Have you been religiously following through your fitness routine and diet with no positive weight loss results? If can be frustrating to see that despite your efforts, the scale seems stuck.
So, what could be the problem? These factors below are the possible reasons why you're not losing weight despite working hard at it:
1. Not enough water intake. Have you been drinking energy drinks, sports drinks or smoothies instead of water? While promoted for fitness benefits, other liquids are packed with calories and ingredients that can affect weight. On the other hand, water, which has zero calories, can actually help keep the pounds off especially when taken before meals, according to a study on Obesity journal.
Solution: Increase your water intake and ditch the energy drinks.
2. Overeating on healthy food. Sure, your meals consist of healthy stuff like whole wheat pasta or nuts, but as with anything in excess, this can become a bad thing. These foods still contain calories and if you overeat, you're bound to not see any weight loss.
Solution: Be aware of serving sizes and portion control, even if you're eating the right types of food.
3. Not doing the right exercises. If you're only sticking to running for your fitness routine, then you're depriving your body. While running is a great form of cardio exercise, you must also do activities that build your muscle mass and strength or rev up your metabolism, so that it can help you lose weight faster, according to Live Strong.
Solution: Change up your fitness routine to include weight training and not just cardio.
4. Skipping meals. If you're putting your body through physical activity and exercise, it will need energy to function. You get energy from food and if you run or workout without fueling up, you're likely to not get good results. "Exercising on an empty stomach can lead to the breakdown of muscle tissue," said fitness expert Cynthia Mass via Daily Burn. When this happens, your metabolism changes, affecting your attempts at losing weight.
Solution: Eat before hitting the gym. In fact, power up on protein foods for more energy.
5. Not getting enough sleep. Your body needs to rest so that it can repair itself, so a good amount of sleep is crucial. While you sleep, hormones and cells build up to keep everything in working order. If you're sleep deprived, your brain starts to falter, thus affecting the rest of the body functions. "If you go beyond these 16 hours into the realm of sleep deprivation, then those brain networks start to break down and become dysfunctional," said Matthew Walker via New York Times. "[Sleep is] the single most effective thing people can do every day to reset their brain and body health," he added.
Solution: Put off working out if your body is tired and get that much-needed sleep.
