3 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight

3 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight

Every year, 45 million Americans go on a diet. Yet, nearly two-thirds of the population is considered overweight or obese (Nutrition and Weight Management).

So despite all the efforts, why are more people not losing weight?

Are you struggling as well?

Here are three reasons you may not be losing weight.

According to a study designed by Harris Interactive in 2012, about two-thirds of people who set New Year’s Resolutions aim to get fit (Harris Interactive, 2012).

Yet 73% of those individuals give up before ever reaching their goal.

In fact, nearly half give up on their resolution in six weeks or less.

The reasons given, according to the study:

“Too difficult to follow a diet or workout regimen”

“Too hard to get back on track once they fall off”

“It’s hard to find time”

Be honest with yourself – how long have you been giving weight loss a solid effort?

If you have a decent amount of weight to lose, you should aim for about a pound lost each week. Obviously, it’s going to be a bit different for everyone in terms of the rate of loss.

So if you’re trying to lose 25 pounds, you can expect it will take at least six months. And that means you’re putting in a consistent effort every single day – not just Monday through Thursday.

Your body doesn’t care if it’s someone’s birthday. Your body doesn’t care if it’s the weekend. Your body doesn’t care if you’re on vacation. Your body doesn’t care if you’re stressed at work.

If you’re not putting in a consistent effort over a long period of time, you’re not going to get the results you want.

So look yourself in the mirror and ask the question – “Have I truly been giving my best effort?”

If the answer is “No,” you’ve got to figure out why you haven’t been consistent.

Are you hanging around people who are negative influences? Are you spending time in places that aren’t conducive to weight loss? Are you using an approach that’s unsustainable?

Whatever it is, once you figure out what’s holding you back, you open yourself up to a world of possibility.

It’s easy to blame genetics or a “bad” metabolism for why you’re not losing weight.

While metabolic rate and genetics do play a role in weight loss, they’re often used as an excuse when the real culprit is the over-consumption of calories.

While weighing and measuring your nutritional intake can seem tedious and boring at first, it’s absolutely essential for success.

What we THINK we’re taking in calorie-wise versus what we’re ACTUALLY taking in are oftentimes completely different.

According to a research paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine titled ” Discrepancy Between Self-Reported and Actual Caloric Intake and Exercise in Obese Subjects ,” individuals in a group who thought they had damaged metabolisms were under-reporting their caloric intake by an astounding 47% and over-reporting their physical activity by 51% (Lichtman et. al, 1992).

So, as you can see, we need to actually track what we’re eating because it’s difficult to determine what we’re taking in just from eyeballing it.

For that reason, it’s essential for have a good food scale and measuring cups. If you don’t have a food scale already you can get a cheap one for under $15 HERE (not an affiliate link). Otherwise, you can find one at your local Target, Wal-Mart or similar store.

So if you’re not losing weight, you may need to have an honest discussion with yourself. Are you actually eating in a calorie deficit? The only way to truly find out is to measure and track.

Have you been dieting for a really long time?

As in, you’ve been taking in really low calorie amounts over and over again?

You may have lost weight for a while, but eventually, you probably plateaued.

So you kept eating less and less, hoping the scale will eventually budge.

If you’ve been consuming very low calorie amounts for a significant period of time, your metabolism can actually decline and adapt to a lower calorie amount.

In other words, if you used to maintain weight at 2,000 calories, you may now be maintaining weight at only 1,300 calories. Since you’ve been eating fewer calories for a long period of time, you’ll find your metabolism has adapted and will require even fewer calories to lose weight.

Want proof? Look no further than a study done on NBC’s reality TV show “The Biggest Loser.” Researchers followed participants from the 2009 season for six years following the show. Of the 14 studied, 13 regained weight and four were heavier than before the show began (Kolata, 2016).

To make things worse, almost all contestants had slower metabolisms than they did six years prior and burned fewer calories at rest. In fact, the winner of the show re-gained more than 100 pounds and, six years after the show, burned 458 fewer calories than would be expected for a man his size.

So extreme diets and calorie cuts aren’t the answer.

If you’ve fallen victim to the hype of extreme diets and are metabolically adapted to a low calorie amount, there’s still hope.

However, if you want to lose weight in the long run and actually keep it off, you’ve got to accept it’s going to take quite a bit longer than you would like.

It’s going to sound counter-intuitive, but adding calories is what you need to do right away. If your body has adapted to a very low number of calories, you need to slowly add calories back in over the course of weeks or even months until your metabolism has been restored to a normal level for someone of your age, weight, height, gender and activity level.

While you’ll likely gain a bit of weight along the way, you’ll probably notice an improvement in hormone levels, energy levels, hunger, sleep and less stress overall.

REFERENCES:

Harris Interactive. “New Study Finds 73% Of People Who Set Fitness Goals As New Year’s Resolutions Give Them Up – Bodybuilding.com.”Bodybuilding.com. Bodybuilding.com, 28 Dec. 2012. Web.

Kolata, Gina. “After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight.” The New York Times. N.p., 2 May 2016. Web.

Lichtman, Steven W., Krystyna Pisarska, Ellen Raynes Berman, Michele Pestone, Hillary Dowling, Esther Offenbacher, Hope Weisel, Stanley Heshka, Dwight E. Matthews, and Steven B. Heymsfield. “Discrepancy between Self-reported and Actual Caloric Intake and Exercise in Obese Subjects.” The New England Journal of Medicine. The Massachusetts Medical Society, 31 Dec. 1992. Web. 30 October 2018.

“Nutrition & Weight Management.” Tools for Ideal Weight Control. Boston Medical Center, 2014.