Why Can’t I Lose Weight and What Can I Do About It?

Let’s be real, we all want to look our absolute best and have the perfect body and we would do anything to reach that weight loss goal. Whether it is physical training, diet control or any other technique we choose to use to obtain our optimum weight, it is our greatest dream to make sure these efforts bear fruit in the form of a body that everyone can admire. However, even with so much effort, a lot of people are still seen asking that dreaded question; why can’t I lose weight?

As it turns out there is usually a very scientific explanation for such a scenario. And the reason why you can’t lose weight is often unique to you as well, meaning we all have different reasons for not losing those dreadful extra pounds. If you have been complaining lately about weight loss and saying I can’t lose weight is starting to bother you too much, it is time you found out the problem and rectified it. We are presenting a set of different reasons why people are unable to lose weight and hopefully, you will find yours as well, leading to rectification.

Skipping Breakfast

When it comes to having a healthy lifestyle, the importance of breakfast simply cannot be stressed enough. It is the most important meal of the day and you should definitely have a keen focus on having it every single day. And with that much importance is given to a meal, you can only find it logical to face negative impacts when skipping it.

The reason why you can’t lose weight because of skipping breakfast is that not eating anything in the morning leaves you hungry later in the day. The morning and afternoon is the time period when you need the most energy and it can be beneficial to do tasks to aid weight loss. Skipping on your source of energy for this time leads to you going out of control at the time of lunch. When you ought to be managing the number of calories you are consuming, you lose focus and eat anything and everything that comes in front of you. This reckless behavior is what takes you way beyond normal food quantities which results in you saying I’m having trouble losing weight all the time.

The number of benefits you can get from eating breakfast is practically endless and it is important that you have it every single day! Make sure you eat something healthy and packed full of nutrients!

Too Much Stress

A lot of people don’t realize it but having stress in your life is not good for your health in any way. One of the biggest impacts that stress has is on your weight as you tend to eat a lot of processed, high-calorie foods. This is a very clear path towards gaining extra pounds and then being unable to lose weight. There is a very popular term for it as well which you may be very familiar with; stress eating. Also known as emotional eating, it is your body’s way to cope with the emotional pressure you are feeling by introducing some form of “happiness” to your system. Eating treats or unhealthy foods of any kind results in the secretion of serotonin which is our happiness neurotransmitter.

To make sure you do not fall into this cycle, it is important that you take every step necessary to calm your nerves and feel better. You could:

• Call a person who you know will be a source of happiness and will make you feel lifted in any way.

• Distract yourself from your current source of stress by changing your environment or doing something out of routine like go for a walk, turn on the TV, meditate, etc.

• Use a stress ball to relieve some of that pressure built inside you from possible anxiety.

• Go do an outdoor activity like playing a game, hanging out with friends, visiting the local park, etc.

You only have to show a little bit of will power and take the steps necessary to overcome stress. We know eating food is the easiest way to deal with it but the cost you have to pay is certainly quite large i.e. finding yourself asking, why can’t I lose weight?

The Effect of Gender

While some of you may not want to accept this, but how successful you are in losing weight can also become dependent on whether you are a man or a woman. Exercising and dieting have an impact on both men and women but with recent studies, new information has surfaced regarding the dynamics of weight loss in each gender. As it turns out, men have it a lot easier when it comes to losing weight as compared to women. The way their body eats up the fat is biologically different from women for a number of different reasons.

But perhaps the more interesting part of this revelation is that in addition to the speed of weight loss, the locations that are consumed first by the body also differ. It is equally preferred by both men and women to lose their belly fat the fastest. Being home to visceral fat and being the most visible are only two of the many reasons to lose weight from this are first. However, while men lose their belly fat the fastest, most women actually find it the most difficult to lose belly fat! Here are a few things you should know about belly fat and how you can take it off.

Metabolism Rates

It is important that you do not blame yourself completely every time you wonder; why is it so hard to lose weight? There are quite a few factors that are not entirely in your control and one of the biggest factors is your rate of metabolism. Every person has their own individual rate at which their body breaks down food. For most people, the problems arise from their genetic coding where the rate of burning calories in their bodies is simply defined to be slow.

However, it is still possible to increase the rate at which your metabolism works and there are also quite a few other factors to be considered. One of the things you may want to look into is the number of lean muscles your body has. The more the muscular mass you carry, the faster your body will burn fat. Who says you can’t lose weight unless you have a faster rate of metabolism by birth. With the right strategy and effort, this issue can easily be overcome by anyone!

Aging

It is as simple as the word itself and actually linked directly with the above point. Our bodies have an aging process that affects every aspect of our body the same way. As we get older, the performance of each function of our body begins to drop, some slowly and other quite fast. Metabolism is also a function that gets affected by the progression of life. For every decade we live after becoming adults, we face a natural drop in our metabolism rate by 2-8%. There can be a number of different reasons why this happens, but the most commonly accepted reason is that our body starts to lose its muscle mass as it gets old. As lower the muscle mass goes, the lower our metabolism rates get as well.

While it is impossible to reverse the effects of aging on our body, you can still slow down the degradation by taking up as many healthy activities as possible. Apart from doing the things we suggest here, make sure you eat healthy, stay active and avoid anything that could damage or slow down your body. If you do not do that and then complain that you can’t lose weight no matter what, then you know exactly who is to blame for it.

Too Little Food Intake

A lot of people believe that reducing the amount of food we eat can make us lose weight. And when they start to wonder why is it so hard to lose weight even after reducing calorie intake, they don’t seem to know the answer. The fact of the matter is, when you start eating so little that your body feels like it is starving then you are only messing up your metabolism rate and nothing else. Your body thinks that it may not get proper sustenance to meet its requirements and instead of burning calories actively, it starts to store as much food as it can. As a result, you constantly feel weak and drained and you still can’t lose weight.

A lot of people mistake eating in small portions with eating too little which can have a lot of negative impact on your health. There is quite a lot of effort required alongside the reduction of calories. Our body has its own minimum calorie requirement as well which we need to fulfil anyway. If you want to do it properly then either work on portion control or add more lean muscles to make sure your body utilizes the calories you eat instead of storing them.

Skipping Sleep Hours

Getting proper sleep at night is very important, not just in terms of losing weight but also for several other aspects of the body. At night our body not only relaxes our muscles but also takes its time to burn off excess calories in the system. This is also where the rate of metabolism comes into play. For your body to continue burning calories effectively, it needs to get a sufficient amount of rest. Not doing so leads to a vicious cycle of bad results and poor choices that can become major reasons for why is it so hard to lose weight for you.

When you do not sleep properly, your body muscles do not get a sufficient amount of rest. When that happens, you become more prone to eating unhealthy snacks instead of healthy ones. Studies have shown that people who do not sleep well tend to consume a significantly higher percentage of calories as compared to those who do. This tool should help you analyze the quality of your sleep and find out what needs to be fixed.

Medical Conditions

In addition to what has been given to us genetically or due to our habits and routine, there are quite a few medical reasons for why you can’t lose weight no matter what. Here are a few conditions that often lead to difficulties, explaining some people are unable to lose weight even after making good efforts:

• Hypothyroidism: Thyroid is the major hormone responsible for determining how quickly or slowly our body burns calories. The higher the levels the faster the rate of metabolism in your body. Some people, however, are not able to produce sufficient amounts of thyroid hormone. This condition is called hypothyroidism and can have a serious impact on your weight loss efforts.

• Lipedema: This one is related specifically to women as it is a condition in which the legs and butt of a woman start gathering a lot of excess fat. This particular store of fat then becomes almost impossible to remove from the body!