When you embark on a weight loss journey, challenges can come in all different sizes and styles.
It can be both complicated and emotional.
You may hit a weight loss plateau where the scale stops budging, making you backslide on your new healthy habits.
Or, you may feel like you’re doing everything right and still not losing weight.
You feel frustrated.
You feel trapped in an endless cycle of hard work and lack of results.
So why not just go back to your old habits if it doesn’t make any difference?
Not so fast.
In this article, I’m going to show you the real causes that may affect your ability to lose weight, and how to solve them.
1. You're not eating enough
You’ve heard that time and time again: if you’re trying to lose weight, you should cut calories from your diet.
But you may be surprised to find out that cutting too many calories can actually slow down or even hamper your best attempts to lose weight.
And there’s a good reason for that: if you’re restricting calories too much, your body goes into starvation mode.
This means your body starts to burn calories as slowly as possible to conserve its energy stores.
Not to mention that when your metabolism slows down and you hit a weight loss plateau, you probably will become frustrated that you’re not seeing results.
This can lead you to slip back into bad habits and ultimately gain weight.
Here are just a few of the signs that you may not be eating enough to reach your weight loss goals:
- Your brain feels foggy and you’re tired all the time
- Meals leave you unsatisfied
- You’re always thinking about food
- You’re feeling cold all the time
- You feel unusually irritable all the time
- You’re not gaining muscle despite exercise
If you’re not seeing results because you’ve restricted calories too much, reverse dieting may help you out.
Reverse dieting means gradually increasing your calorie intake over a period of 4-10 weeks to prime your metabolism, burn calories and, ultimately, lose weight.
So what to do instead? Build habits and cultivate self-discipline.
While motivation is a limited resource, self-discipline gives you the commitment, consistency and patience that are key to achieving anything great – including your fitness goals.
2. You're doing too much cardio
Yes, you can include cardio in your workout routine.
It can be extremely beneficial for your health, from lowering your blood pressure to regulating your blood sugar to improving your sleep, and beyond.
However, only doing cardio (or doing too much of it) will put your body in a catabolic state and burn your muscles.
In addition, the results you may initially see will begin to taper off, meaning you are likely to do even more cardio and cut calories in the hope of reaching your weight loss goals.
Meanwhile, your metabolism slows down, so your body gets better and better at storing fat as it starts burning fewer calories.
If you’re always sore, your joints hurt and you’re constantly feeling drained of energy – all while losing muscle instead of fat – it may be due to excessive cardio.
Not to mention that you may be at risk of becoming “skinny fat” – which is when you appear to have a healthy weight, but you still have a high body fat percentage, including that stubborn belly that refuses to leave.
If you really want to lose weight, be mindful of doing too much cardio.
You should look instead at a different approach: strength training.
As you lift weights and increase your muscle mass, you can actually burn more calories throughout the day.
You will also increase your calorie intake as your body becomes more efficient at using energy, meaning you will burn fat while also creating the “toned” look that comes through building muscle.
3. You suffer from health problems that prevent you from losing weight
If you know you’ve followed your weight loss plan religiously and you’re still not seeing weight loss, a medical condition or prescription medicines may be to blame.
Don’t get me wrong – I am not saying that if you’re not seeing results, there’s automatically a medical condition underlying your weight problem.
However, if you think you may suffer from any conditions that prevent you from losing weight (or take prescribed medicine for a specific health condition), it’s best to talk to your doctor and decide on the right health plan to get your weight loss on track.
Below you will find some of the most common medical conditions that make it difficult to lose weight:
- Hypothyroidism – If your thyroid is underactive, your metabolism slows down, making you feel tired and store more fat than you burn.
- Chronic stress – Stress causes your body to release a hormone called cortisol that controls your metabolism involved with weight loss. In addition, chronic stress may lead to emotional eating which may hinder all of your weight loss efforts.
- Cushing’s Syndrome – When your body produces too much cortisol over a long period of time, you may experience common symptoms such as weight gain, fatty deposits, and muscle weakness.
- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) – This is a condition in which the ovaries produce an abnormal amount of male sex hormones (androgens), resulting in irregular menstrual periods and unexplained weight gain.
- Narcolepsy – When you have narcolepsy, your brain becomes unable to control the sleep-wake cycle. People with narcolepsy tend to gain weight even if they don’t eat more.
4. You have hormonal imbalance
If you’re doing everything right, but still not seeing any change in weight, you should know that hormonal imbalances could be part of the problem (or even the whole problem).
Hormones regulate processes in your body and influence your appetite, metabolism, and the accumulation of body fat.
Of course, it’s normal to experience hormonal imbalances at some point in your life (e.g., menstruation, pregnancy, menopause, etc.).
However, hormonal imbalances can also be linked to certain medical conditions. For example, most of the medical conditions listed above (see section no. 3) are related to hormonal imbalances responsible for weight gain.
Or, they can be the result of lifestyle choices, such as an unhealthy diet, fad diet, lack of exercise or sleep deprivation.
Here are some of the hormones that may affect your weight, along with tips for balancing them naturally.
- Leptin
Leptin is a hormone produced by the fat cells in your body. It is responsible for regulating food intake and body mass.
If you have leptin resistance, you can’t get the sensation of feeling full or satiated.
To fix leptin resistance, it is essential that you avoid, or at least minimise, processed foods that overstimulate your taste buds.
As leptin resistance is related to poor sleep quality, you should also ensure that you get enough quality sleep each night.
- Ghrelin
Known as the hunger hormone, ghrelin is a hormone produced by your stomach that signals your brain when it’s time to eat.
The higher your ghrelin levels, the hungrier you get.
To lower your ghrelin levels and reduce your appetite, try to increase your protein intake. Protein takes longer to digest and makes you feel fuller, so they are the most effective food group at lowering ghrelin levels.
As poor sleep can increase ghrelin levels and overeating, you should also ensure that you get at least 7 hours of quality sleep every night.
- Insulin
Insulin is a hormone that controls the amount of glucose in your bloodstream.
Your insulin levels have an impact on your energy, concentration and ability to lose weight.
To improve insulin sensitivity (which is beneficial to your health because it helps you reduce blood sugar) it’s best to focus on low glycemic carbs such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables and avoid high glycemic carbs, such as white bread, cakes, and most packaged breakfast cereals.
You should also try to improve your sleep habits and get more omega-3 fatty acids that can be found in foods such as fish, nuts, plant oils, and seeds.
- Oestrogen
Oestrogen is one of the main female sex hormones. It regulates the menstrual cycle, the immune, skeletal and vascular systems, and much more.
High oestrogen levels can lead to fatigue, irregular periods, and weight gain.
To maintain healthy oestrogen levels, it is essential that you follow a healthy and balanced diet and exercise regularly.
- Cortisol
Cortisol is a stress hormone that regulates a wide array of processes in your body, including metabolism and the immune response.
Too much cortisol over a prolonged period of time can raise blood sugar, affect your menstrual cycle, impair the immune system, and cause weight gain.
To manage cortisol levels, you need to find ways to de-stress (such as yoga, meditation or mindfulness), optimise sleep and avoid diets high in added sugar and refined grains.
5. Your negative mindset is holding you back
Your mindset is a fundamental part of everything you do and achieve.
When you have a negative mindset and believe you are not able to achieve a specific goal, your mind processes that as your truth.
In fact, negative thoughts are also known as self-fulfilling prophecies – If you convince yourself that you are not able to lose weight, then it becomes downright impossible to see results.
Here are some examples of negative thoughts that can influence your eating habits and weight loss efforts:
- Black and white thinking – E.g., “I ate an ice cream, so I ruined everything.”
- Labelling yourself – E.g., “I’m such a fat cow.”
- Disqualifying the positive – E.g., “I’ve only lost half a kilo this week.”
- Irrational fears – E.g., “If I don’t lose weight my partner will eventually leave me.”
- Self-defeating humour – E.g., “I’m just a big fat whale *pause for laughter*”
- “I can’t” thoughts – E.g., “I can’t go to the gym because men stare at me.”
- “Must” statements – E.g., “I must eat more vegetables.”
- Catastrophising – E.g., “I ate an entire pizza, so I’m going to gain back all the weight I’ve worked so hard to lose.”
I understand the mental battle that rages in you when trying to lose weight.
But as the old adage says, “you are what you think you are.”
That’s why it is important that you change what you say to yourself.
If you find yourself stuck in a cycle of negativity, I suggest you keep a journal of your thoughts.
This can make you aware of your self-talk and replace it with some positive affirmations.
The Bottom Line
While consistency and patience are necessary commitments in order to lose weight, sometimes, they simply aren’t enough.
Focus on eating the right foods and the right amount of calories for your body and make sure you include strength training in your workout routine.
Prioritise your sleep and find ways to de-stress in order to balance your hormones and avoid large spikes and dips in your blood sugar levels.
Last but not least, embrace the power of positive thinking – not only for your state of mind but also for the ability to successfully achieve your goals.
“Why can’t I lose weight, Hazel?”. I hear this question multiple times per day from women who literally tried everything. I know that “eat less and exercise more” sounds good in theory, but losing weight is more complex than that. If you want an expert by your side to tell you the exact steps to take, check out our one-on-one coaching program. Here at Bring on Life, we’ve developed a unique method to help you lose weight fast and keep it off permanently.