You’ve bitten the bullet, dusted off your trainers and begun to work out regularly. Mixing up your cardio with your weight training, eating less, sleeping more, feeling great but… not losing any weight.
What gives? As this is often the point where most people give up, we’ve put together a few of the reasons why the pounds may not be rolling off:
You’re eating the wrong food – Studies have shown that people who don’t get enough protein in their diet find it harder to lose weight. Protein enhances our feeling of fullness, as well as preventing us from losing muscle mass as we lose fat.
Protein also causes increased dietary thermogenesis, which means more calorie burning. In today’s fast paced environment, it can be hard to get enough protein if you eat a sandwich on the run, find it hard to take a lunch break, or don’t have time to cook.
But switching your toast for a couple of eggs at breakfast, trying to incorporate lean chicken, lentils, or fish for dinner, and snacking on almonds or other high protein nuts instead of biscuits (even low calorie ones) might just do the trick.
You’re not drinking enough water – We all know that drinking water is good for us to keep our circulation moving and flush out undesirable toxins, but did you know that drinking water can help you burn more calories as well?
Filling up on water keeps your appetite at bay and helps your digestive system to function right. When your body gets dehydrated, your kidneys don’t work properly and your body turns to the liver for extra support.
Because your liver is working on overload, your body stores more of the fat that you consume instead of burning it off.
You're eating more calories than you burn – OK, so this might sound obvious, but when you’re working out, you’re burning more calories. And while this makes exercise fundamental for weight-loss, many people overestimate how many calories they burn in a session and use it as an excuse to have an extra glass of wine, piece of cake, or ginger biscuit.
But for the exercise you’re doing to help you lose weight, unfortunately you can't re-eat the extra calories you burned. Regular exercise is a means to losing weight; not a reason to eat more.
You have a sedentary job – You may be working out three times a week or more, but if you spend the rest of your waking time sat behind a desk, unfortunately that’s an awful lot of sedentary time to compensate for.
While you probably can’t trade in your 9-5 job and go hiking instead, getting up and walking for just two minutes per hour sat at the computer burns an additional 59 calories a day, not to mention gives your tired eyes a break.
You could also try taking the stairs instead of the lift, walking to work instead of driving your car, or even jogging on the sport while cleaning your teeth or watching TV.
You need professional advice – If you’re doing the wrong kind of cardio for your body type, or the same cardio every time, your body will get used to the repetitive exercise and begin to burn less calories.
If you’re overeating, or snacking on the wrong things you may also find that your weight loss plateaus. With thousands of success stories at the DVCC, we specialise in combining exercise sessions with nutritional guidance and will advise you on a diet and workout programme that complement each other.
Not only will you lose weight, but you’ll feel better from the inside out.
