Trying to lose weight can be really difficult for many people, especially since a lot of the information out there is confusing and contradictory. Let’s take a look at the five top reasons why people fail to lose weight.
You’re Focusing On the Wrong Number
The reasons that people want immediate gratification when they’re trying to lose weight is because of the misinformation and false promises they’re given. Trying to achieve a certain number on the scale is misleading because although it decreases your body weight, it does not take into account the type of weight reduction you’re achieving.
What you really need to concentrate upon is a reduction in fat mass only as this is what constitutes being overweight, not your body weight. In order to accomplish this, I recommend looking at losing no more than one pound of body fat per week. If you have 50 pounds to lose, plan on it taking a year to accomplish.
Don’t think there are quick ways to lose weight, because people who lose weight faster than this are also losing valuable muscle tissue and often times end up gaining the weight back—plus more—after a year or two. Be realistic when you’re trying to lose weight and you will have a better chance at long-term success.
What You’re Eating is Making You Hungry
Despite what you have been told, calories in do not equal calories out. If you eat the wrong types of calories, even if you are expending the same amount of calories in energy requirements, you will still store body fat.
Hunger is caused by not eating enough and eating the wrong foods. When you don’t eat enough or when you eat foods high on the glycemic index, your blood sugar will rise and then precipitously fall in 60-90 minutes, causing hunger. If you continue to eat foods high in refined grains such as white rice, sugar, pasta, and fruit drinks, your insulin levels will remain higher and you will store a great deal of body fat and prevent your body from using it as energy.
If you are trying to lose weight, you should be eating every three to four hours with meals consisting of whole grains, sweet potato, vegetables, legumes, lean proteins like fish, eggs and poultry, non-fat Greek yogurt, nuts and olive oil.
Instead of focusing on the quick ways to lose weight, eating a diet rich in whole grains and vegetables can help you achieve your goals in the long term.
You Miss Your Favorite Foods
If you just want to eat all your favorite foods then you may want to re-think your weight-loss. After all, wasn’t this one of the reasons why you got to this place? There is no way you will reach your goals if you don’t eliminate certain dangerous foods that affect your physiology in a very bad way.
That doesn’t mean you have to eliminate everything from your diet right away if you’re trying to lose weight. I have no problem with having the occasional slice of whole grain vegetable pizza, diet soda or using the sweetener “Splenda” in a controlled manner.
However, if you start cutting corners with your diet, your results will dwindle. Often times, the sugar and refined flour used to make certain food products make them undesirable. After you have reached your goal, you can have a day where you can have a few treats without overdoing it, of course. If you’re just searching for quick ways to lose weight, then you won’t succeed.
Instead, you can still eat some of your favorites but just replace them with healthy alternatives (like whole wheat vegetable pizza instead of pepperoni pizza).
You Hate Exercising
There are a few points which need to be made to address this because I have heard this many times from patients and clients who I work with. First of all, regardless of how you feel about exercise, it is an essential component of successful weight management, period.
Second of all, there is no direct relationship between attaining a goal or achieving results and the level of enjoyment experienced. In other words, you should find an activity you find more tolerable but when all is said and done, the process of successful weight management and control is about getting a result, not about doing something you want or frequently enjoy.
Quite frequently, people develop weight issues because of what they wanted to do and enjoy, but did so far too long. If you want more freedom in your food selections, regular exercise will give you the latitude to do so if you’re trying to lose weight. Remember, you are turning your body into a fat burning machine instead of a fat-storing machine so just search for quick ways to lose weight—and avoiding exercise—is not recommended.
You Tried Everything and Nothing Works
When I hear clients say this, there are reasons for concern—the most common of which is attitudinal. It’s only upon further questioning that one becomes to realize that it’s not the methodology necessarily which was flawed but a lack of education, knowledge, and tainted expectations which account for this response. Soon, the truth reveals that they didn’t really try everything in the proper context with the right type of attitudinal change and associated thinking which leads to successful weight loss.
You cannot expect to have all the hard work done for you while treating yourself like a victim, essentially powerless to help yourself. When you move forward out of this paralyzing mindset, you can move forward again to a successful outcome.
Trying to lose weight can be difficult, especially when there is a lot of misinformation out there. At the end of the day, just looking for quick ways to lose weight will not achieve long term success. Instead, working on eating right and exercising will leave you with desirable results.
Source(s):
“5 Reasons People Give Up on Losing Weight,” Yahoo! web site, July 31, 2013; http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/healthy-living/5-reasons-people-losing-weight-overcome-them-233100688.html, last accessed August 6, 2013.
