Common Reasons You're Not Losing Weight

Why Weight Loss Can Be Difficult?

The problem of weight loss is usually associated with some simple reasons that are often ignored but may hurt your weight loss efforts without you even noticing that.

These hidden barriers are key to comprehending how to push through plateaus and get long-lasting improvements. Whether it is a hidden pitfall of a diet or a lifestyle choice that you could never imagine being related to weight maintenance, various factors may undermine your efforts.

This science-backed guide will assist you in recognizing and overcoming the most common factors that may be causing you not to achieve the weight loss results you are striving toward.

1. You're Not Watching Your Portions or Calories.

Underestimating the number of calories consumed or serving sizes is greater than people think it is. It can be one of the most frequent causes of the inability to lose weight.

Author of "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think", noted that “studies have reported that overweight people underestimate their calorie intake by 40 percent, compared with normal-weight people who underestimate their calorie intake by an average of 20 percent”.

Healthy foods also promote weight gain when they are eaten in large amounts. So, you can’t cry over “I can't lose weight”, if you are not watching your portions. Visual descriptions are misleading, and what may appear to be a normal serving size may have significantly more calories than one thinks.

A food diary or a tracking app can be a shocking reminder of your true eating habits and can also ensure that you are in the caloric deficit required to lose weight.

2. You're Not Getting Enough Sleep

When wondering why I can not lose weight, one of the most important factors is sleep, which is known to play an important role in weight management. Inadequate sleep (less than 7 hours) and oversleeping (more than 9 hours) may lead to disruption of the hormones that control hunger and satiety, especially ghrelin and leptin.

Lack of quality sleep elevates the level of cortisol and insulin resistance, thus creating barriers to effective fat burning in your body. Also, lack of proper rest and fatigue may cause one to make poor food decisions and lack the desire to work out.

One of the most important things you can do to help your metabolism is get 7-9 hours of good sleep every night so you have the energy to make the healthy choices you need to make in your life.

3. You're Drinking Your Calories

The culprit that is often hidden in weight loss plateaus is liquid calories. Sweet drinks, alcohol, specialty coffee drinks, and even apparently healthy smoothies can include hundreds of calories in your total daily consumption without satisfying you.

In comparison to solid foods, liquid calories do not activate the same sites of satiety in your brain, and therefore, you can easily drink a lot of calories without satisfaction.

One large specialty coffee drink may have 300-500 calories, and alcohol not only supplies calories, but may also reduce inhibitions regarding food choices.

By substituting high-calorie drinks with water, herbal tea, or other low-calorie drinks, a large amount of calories can be burned without having to make dramatic adjustments to the diet.

4. You're Not Moving Enough

An inactive lifestyle may greatly affect your weight loss plan through the following ways:

• Extended sitting periods: Prolonged sedentary states lower your metabolism and decrease the amount of calories you burn in a day; it even has an influence on how well your body processes fats and sugars.
• Limited daily movement: Reduced daily non-exercise activity, that is, missing the chance to spend more calories via non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), which can comprise hundreds of calories per day.
• Reduced muscle engagement: Due to the long periods of not using them, your muscles will shrink with time, and this will slow down your metabolism even more because muscle tissues consume more calories at rest compared to fat tissues.
• Incorporating simple movement habits: Adding basic moving routines such as using the stairs, walking when on the phone, or doing housework, will increase the number of calories you burn in a day substantially, without the need to go to the gym.

Reasons You're Not loosing Weight

5. You're Overeating After Workouts

These are the post-workout nutrition mistakes that may easily undermine your calorie-burning workout:

• Reward mentality is a primary factor that makes many individuals rationalize high-calorie rewards following a workout, and in most situations, these individuals tend to eat more calories than they really utilized in their workout routine.
• The amount of calories we burn during exercise is often overestimated, and most people tend to burn less calories than fitness trackers or gym machines estimate, so it is not hard to eat more than you fewer.
• Post-workout nutrition needs to be strategic, involving consumption of protein and complex carbohydrates to aid in recovery, and not an opportunity to consume high-calorie foods or beverages as a reward of sorts to oneself due to exercising.

6. You are Stressed Out

There are several ways through which chronic stress can sabotage weight loss:

• An abundance of cortisol due to chronic stress not only enhances fat storage, especially in the abdominal area, but also heightens the desire to eat comfort foods that are high in calories, sugar, and fat.
• Stress and emotional eating habits tend to form a pattern of coping with the stressful situation, which further results in the intake of more calories than the body actually needs and thus interferes with the normal appetite control.
• Stress that leads to sleep disturbance results in a chain reaction of hormone imbalance that further compromises weight control and induces the possibility of poor food choices.

7. You Are Missing Meals or N ot Eating enough.

Ironically, under-eating may sometimes stall weight loss efforts. Your body is smart, and when you miss meals or drastically cut calories, it attempts to compensate by decreasing your metabolism in an effort to preserve energy. This compensatory mechanism may progressively cause more weight gain.

You can't lose weight if you starves yourself by missing meals. This will tend to eat a lot later in the day, especially simple carbohydrates and fats.

When calories are severely limited, your body also starts to use muscle as an energy source, which, of course, slows metabolism even more. Balanced meals and snacks will stabilize blood sugar levels, prevent muscle loss, and ensure your metabolism is running at its best.

8. You Have a Medical Condition or Take Medication

The following medical conditions and medications may make it much harder to lose weight:

• Thyroid disease, especially hypothyroidism, could decelerate metabolism and imply that one can gain little weight regardless of diet and exercise, which should be appropriately treated by a physician.
• Hormonal issues: PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), menopause, or insulin resistance may influence the way your body stores and burns fat and often require special treatment solutions.
• Some weight-gaining medications, as side effects, are corticosteroids, antidepressants, antihistamines, and some blood pressure medications. For those looking to manage their weight, exploring the best weight loss supplements may be a helpful option.
• If you suspect that an underlying medical condition may be affecting your ability to lose weight, it is essential to consult a healthcare provider. An accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment in such cases can make a significant difference.

We are now educating primary care physicians and other specialists that treating obesity is going to eventually mitigate all the other comorbidities.

— Dr. Caroline Apovian, Co-Director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women's Hospital

9. You're Not Consuming Enough Whole Foods

When it comes to weight loss, the quality of your food choices can be every bit as important as the quantity:

• Processed foods are often high in calories, refined sugar, Trans fats, and sodium levels, and contain little to no essential vitamins and minerals, along with fibre that helps keep you full.
• Unprocessed foods such as vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, and whole grains are more filling per calorie and take more energy to break down, making them conducive to weight loss and health in general.
• The whole foods that are rich in fiber keep you satisfied longer and balance your blood sugar levels to curb cravings and overeating attractions during the day.
• Taking small steps towards a minimally processed diet, high-nutrient foods can not only enhance your weight loss outcome but will also boost your energy and your health in general.