You have been working out really hard at the gym at every chance you can get; you have been opting for the soup bowls rather than the entrees whenever you have to eat out, your fridge does not contain any thing that even remotely resembles junk food and yet you find yourself struggling to knock off those ungainly pounds! You can’t help but wonder, “What am I doing wrong?”
Following are 5 mistakes that you might be making, that are holding you back from achieving the desired weight loss,
- You are stuck to the same exercise routine:
Many a times you get too comfortable with the same exercise routines that you were asked to do by your trainer. While, they may be helping you maintain your fitness they are stimulating a very limited number of muscles. Why? Because our body adapts itself to anything very quickly, so if you are performing the same set of exercises for say a period of 2 months, your body’s going to get used to it!
A good idea to bust this weight loss plateau and lose more weight is to have at least 2 separate sets of exercises, which help you break the monotony of doing the same boring routine and also help you exercise certain parts and muscles of your body which might have been neglected in your prior exercise routine. Having at least 2 separate routines will also help speed up your weight loss process.
Another idea would be to take up another physical activity than exercising such as any sport like running, swimming, cycling and so on.
- Tired Workouts won’t help you lose that weight:
If you are tired or sleepy when you work out, it won’t help you much if you are trying to lose weight. Being tired or sleep deprived when working out makes the exercises that you do less effective due to which you not only burn fewer calories but also don’t lose much weight, but also makes you hungry soon after the workout.
Sleep deprivation results in the release of the hunger hormone, Ghrelin. The release of this hormone results in us craving food, mostly sweets and junk food, and as a result of which we eat immediately after the work out, adding to our calorie count and thereby weight too!
Experts point out that it is better to skip the workout if you are tired or sleepy, for a tired work out is not really effective and also results in the release of hormones which promote cravings which directly result in weight gain rather than weight loss.
- Hidden medical conditions:
Hidden medical conditions such as PCOD and hypothyroidism, diabetes and so on can make weight loss an ardent long winding struggle for you. For e.g. if your thyroid doesn’t function normally, then it directly affects the body’s metabolism- increasing it, which makes you put on those unexplainable extra pounds which refuse to take leave of your waist, hips, thighs and belly, no matter how hard you exercise or how strictly you adhere to your diet.
It would be advisable to see a doctor for these hidden medical conditions, if you find yourself doing everything right yet not losing the weight. But like they say, every coin has two sides; certain prescription medications can also add to those pounds of yours, so check with your physician for any previous reports of prescription drugs leading to weight gain.
Another reason why you might not be losing those pounds is that while you may be working your butt off in the gym for four days of a week and sticking to your diet on most days, you lack consistency! Most people work hard towards their goal of achieving weight loss but do so inconsistently.
Working hard in the gym for 4-6 days and taking a cheat day off on say Sunday, when you gorge on your favorite junk foods will not help your cause. Similarly with your diet being inconsistent will not help, as both of these inconsistencies will pile on the calories and slow down your weight loss process.
Sure you take care to eat more at home rather than eating out; you handpick the healthy food items so that you can whip up a healthy dinner/lunch/breakfast in accordance with your diet, but then as usual you make too much food! With so much effort having gone into the cooking, you surely don’t want to throw away the leftovers, so you end up consuming them. This without doubt adds to your calorie count, and causes a difficulty in the weight loss process.
Similar to this is ‘Stress’. Have you ever noticed that one colleague at work who is always stressed out? Then you must have also noticed that he is overweight! Constant stress results in the production of a hormone known as ‘Cortisol’, this hormone causes an increase in your appetite like the hunger hormone and also causes extra fat storage around your abdominal region. All in all it results in weight gain and causes a lot of difficulties if you are trying to lose weight.
So now that know of the possible reasons as to why you might not be losing that weight, we are sure you’ll not miss your workouts, dump the left over’s and change your exercise routines on your way to achieving your goal of weight loss!
