5 Reasons why you are not losing weight!
1 . You are eating too little
This one is very common, eating too little will hinder your fat loss as your bodily processes slow down to the rate of energy (food) coming in. If 2000 calories per day is what it takes to maintain your body weight, 1500-1700 calories would put you into the perfect fat loss zone. After reading that last sentence you might think, “well my weight has been stable for ages and I barely eat anything” that’s because your body is in starvation mode! It’s holding onto every last bit of stored fat in case of a famine, you are built for survival, start eating and it will take the brakes off and start burning up some stored body fat as energy.
2. You are eating too much
Fairly obvious this one, if you are the sort of person who rewards yourself after exercise with a big old fat piece of cheesecake and then continue to eat your other meals too, don’t expect to lose much weight! Alcohol, pastries, junk food and all processed foods have a very high calorie content and are low on nutrients. This type of food will ensure you stay in a positive energy balance (calorie excess) and not lose any weight, possibly even gain weight. Eat foods that are low in calories but high in nutrients (superfoods) like avocado’s, oily fish, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, berries, apples, cherries, kale, pomegranate, meats, beans, and lentils.
3. You are eating the wrong foods
If like most people you are eating carbohydrates all day long you are encouraging your body to burn sugar, not fat! When carbs are low so is the storage hormone known as insulin. Did you hear that word storage? That’s right, in laymen’s terms insulin will drive excess glucose (carbs) into fat stores where it will be converted to fat and stored for a rainy day! Great huh! Eat a balanced diet of protein, fat, fibrous carbs and some starchy carbs, vitamins and minerals, in other words, meat, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables and drive your body into fat metabolism (fat burning) through exercise.
4. Bad lifestyle
You could have your training and diet in check and you are still not losing weight. This could be due to the other factors surrounding your lifestyle, i.e rest, recovery and stress. If you do a job that pisses you off, has you running around like a blue arse fly all day with no time to eat, gives you tons of stress and generally runs you down, you will struggle to lose weight! Putting your body under this type of stress will raise cortisol and other hormones that are not conducive to fat loss. Likewise if you burn the candle at both ends, work all hours and stay up late getting less than 6 hours sleep you run the same scenario. Your body needs time to relax and recuperate, getting 8-9 hours sleep is one of the best things you can do to help lose weight, important fat burning hormones are released at night, (growth hormone mainly) did you know you burn fat whilst you are sleeping! Get some rest!
5. Medical reason
Finally if you feel you are doing all of the above and still getting nowhere, there could be some underlying issue that is not going to be clear straight away. You could have a hormone imbalance, an underactive thyroid, a food allergy, insulin resistance, or even depression. Only when you work with a nutritionist or doctor of some sort will you be able to identify this.
This is the top 5 reason’s I see with my clients and bootcampers for why they are struggling to lose weight. Identify which category you might fall into and address the problem with the above suggestions.
Alternatively contact me and I will put together a nutrition programme specifically to your dietary needs.
Pete
