you find you’re hitting a weight-loss slump, you’re not supposed to worry about it yet.
It’s incredibly common for the level not to budge for a few days (or weeks) at a time. This doesn’t say you’re not going to lose weight.
Bodyweight continues to fluctuate a few pounds. This depends on the food you eat, and hormones can also have a major effect on how much water your body retains (especially in women).
You can also add muscle at the same rate as you lose fat. This is particularly common if you have recently started to exercise.
This is a good thing because what you want to shed is body fat, not just weight.
It’s a good idea to use something other than a chart to assess your improvement. For starters, check your waist circumference or body fat percentage once a month.
Okay, how well your clothing match and how you look in the mirror can be very revealing.
Unless you’ve been trapped at the same level for more than 1–2 months, you likely don’t need to think about anything.
2. You don’t keep track of what you’re consuming
Awareness is incredibly important if you’re trying to lose weight. A ton of people doesn’t know how much they eat.
Studies show how keeping track of your food lets you lose weight. Those who use diet diaries and take pictures of their meals are constantly losing more weight than those who do not.
3. You’re Not Eating Enough Protein
Protein is the single most important element for weight loss.
Eating proteins at 25–30 percent of calories will improve metabolism by 80–100 calories per day and help you naturally consume a few hundred fewer calories per day. It can also drastically reduce cravings and cravings for snacking.
This is partly due to protein impacts on appetite-regulating hormones, such as ghrelin and others.
If you’re eating breakfast, make sure you’re packed with protein. Studies show that those who eat high-protein breakfast are less hungry and have less cravings all day long.
4. You’re Eating Too Many Calories
A large number of people who have trouble losing weight are simply eating too many calories.
You may feel this does not matter to you, but keep in mind that surveys consistently show that people tend to underestimate their calorie intake by a significant amount.
If you don’t lose weight, you should continue to measure your diet and count the calories for a while.
Here are some valuable resources:
• Calorie Calculator — Use this tool to figure out how many calories to eat.
• Calorie counters — This is a list of five free websites and apps that can help you keep track of your calorie and nutrient intake.
Tracking is also essential if you’re trying to achieve a nutritional target, such as having 30% of your calories from protein. This can be impossible to achieve if you don’t record things properly.
Generally speaking, it is not important to count calories or measure everything for the rest of your life. Alternatively, use these methods every couple of months for a few days to make you know how much you’re eating.
5. You’re Not Eating Whole Foods
Food quality is as critical as quantity.
Eating healthy foods will boost your well-being and help to control your appetite. Such products tend to fill up much more than their refined equivalents.
Keep in mind that many processed foods branded as “health foods” are not really safe. Stick as much as possible to the whole, single-ingredient ingredients.
6. You’re not going to lift weights
One of the most important things you can do when you lose weight is to do some kind of resistance training, such as lifting weights.
This can help you maintain muscle mass, which is often lost along with body fat if you don’t work out .
Lifting weights can also help prevent a metabolic lag and ensure that your body remains toned and muscular.
7. Binge Eating (Even on Healthy Food)
Binge eating is a common side effect of the diet. This involves eating large amounts of food efficiently, often much more than the body needs.
This is a major problem for many dietitians. Some of them indulge in junk food, while others snack on relatively healthy products, including almonds, nut butter, dark chocolate, bacon, etc. Even if something is good, their calories still count. Depending on the volume, a single binge can often wreck a week’s worth of diet.
8. You don’t have to do exercise
Cardiovascular exercise, commonly known as a fitness and aerobic exercise, is any kind of workout that raises the heart rate. It covers sports such as jogging, biking, and swimming.
It’s one of the most important ways to improve your wellbeing. It is also very effective in removing belly fat, unhealthy “visceral” fat which builds up around the organs and causes disease.
9. You must eat sugar
Sugar drinks are the most fattening products in the food supply. The mind does not account for the calories in your diet by making you consume less of other things (21Trusted Evidence, 22Trusted Source).
This is not only true with sugary drinks such as Coke and Pepsi— it is also true of “healthier” products such as Vitaminwater, which are also filled with sugar.
Fruit juices, however, are harmful and should not be drunk in large quantities. A single glass can contain a comparable amount of sugar as several pieces of the whole fruit.
10. You’re Not Sleeping Well
Good sleep is one of the most important factors for your physical and mental health, as well as for your weight.
Studies show that poor sleep is one of the single greatest risk factors for obesity. Adults and children with poor sleep are at 55% and 89% higher risk of becoming overweight, respectively.
11. You’re Not Cutting Back on Carbohydrates
If you have a lot of weight to shed and/or health issues like type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, you might want to try a low-carb diet.
Throughout short-term trials, this form of diet has been shown to cause up to 2–3 times as much weight loss as the standard low-fat diet that is often prescribed.
Low-carb diets may also lead to improvements in many metabolic factors, such as triglycerides, “healthy” HDL cholesterol, and blood sugar, to name a few.
12. Too often, you’re eating
It’s a myth that everyone eats a lot of tiny meals a day to boost their appetite and lose weight.
Research clearly shows that the length of the meal has little or no impact on fat burning or weight reduction.
It is also incredibly difficult to prepare and eat meals all day, as it renders balanced eating much more complex.
On the other side, an effective method for weight loss called intermittent fasting means purposefully going without food for extended periods.
13. You don’t drink water
Drinking water may benefit from weight loss.
In a 12-week weight loss test, people who consumed half a liter (17 ounces) of water 30 minutes before meals gained 44 percent more weight than those who did not.
Drinking water has also been shown to increase the number of calories burned by 24–30 percent over 1,5 hours.
14. You drink too much alcohol
If you like drinking but want to lose weight, it might be best to stick with drinks (like vodka) combined with a zero-calorie cocktail. Beer, wine and alcoholic beverages are very high in calories.
Keep in mind that the liquor itself has around 7 calories per gram, which is strong.
That being said, drug and weight studies show mixed results. Moderate drinking seems to be normal, although heavy drinking is correlated with weight gain.
15. You don’t feed Mindfully
A technique called healthy eating can be one of the most effective weight-loss devices in the world.
It means slowing down, feeding without interruption, savoring and loving each bite and listening to the internal cues that inform the brain if your body has had enough.
Numerous studies have shown that mindful eating could induce significant weight loss and reduce the incidence of binge eating.
Here are some suggestions for feeding more carefully:
1. Cook with no disturbances, settle down at a table with just your food.
2. Eat slowly, chew thoroughly. Try to be aware of colors, sounds, tastes, and textures.
3. When you’re feeling full, drink some water and stop eating.
16. You’ve got a medical condition that makes things harder.
Some medical conditions can lead to weight gain and make it much harder to lose weight.
These include hypothyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and sleep apnea.
Many drugs may also find weight loss more complicated, or even cause weight gain.
If you believe any of these can relate to you, talk to your doctor about your choices.
17. You are addicted to junk food
According to a 2014 survey, about 19.9 percent of people in North America and Europe meet the criteria for food addiction.
Those who have this disorder consume junk food in the same manner that drug addicts use narcotics.
If you’re addicted to junk food, simply eating less or modifying your lifestyle may seem unlikely.
18. You’ve Been Starving Yourself For Too Long
It might not be a good idea to “diet” for too long.
If you’ve been losing weight for several months and reached a plateau, so maybe you just need to take a break.
Increase your calorie intake by a couple of hundred calories a day, rest more and lift some weights to get healthier and gain a little strength.
Aim to keep your body fat for 1-2 months until you consider trying to lose weight again.
19. Your aspirations are not achievable
Weight loss is usually a slow operation. A lot of people lose patience before they hit their final goal.
Although it is always possible to lose weight fast at the start, very few individuals can still lose weight at a pace of more than 1–2 pounds per week.
The big problem is that many people have unrealistic expectations of what can be done with a healthy diet and exercise.
The fact is, not everyone could look like a fitness model or a bodybuilder. Images you see in newspapers and other sites are often improved.
If you’ve already lost some weight and feel good about yourself, but the scale doesn’t seem to want to budge any further, then you might need to start working on loving your body the way it is. At some stage, the weight is going to hit a safe level where your body feels relaxed. Trying to go beyond that may not be worth the effort, and it may even be impractical for you.
20. You’re Too Focused on Dieting
Diets rarely work in the long term. If anything, studies show that people who diet gain more weight over time.
Instead of approaching weight loss from a dieting mindset, make it your primary goal to become a happier, healthier and fitter person.
Focus on nourishing your body instead of depriving it, and let weight loss follow as a natural side effect.
The best way to lose weight by not cutting out on food is to take protein powder. EVD protein powder helps you to control your hunger and supplies your body with all the necessary nutrients by avoiding all the fats. It helps to improve metabolism and it is rich in antioxidants which enhances your digestive system. EVD protein will help you to maintain your weight and cuts out on unhealthy fat.
2 Comments