It all starts with a New Year’s resolution: “No matter what, I’m going to lose weight this year!” Buuut, it usually comes crashing down with a barrage of excuses that only sound legitimate to you. Those of you who weathered through the first month of 2018 with the honor of sticking to your healthy eating plan might still not be seeing any results. You try so hard, so why can’t you start toning up and shed some pounds? It just doesn’t make sense. These are the 5 most common reasons even healthy eaters can’t lose weight.
You Don’t Eat Enough
You Don’t Eat Enough
At first blush this seems counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? It’s common belief that if we consume less food then we’ll automatically lose weight. Here’s the kicker, though. When the body realizes that it isn’t getting the right amount of nutrition it needs, it goes into war mode. Well, not ‘war mode’ per se, but it holds onto and stores extra fatty cells. This process makes it even harder to lose extra fat.
You Overeat Healthy Food
Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, right? Right. Even though it’s easy to justify eating a full slab of dark chocolate because it’s healthier chocolate, don’t forget that you’re still eating a full slab of chocolate! Avocados are incredibly healthy and so are strawberries, but eating too many of them will have extra weight and sugar stacking itself on and on. Just because you’re eating healthy food doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be doing so in moderation.
You’re Distracted When You Eat
When it’s meal time, turn off the TV and put your phone in a different room. It doesn’t help to read an article on your phone entitled “Lose Weight Quickly” while you’re eating like a carnival hot-dog-downer race participant. Your mind actually needs to consciously experience eating a meal. When you’re not distracted by other activities, not only will you enjoy your meal more, but you will feel more satiated.
You’re Distracted When You Eat
You Overcompensate For Workouts
There’s almost no better feeling than finishing up a workout and sweating like you’ve been napping in a sauna. You feel like a million bucks! But a big mistake most of us make is thinking that just because we’ve run two miles, we can eat a full pizza pie or a tub of ice-cream. We all have a “dieter’s calculator”, meaning that we give ourselves far more leeway for eating junk food because we’ve ‘had a workout’. The fact is, that a 45-minute run still won’t cover the calories of a thick slice of chocolate cake.
You Don’t Know Why You Want To Lose Weight
Put aside all the foody parts of your diet and let’s talk about your mindset. It’s all very well deciding that you want to lose weight, but there’s something more important than that. It comes down to your ‘why’. Think hard about why you want to lose weight before you embark on a difficult diet plan. Is it because you want to be healthier? Because you want to fight illness? Perhaps it’s because you’re sick of panting while you climb the stairs. At the end of the day it starts with the reason. If your reason is clear, you can do just about anything.
You Don’t Know Why You Want To Lose Weight
