THE UGLY FACTS YOU ARE NOT LOSING WEIGHT - Well-Being Wednesday

Sometimes, people will start a diet combining exercises, keep an eye on their calories intake and do everything right, but still not lose weight.

I can't count how often I hear it often from members, and friends on why they're not losing weight despite doing X, Y or Z. It's one of the most common questions we get as trainers. Sometimes, the answer isn't so easy… But most of the time, when someone seems to be doing the right things but not making progress, a list of possible problems might be in the way. So here are a few ugly truths about why you're not losing weight. You're eating back all the calories you burn. When you workout, you're burning extra calories. That's why exercise is so important in the weight-loss equation. But a lot of people overestimate how much they burn—and even use the "I exercised today" excuse to later overeat, overdrink (think alcohol). How many times have you faced a food temptation and thought, "Well, I worked out today, so it's OK this time" Or even, "I'll have this now, but workout extra hard tomorrow to burn it off." If that sounds all-too-familiar, this is one major reason why you're not losing weight. For the exercise to help you lose, you can't re-eat all those extra calories you burned. And in most cases, we overestimate how many calories we actually burned and underestimate how many calories we're actually eating, which means using that 3-mile walk (240 calories burned) to justify that restaurant meal (1,000+ calories, anyone?) leaves you in a worse position than if you may realize: at a calorie surplus.

The Fact: Exercises will help you lose weight when you're really using it to burn extra calories, not as a reason to eat more.

You're relying on exercise alone to do the trick. Yes, exercising can help you lose weight (and it has so many other health benefits) because it helps you create that calorie deficit needs to drop body fat. But here's the truth: Exercise alone will not help you lose weight. Again, If you are relying on exercise alone to lose weight, it’s simply going to be useless. Here's why. Exercise burns calories, but not as much as people think. When you consider how many calories you burn in a day, exercise burns very little. And it takes a lot of time and effort to burn even a few calories. A full hour of intense exercise may only burn 400-500 calories for a lot of people in most of the gym. You are lucky at SLIMher because of the High Intensity Interval Training, you can reach that number in only 30Mins. On the other side, it's easy to eat hundreds or thousands of calories in even a few minutes. But it would take hours of exercise to offset those calories. If you are not changing your diet and reducing your calorie intake, exercise alone probably won't help you much. As they say, "you can't out-train a bad diet." No amount of exercise can make up for a poor or high-calorie diet.

The Fact: The best way to lose weight is to cut back on what you eat and increase your burn through exercise—not one or the other.

You're not eating as healthfully as you think. Here's the thing: We all think we eat pretty well. Even people who eat a pretty bad diet don't think it's that bad. No one really wants to admit that their diet might be pretty unhealthy. We all think we're probably doing better than others. This is especially true if you compare your diet to what you see your friends, family or co-workers eat and consider your choices to be "better."

The Fact: If you're not meeting basic guidelines for a healthy diet (which involves way more than just counting calories alone) and/or you don't actually track your food/nutrition to see how it all adds up in black and white, don't make assumptions about how "good" you really do eat. Research confirms that people underestimate the quantity of food they eat, so read labels and measure.

You're doing the wrong kinds of exercise. If you are exercising regularly, you're already doing a very important thing to improve your health. But when it comes to exercising for weight loss, there's a lot of confusion out there. One day you hear that strength training is the best way to lose weight. The next day you're told to focus on cardio—but not just any cardio, intervals. Then you hear it has to be high intensity intervals or Tabata training. What gives? The truth is that all types of exercise will burn calories, which can help with weight loss. But when it comes to losing weight, it's all about burning calories. And in most cases, cardio is the calorie-burning king. Strength training is important, too (for many reasons), such as reducing the amount of muscle loss that occurs during weight loss, but it's typically not a major calorie burner. So if you are relying almost exclusively on strength training as your weight-loss strategy, it could backfire.

The Fact: The best exercise plan combine cardio for calorie burning, but still includes strength training to preserve lean muscle. Both are important; neither option can do everything. And Guess WHAT?! That’s exactly what SLIMher is doing!!!

You're not being consistent enough.

Perhaps you do feel pretty consistent in your habits, but the occasional slice of birthday cake or drinks with friends happens more often than just occasionally. Eating that restaurant dessert that's 4-5 times a standard serving size (and packed more sugar and fat than seems physically possible) doesn't really count as moderation, even if it's the only sweet treat you've had all week.

The Fact: Eat right and exercise as consistently as possible and apply both moderation and portion control when it comes to dinners out, and treats here and there.

You're not measuring the right things. A lot of people complain that they're not seeing the scale move, even though they are losing inches and clothing sizes. Despite these obvious signs that they're getting leaner, they still want to see the scale change. If you are noticing other improvements in your body shape or size, you are losing fat. The scale might not always reflect that you've lose weight—but ultimately it is the shape of your body and the amount of lean muscle vs. body fat you have that shows you're making progress.

The Fact: Don't just rely on the scale to measure your weight loss. That number won't really tell you everything you need to know. And that’s why SLIMher is following you Monthly on measurements and body Fat so you can see the results there, more than on the scale.

You don't need to lose weight. If you are at a healthy BMI or a body fat percentage in the healthy range, you probably don't need to lose weight for any health or medical reasons. Still, you may want to lose some or even to improve your athletic performance. There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to lose weight when you're already at an acceptable weight. But, when you only have only a little body fat to lose, it can be extremely challenging for some people. Your body is usually content to be right where it is, weight-wise. For many, their body has sort of settled in to what it feels like is a good, natural weight—which may not be your ideal weight in your head. It's certainly possible to drop your body fat percentage and get leaner, but it will often take even more dedication—and time—than it will for someone who has a lot of weight to lose.

The Fact: When you have less fat to lose, the road may be harder and longer; consistency is key! That’s me right now ;-)

You have an underlying issue. When all else fails and you've truly adhered to your program—and all the advice here—and you're still not losing weight, you may secretly wish you had some kind of underlying medical problem that would explain it—a slow thyroid, some kind of hormonal disorder, or something that popping a pill could fix and then magically help melt away the pounds. While it is true that people with certain medical issues or on certain medications can have trouble losing weight, most people struggle with losing it because they struggle with consistently burning more calories than they eat. The only way to do it is to track, measure and weigh your food honestly and accurately, and burn excess calories through increased physical activity.

The Fact: If you've truly tried everything discussed here and more—and simply aren't making progress—it would not hurt to check in with your medical provider to see if any underlying issues are at play.

Here are a few other common reasons you may not be losing weight despite doing everything right:

• You're skimping on sleep.

• You don't eat at regular hours or skips meals during a day.

• Your "cheat days" are cheating you.

• You're battling chronic stress.

• You're eating too many or too little carbs, protein or fat.

Weight loss seems simple, but it doesn't happen easily. Just be consistent. Track, track, track. Don’t hesitate to talk to me if needed. And slowly but surely, you will get there.

Source: http://www.sparkpeople.com

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