Why can I not lose weight? 10 unsuspected reasons to know

It often happens that you can not lose weight, despite the efforts and a balanced diet, without understanding the motivations. In reality there are some things, mostly unsuspected, that cause the lack of weight loss: among these there are stress, lack of sleep, drink little water and more!

"Even if I eat a little I cannot lose weight!". It often happens that you cannot lose weight, despite the efforts and a balanced diet, without understanding the motivations. In reality there are some causes, mostly unsuspected, for which we cannot lose weight: among these there are stress, lack of sleep, drink little water, do not combine with the diet an adequate and constant physical activity, and more. So let's find out why we cannot lose weight despite light meals, right foods and physical and will efforts. Here's our mistakes!

1. Eating little and skipping meals

We often think that to lose weight you just need to eat very little: in reality, drastically reduction of calories can turn out to be a really wrong choice, as our body will tend to store them instead of burning them, making us accumulate more fat. To suddenly reduce the quantity of food starts in fact a natural survival mechanism in our body: reducing the daily calories means for the organism a lack of food, which is why it reacts by conserving fat reserves. Also it is better to avoid skipping meals, it is in fact another behavior that increases fat mass, instead of decreasing it, as it increases nervousness and fatigue: better to make 5 nutritious and balanced meals a day eliminating junk food and snacks with too much calories.

2. Do not follow a personalized diet

If you think you can lose weight by following a standard diet, a diet that everyone can follow, then you are very wrong. To lose weight in the right way, by increasing the lean mass and decreasing fat, you must follow a personalized diet designed by a nutritionist or a dietician, it will have to be built on you, also based on tastes and preferences. Diet should also not be monotonous, so talking with your nutritionist can help you achieve a balanced and varied diet that does not make you go back to bad eating habits.

3. Do not combine diet with physical activity

A balanced diet is more effective if combined with regular physical activity: it helps to burn calories and to tone the muscles. If you do not have time or you do not want to go to the gym, you can take a walk of about 40 minutes a day, so as to speed up the metabolism. Also take every moment of the day to have an active lifestyle: take the stairs and avoid the elevator, and prefer the bicycle to the car, these are just some of the healthy habits that you can put in place during the day.

4. Eating often outside

Even eating outside often makes it difficult to lose weight: if your life does not allow you to eat at home, it is important that your nutritionist make your diet according to your habits or needs. Cooking your own food at home is still the best solution: otherwise you will tend to eat precooked or take-away foods.

5. Do not sleep the right amount of hours

If you can not lose weight, maybe it's because you sleep too little: those who sleep less than 7 hours a day, in fact, have the body mass indexes (BMI) higher than those who sleep more. This is due to the hormone of satiety, leptin, whose levels collapse due to the lack of sleep, and also because of ghrelin, the hormone of the appetite, which rises suddenly. Do not forget then that if you go to sleep too late, you will tend to eat more: you will find yourself having snacks with unhealthy and high-calorie snacks.

6. Drink little water and exaggerate with other drinks

Drinking little is another of the causes of lack of weight loss: if you do not drink at least 1.5 liters of water a day the kidneys get tired, failing to work in synergy with the liver, whose function is to convert fat into power. Drinking water also helps to limit the sense of hunger and to dispose toxins, and it also reduces water retention. Avoid replacing the water with other drinks: bottled fruit juices, for example, contain many calories.

7. Allow too many exceptions to the rule

In all diets there are moments of freedom that you can allow yourself every now and then, the so-called exceptions to the rules: a pizza or an aperitif with friends, etc .. But you have to limit these things: if they become a frequent habit during the week, you will lose all your hard work. A widespread mistake, then, is to think that practicing sport regularly allows us to eat more, but this is absolutely wrong: this behavior will end up making us gain weight instead of losing weight.

8. Lack of motivation

The difficulty in losing weight is also often due to the lack of motivation: to lose weight it is also important to be sure about it, so it is essential the help of a professional who creates a suitable food plan supporting the patient in difficult times, so you do not give up. Helping willpower is also important: if you suddenly want a chocolate snack, keep a healthy alternative at your fingertips, and prepare your lunch and dinner portions in smaller dishes, so you can cheat mind avoiding dangerous temptations.

9. Having slow metabolism

Especially with aging, the metabolism slows down, not allowing us to achieve the desired results. Often this happens even when over the years we have followed unbalanced diets: for this reason it is important to contact the nutritionist, especially if we thing that it changes over time. Especially with the onset of menopause, women find this difficulty. The advice is to avoid taking wrong initiatives and to follow carefully the suggestions of the specialist.

10. To live a particularly stressful period

Stress can be another cause of lacking of weight loss, it is a condition that causes changes in our body: it produces cortisol, a hormone that helps to use sugar and fat to produce energy, thus stimulating insulin and increasing appetite. For this reason, during particularly stressful periods we tend to mainly eat foods rich in sugars and fats, thus favoring weight gain. It is essential to identify the cause of stress, but also to learn to relax more, perhaps with activities such as yoga or the intake of relaxing teas.