Attempting to lose weight has always been a daunting and often frustrating task. At times, the more desperate you become when wanting to burn the fat off, the more difficult it appears to be. You might begin to feel that it’s impossible, that it’s not in your genetic makeup.
You get discouraged and have thoughts of giving up, surrendering to a life of obesity being your only option. What you do is stick to the guidelines of the diet, perform exercise regularly, but nothing appears to work. You’re not able to lose the poundage consistently.
But before you give up, you should be considering that there are other factors which you may not be aware of, why you’re not losing weight. There are certain guidelines when attempting to succeed in any diet.
Once you isolate what they are, there may be ways of overcoming these issues, this once you address them. The weight scale isn’t your enemy, it’s not conspiring against you, there’s hope so don’t just give up yet.
Never Skip Breakfast
This is now realized by all, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. After getting a good night’s sleep, what your body craves is energy. The nutrients you eat kick starts your body, which dictates how much you eat and snack for the rest of the day.
A breakfast containing fiber and protein will keep you full and your metabolism pumped. If you skip breakfast, what you’re doing is fooling your body into thinking that it’s starving, forcing it to store fat while your metabolism slows down.
You’re Not Eating Enough
Most think eating less helps in shedding pounds quicker, but it can be doing the complete opposite. What’s important is portion size. If you work out a lot, you need more food to help in sustaining muscle growth because of what you burn off when doing cardio.
To lose weight, what you need is to burn more calories than you consume. Eating too little slows down your metabolism, which slows down your weight loss.
It will also make you feel more tired while sapping your energy when you’re wanting to exercise. You need to eat a well balanced meal that’s portion controlled, this to help keep you energized while shedding pounds.
Leaving Out Certain Food Groups
Most think that they need a diet that’s carb-free or low-fat to lose weight. It appears like a good idea to cut out those types of foods, but completely doing so isn’t recommended and may even be causing you nutritional deficiencies.
There are benefits consuming certain healthy fats, such as salmon, almonds, or avocados, and not all carbohydrates are bad. Eating whole grains which contain fiber will result in feeling fuller for longer.
It’s not the carbs that are the issue, it’s usually the refined starchy “whites” such as flour. So make sure that you include those healthy fats and tasty carbohydrates into your meals, as there are benefits to eating them.
Eating Diet Foods
What the so called “diet” foods does is they cut out the sugar, but they often add chemicals or bad fats to make up for the loss of taste. Most diet foods also have poor nutritional value, such as diet soda.
Low-fat salad dressings can also be deceptive, so make sure you check the ingredients label. Most contain additional preservatives, sodium, and chemicals, especially those available at the local grocer.
It’s always better just to manage your portion sizes while preparing your food at home using fresh foods, this to ensure that you’re getting all the proper recommended daily servings of all the healthy food groups.
Not Drinking Enough Water
Just drinking water alone won’t make you lose weight, but it does help in weight loss. Drinking water helps you eat less since if you feel hungry, this because you may just be thirsty.
What drinking water before meals does is it helps you feel fuller quicker. What staying hydrated also does is it prevents you from not gulping down high-sugar drinks or diet sodas.
Another reason for drinking lots of pure water is that your body needs it to flush out all of the unneeded toxin buildup. Water is the best ingredient to do so.
You Don’t Have Enough Muscle Mass
Muscle mass plays an integral part when it comes to weight loss. Doing cardio is excellent for your heart, while helping you lose weight. But if cardio is the only exercise you’re doing, you’re not losing all the weight that you could be.
The more muscle mass that you have, the quicker that you’ll burn calories. What developing your muscles does is it forces your body to burn calories even after you stop exercising.
But what’s not required is becoming a body builder to realize these benefits. By just performing light resistance training which gives you muscle mass without bulking, the excess weight will become easier to lose.
You’re Too Stressed Out
Worry, stressing out can cause issues when you’re attempting to lose weight. It can force you to think that you’re hungry when you actually aren’t, which can lead to emotional binge eating.
Stress slows down your metabolism while causing fat to build up in one of the most difficult areas of body to lose weight, the belly. So if you’re stressed and wanting to lose weight just through diet alone, then you may need to add regular exercise as well.
What exercising does is it produces stress reducing endorphins which helps you feel happier. If you already routinely exercise but still feel stressed out, then consider doing specific stress reducing exercises. These include running, swimming, or yoga.
Make sure that you make the proper life altering changes which helps you in reducing stress in your life, which in turn leads to losing weight.