10 Reasons Why You Can't Lose Weight
/1. Not Eating Breakfast – Ironically, I always ensure the kids have a healthy breakfast, but me? I’m too busy to eat in the mornings, so my metabolism is sluggish throughout the day until lunch, and by then, I’m famished and overeat throughout the rest of the day to catch up on my calories. Anyone else like this? One solution is to prep your breakfast for the week with healthy options like high protein smoothies, hard-boiled eggs, apple slices and nut butter, and paleo-friendly bars.
2. Overeating Healthy Foods. I love that you’re eating almonds, avocados, fruit, and salads, but they all have calories. Ensure you consume a healthy portion of your snack and do not devour the whole bag of trail mix in one sitting. See #4. Don’t even get me started on the sneaky hidden sugars in foods. Hidden calories – hidden sugars are everywhere – salad dressings, cereals, peanut butter, granola bars, ketchup, mayo, fruit juices, flavored waters, most sauces, and condiments. All these “hidden’ calories add up in a day, and studies have shown that sugar is more damaging to your body than big sugar binges!
3. Underactive Thyroid (Hypothyroidism) – it controls your metabolism and contributes to most of your biochemistry. Did you know that 20-30% of people are walking around with undiagnosed thyroid disorders? Maybe you are always cold, can’t lose weight, and feel puffy and bloated. When was the last time you had a full thyroid panel? (that is your TSH, Free T3, Free T4, and Reverse T3 levels).
4. Portion Sizes – slowly, the American serving size has nearly doubled, if not tripled, compared to our counterparts in Europe and Latin America over the past few decades. We are being served larger and larger portions in restaurants and changing our perception of what an actual “normal” size of food should be on your plate. Take a look - https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/eat-right/distortion.htm
5. Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes - When you eat a diet high in carbs (bread, pasta, sweets), your body will overproduce insulin to stabilize your blood sugar. Over time, your body becomes resistant to insulin, and blood sugar and fat synthesis increase. Many of our patients are screened for insulin resistance, which can occur up to a decade before any overt signs of diabetes. Luckily, insulin resistance is reversible and treatable.
6. Hormonal Imbalance – when your hormones are out of whack, it’s harder for you to lose weight and easier for you to gain weight. In premenopausal women, too much estrogen (or estrogen dominance) causes adipose or fat gain, water retention, and bloating, along with a long list of other health issues. In men, loss of testosterone also leads to weight gain.
7. Chronic Sleep Deprivation – Let’s face it, when you’re tired, you are less physically active and more apt to eat high-carb foods that give you temporary energy. However, recent studies have also shown that chronic sleep deprivation can mess up your hormones that help with weight metabolism. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evidence-based-living/201611/the-link-between-sleep-deprivation-and-weight-gain
8. Stress and Adrenal Imbalance – One of the most common causes of not being able to lose weight is due to our fight-or-flight stress hormone cortisol. “Over time, high cortisol, when sustained, is linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, increased belly fat, brain changes… depression, insomnia, and poor wound healing. Fat cells in the belly have four times more cortisol receptors than fat cells elsewhere, so you keep reinforcing the muffin top as your cortisol climbs and stays high. It’s not pretty.” http://www.saragottfriedmd.com/cortisol-switcharoo/
9. Medications – Did you know many medicines are understood to have weight gain associated with them? Antidepressants, diabetes medications, antipsychotics, epilepsy drugs, and certain blood pressure medications. If you need to take medications, you have choices that do not cause so much weight gain.
10. Vitamin Deficiencies – Low vitamin D, B vitamins, amino acids, minerals, and other nutrients cause a slow cellular metabolism. Unfortunately, most people do not realize that they aren’t getting enough optimal levels of vitamins from their foods. Most Americans are known to have vitamin deficiencies.