5 Reasons Why Weight Loss Diets Aren’t Working For You

It’s been a couple of weeks since you’ve started your weight loss diet. You’ve said your goodbyes to carbohydrates, you’re eating more fibre, and your portion sizes look almost pitiful. But when it’s time to step on the scales, the needle doesn’t budge. For a lot of people, it’s a familiar sight. We think we’re on a roll – three weeks of no bread, crisps, or ice cream. It should count for something, right? In online weight loss coaching sessions we look at so much more than this.

In a world with steadily climbing obesity rates, weight loss is a goal that transcends culture, and as many as 45 percent of people around the world are trying to lose weight. This makes weight loss diets seem like the perfect solution. But when they don’t seem to work, it shatters the hope of achieving something that once seemed within reach. Nevertheless, there are reasons why weight loss diets aren’t working for you. Understanding them can help you better structure your weight loss initiative.

1. Your Diet Doesn’t Include Enough Protein

If you look up images related to weight loss diets, you’re bound to see plates full of greens, but rarely do they include a healthy portion of protein. However, protein is essential for the weight loss process.

When you start losing weight, your body’s metabolism slows down, which puts a halt to your progress. This is thanks to the effect it has on ghrelin, which is an appetite-regulating hormone. When proteins make up a quarter of the calories you consume in a day, it enhances your metabolism and you eat fewer calories. Thus, it tackles metabolic slowdown and limits snacking.

2. Your Body Isn’t Getting Enough Rest

If you thought that keeping yourself busy and staying on your feet would help you lose weight, you’re wrong. One study shows that adults with poor sleeping patterns are at a 55 per cent greater risk developing obesity. And it’s not just that you’ll feel tired, but that fatigue has an impact on your hormones.

One study shows that adults who get fewer than 7 hours of sleep each night are likelier to develop obesity. Then there’s the added concern that being sleep-deprived can negatively influence your decision-making abilities and self-control. It can potentially make you likely to eat foods that scale back on your progress. Let’s not forget that when you’re not sleeping, that’s added hours when you may eat extra calories.

3. You’re Eating The Same Thing Everyday

One of the major reasons weight loss diets are so difficult is that many of our food options today are highly processed carbohydrates. This can limit our meal plan options, especially when we’re unwilling to be super creative. So once we start seeing some results after making changes to our diet, we stick to eating the same thing every day for convenience.

One of the major reasons a sudden shift towards low-carb meals triggers weight loss is that the food is completely new to your body. So once your body adjusts to this meal plan, it stops losing weight steadily, leading to a weight loss plateau.

4. You’re Stressed Out

While a smaller waistline or trimmer physique seems like the ultimate goal for you, your body doesn’t understand this. On the contrary, it may try to fight the weight loss process, especially if it’s used to high-calorie diets. Imagine this: your body is getting hundreds of excess calories every day when suddenly, you slash this number in half. Naturally, your body would think that something is wrong. Because of this, it tries to use energy efficiently, slowing down the metabolism to do so.

But besides this, dieting itself is stressful, as studies show that people who reduce their calorie intake face higher levels of cortisol, which is a stress hormone. In fact, one of the main tasks it’s responsible for is telling the body to deposit fat around the abdominal region.

5. You Have a Sedentary Lifestyle

If you spend a big chunk of your day hunched over your computer, sitting at your desk, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that your weight loss diet isn’t giving the results you hoped for. Studies show that sitting down for hours without any movement can prevent your body from producing lipase, which inhibits fat. And you don’t necessarily have to throw out your old desk for a standing one. Instead, make sure to get up and stretch every hour to keep your metabolism running.

But this doesn’t mean you have to give up on weight loss diets altogether. This only shows that the way you’re practicing a diet could use some improvements. And one way to do that is by speaking to a weight loss coach. With their expert guidance, you can prepare a diversified meal plan, get plenty of movement throughout the day, and ultimately meet your weight loss goals.