Posted on October 11, 2013 by Jenny Cromack

Weight gain or a lack of weight loss can be complex, as we’re all unique human beings it can be very difficult to pin down one simple cause why we aren’t losing weight! While 95% of our clients that follow the motive8 Healthy Eating Programme achieve amazing results, there are always a few that inadvertently sabotage their efforts or don’t quite fully understand what they need to do. So here our 5 possible reasons why you’re not losing weight.

 

• You’re doing too much mindless eating. By this I mean you’re doing a sneaky combination of eating and doing something else instead of focusing on the food. I’m talking about eating while watching TV, nibbling when you’re cooking, eating popcorn while watching a film. If you spend time mindlessly eating it eventually becomes  an automated response like breathing and this desensitizes you to the feeling of satiety…you will eat more than you need to and ultimately gain weight.

This can be easily fixed, sit down and appreciate what your eating. After all if you’re eating a healthy meal you will have had to prepare it yourself so appreciate the hard work you have put in!

• You’re eating too much of a good thing! ‘Oh its okay…..nuts are healthy, Raw Honey is Healthy, Bulgar Wheat is healthy. Just because the food is healthy doesn’t mean you can eat five sheds full of it. If weeks are passing and your body fat isn’t reducing and you are truly eating a healthy Motive8 nutrition plan, then guess what….your portions are too big! It’s not your metabolism, it’s not your genetics, you just need to reduce your portion sizes slightly.

I don’t want everyone to start carrying around scales, but for one-week measure everything you consume and get to know portion sizes. Do this once every 6 months to keep your portion control in check.

• You’re not eating enough- It is well documented that a constant reduction in your calories will lead to a down-regulation in the basal metabolic rate. Your body is the results of thousands of generations, some of which have survived through famines and terrible periods without certain food groups. The body has got amazing at adapting to its environment, so the second you drastically drop your daily calories the body will hold on to them for all its worth.

Instead of setting a chronic calorific deficit consider cycling your calories around your maintenance calorie intake. In my experience this form of nutritional planning has the best results.

• You’re actually at a healthy weight. This sucks a little bit but your body could be at a composition were its supposed to be, even if you don’t have a 6-pack or even a 2-pack. No real effect can be made through nutrition alone, this is where you need to look at your training in more detail. Lifting heavy weights is a nice little trick to boost your body’s fat burning ability check out the 5×5 strong-lifts program http://stronglifts.com, its an awesome program and should really help drive your weight loss goals.

When you get to this level shift the focus away from numbers on the scale and look at your body fat percentage, this will tell you how much is muscle and how much is fat.

• You’re under stress. Essentially when you’re stressed, whether it is from work, running from a lion, or your partner giving you a hard time….the result in the body is the same. A lovely big dose of cortisol, cortisol is going to do everything possible in your body to save you from the stressor, this worsens insulin resistance, metabolises muscles, inhibits weight loss amongst a list of other issues.

If you are feeling particularly stressed take one hour a day out of your life and go out into nature, this can be the park, local woods or even for a walk in a local field. I highly recommend that you read the book “why zebras don’t get ulcers” it’s a great book about understanding stress and dealing with it http://www.roypumphrey.com/book-review-why-zebras-dont-get-ulcers/

If you like this blog please share with your friendsYou may be interested in:Abdominal fat loss: http://www.m8north.co.uk/abdominal-fat-loss/ Why Fat is super at helping you loose fat http://www.m8north.co.uk/why-fat-is-super-at-helping-you-loose-fat/