Are you tired of battling the bulge? Are you tired of being tired? If you are finally ready to get your health under control, you may be thinking that it is time to start a new diet. I know that starting a new diet is frustrating, because to someone who is struggling with weight or other health issues, it seems like there are just countless reasons why diets fail and it is easy to give up.
First and foremost, I highly recommend avoiding the “crash diet” type of fads that can lure you in with the promise of weight loss and newfound beauty. Those types of diets almost always fail. That being said, many diets can be tremendously successful. Most of us just need to be prepared and knowledgeable about the reasons why diets fail so that we can avoid those.
5 Reasons Why You Aren’t Losing Weight
1. No Exercise
Exercise is incredibly important. The healthiest people need to eat healthy and exercise for the best results. Sure, you can lose weight and improve your health by switching to a healthier eating program, but you can find far more benefits when you include both diet and exercise.
If the idea of hitting the gym stresses you out, don’t worry. You don’t have to overdo it and you don’t have to be a fitness enthusiast. Even a light amount of exercise added to your diet will help you reach your goals. Having a daily walking plan and some good walking or running shoes can be all you need to burn some extra calories.
2. Forgetting to Include All Calories Consumed
Many of us forget to calculate all of the calories consumed. Here are a couple of reasons that many people struggle with when it comes to underestimating your caloric intake.
- Grabbing a sip of something, or a bite of something and not really think about it as being a “meal” so it doesn’t get calculated in our calorie counts.
- Forgetting to calculate the calories in drinks. For example, sure a cup of coffee is just 5 calories, but what did you put in that coffee, creamer calories need to be added too. All drinks besides water need to be included.
- Eating out too often. Many restaurants like to bill themselves for having healthy options, but the reality is that you are going to be eating far more calories at a restaurant than you will at home.
- Portion sizes. Many of us eat portion sizes that are far too big. This is especially true when eating out.
3. Not Eating Often Enough
To keep your metabolism at optimum levels and to keep your energy up, you need to eat your meals at a steady pace. Even if you follow an intermittent fasting schedule, once you start eating through the day you should be sure to eat a healthy meal or snack at least every 5 hours to keep your body utilizing calories at optimum levels.
4. Overcompensating for Calories Burned
Many people tend to eat more when they exercise. They rationalize that they can eat more calories since they have burned more calories with exercise. While this may be true to some extent, if the goal is weight loss, you should keep in mind that in order to lose 1 pound per week, you should cut at least 500 calories per day. If you are increasing your food to make up for the calories burned, this is harder to do.
5. Not Getting Enough Sleep
Believe it or not, a huge factor in many health issues that we face is a lack of sleep. There have been countless studies done on how inadequate sleep affects our health. It has been shown that people who get 6 hours or less of sleep each night often have increased levels of ghrelin (an appetite-stimulating hormone), plus these types of sleep levels also raise levels of cortisol which is known to cause weight gain.
There are, of course, more reasons out there, but these are the most common 5 reasons why diets fail for people who are trying to make a difference in their lives. Knowing the common issues that dieters face might just help us prevent failure.
Have you had a positive experience with dieting? What would you say was the key to your success?
