Why You Are Not Losing Weight?

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In our eat-and-run, big-portion culture, maintaining a healthy weight is tough. Losing weight is even tougher. Your weight is a balancing act. The drill here is to consume fewer calories, burn more calories.

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We often jump into the decision of losing weight as soon as possible and makes it difficult that it needs to be with extreme diets that leaves us cranky and starving. Then we have our unhealthy lifestyle choices and emotional eating habits that stop us from proceeding further. EHC plunges into the reasons why we can’t lose weight without feeling miserable. We all understand that there are significant lifestyle factors which act against our losing weight. Through this article EHC guides you to delve more.

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Eating more than you require

If you are really serious about losing weight, you need to get serious about your eating. Start by keeping a detailed food journal for one week, without changing any of your eating habits. Be as specific as possible, measuring when you can, looking up your calorie and nutrient content and adding up your calories for each day. You will be surprised how those calories can sneak in when you are not keeping track.

Something else to think about is metabolism, which can drop as you get older if you don't preserve your muscle mass. Some estimates show that muscle mass declines about 4% each decade from age 25 to 50. If you are still eating the same number of calories as your metabolism drops, your weight may creep up over time. Start exercising and lifting weights now to keep your metabolism in check.

Impatience

You need to remember that to lose one pound, you have to create a 500-calorie deficit every day for a week. It is fairly easy to cut calories from food since you can keep track by reading labels and measuring. Give your body time to respond to what you are doing. It may be weeks or months before you see significant changes so don't freak out if you're not seeing results after only a few weeks. Being patient and taking it one day at a time will allow you to enjoy the journey instead of focusing on the destination.

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No control over weekends

Having some treats now and then is fine, but if you find you do very well during the week only to eat yourself silly on the weekends, you may be hurting your weight loss goals.

To lose one pound of fat in one week, you would need to cut 500 calories with diet and exercise for 7 days. If you only follow that for 5 days, then eat way over your limit for two more days, you are taking two steps forward and one step back. The trick is to plan your indulgences so that you can have some fun while staying on track with your weight loss goals.

Not enough sleep

Lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain. A recent study that found that women who slept 5 hours a night were more likely to gain weight than women who slept 7 hours a night.

Some studies have shown that losing sleep could affect metabolism by making you feel hungry, even if you are not. Sleep deprivation may affect the secretion of cortisol, one of the hormones that regulate appetite. Getting enough sleep is crucial if you're trying to lose weight, not just because of how it affects you physically, but mentally as well. Sleep deprivation makes you cranky, confused and can even make you feel depressed or angry.

Stress

Stress and weight gain go hand in hand. Though you may not be aware of it, being under constant stress can increase production of the hormone cortisol which can cause an increase in appetite as well as extra fat storage around the abdominal region. Dealing with stress can be as simple as taking a few minutes a day to relax, scheduling a massage as often as you can or cutting down on work hours and increasing play time.

Your medical condition

Some medical conditions and medications can contribute to weight gain. While this is not applicable to everyone, it is important to explore this avenue if you are genuinely wanting to weight. One condition known to affect weight is thyroid disease. A thyroid deficiency can cause a decrease in metabolism and may lead to weight gain.

Medications

There are a number of drugs that may have weight gain as a side effect for some people. Some common ones include hormonal medications for birth control or menopause, oral steroids, some anti-depressants, diabetes medications and anti-psychotic medications. You should get a diagnosis from a professional in order to determine whether your weight problems are medically-related.

You feel saturated

Almost everyone reaches a weight-loss plateau at some point. As your body adapts to your workouts, it becomes more efficient at it and, therefore, doesn't expend as many calories doing it. You may find that after your initial weight loss, your progress will slow down and eventually stop.

Some common reasons for this saturation are:

• Doing the same workouts over and over. Your body needs to be challenged to progress, so make sure you are changing some part of your program every 4-6 weeks.
• Not eating enough calories. If your body doesn't have enough fuel to sustain your level of activity, you can actually stop losing weight.
• Overtraining. If you exercise too much, the body sometimes responds by decreasing the amount of calories you burn during the rest of your day.

You do not like to lose weight

It can be true that not all of us need to lose weight. We all have different shapes and, though we can make changes to our bodies, we can only improve on the bodies we have, not turn them into someone else's body.

But consider these. Are you at risk for medical conditions such as diabetes or heart disease? Is your BMI in an unhealthy range? Are you within your ideal weight range? If you are at risk, losing weight may be important for staying healthy. Are you happy at your current weight? Think over these questions and we are sure you will make sensible choices.

On and off with exercise and dieting

If you give in to temptation a bit too easily, your weight loss may hit the skids. You have to do what you have started on a regular basis. Once your body adapts to your program, you then need to change it to keep your body challenged. If you skip too many workouts, it is almost like starting all over every time.

By making smart choice every day, you can develop new eating habits and exercise preferences that will motivate you and leave you feeling satisfied and happy. We wish you all the best in the battle of the bulge!

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