11 Reasons Why You Are Not Losing Weight

A lot of people are faced with the frustration of not being able to lose weight even when they think they are doing what they think is necessary. Weight loss is simple but it’s not easy. As long as the calories consumed are less than the calories burnt, you should get continuous fat loss. Make sure that it is correct weight loss. Here are 11 reasons why you may not be getting weight loss.

1. Overeating

A lot of people do not realize how much they are eating until they actually carry a food log. Most people cannot remember beyond 1 or 2 days. Some have even shorter memories. The easiest way to get your weight loss going again is by logging in your daily food consumption and analysing it on the weekend. Research has shown the benefit of doing so.

2. Overestimating Exercise Calories Burnt

A lot of people overeat thinking that they have had a good workout. They overestimate the calories burnt in an exercise session. Most often, people equate the amount they sweat to the amount of calories they burn.

3. Not Eating Enough

Reducing food too much, puts one at risk of activating one’s starvation response. Once the starvation response has been activated, it becomes almost impossible to lose weight. It’s best to reduce your food consumption by not more that 10%.

4. Losing Fat but Gaining Muscles

A lot of men and women who take up weight resistance training experience this. They lose inches off their waist but the weight does not seem to be moving. This is because fat loss is being compensated by the muscles built. Muscles are more dense and as a result, weigh more.

5. Too Much of Steady State Cardio Exercises

The more cardio exercises you do, the more efficient your muscles become. Your muscles will need lesser energy to do the same amount of work. This is partly due to your body adapting to the exercise. You would benefit more by reducing the amount of steady state cardio and instead doing more sprints or interval training.

6. Not Varying Exercises

The body adapts to your exercise routine very quickly. It becomes efficient at doing the exercises as these exercises become familiar. Adaptation leads to slowing down of fat burning.

7. Consuming Too Much Alcohol

Alcohol halts fat burning. Fat burning is disrupted for more than 48 hours after consuming alcohol. A lot of people do lots of exercise during the week and completely blow it by bingeing on alcohol on Friday night. You must be aware of the effects of alcohol on fat loss.

8. Missing Breakfast

Breakfast is the most essential meal of the day for sustainable weight loss. Your body could activate your starvation response if you skip your breakfast. This is akin to the diet of a Sumo Wrestler. Research has shown that people who skip breakfast have a higher propensity of storing abdominal fat.

9. Lack of Sleep

Weight loss is almost impossible for someone who is sleep deprived. Lack of sleep produces and excess of cortisol and this does not help with weight loss.

10. Weekend Binges

A lot of people stick to a very disciplined routine of diet and exercise until Friday night. After that, the diet goes out of the window. Weekend alcohol and unrestricted food consumption has been shown to hamper weight loss efforts.

11. Weight Loss Plateau

You may have reached a weight loss plateau. You could hit this plateau even if you are doing everything right. One of the reason could be fatigue or over exercising. A good solution would be to take a week off from exercise. This helps the body to become sensitized to exercise once you resume it. Do not use this an an excuse to binge. Eat healthy all the while.