Trying to lose weight is frustrating. For the overwhelming majority, it’s just unequivocally discouraging. After so many attempts, you give up. You lose hope. You accept your ultimate and imminent defeat. But... You don’t have to.
There's a reason why you can't lose weight. First and foremost, diets are a joke. And if you think that trying the latest and greatest fad diet will finally be the answer to your weight loss journey, you’re wrong. Every diet does work to a certain degree, for a little while. But they're not sustainable. In the short term, yes you’ll lose some weight. But there are specific reasons why you’ve failed, and why you keep failing. It may even seem like no matter what you do, you just can't lose weight. It's not because of you, it's because of the unrealistic expectations that diets have. They set you up for failure. We're going to cover 5 reasons to help you answer your question, "Why can't I lose weight?"
You’re excited. You’ve decided that today is the day. You’re going on a diet. You’re going to prep all your meals so that instead of having cravings and hitting up the drive-thru on the way home from work you can start eating healthy well-balanced meals and finally start losing weight. This may last for a few days, maybe even a week, but what happens when you forget your lunch and Janet from HR brings in donuts? You’ve got to eat, right? I’m guessing that this new diet of yours, probably doesn’t include donuts as a preferred food choice. And now that you’ve eaten three of them, you feel awful and BOOM! Your diet is dead. The point – is that things happen. You get busy, you get stuck in traffic, you miss meals, you end up eating your kids' mac and cheese instead of your dinner, etc. Not to mention the birthdays, weekend pizza parties, and vacations.
Diets are made for fantasyland, and unfortunately, life happens. And unless you’re a billionaire who has a personal chef and gets to eat organic chicken farm to table every day, with a side of garden fresh organic kale then you’re stuck figuring out whether or not you want to eat leftover spaghetti or a frozen pizza like the rest of us.
Instead, it's important to focus on creating a healthy lifestyle that incorporates lean proteins, quality carbohydrates, and healthy fats.
If you've been trying to eat cleaner, but just don't know how to get started or what to do, check out custom nutrition program at CrossFit MNC. Contact one of our nutrition coaches and find out how we can help create the best nutrition program for you and your goals. Then, get connected with your personal nutrition coach, and start getting the results you've been waiting for.
The first step to an unsuccessful diet is creating a lifestyle you and your body is not used to. For example, if you don’t regularly workout and eat healthily, then going from grabbing the most convenient food when you’re hungry, to having to cook all your meal and hitting the gym after work 5 times per week when you don’t know what you’re even doing is doomed. Breaking bad habits can be hard. And breaking them all at once can be extremely overwhelming.
That’s why participating in diets that have heavy calorie restriction like the HCG diet (500 calories per day) or IIFYM and flexible dieting can work for a short period of time, but are unrealistic and set you up for failure.
If your body is accustomed to ingesting 4,000 – 5,000 calories per day, extreme calorie restriction, will just cause you to starve, eventually leading to overeating and ultimately giving up.
Calorie deficits or the exclusion of certain foods is how the majority of fad diets typically work. Restricting yourself to eating specific foods, and restricting others, can work, of course, however that will never work in the long run if you’re trying to live a well-balanced healthy life that’s actually sustainable. By restricting certain types of foods like carbs, fat, sodium, chest, milk, or trying to keep track of everything you eat and replacing it with unhealthy alternatives, you’re putting a band-aid on a problem, that stems much deeper and that requires a multi-faceted solution.
There are no shortcuts! Weight loss techniques like Weight Watchers and pharmaceutical prescription medications like Phentermine will not work as a long-term solution. Don't get me wrong, fat burners that can definitely help you boost your metabolic rate and burn more calories at rest. But, it’s important to remember, that fat burners are not effective on their own. In order to optimize your body composition and burn body fat, you’ll need to eat a healthy well-balanced diet, and exercise regularly..
It’s proven, that the only thing you can do to lose weight and stay healthy, is through a well-balanced healthy and sustainable diet, paired with a functional exercise routine. If you're trying to lose weight, it's vital to get your heart rate up for a prolonged period of time, up to 30-45 min.
One of the biggest reasons you can't lose weight is that you eat out too often. Yes, I get it, you're hungry now and if you don't eat within the next ten minutes you might be on tonights nightly news. But just because something is convenient, does not mean it's the right choice. It may take two hours to defrost your chicken breast so that you can finally eat, but that means you need to plan accordingly. Or have healthy snacks you can eat, so you don't revert to eating out too often.
The problem is that you have no control over what goes into your food, nor can you monitor it. Restaurants add extra salt, vegatable oil, and use ingredients which may have preservatives, trans fat, and additives that can cause bloating, increased cortisol levels, leading to increased body fat.
Going out to eat has been built into our society as a social norm. Its bred deep within American culture. But that doesn't mean you need to go out every night. You'll save yourself some money and unwanted pounds, by planning and eating at home more often.
Why can't you lose weight? You're not consistent. Ask yourself if you've been able to stick with clean healthy eating patterns for more than a couple weeks? The answer is probably no. Being consistent is perhaps the greatest challenge when you're trying to lose weight. You're human and sometimes you just forget. But, if you can be consistent in your eating patterns and eat healthy, wholesome nutritious foods, you'll find that it does become easier over time. Saying no to foods you've been accustomed to for so long can be challenging. However, by becoming consistent, not just in your diet, but in your supplementation and exercise routine, you'll lose weight and you'll start to see results. Just stick with it.
Be realistic. Taking small steps and hitting realistic milestones in your health and fitness, is the only way you can change your lifestyle and avoid making the mistakes you’ve made in the past. New years resolutions fail (almost always) because the expectations to change overnight are unrealistic. Whole grains, good fats, complex carbs, and lean proteins will create a diet that’s natural, healthy, and sustainable. Don't forget your essential vitamins and nutrients. Make a commitment to your health, and most of all be consistent. Without consistency, you won't lose weight, no matter what you do. It's the key to your weight loss journey.
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