Why You’re Not Losing Weight

Are you putting in all of the hard work but not seeing the pounds come off? Whether you just started dieting and exercising to get healthier or you’ve been dieting for a while and the progress has slowed to a stop; here are several possible scenarios:

1) You’re eating too little…  A lot of people today don’t realize that they actually don’t eat that much,

" Eat 4-6 Smaller
 Meals a day"

and what they do eat is usually crap. It’s understandable, it’s a busy world today, some people work 2 jobs, some people have kids, school, and so on; a lot of the time it’s hard to get a decent meal in, or exercise for that matter, and many just opt out for fast-food or something similarly unhealthy. So what happens when you have a primarily sedentary lifestyle (sitting in an office all day, minimal movement, watching TV), and consume little calories, and from poor sources (processed foods, foods high in fat, fast food etc.), overtime the body’s metabolism will slow down to accommodate the lack of energy (calories). So when a person in this scenario decides to start dieting, eating fewer calories to lose weight, they don’t realize that they’re only making the situation worse by slowing the metabolism more. Eventually the body can go into starvation mode and virtually store and hold all the food you eat, stopping you from losing weight, and possibly even causing weight gain.

The solution is to roughly track your calories for a week or so; and if you’re eating fewer than 1,000-1,500 calories a day depending on your size, weight, and so on you could be putting your metabolism in danger of slowing down severely. What you need to do is spike your metabolism and get it going again, think of it as kind of like jumping a car when the battery goes out. To do so you need to gradually up your calorie intake, and try to make the source as healthy and “clean” as possible. Another way to help up your metabolism and keep it elevated is to eat 4-6 smaller meals a day anywhere from 400-600 calories a piece, rather than the conventional 3-meal breakfast, lunch, and dinner routine. This coupled with anywhere from low to high intensity exercise which gets the heart rate going faster, will in turn get your metabolism churning again and burning more calories allowing your body to start shedding some pounds! There are also special “fat-burning foods” and meals out there that are good for upping the metabolism and getting you to burn more calories but I’ll get into that another time.

Fruits are great... In
Moderation

2) You’re eating too much… Yeah no kidding captain obvious some of you may say, but today there is so much bull poop surrounding weight-loss. A magic pill or herb comes out every other week claiming to be the key to burning fat and losing weight, or people think that they can’t lose weight because they have some disease or disorder that they heard about on Dr. Philoproz, and so on. Now for some they may have a genetic disorder or disease that makes them gain weight and keep it, but I highly doubt that it’s everyone having trouble to lose weight; simply put you’re eating too much! The mistake that many make is not considering what they DRINK has calories as well. A 12oz. can of soda has around 140 calories as well as 40 grams of sugar and caffeine too, which will only make you feel more hungry; the same with juice. Alcohol as well holds many calories and it can also suppress the oxidation of fat (use of fat for fuel), it can mess with your hormones, and it can stimulate your appetite making you feel more hungry. So when you’re at dinner and you have a couple of glasses of wine you’re probably going to be inclined to eat more of your food. Another biggie is snacking, you may not realize just how many extra calories you’re building up every day by snacking; and also you need to remember that fat has more calories per gram, 9, while proteins and carbs only have 4 calories per gram. So if you eat or snack on foods with high fat content you’re going to be getting in more calories.

The Solution… Cut back a lot if not completely on all flavored drinks, and replace them with water, try to minimize if not cut off snacking especially if it’s crap food, evenly spread out and distribute your meals into 4-6 meals a day at 400-600 calories per meal. Track your progress, weigh yourself every morning upon waking and take the average every 7 days to determine if you’re losing weight. Remember no more than 1-3 pounds a week otherwise you could end up in something similar to scenario 1 up above. If you’re still not losing weight then continue to gradually reduce your calorie intake and or up your exercise intensity. Just remember one thing folks, nothing happens overnight, you have to be patient, I promise you if you take your time and do it the right way you’ll be way better off and looking better in the long run! These two reasons are the biggies when it comes to weight loss, but there are many smaller variables that can affect it as well such as lack of sleep, stress, and so on, which I’ll get into soon – stay tuned!