Why Am I Not Losing Weight? 11 Reasons The Scale’s Not Moving
“Why am I not losing weight?”
This is a common question that pops up in peoples minds all the time. They think they’re doing everything right, but they’re still not losing weight.
Here are 11 mistakes you might be making that could be holding you back from achieving your weight loss goals.
1. You’re Not Tracking Calories
If you’re looking to lose weight, tracking calories makes fat loss a much less complicated process.
Tracking what you’re eating and how many calories you’re consuming has many benefits:
✓ Keeps you accountable, honest, and gives you more control.
✓ You’re more aware of what and how much you’re eating.
✓ You’re likely to make better choices.
✓ Easier to make adjustments to your nutrition.
✓ Allows you to be more flexible with your nutrition.
✓ You will learn about proper portion sizes.
✓ Can provide the structure you need to be consistent and successful.
Tracking your caloric intake may seem tedious and time-consuming, but the benefits are well worth it. Besides, you don’t have to track everything you consume forever. Eventually you’ll get to a point where you’ve learned so much about portion sizes, macronutrients, and you’ll be great at eye balling a plate of food and making a good estimate of how many calories are in each meal. You’ll learn how to eat according to your goals and you’ll know what works for you.
If you’re constantly asking yourself why you’re not losing weight, start consistently tracking your calories. It takes a bit of extra time, but it could be the difference maker.
2. You’re Unaware of The Caloric Content of Certain Foods
This is where tracking your caloric intake comes in handy. You become much more aware of serving sizes and how many calories are in the foods and beverages you’re consuming.
Many restaurants have their menu along with the caloric content of their meals and beverages available online. If you can’t find the caloric content of a meal or beverage on a restaurants menu or website, MyFitnessPal likely has it on their app.
It’s easy for calories to add up from the foods you eat, but be aware of the calorie content of the beverages and condiments you consume. These are often forgotten, but they can add a significant amount of calories if you’re not familiar with serving sizes and how much you’re consuming.
The drink you get from Starbucks five days a week on your way to work could have a few hundred calories.
The salad dressing you use every day for lunch could have 100 calories per serving, but you’re not using just one serving, you’re using two.
Your favorite barbeque sauce might have 80 calories per serving, but you use it three times a day and double the serving size each time—giving you an extra 480 calories per day just from a condiment.
Are you one to take a big spoonful of peanut butter straight from the jar? You could be getting 400 calories from that one over-sized spoonful. A serving of peanut butter is only 2 tablespoons and has nearly 200 calories.
What about your coffee creamer?
Have you ever checked the nutrition label and measured out the amount of creamer you’re using?
Very few people are using just one serving. Maybe it has 30 calories a serving and you use three servings for each cup and you’re drinking 3 cups a day. That’s 270 calories per day of creamer. That’s 1,890 calories from creamer per week, assuming you drink it 7 days a week.
Sauces, oils, and calorie dense foods like nuts, cheese, and fatty cuts of meat are other foods that are often very underestimated when it comes to their caloric content.
All those alcoholic drinks on the weekends? Those can add up fast.
Protein and carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram. Fat has 9 calories per gram. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram. Alcohol is more calorie dense than protein and carbohydrates, and just slightly less calorie dense than fat.
Become more aware of the calorie content and serving sizes of the foods you eat. Pay attention to nutrition labels. Use a food scale if you’re unsure of serving sizes. You’ll likely make better choices and have an easier time adjusting your diet.
3. You’re Not Prepared
Losing weight, getting lean, and staying lean isn’t as complicated when you’re almost always prepared.
Think about how many times you’ve been unprepared, then made unhealthy food choices because they were convenient and easily available.
You wake up in a rush for work, so you decide to skip breakfast. You were in a rush and skipped breakfast because you were unprepared.
You get to work and realize someone brought in donuts that morning. Instead of eating a healthy and energizing breakfast, you eat a few donuts that adds up several hundred calories that are completely void of any nutritional value.
You were unprepared and didn’t bring any food to work for lunch. You end up skipping lunch and go way too long without eating. You got extremely hungry, cravings emerged, and when you finally got home, you ate too much and didn’t make the healthiest choices. This is another common occurrence for many people.
Do I expect you to always be prepared? Absolutely not. Unanticipated events and situations pop-up. Sometimes you do just forget. It happens, but make a true effort to be well prepared as often as you can.
Do your grocery shopping regularly so you have healthy foods in your kitchen at all times.
Have plenty of quality food that you can cook, but also have some healthy options that don’t require cooking that you can take on the go.
These will also be useful for times when you don’t feel like preparing a meal or are short on time and don’t have the time to cook.
Prepare your meals in advance and take them to work. Have healthy foods on hand that don’t require refrigeration for times when you don’t have access to a refrigerator.
Decide what you’re going to eat for breakfast the night before.
If you’re going out to eat at a restaurant, look at the menu on their website before you go and decide what you want to eat before you get there. Making a decision and having your mind set on a meal can avoid temptations.
Make a true effort to be well prepared as much as possible. Losing weight, getting lean, and staying lean will be easier.
4. You Haven’t Changed Your Environment
Imagine trying to eat healthy in a home where you have shelves loaded with processed cereals, cakes, and other sugary snacks. The fridge is packed with soda and leftover pizza. The freezer is stuffed with microwaveable dinners and ice cream. A bowl of candy sits in the middle of the kitchen counter and more can be found in the drawer next to the fridge.
Living in an environment like that would definitely make eating well and losing weight a challenge.
Take a look at your surroundings.
Are you in an unsupportive environment with unhealthy choices everywhere you look? If so, it’s time to start making small adjustments.
When you’re surrounded by healthier foods, healthier choices are easier to make.
Swap the bowl of candy for a bowl of fruit. Start filling the fridge with fish, lean cuts of meat, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and a variety of vegetables.
Ditch the soda and drink more water. Fill your pantry with oats, nuts, beans, lentils, whole grains, and nut butter.
Don’t make too many changes at once. That can seem overwhelming and you’ll likely struggle to maintain the new healthy eating habits you’re developing.
First, get rid of the bowl of candy. After a few weeks go by and you’ve adjusted to the change, make another food swap.
Replace the frozen dinners for a healthy, home-cooked meal like fish, brown rice, and your choice of vegetables.
Then oatmeal replaces your high-sugar, processed cereal. You’ve swapped soda for more water.
All of these small and incremental changes eventually result in an entirely new environment. One that supports your goals and a healthy lifestyle.
Make small, incremental changes to your surroundings by swapping your not-so-healthy foods for healthier choices. When your environment supports your goals, your goals become easier to reach.
5. You Don’t Have a Support System Behind You
This ties in with creating an environment that is advantageous to reaching your weight loss goals. You also want to surround yourself with supportive people.
Any goal becomes less challenging when you have group of supportive people behind you—including weight loss.
If your friends, family, and coworkers are constantly talking you into making unhealthy food choices, you may want to have a talk with them.
Explain to them what you’re trying to accomplish and let them know that you’d really appreciate it if they’d support you along the way instead of pressuring you into eating and drinking what they are.
If you can get one of them to join you in your weight loss journey, even better. Now you have a strong support system and someone to keep you accountable.
Surround yourself with people that support you and your weight loss goals. You’ll likely be more motivated, make healthier choices, and have an easier time losing weight.
6. You’re Not Sleeping Well
If you’re still asking yourself why you’re not losing weight, pay close attention to how you’re sleeping.
A lack of sleep throws off your hunger hormones—ghrelin and leptin. These two hormones are mainly responsible for regulating our appetite.
Leptin decreases your appetite and ghrelin increases your appetite.
When you are sleep deprived, leptin and ghrelin get thrown off balance, increasing your appetite and making it harder to stay on track with your diet.
This can increase your cravings for high-fat, sugar-laden foods that are nothing but empty calories. Not only are you likely to eat more, but you’re also more likely to not make the healthiest choices.
Besides messing with the hormones that regulate your appetite, not enough sleep can also drain your energy levels. You feel tired, you’re not in the best mood, and you might struggle to get through the day.
If you’re exhausted you’re unlikely to stay active and go for a run or lift at the gym. If you do, you probably won’t have a great workout.
If you’re exhausted and sleep deprived, you’re also less likely to make good choices.
Plenty of quality sleep optimizes your hormones and gives you the energy you need to be active, train at a high intensity, burn some extra calories, and make better decisions.
7. You’re Not Active Enough
Relying solely on proper nutrition for weight loss may work in the beginning of your weight loss journey, but as your weight drops and you get leaner, weight loss becomes more challenging.
Exercise is a great tool to include in your weight loss plan. Earlier I mentioned the importance of being in an energy deficit. Exercise can help burn off some extra calories to create the energy deficit that is needed to lose weight.
A combination of weight training and cardiovascular training is best. Even for women, weight training is important. You won’t accidentally get overly muscular.
There are guys trying so hard every day to increase the size of their muscles through weight training and still struggle horribly. You’re not going to do it by accident. Muscle burns more calories, even at rest while you’re doing absolutely nothing. Put on a little bit of muscle to burn more calories, even in your sleep.
There are other ways to increase your activity level besides exercising in a gym or going for a run.
You can become more active by:
» Playing a sport.
» Taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
» Going for a walk each morning.
» Taking your dog on one extra walk per day, and/or longer walks.
» Parking further away from the entrance of buildings so you have to walk further.
» Using your lunch break to eat, then go for a walk.
» Biking or walking places that are nearby when the weather is nice.
» Going on hikes on the weekends.
» Taking a walk while on the phone if you can.
Last but not least, check your level of effort in the gym. Are you actually training hard? Be honest with yourself.
8. You’re Stressed All the Time
When you’re chronically stressed, losing weight will become a greater challenge.
Stress can often lead you to eat for the wrong reasons. You eat when you’re not even hungry.
Instead, you eat for comfort and use it as a tool to manage your emotions. Not only are you eating when your body doesn’t even need the energy, but when you’re stressed, you’re probably not reaching for the salmon and vegetables.
Instead, you’re reaching for calorie-dense, high-fat, sugary foods. Foods that cause a dopamine release, making you feel better and soothing your stress.
Find better ways to manage stress and your emotions. Food may work, but there are other more effective ways that won’t result in weight gain.
Chronic stress typically leads to poor sleep. As mentioned earlier, insufficient sleep throws off your hunger hormones. This contributes to your poor food choices and cravings.
A lack of restorative sleep can also leave you exhausted. If you’re exhausted and your energy levels are low, you’re unlikely to exercise.
Find healthy ways to manage your stress. Once you do, life will get better and so will your weight loss progress.
9. You’re Not Eating Enough Protein
Protein supports weight loss in a few ways.
Protein tends to be more filling than carbohydrates and fats. This keeps you full for longer. This can result in you eating fewer calories throughout the day.
Your body burns more calories digesting and absorbing protein than it does carbs and fats. This is called the thermic effect of food (TEF), and it typically accounts for about 10% of your total daily energy expenditure.
Protein is key for building and maintaining muscle. Keeping the muscle you have is important for preventing any further drops in your metabolic rate as you diet to lose weight. A higher metabolic rate makes losing weight and keeping the weight off easier.
If you’re struggling to lose weight, take a second look at your protein intake. You’ll want to get in 0.7-1 gram per pound of body weight. If you’re 20% body fat (28% for women) or higher, aim for 0.8-1 gram per pound of your goal body weight. I’d suggest starting at 0.8 grams per pound, and increase that amount as you lose more weight and get leaner.
10. You Haven’t Found a Sustainable Way of Eating and Made Lifestyle Changes
The word “diet” now gets a bad rap. People often think of eating bland foods they dislike and severely restricting calories.
The diets people follow are often short-term, unsustainable, and unenjoyable. For this reason, many diets eventually come to an end and fail.
If you want to lose weight and keep it off for good, you need to adopt healthy lifestyle changes and find a way of eating that works for you. A way of eating that is enjoyable, sustainable, healthy, and gets you the results you want.
Don’t think of foods as good or bad. Forget the all or nothing mentality. Change your mindset towards food and realize its okay for 15-20% of your diet to consist of foods that aren’t what you’d typically eat.
If the other 80-85% of your diet is consisting of nutrient-rich, quality food, then you’re doing great. Be flexible with your approach and know when it’s okay to indulge in something less nutritious.
This next part ties in with tidying up your environment and being prepared. When you’ve made the necessary environmental changes to support your new healthy lifestyle, eating well becomes a way of life for you. It’s just what you do and requires very little thought.
Having a fridge and pantry full of quality food is the norm for you. Your grocery shopping is almost automatic and you hardly have to make any decisions. It becomes a habit for you to shop in all the healthy sections and get the good stuff.
Being prepared comes easy. When eating healthy is just part of your lifestyle, you’ll make a serious effort to cook, prepare meals in advance, and have healthy food options for times when you’re on the go.
Don’t focus on starting a “diet.” Don’t expect temporary changes to produce lasting results. Focus on gradually making small adjustments to the way you live your life and the decisions you make.
11. You Have a Medical Condition That’s Making Weight Loss Difficult
Certain medical conditions and medications can make weight loss more challenging. If you happen to have a condition or be taking a medication that is impacting your weight loss goals, talk to your doctor to see if there’s anything you can do to combat the negative side effects or can be switched to a different medication.
Having a hard time developing healthy habits, eating better, and transforming your body? Fill out the online coaching application below and I’ll get back to you with the next steps as soon as possible!