WHY YOU'RE NOT LOSING WEIGHT
- Health Coach Sage
- Mar 18, 2017
- 7 min read
You're eating veggies. You're drinking water. You're exercising. But those pounds are just not coming off. There are many reasons that the scale is stagnant whether you're on OptaVia's 5&1 plan or otherwise. Here are the most common problems and their solutions:
IF YOU'RE ON THE 5&1:
Eating too little- I see it all the time. Client's get busy or simply aren't hungry and forget to eat all 5 fuelings plus their lean & green meal. The problem with this is that it restricts your calories too low and keeps your insulin reaction unbalanced. This calorie deficit stresses your body, prompting it to hold onto the fat you're attempting to burn. This insulin imbalance prohibits your body from properly transitioning from utilizing your blood glucose to utilizing your fat stores. In combination, these two will definitely keep you from seeing the results you're looking for.
Eating too much- The flip side of the coin is just as problematic. On the 5&1 plan, you are allowed 3 condiment servings and 1 snack in addition to the 5 fuelings and 1 lean & green. Depending on your meat choice, you're also allowed anywhere from 0-2 healthy fat servings. You're welcome to spread these condiments, fats, and snack out however you'd like throughout the day so long as you do not exceed these allowances. Condiments, snacks and fats can be utilized to prepare your fuelings and/or lean & green meal, but if you add them to every meal, you're likely to go over your daily allowances. Furthermore, breaking up your lean & green to incorporate it into your fueling preparation is considered off plan because it throws off the balance of protein and carbs which has been so carefully calculated and prepared for you.
Eating off plan- The 5&1 plan sets you in a phase we like to call "fat burning." This is only maintained when you continue to eat small, balanced meals which are low in sugar. When go off plan and cheat with that chocolate cake or those french fries, you spike your insulin reaction, thus throwing you out of fat burning. Every once in a while, this isn't problematic, but when you're cheating multiple times per week, it will keep you out of fat burning and prevent you from losing weight.
Not drinking enough water- The fat burning stage described above can be very dehydrating because your body needs water to be able to flush out the excess fat stores. Without enough water, your body cannot process the fat the way it needs to and those pounds will stay on the scale. To determine how much water you need to be drinking each day, take your body weight in pounds and divide it in half. This number is the absolute minimum amount of water in ounces you should be drinking on a daily basis. Hate the taste of water? Add TSFL's flavor enhancers. They're specifically designed for those on the plan so they won't interfere with your fat burning.
Hitting a plateau- This is perhaps the most frustrating weight loss issue because you can be doing everything perfectly and still hit a plateau. For those not familiar with the term, a plateau refers to an extended period of time (generally a few weeks) in which you see no results after having lost a fair amount of weight. There is no magic remedy for breaking a plateau. In most cases, the only solution is patience. Your body is readjusting to its newly altered body composition. Essentially, it puts a temporary halt on your weight loss because it views your remaining fat stores as a necessary safety net to survive. The only thing you can do to convince it otherwise is patiently keep complying to the program 100%. If you follow the 5&1 religiously, your plateau will eventually break because your body will learn to trust you enough to let go of the remaining fat.
Getting off schedule- The key to the 5&1 plan is balance. This includes balance in timing. You should eat every 2-3 hours! If you go longer than this without eating, your insulin dips below healthy levels and will react to store the next meal as fat instead of burning it as fuel. This also applies to your morning routine; you should eat within half an hour of waking up. This jump-starts your metabolism prompting your body to begin consuming energy.
Overexerting yourself- This is another issue I see all the time. The 5&1 plan is carefully calculated to give you the exact amount of calories, protein, carbs, and other nutrients your body needs. When exercise is added to this whether it be from the treadmill or simply running errands all day, this throws off the balance of the program. The excess activity burns too many calories and sets you into a calorie deficit which stresses your body. There are two solutions to this: either put a hold on the exercise or adjust to a 4&2 plan. Regardless, this should be discussed with your health coach! He or she has valuable information and insight into what will work best for you.
IN GENERAL:
Sleep deprivation- Sleep is perhaps the most underestimated component of the weight loss process. Sleep acts to normalize hormone levels which are largely responsible for how your body treats its fat stores. Without enough sleep, the body excretes stress hormones which tell the body to hold onto as many resources as possible (i.e. to turn food to fat). With enough sleep, the body feels no need to hold onto the excess energy stores and allows you to burn the fat. Furthermore, if building muscles is part of your goal, muscles are built while you sleep, NOT in the gym. In fact, muscles are broken down in the gym, fed in the kitchen, and built in the bed.
Not drinking enough water- The body needs water to drive your metabolism. This is because your metabolism is essentially a series of reactions, some of which require water to occur. If your body does not get enough water, two things will happen. Some metabolic reactions will be limited simply because they don't have enough ingredients to react, and your body will store water for future use as bloat. When you do not provide your body with enough of the things it needs, it hoards them whether it be calories hoarded as fat or water hoarded as bloat. To determine how much water you need to be drinking each day, take your body weight in pounds and divide it in half. This number is the absolute minimum amount of water in ounces you should be drinking on a daily basis.
Overeating- Even if you eat all the right foods, portion size can throw off everything. This is especially common with grains and fruits because they are so high glycemic. To ensure your portions are correct, measure everything you cook with and everything you put on your plate. You may be surprised to see how small a correct serving of each food is compared to the size of your plate!
Cutting calories too low- The fad of the ultra low-calorie diet is quite harmful and, ultimately, commonly ineffective at sustaining weight loss. When you decrease your calorie intake too low, you will initially lose weight, but your metabolism will slow and your body will produce hormones which tells it to store as much fat as it can. Severe calorie deficits work on the short-term; however, they actually predispose you to gaining weight in the long-term because your body is slow and stressed. The solution? Try cutting 500 calories or less instead. You can achieve this either solely with diet or with a combination of diet and exercise.
Overexercising- This is much in the same vein as the issue above. Exercising as much as possible does not lead to losing as much weight as possible. Burning too many calories is just as harmful as cutting calories too low. There needs to be a balance between how much you eat and how much you exercise. Athletes have to consume far more calories than the average person because they must compensate for what they burn in order to stay healthy! Overexercising leads to the same stress reaction mentioned above in which your body stores all the fat it can instead of burning the excess. Simply find a workout routine that works for you. HIIT and tabata routines are great for those who are looking to burn calories fast and can handle the impact. If a lower impact exercise is what you're looking for, a simple walk works magnificently to burn extra calories.
Hitting a plateau- This is perhaps the most frustrating weight loss issue because you can be doing everything perfectly and still hit a plateau. For those not familiar with the term, a plateau refers to an extended period of time (generally a few weeks) in which you see no results after having lost a fair amount of weight. Essentially, the same input (food) doesn't create the same output (weight loss) anymore because your body views your remaining fat stores as a necessary safety net to survive. If you are attempting to lose weight based on a simple calorie-based diet rather than a food regimen based on kicking your body into an accelerated fat loss phase such as the 5&1's fat-burning stage, my recommendation is to add one or two cheat meals per week. This works to create hormone fluctuation in your body and prompt it to react. many body-builders use this technique to create a fat loss phase which is easier to sustain and to stay sane!
Indulging in more "cheat" meals than you think- Cheat meals can be quite helpful to the weight loss process, but eating too many will throw you off track. It's easy to eat a cheeseburger here, some cookies there, and chips in between without thinking much of it. If you like to indulge a little, try keeping a food journal of what you've eaten so you can keep track of when and where you've cheated. This will keep you from going overboard.
Comentarios