Why We Don't Lose Weight.

Have you ever gone on a fat loss diet and exercise program and experienced an initial period of weight loss, and think yay. But then, for some strange reason, slowly regained back all the weight you lost?  I have.

Isn’t it funny how all those diets do seem to work initially, but then we either start to stop losing weight or even putting weight back on!!!  In the beginning when we start our diets whatever that might  be,  counting calories, or going on that low-fat or low-carb diet or only eating between 3:00 P.M. and 3:30 P.M or even eating the food packaging instead of the food, you probably did lose lots of weight.

But then, for some strange reason, we slowly just seem to have a harder and harder time to keep up the weight loss. So we spend more time working out in the gym or we eat less and less. Or even in fact we start to put weight back on.

In the end we give up and think we’ve failed…again!!

But just think, during the last 50 years, millions of people have failed in this way.  We have been constantly told by the fitness industry to ‘eat fewer calories and burn more calories’. If it was that easy why have so many of us failed.  Actually it is not our fault….it is all to do with how the body works.

Fat loss isn’t about willpower and starvation – It’s about biology.

You would think by eating less and burning more calories we must lose weight. Just the simple maths of calories in to calories out something must happen.  You would think that if we restrict calorie intake to below that which we burn, then our body is forced to burn off all our body fat! It has to get that energy from somewhere, and that somewhere is body fat.

In reality something very different happens. After the initial weight loss something out of our control happens….our metabolism slows down. This is our body’s regulation system in action.  As we starve ourselves by eating less and burn more and more calories our body’s metabolism slows to allow for these changes.

Quite simply what happens is the body goes into starvation mode.  Our bodies aren’t sure when it is going to get its next meal (energy). Our bodies are fantastic, they will do anything to keep us alive. So to keep us alive it starts to ration its resources/ energy it has stored.  It starts by cutting our thyroid hormone. Basically, this cuts the number of calories we burn doing everyday activities including just sitting. Our bodies are burning calories all the time regardless of what we do. This is called the Metabolic Basal Rate.  So our bodies slow down the rate at which it burns calories to save them. So no matter what we do burning calories becomes more difficult. This turns into a vicious circle. So we eat less again, and train longer. This just encourages the body to reduce the metabolism still further. So it becomes even harder to lose weight.

The next thing that happens is that our bodies start to destroy muscle rather than fat. It does this because less muscle less activity. Our bodies are reducing the calories it needs to burn again.  Again we think we need to eat less and work out longer.  So every time we are working against what our body is trying to do…keep us alive not starve.

Lastly, our body causes fatigue. This reduces our desire and ability to exercise.  Even at a basic level. It makes us not want to do anything.  All we want to do is sit around or lay down. We just feel exhausted all the time.  This is when we give up!!! We can’t do it any more….We have starved ourselves, we have worked long and hard.

The real gutting thing is as soon as we start eating again our body goes yay food.  But because everything has slowed we put on weight really quickly.  We end up putting all the weight back on.

This is why so many so us continue to fail to lose weight. In nature an animal’s natural state is to be lean. We are all meant to be lean. Our bodies will make us lean if we give it the right tools the right vitamins and minerals. It will happen effortlessly and naturally. If we rush it won’t happen.  Weight loss is a life style change. It definitely isn’t a one size fits all diet fad.

I hope that was helpful. If you have any questions at all on what I have talked about, definitely reach out to me in the comments of this post and I will get back to you!  If you need any support with your nutrition or more information regarding what you have read please feel free to email me.