Have you ever wondered why the scale doesn’t seem to budge when you’re trying to lose weight? Well, I got 5 reasons for ya:
1) STRESS
There are countless studies that show the effects of stress on our bodies which lead to strokes and heart disease. Stress also has the same damaging effects on your body when trying to lose weight. When you’re stressed your body releases the hormone cortisol, which is secreted by your adrenal glands and ages your brain cells. Studies have also shown that people who have elevated levels of cortisol tend to have a spare tire around the waist.
Tip: Try eating foods rich in Vitamin C like bell peppers and strawberries. Vitamin C can actually squash stress hormones that trigger the storage of belly fat. Whenever you’re feeling stressed stop and take a moment to breathe. Breathing is such a simple exercise that can drastically reduce your stress levels. Make sure to take deep slow breaths that you can feel in your belly which should expand on each breath.
2) HIGH INSULIN LEVELS
Insulin is the maestro for fat cells. Our fat cells can either take in or release calories. Too much insulin in the body causes weight gain and reduced insulin causes weight loss.
Insulin is the hormone made in our pancreas and its role is to help your body shuffle around sugars from your food into your cells.
First it transports glucose to the liver and then to the muscles where it’s stored as glycogen to use as energy. If there is any leftover, which there usually is, it will go to your body’s fat cells and park it there.
This happens when we eat refined and processed carbs or foods. Refined foods quickly spike your blood sugar and increases your insulin which makes your cells store calories rather than releasing them.
So, you want to let go of processed and refined carbs that have been stripped of their nutrients (i.e. white bread and pasta) and that are proven to cause obesity.
Tip: Get your carbohydrates from whole foods, especially vegetables and fruit.
Also make sure that you have a healthy source of protein at each meal so lean meat, fish, eggs or my favourite beans and lentils (which are rockstar power foods)
3) YOU’RE NOT EATING ENOUGH
Stop starving yourself! Look when you starve yourself holding on to one carrot stick all day or severely reduce calories, you’re not doing your body any favours. What happens is that your body holds on to fat and uses muscle stores as energy, which can slow metabolism.
Tip: The best way to lose weight? Eat foods guys, but real whole, nutrient-rich foods like lean proteins, healthy fats and carbs to ignite your metabolism and shed fat.
4) YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE REALLY HUNGRY FOR
Often times it’s not the chocolate cake that sabotaging your weight loss. It’s the thoughts that you have that led you to eat that chocolate cake. Let me explain.
It’s all about getting down to those emotional triggers that cause you to overeat or make poor food choices. It could be a low sense of self worth, depression, anxiety. I don’t know what your triggers are, but I do know that if you feel that you’re worthless or fat then your eating choices will reflect this.
Often these negative views of yourself are things that you’ve carried with you from your childhood. Getting to the root cause is the only way to make lasting change and to make weight loss stick.
You need to WIN back your thoughts to WIN your amazing body. Share on X
Tip: You need to learn to address the emotional aspects of eating in order to nourish your mind and body. You can do this by talking back to yourself. To change your body, you need to change your narrative.
Do whatever it takes to reverse the negative messages and get out of that trap!
I guarantee you that you’ve probably done things or gone through things in your life that were waaay harder than losing weight. Just like you pulled yourself through those challenges probably by changing your thought patterns, you owe it to yourself to do the same thing when trying to lose weight. If you don’t unearth weeds they just continue to grow.
5) YOU’RE NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP
Sleep is a hot button topic and I just hate when people brag about how little sleep they get. ‘Oh, I only got 5 hours last night – oh yeah well I only got 3.’
It’s BS.
When you’re not getting enough sleep your body is suffering – BIG TIME. When you’re sleeping, your body is at work releasing powerful fat-burning hormones that speed your weight loss and help you to lose weight.
Tip: Every precious minute of shut-eye will help you reach your goal that much faster. Aim to get at least 7 hours. Try to get into a wind down routine about 30 minutes before your head hits the pillow.