By Nadia Popova
In theory, weight loss should be easy: Eat healthy, exercise, and reap the rewards. Easy peasy, right?
But losing weight isn’t always that simple.
Sometimes you can feel like you’re doing all the right things — and you might lose some weight at first, but then you might reach the weight-loss plateau.
While everyone is different and the results can vary we would like to discuss some of the possible reasons why you might be facing difficulties losing unwanted weight. Some of the reasons could include the following.
You are Not Eating the Good Nutrition
If you’re working out but not losing weight, the first place you should be looking is the kitchen. Some people focus all their energy on burning off calories that they don’t take the time to consider what they’re putting in as fuel. A good rule of thumb is to stick to all-natural, whole foods.
You are Eating Too Much
Eat whenever you are hungry and eat slowly enough so you can stop just before you get full. And don’t be afraid to give yourself “healthy” cheats. The moment you start depriving yourself is when you start to feel like you’re missing out on something, and you want to binge. We always recommend our clients to follow an 80/20 eating approach where you eat 80% of the time clean & healthy and 20% you are enjoying eating out in your favorite restaurant or eating a dessert.
Muscle is denser than fat. While one pound of fat weighs the same as one pound of muscle, muscle occupies about 18 percent less space. In addition, muscle burns calories while fat stores them. So, if your weight isn’t decreasing but your clothes are starting to fit more loosely, you may be building muscle.
One pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. Under normal circumstances, it takes 3,500 surplus calories to make a pound of fat. In turn, that’s how many deficit calories you have to burn to get rid of a pound of fat. To lose 10 pounds, you would need a deficit of 35,000 calories.
Your workouts aren’t intense enough
Any amount of aerobic exercise — like walking, jogging, or bicycling — will get your heart rate up and burn some calories. But in order to burn enough calories to actually help you lose weight, you might need to move more than you think. This is where hiring a trainer or a coach can be so beneficial. Remember it’s not about how long you exercise, it’s about how effective and efficient your workouts are. The goal is to strengthen your weak muscles and to stretch your tights muscles and joints to create a balanced and healthy body.
You are not doing resistance training
Lifting weights itself doesn’t burn a ton of calories. A 150-pound person will burn 214 calories from half an hour of strength training, compared to around 350 calories for the same amount of running.
But building up more muscle mass does. A pound of lean muscle tissue burns slightly more calories than fat tissue. And over time, that can help nudge the scale downward. Plus there are so many benefits of having enough muscle in your body. We described all the benefits of having enough muscles in one of our previous articles.
You are ignoring your liquid calories
Just about all drinks other than water, plain seltzer, black coffee, or unsweetened tea, contain calories. And in some cases, the count can be significant. So please look closer at what you drink!
Not Consuming Enough Protein
Protein is an important nutrient when it comes to losing weight. Consuming protein for 25-30% of your daily calories has the potential to boost your metabolism by 80-100 calories per day. Digging into a high protein breakfast has been shown in studies to impact hunger for the rest of the day and cause fewer cravings. Protein also helps prevent weight regain and helps to prevent a metabolic slowdown.
If you’re serious about getting on track with your weight loss make sure you have these areas dialed in to save yourself from weight loss failure.
Honestly, if your goal is to just improve your overall health and fitness but more importantly lose excess body fat, learn how to lose stubborn belly fat, build lean muscle, fit better into your clothes and just feel generally better overall and feel more confident about yourself, it’s really all about just trying to move as much as possible throughout the day.
If you need professional help from one of our trainers please reach out to us to schedule your free Fitness Assessment at (760)880-9904 or visit our website www.sendmeatrainer.com/palmsprings
