Weight loss is that magic unicorn whose pursuit many give up on halfway through. Whether you want to lose weight before your wedding, or before that vacation with your beau, or trying to lose all those pounds you gained during the holidays, or just want to lead a healthier lifestyle, shedding those pounds is a challenge. A challenge that takes commitment, dedication, and motivation.
Late night TV commercials might parade a host of products that promise you ‘instant weight loss’ with ‘no side effects,’ but really, there’s no magic pill that can help you do that overnight. You can’t expect weight loss to happen overnight. You can’t undo the effect of a host of unhealthy lifestyle choices in one single night. It’s all about turning over a new leaf and start making healthy decisions and being active.
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Exercising, eating right, giving up on sugar and refined flour, are all a step in the right direction, where you’ve achieved your ideal body weight. However, if you’ve been doing everything right, but still, you just can’t seem to lose that weight, then these reasons might give you a clue as to why that may be.
Reasons why you can’t lose weight
1. You don’t know how weight loss happens.
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You go to the gym, walk on the treadmill for about 20 minutes, or even less than that. Maybe even throw in a couple of other weight training exercises. You think if you keep this up, you’ll probably lose weight in no time at all. But then you go home and gorge on all those cookies, cakes, soda, chips, and whatnot. That right there will negate every effort you put in at the gym. Just because you’re working out, doesn’t mean it gives you a free pass to eat anything and everything that you can get your hands on.
Apart from working out, you need to be knowledgeable enough to know what foods to consume and what foods and beverages to avoid, and what is your caloric intake is per meal. You need to know how many calories you need to burn, in order to meet your desired goal. If you’re not sure, do some digging into the actual weight loss process to learn about the hows and whys and whats. A simple step in the right direction is to ensure that you have more green items on your plate than white. Keep this rule in your mind always.
2. You’re not determined enough.
You think you’re motivated and really pumped up to lose weight. But you’re probably not; at least not enough. You know something, if you want something bad enough, then you tend to work harder at it than you’ve ever done before. That’s the only way you’re going to get the body you’ve always craved for.
But, if you go to the gym, hardly 2-3 times a week, and then eat pasta or pizza for dinner every night, or wakeup and have a hearty breakfast with waffles, donuts, and pancakes, then you’re basically throwing away everything you’ve worked for in the gym. Your sweat and tears go down the drain if you do that. Also, if you find yourself making up excuses about being too tired, or having a headache, or that your previous workout has left you sore all over, then you just don’t want it bad enough.
3. You’re looking for instant results.
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As mentioned earlier, you can’t lose weight overnight, or a single day. You may wish to see some instantaneous results, but you need to accept the harsh reality that it just ain’t gonna happen. No matter what the infomercials promise you, you will never see instant results. At least, not the real results, the ones who endure and stick for a long time to come.
Once you accept the fact that losing weight is a long, uphill climb, that you’re ready to take it on with every ounce of determination, dedication, time, effort, and motivation that you could muster, then and only then will you be able to see tangible results. Chuck all those bogus products you bought off of infomercials and start making real progress with each step you take. Make a list of small goals that you can achieve, and you will slowly but surely start to see and experience the results of your labor.
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4. You might have an undiagnosed thyroid problem.
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If you have a thyroid problem, you might not see any change in your weight at all. Statistics show that women are 10 times more likely to have a thyroid problem than men. Another thing you need to be aware of is that thyroid related problems are autoimmune. That means, you couldn’t have done anything to prevent it. An autoimmune disease is a condition when the body’s immune system turns against itself and mistakenly attacks healthy cells.
There are numerous silent sufferers of autoimmune diseases, because they go largely undiagnosed. However, you need to be one of these. You can educate yourself with the signs and symptoms of the many thyroid problems and disorders there are. If you notice any of the following symptoms and signs, you may have to get a doctor’s opinion on how to proceed further.
Feelings of anxiety, changes in appetite, decreased libido, dry skin, erratic bowel movements, changes in your menstrual cycle, heart palpitations at odd times, feeling cold all the time, irregular sleep patterns, drastically gaining weight, hair thinning or falling out, hair growth in unnecessary places – are all some of the symptoms and signs that you need to get looked at. The last thing you need to do is neglect them. Never neglect any health-related symptoms and signs. It’s better to on the safer side and get a doctor’s opinion.
And if the test results show that you do have a thyroid disorder, it’s not the end of the world because millions of people across the world have similar disorders. These disorders are manageable, which might take some time to get used to. And this answers your query as to why you’re not seeing any results in your weight loss efforts.
5. You have hit a plateau with your workout.
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Do you do the same workout day in and day out? The same ten-minute cardio, followed by weight training for twenty minutes, followed by ten-minute cardio again to wrap it up? No wonder you’re not seeing any visible results. Your muscles have gotten used to the same workout, and have hit a plateau. So they won’t work anymore.
What you can do to keep the weight loss consistent as well as continuous, is to change your workout routine by doing different things on different days of the week. If you focus on cardio one day, do weight training the next, or take a Pilates class for another day. Even throw in a yoga session to mix things up a bit. Or, if you want to stick to just running, run on the treadmill for three days, while running around your neighborhood the rest of the week. You need variety in exercising as much your muscles do. You’ll soon start seeing the results you’ve always wanted to see!
6. You can’t seem to give up alcohol.
Are you one of those people who wants their glass of wine at the end of the day, just to unwind? Or the person who never misses a happy hour at your favorite haunts? If you’re seriously trying to lose weight, then you might have to keep these occasions to a minimum. There are several studies out there that recommend a glass of wine a day, but there are also studies contradicting that fact. So there’s no clear indication that a glass of wine does actually help your overall health. It’s better to keep them to a minimum, when you’re trying your best to lose weight.
7. You obsess too much.
You may be getting in the way of yourself. Although keeping an eye on the caloric intake and burning them off is a good thing, you need to stop obsessing over those numbers. If you’re too focused on the numbers, the entire thing may just backfire on you. While keeping a check on the bad calories that you seem to be drawn to, follow the ‘everything in moderation’ dictum to a tee. One way to keep from obsessing over the numbers is to keep a journal with details of your progress. Jot down your caloric intake, your workout routine for that day, and whatever other parameter you want to keep track of. Remember, once you’ve logged in your day’s entries, shut the book and let it go. There’s no use obsessing over and making yourself blue in the face with the calories you’ve consumed or burned. Losing weight can be likened to a marathon, instead of a sprint that you seem to compare it to.
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8. You may have fallen victim to relationship weight.
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Yes, relationship weight is a thing. It’s a situation where your partner, who is not quite active, has, by way of association, rubbed off on you by making you inactive as well. You were pretty active when you first started dating, but then you fell off your fitness wagon because you found bliss cuddling up with your significant other on the couch and eating pizza all the time, instead of slogging your bum off at the gym. And it doesn’t help that your partner isn’t motivated and/or active enough either.
If you find yourself nodding your head to the above paragraph, then you need to break the unhealthy cycle by STOP being lazy! Get your bum off the couch and hit the gym. Start working out like you used to, and start taking care of yourself. You don’t want to look back a few months down the line and start to wonder what went wrong and where you let your health by the wayside. Stop being lazy and start getting yourself into shape.
Losing weight takes a lot of effort, hard work, and determination. If you’re trying to lose weight, or are thinking about it, or have been at it for a while, you should keep your eye on the prize – the most fit and fabulous version of yourself – and keep at it even when the devil sitting on your shoulder whispers in your ear to quit already.
Good luck shedding off those extra pounds! Stay motivated, stay healthy!
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