Episode 14: 10 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight
Learn how to break past weight loss plateaus with this checklist of 10 things that might be holding you back.
One of the most common things I hear from new personal training clients is:
“I don’t understand! I’m exercising and eating healthy, why am I not losing weight?”
Years ago, before I became a personal trainer, I had that exact same problem. I was taking group fitness classes every week and eating what I thought was a healthy diet. And yet, it seemed like I could never break past the weight I was at and get lean.
It wasn’t until I learned how to balance my energy budget and work out effectively that I began to get that “toned” look of having more lean muscle and less body fat.
Today I’m going to share with you my checklist that I use to help my clients identify what might be holding them back from shedding their excess body weight.
But first, it’s important to understand the difference between your body being in an anabolic versus catabolic state.
Anabolism vs Catabolism
Anabolism and catabolism are both processes of your metabolism, and they involve either breaking body tissue down or building new tissue. Both of these processes help organize molecules by freeing and capturing energy to keep your body running strong.
Anabolism involves growth and building new tissue. In this process, smaller molecules are built up into larger, more complex ones. An example of this is muscle protein synthesis, which involves turning amino acids into the proteins that make up your muscle tissue. Anabolism involves the hormones like estrogen, insulin, growth hormone, and testosterone.
Catabolism involves breaking large, complex molecules down into smaller, more simple ones. This is what happens when you digest food or during lipolysis—the process involved in breaking down fat for energy. Catabolism involves hormones like adrenaline, cortisol, cytokines, and glucagon.
Anabolic and catabolic processes can happen at the same time in our bodies. However certain things can cause our bodies to run more of one type of process:
When your body is running more anabolic processes, this is called being in an anabolic state—which means you’re building and maintaining your muscle mass.
Running more catabolic processes is called being in a catabolic state—which means you’re breaking down or losing overall mass, both fat and muscle.
Whether your body is in an anabolic or catabolic state will have an impact on what the scale reads every day. Both building muscle and storing fat can cause your body to be heavier, whereas losing mass (muscle or fat) can cause your weight to go down.
For this reason, the scale may not always be the best way to measure your fitness progress. On weeks when your body is more anabolic, you may see your weight stay the same or even increase as you build more muscle. On other weeks where you’re more catabolic, you may see your weight go down—but there’s no way to know how much of that weight loss is fat versus muscle by measuring weight alone.
Whether your body is running more anabolic versus catabolic processes is determined by a few factors.
Certain thyroid problems can affect the release of hormones into your body, so it’s always a good idea to check with a healthcare provider and get tested if you suspect a hormonal imbalance.
How you eat and exercise can also impact whether your body runs more anabolic versus catabolic.
Anabolism is encouraged when you perform resistance training regularly and eat either a maintenance level of calories or a surplus.
Catabolism is encouraged when you perform cardiovascular exercise and eat below a maintenance level of calories (i.e., a calorie deficit).
So as we go through the checklist of 10 things that could be preventing you from losing weight, keep these concepts in mind.
Checklist: 10 Things That Might Be Keeping You From Losing Weight
1 Your calorie intake is still too high
You can eat healthy but still be in a calorie surplus. Many people don’t realize that even certain healthy foods are pretty high in calories (nuts, avocados, and fruit). If you’re not tracking what you eat to learn the caloric content of your food then you may not realize you’re overshooting your calories.
2 Your calorie intake is too low for too long
If you have been eating a low number of calories for a long period of time (at least six weeks) your body will adapt to that caloric intake level. So you won’t be burning as many calories as you used to. This is the case for many of my new clients, and for these people, it’s usually recommended to first reverse diet before cutting calories again.
3 You’re not building muscle
When you’re in a caloric deficit, your body is more catabolic, meaning it’s breaking down muscle tissue as well as fat. Over time, this can cause your body to burn fewer calories every day. Building muscle, on the other hand, is a great way to increase your daily calorie burn—even on the days you don’t work out.
If you’re doing lots of cardio or boot camp-style classes, chances are you’re not really building muscle. Even if you’re using weights and other equipment, most classes like this are aimed at keeping your heart rate up—which isn’t the same as training to build muscle.
4 You’re not sleeping enough
Insufficient sleep can disrupt your hormone balance, especially for the hormones that regulate hunger and satiety (leptin and ghrelin). When you don’t get enough sleep, your leptin levels decrease and your ghrelin levels increase. This leads you to experience more hunger while having a difficult time feeling “full.” This hormonal imbalance often results in increased caloric intake, particularly for high-carb and sugary foods.
Moreover, fatigue from lack of sleep can decrease your motivation to get up and moving. So you’re more likely to skip your workouts and burn fewer calories.
5 You’re overstressed
A little bit of stress here and there is good for you. But when you’re stressed out most of the time, that can wreak havoc on your body weight and overall health.
When we’re stressed, the body releases a hormone called cortisol. High cortisol levels can lead to increased appetite, particularly for comfort foods rich in carbohydrates and fats. Many people stress eat as a coping mechanism, which leads to over-eating and mindless snacking.
Having too much cortisol in your system can also cause you to accumulate visceral fat (belly fat) and can slow down metabolism—making it easier to gain weight and harder to burn fat.
As you can see, it’s important to manage your stress through various coping strategies. You can do this through exercise, mindfulness, and regulation techniques.
6 You’re working out *too* much
When it comes to a healthy exercise routine, more isn’t always better. In general, you should seek to be active on most days. However too much exercise (or too intense exercise) can actually do more harm than good in your weight loss.
Working out too much or too hard can elevate stress hormones (particularly cortisol). This can cause your body to store fat, especially around the abdominal region.
Intense exercise can also increase your appetite, which can lead to mindless snacking or overeating.
7 Your workouts are inconsistent
When you’re trying to lose weight, consistency is so important for making progress. If you struggle to show up consistently for your healthy eating or workouts, this can definitely stall your weight loss. Not only are you missing out on an opportunity to increase your daily calorie burn by getting your muscles moving, but you also miss out on other benefits like getting stronger and improving your coordination. Get on a schedule and stick to it!
8 You’re not eating enough protein
Not eating enough protein can have a major impact on your body’s ability to burn calories and build muscle. Eating plenty of protein will increase your daily calorie burn but can also decrease your calorie intake—since many protein-dense foods are also low-calorie. Try to get between 0.7 and 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.
9 You’re not drinking enough water
It’s easy to mistake the body’s thirst signal for appetite or hunger. This can lead to unnecessary snacking—which can increase your calorie consumption and keep you in a calorie surplus or maintenance level. Next time you get an intense craving for a snack or sugary treat, ask yourself “when was the last time I had a glass of water?” Drink up, and see if the craving goes away.
10 You’re in a recomp
Sometimes you can still be making progress while not seeing the scale move at all. That’s because you’re both burning fat and building muscle at the same time. Although you may be getting lighter because of fat loss, the muscle that you build still adds to your weight. This is why it’s important to track the size of your body in addition to your weight when you’re trying to measure fat loss. If the inches or centimeters around your belly are going down or if your clothes are fitting looser, these are signs that your body is moving in the right direction.
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ABOUT JAYD HARRISON
Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains) is a personal trainer and content creator. She helps people to build muscle, burn fat, and clean up their diets with her online coaching programs and social media content. Check out some of Jayd’s coaching videos on Youtube, or join Jayd live on Twitch and follow on social media:
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