Losing weight seems like an easy task to many. It would seem true that this could be difficult: choose a diet and follow it religiously; I decided to become a follower of proper nutrition and did; any physical activity – as long as it is there.
In general, it all depends on you and your willpower. But often everything does not work out according to plan, although, it seems, everything is being done as it should be: not a step to the right or to the left. And one day the question “Why am I not losing weight?” begins to sound with hysterical notes, hands give up, disappointment and depression sets in. What to do?
Reasons and mistakes: why you can’t lose weight
Let's figure out why the situation may not be in your favor. Having identified the root of the evil, all that remains is to work on the mistakes and direct weight loss in the right direction and find answers to the question: why am I not losing weight.
In fact, there are a lot of common mistakes that prevent you from losing excess weight. And people encounter them incredibly often, so you shouldn’t count yourself among the losers who can’t do anything. Don't despair and read on:
- We put this mistake in the first place - a thoughtless and unjustified reduction in the overall caloric intake of food. This is exactly what most people do. They switch to cucumbers and water, seriously believing that they can survive on this diet for enough time so that the kilograms that go beyond the desired image turn into nothing. Now we will not talk about the harm to health of this approach; we will consider it only in the context of the problem we are studying. So, you suddenly began to eat less. What's happening?
The body is under severe stress, it has suddenly been deprived of food, and it is not at all sure that this situation is temporary. Therefore, as nature intended, the strictest economy mode is activated: everything metabolic processes slow down, and any calorie that is not immediately used is stored in the bins, that is, those same hated fat folds. This is one moment, and the second is hunger.
It accompanies you everywhere, it is impossible to get rid of it, even by taking a dose of the hated salad, and now you are no longer a blooming woman, but a nervous hysterical woman with a gray face and circles under her eyes, ready to destroy everyone within a kilometer radius. But it is impossible to exist in such a state for a long time. Sooner or later, those around you will get sick of it, and they will feed you, or you yourself will reach the grocery shelves right in the middle of the supermarket. Then the process will go in a new circle, and you will never lose weight if you do not dare to step off these vicious rails. - Incorrect distribution of food throughout the day. We were once taught to eat breakfast, share lunch with friends, and poison our enemies with dinner. And we still subconsciously perceive this formula as the only correct one. She was joined by the idea of “not eating after six.” And so, guided by this tandem, people toss and turn without sleep to the rumbling of hungry stomachs, while one of the most important tenets of proper nutrition says: there must be dinner! Moreover, an hour before bedtime it is incredibly useful to pamper yourself with a mug of kefir. And the most important thing is to receive food evenly throughout the day, divide it into three main meals and two to three additional ones (snacks). At the same time, portions should be small - overeating is harmful and absolutely prohibited!
- No calorie deficit – in this situation it is impossible to lose weight. It can develop according to various reasons. Some simply don’t know how to count calories and have an incorrect idea of their energy expenditure. Someone, in parallel with the diet, begins to actively engage in sports, the body requires more food, and the person, who is not ready for such tests, without realizing it, leans on food. It may be quite dietary, but the volumes grow, but the weight does not move.
- Self-deception. You won’t believe it, but most people firmly believe in not breaking their diet and not eating anything extra. If you said to yourself: “I eat little, but I’m not losing weight, why is this happening?” – immediately take a notebook and start keeping a food diary in it, carefully recording each cup of coffee. Very soon you will notice that your diet is full of cookies, chocolate and “nothing bad can happen from one ice cream.” As soon as all the “garbage” disappears from the pages of the diary, the centimeters on your waist will begin to melt.
- Muscle growth. Many girls who are active in the gym complain that they do not lose weight. Weight, yes, but their fat disappears very actively, being replaced by muscle mass. If you want to be a thin reed, reconsider your training - you don’t need pumped up muscles at all. And if you need it, stop weighing yourself and learn to measure your progress using a measuring tape.
- Absence motor activity. Yes, the main key to losing weight is diet, but it will be ineffective if you lie on the couch all day. Force yourself to walk, do light exercises, get a dog, in the end - it will force you to regularly get out of the house and wander around the neighborhood. Gradually you will get involved, because movement is life, and these are not empty words.
- Bad habits. Are you a diligent dieter, so every weekend you reward yourself with a bottle of wine or a couple of beers? Know that by doing this you are wasting most of your efforts. And here it is not so much the alcohol that is to blame, but everything that is unnoticeably chewed in parallel with it.
- Wrong mode sleep. Yes, you need to go to bed on time and get up on time, spend at least 8 hours in bed - and so on every day. Without this, you won't be able to lose weight. No way.
- Stress. This is our scourge, because modern life literally consists of them. The goal is to try to reduce the impact of negativity on your own personality and perception of the world. Unfortunately, there is no universal recipe, but this is a topic for a separate article, and more than one.
- Plateau effect. It happens to everyone. The weight just freezes at one point and doesn’t move, which is nice, even upward. The plateau must be endured by simply continuing to stick to your line, or you can try to move the needle by arranging a couple fasting days. By the way, on the contrary, “loading” days, a holiday for the stomach, help many people, but the main thing is to stop in time.
- Diseases. Unfortunately, health problems are often the reason for lack of progress. If such a suspicion arises or you do not see any other explanation for what is happening, go medical examination. In any case, it will not be superfluous.
As seen, weight loss may stall for a variety of reasons. If you deal with them in time, the problem will be solved.
Belly doesn't disappear
Many women note that the weight on the scale seems to be decreasing, but their figure continues to be far from ideal. Everything is simple here: losing weight does not mean getting in great shape. This is only possible in youth, when the muscles are strong and the skin is elastic. Over time, all this is lost, and accordingly, the appearance of the figure after weight loss is no longer pleasing. Another point is the famous “fat skinny” effect.
For those who have no idea what it is, look at the photo of the once famous actress Tara Reid. As a result of losing weight, a person loses not so much fat as muscle. This happens most often due to lack of physical activity and extreme weight loss.
Many women strive to get rid of fat exclusively in certain places, appearance which they are not satisfied with. “Why doesn’t my stomach lose weight?” - they ask. Why the leg? Or the head? We need to understand for ourselves once and for all that the fat from the waist will go away along with the fifth breast size. Either this or not at all. You can’t lose weight in one place, just as fat grows everywhere evenly, so it goes away.
The abdomen usually stands out the most due to visceral fat, which accumulates inside, between the organs. Getting rid of it is much more difficult than getting rid of the subcutaneous one, so the fight against the stomach usually drags on. Refusal will help you overcome it. fatty foods and foods with a high glycemic index.
What to eat to lose weight?
This question is asked by many women. Probably everyone dreams of a set healthy products which will help melt fat. Yes, there are such people. For example, these are the famous grapefruits or Brussels sprouts. They are good to include in your diet, but it is impossible to completely base it on them.
Therefore, we will not now provide lists of “magic” products. Instead, we advise you to avoid diets and choose healthy nutrition. This is the only true system that will help you stay slim, beautiful and healthy throughout your life.
Don't expect a miracle. It will never happen without hard work and serious effort. If something goes wrong, you need to find the reason why the situation is developing this way. Then the question “Why am I not losing weight?” will remain in the past once and for all.
Why am I not losing weight? Have you tried everything and nothing works?
Today's article is especially for you.
The women's portal Woman.ru published an interesting interview with Dr. Kovalkov about why he still can’t lose weight.
Why do some people eat kefir and spend their days in the gym, but don’t lose an ounce of weight, while others overeat on fast food and can get up from the couch and go to the podium at any moment? Can children of slim parents become fat? How to lose weight while on vacation eating pickles from a hotel buffet? Well-known Russian nutritionist and specialist in the relationship between hormones and excess weight, Alexey Kovalkov, answers these and other questions.
A story of two glasses
Professor Alexey KovalkovTo visualize why and how hormonal disbalance leads to obesity, imagine two glasses (or even put them in front of you for greater clarity). One glass symbolizes energy, the other - weight. Water that can be poured into glasses is food. In a healthy newborn child, all of whose vital systems are in balance and harmony, the level of filling of the glasses matches perfectly: the child receives nutrition, which is distributed in equal shares to energy and growth.
However, as the child matures, hormonal factors or carbohydrate abuse (or both) come into play, and the situation changes.
“Breakage” of weight regulation mechanisms leads to the fact that nutrients from food do not provide energy, and weight increases, but not because the child is stretched; it is growing in breadth. The energy glass is half empty, but the weight glass is constantly replenished. And it’s not the quantity of food or even its quality - the problem is the state of health.
The schoolboy is scolded that he is lethargic, fat, a mattress, and cannot run a hundred meters. Hormonal problems, causing disruptions in growth and development, become more complex, and acquired disorders are added to them eating behavior when, in desperation, a child or teenager who is actually sick tries to limit themselves in food. But willpower has nothing to do with it, he is physically unable not to eat or eat less, his energy level is already below par, and his carbohydrate dependence and insulin sensitivity are such that without food he literally begins to shake. He eats a piece of bread or a chocolate bar and lets it go. And so on endlessly.
Here you need the help of an endocrinologist, an experienced nutritionist, and not “character education,” a fitness trainer or a psychotherapist.
But, unfortunately, few people seriously think about it. And a person lives his life with one glass half empty and the other full, goes on diets, suffers from eating disorders. Because his parents did not understand that a person’s weight and desires are controlled by hormones. Well, we’ll try it now.
Proper nutrition is a complex science. In order not to anger the almighty hormones, you can neither starve nor force yourself to eat! Weight loss hormones: height, masculinity, drive!
Maintaining a healthy weight in our body is responsible for the balance of three main hormones: growth hormone, testosterone and adrenaline. How do they work?
1. Somatotropic hormone
This is the same hormone of growth and redistribution of resources, defects in the production of which can appear early in children. You don’t need to be a doctor to distinguish “baby fat” from unhealthy obesity by eye. But you should still seek help from a specialist so as not to turn the case into an advanced one and switch the somatrotropic hormone from the fat accumulation mode to the “energy/growth” combination.
By the way, for growth and physical development In children, in combination with somatotropic vitamin D is also responsible, for which the status of a hormone has also been established in the medical community literally since last year. It is these two substances that provide the amazing “over the summer” effect that parents and teachers never tire of marveling at. The condition for producing a sufficient amount of vitamin D is normal exposure to the sun, and you should not give your child its medications without a reasoned prescription from a doctor. In adults, vitamin D is also involved in fat burning - in a secondary role, but quite effectively.
2. Testosterone
Known as the “masculinity hormone,” however, one should not assume that women do not need it at all. In the fair half, testosterone is produced from cholesterol until menopause and plays vital role as a “regulator”, giving orders for the transformation of adipose tissue into muscle and bone. Testosterone is the real fat-burning hormone.
It is important that in female body testosterone was maintained by sufficient estrogen production. For those very lush hips that their owners don’t like so much, but men usually really like, it’s the latter who should be thanked. Adequate estrogen production protects women from cardiovascular disease; cases of heart attacks and strokes before menopause are very rare. And that's why men have weaker hearts - not because their lives are harder, but because there is no estrogen.
If there is too much estrogen, it suppresses testosterone and it is unable to regulate weight. At the same time, if there is too much testosterone, this is also a problem. Oddly enough, "testosterone" women gain weight - and in the "apple" type, which is characterized by a pronounced "lifebuoy" at the waist and thin limbs. It’s easier for them to lose weight than for steep-hipped “estrogen women,” but the difficulty is not that the woman’s waist size is larger than her hip size or her figure resembles a pear, and she cannot wear a fitted dress, but that there is such a pronounced “fruity” in her appearance - a reason to visit an endocrinologist.
3. Adrenaline
The last of the main fat-burning hormones and the most effective. Adrenaline is a drive hormone, and it is produced sporadically. Adrenaline appears in the body during periods of stress, and stress does not necessarily mean trouble - it can be a jolt filled with excitement and delight. Therefore, we often hear that someone has gained weight due to a slow life - and this was not due to family happiness with borscht, but to a lack of adrenaline.
Common side effect adrenaline - it not only starts the process of fat breakdown (lipolysis), but also makes you forget about hunger. Falling in love, enthusiastically working on a project, hectic preparation for an exam, when strength comes from out of nowhere without any food at all - we should thank this hormone for all this. As in situations when on vacation, despite all inclusive and a buffet, you lose weight - the combination of rich “adrenaline” impressions and vitamin D can work wonders.
Chemically adrenaline reaction triggers ephedrine and its derivatives. “Thai pills” and fast-acting fat burners, weight loss products that make a person run on the ceiling, are based on provoking adrenaline receptors. Therefore, playing with the most effective of fat-burning hormones is bad: constant stimulation of its production depletes the adrenal cortex, affects the brain, and quickly exhausts the resources of the cardiovascular system.
Three dominant hormones help us burn fat, and if factors of the opposite direction did not interfere with their action, we would simply lose weight constantly and without any effort, without thinking. But a powerful force works to increase weight and sensitively protects fat reserves. This is the hormone insulin.
If you've ever bought large furniture for your home, you know that it is delivered disassembled - the parts are brought into the room, assembled, and then the table or cabinet is ready. If you need to move it from the room to another place, then it will not fit entirely through the door, you need to disassemble it again, but whether it will work and how quickly is the question. And such processes of assembly and disassembly occur in our cells every second. Only small formations can penetrate the cell membrane, fatty acid. Inside, they are assembled into triglycerides, obeying the command from insulin, and in order to leave the cell, they need to undergo a reverse transformation - again, according to the signal of this hormone.
Neither running, nor yoga, nor fitness, nor athletic triathlon will help change the processes of fat storage or deal with existing accumulations, if there is no will of hormones.
Insulin is anti-catabolic. It prevents cells from decaying and takes care of their restoration and growth. And it can become a good helper if you have a clear, honest relationship with this hormone: it captures from the blood not only glucose and fats, but also amino acids, so athletes after training eat a carbohydrate product so that the release of insulin blocks the destruction of muscle fibers.
A person’s relationship with insulin is largely determined by his genetics, and specifically by the number of receptors on the cell surface that respond to insulin. Some people have extremely few of them, and this person eats like crazy without any consequences, while others, on the contrary, have a lot, and this is the case when a person literally gets fat from the air and it is very difficult for him to lose weight.
Therefore, it is important to understand that the fat on your waist has increased not because you ate fatty foods, but because of carbohydrates, which increased the level of insulin and it gave the body the command to make reserves.
Practical dietetics solves one main problem - in many ways it prevents insulin from rising. Due to this, popular diets work: Katya Mirimanova’s diet, fractional meals, protein diets. But in cases where the cells are hypersensitive to insulin, or the situation is even worse, for example, a person has insulinoma, and his insulin is constantly elevated, you can go through diets for a very long time and suffer, you will not be able to lose weight.
According to statistics, only 5% of people who try to lose weight by 20 kg or more on their own achieve some obvious success and only 1% of them manage to maintain the result longer than a year, the rest break down - and then, with a high degree of probability, break down and lion's share that tiny percentage of winners. Heroin addicts cope with their addiction more successfully than those who depend on fast carbohydrates and develop eating disorders.
Hot topic: what to eat to lose weight
What should those who want to finally do something about carbohydrate addiction and help their hormones find balance again? To begin with, realize that it is not the blood sugar itself that is scary, but the insulin that is secreted into it. And here knowledge about the glycemic index (GI) and insulinemic index (AI) of foods will help. The first makes it clear how intensely the blood is filled with sugar in response to eating certain dishes, and the second shows how much insulin comes from this sugar.
These two indicators coincide in the vast majority of cases; there are only two examples when the AI of a product exceeds its GI - we are talking about yogurt and oranges.
In my work, I do not use index tables; they are interesting only from the point of view of demonstrating the basic principle of healthy eating. Moreover, any person who has taken the trouble to more or less understand the basics of dietetics will accurately name the most dangerous foods for one’s figure and weight - potatoes, white rice, refined sugar, bread and all their combinations and derivatives.
Somewhere at the intersection of ideas about GI and AI - the degree of saturation that can be given different products. It is due to many factors, including individual ones: some people eat cottage cheese well and for a long time, while for others, perhaps, a leaf of lettuce does not allow them to feel hungry all day long. But according to science, two main foods keep you full for a long time by controlling insulin spikes and slow absorption: soft-boiled eggs and lamb (boiled or baked without oil or sauces). The “lamb diet” is the secret to the slimness of many stars.
A short course on a happy hormonal life: four frequently asked questions to Dr. Kovalkov
Is it true that if you always try not to let insulin rise, the cells will develop hypersensitivity to it and then you will get better, and nothing can be done?
Not true. It is physiological for a person to eat protein, fat and vegetables, in which carbohydrates are absorbed slowly and do not provoke insulin surges. Humanity is 2 million years old, of which only 200 we have been short with sugar, and this acquaintance has not brought us anything good - sugar acts on cells like an acid and destroys them, which provokes the most various diseases, from atherosclerosis to diabetes.
Therefore, returning to the roots and giving up fast carbohydrates, processed foods, and large amounts of fruit will only bring benefits, and if parents follow this, they will insure their child from developing carbohydrate addiction and related problems. There will be no breakdowns in metabolic engineering due to the control of insulin release.
Is it true that the main thing is not to eat after six, and then you will definitely lose weight?
This is not exactly a myth, but there is confusion about cause and effect. Many will agree that if you hang out at night in front of the computer or TV, the result in the form of extra pounds will not be long in coming. Of course, television or Internet traffic has no calorie content, and again it’s a matter of hormones. Somatotropic hormone (“growth hormone”), which you already know about, is released between 0:00 and 1:00 in the phase deep sleep. Accordingly, for it to be synthesized, two conditions are needed: peaceful sleep and the absence of a surge in insulin several hours before the “planned exit”. Fast carbohydrates in the evening block production growth hormone and by eating ice cream or drinking beer while watching an evening TV series, you do not burn fat at night. And during the day, the body does not have the opportunity to burn them; all lipolytic processes start in the dark. The conclusions are obvious!
Is it true that breakfast is the main meal of the day, and even if you don’t want to, you have to force yourself to eat in the morning?
Continuing the adventures of growth hormone: if you for a long time If you sleep at night, the time of its production shifts from the physiological period “around midnight” to a later date. Or you get up too early. Therefore, when you wake up to an alarm clock, you don’t want to eat and even feel disgusted with food. This means that the hormone has entered the bloodstream and is still working on fat burning.
In this case, you can’t force yourself to eat breakfast! In response to food intake, insulin will be released and block the action of growth hormone. Listen to your body, not to general recommendations. If you don't want to eat, don't.
Is it true that it doesn’t matter what you eat and how much if you constantly exercise, especially fat-burning cardio exercises?
The fitness and cosmetology industry actively claims their rights to help in the fight against excess weight, but in fact they have neither the ability nor the competence to help with truly serious problems. Regular training is great, but it doesn’t address the essence of the problem. On a treadmill, you can burn up the fat from the lunch you received three days ago, which floats in the blood in the form of tiny droplets and sits in the tissue fibers, but this will not affect the formed fat reserves in any way.
On the contrary, having spent the available energy, a person with carbohydrate addiction will half-faint and reach for a cake or chocolate bar, and then eat another one - because he was in training and “deserved it.” Don’t overeat so as not to unbalance your body, then you won’t have to kill yourself in the gym.
We hope this material was useful to you.
At such moments, you want to send everything to hell and eat your “grief” with chocolate. Or better yet, two at once. Don't rush, let's try to figure it out and find the reason why you're not losing weight. Most likely, it will be on this list.
Are you (or have been) on a diet?
You will be surprised, but dieting is the No. 1 reason for excess weight. It’s about the structure of our brain. He perceives a sharp restriction of calories as an alarm signal: starvation lies ahead, he urgently needs to stock up! After this, the body begins, like Plyushkin, to shake over each fat cell and take care of it as best it can. So the statistics don’t lie: two-thirds of those who previously went on diets return to their previous weight after a couple of years, or even gain more. If the weight loss was very rapid, then only 5% of the lucky ones manage to maintain the result. Even worse, extreme weight fluctuations pose health risks, including increasing your risk of heart disease.
Solution: Resist the temptation to get quick results - you will pay dearly for them. Weight loss of no more than 1-2 kg per month is considered safe. And the most reliable way- these are not diets, but a gradual transition to healthy foods rich in vegetables and fruits, and, of course, physical activity.
You don't move much
Here you can be indignant. How little is this, what nonsense?! After all, on weekends you go jogging or spend several hours in the fitness center. True, on weekdays you sit at work all day, then on the subway, and then collapse exhausted in a chair in front of the TV... But this is compensated for, isn’t it? Not really. As a study conducted at the University of Missouri (USA) showed, if you sit without a break for several hours in a row, the level of lipase in the body drops - an enzyme that helps break down fats. So it turns out that long hours sitting still ruins all your weekend efforts.
Solution: Instead of pushing yourself to the point of exhaustion once a week, it's better to move a little, but constantly. Take advantage of every opportunity: be it a half-hour walk before work, walking up the stairs or escalator, 10 minutes of flexibility exercises during your lunch break, or 20 minutes of fitness in the evening before dinner. And in work time Don’t forget to get up from your chair once an hour to stretch your legs. In addition, there are sets of exercises that can be performed right at your workplace, unnoticed by your colleagues. Research shows that even such simple exercise greatly speeds up metabolism and promotes weight loss.
Popular
You don't notice the "hidden calories"
Do you feel like you're not eating too much? It is not a fact that this is so. Surveys show: people tend to underestimate by 1.5-2 times energy value what they eat. The most dangerous sources Hidden calories come from fast food and processed meats. 100 g of boiled sausage or sausages can contain up to 300 kcal, smoked - 400-450 kcal. The smallest hamburger will provide you with 200 kcal or more, and a bag of chips - 360 kcal! There are also a lot of calories hidden in fruit juices, ready-made salad dressings and sauces. This also includes all kinds of buns, cookies, bars and even many “healthy” yoghurts and cereals with flavoring additives, where in fact great amount Sahara.
Solution: the simpler the food and the fewer stages of processing it has gone through before it gets into your kitchen, the better. For example, a hand-cut salad from fresh vegetables healthier (and lower in calories) than a ready-made salad with mayonnaise from the supermarket. Sausage can be replaced with oven-baked chicken breast or turkey, fruit juices and sweet snacks with fresh fruits, cereals and dairy products with sugar and flavorings with natural yogurt and whole grain cereals, to which you can add berries, nuts or dried fruits. .
You've reached a weight plateau
Is your weight, which previously dropped well, suddenly “stuck” at one level and remains there for weeks, or even months? Perhaps this is a period of the so-called plateau. Don't be upset, this is a normal phenomenon, it can be overcome. Most likely, you are now getting more energy from food than you expend. As you lose weight, you need to re-evaluate your energy needs from time to time, because it also decreases.
Solution: You can use a calculator to calculate the required amount of calories depending on your age, height, weight and physical activity. Then reduce this amount by no more than 100-200 kcal per day so that the weight begins to decrease. Important: be sure to find out your minimum energy requirement for basic metabolism (breathing, blood circulation, sleep). Usually this threshold starts from 1200 kcal per day, but if you are heavy, it can reach 1500 kcal. Never go below this threshold, otherwise you may seriously harm yourself.
You sleep too little
As the old French proverb says, “He who sleeps eats.” True, we usually do not replace food with sleep, but vice versa. If you go to bed late and don’t give your body proper rest, the next day your body will try to fuel itself with high-calorie foods. Hence the frantic desire for buns and sweet coffee when you haven’t gotten enough sleep. Participants in one experiment who slept only 4-5 hours at night ate an average of 300 kcal and 21 g more fat the next day than on normal days.
Solution: To get enough sleep, we need 7.5 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep per day. To avoid suffering from insomnia, experts advise turning off or putting aside all electronic devices (phone, tablet, computer) an hour before bedtime. And instead of surfing the Internet or watching TV, it is better to read a regular book before going to bed.
Are you stressed?
Money difficulties, problems at work and in the family, worries about the future - all this, paradoxically, can lead to the accumulation of fat. Firstly, we often “seize” the problem. When you want to calm down, your hand reaches out for a chocolate bar. Secondly, stress increases the level of the hormone cortisol in the blood, and it promotes the growth of fat cells. What's even worse is that the so-called visceral fat around internal organs. It increases the risk of various diseases and in addition produces substances that worsen mood and increase anxiety. It turns out to be a vicious circle: the more you worry, the more you eat - and the worse you feel.
Solution: if you are currently experiencing a period of severe stress, try changing your diet: instead of sweets and fatty foods, increase the number of foods with B vitamins (they have a good effect on nervous system). These are, for example, whole grain bread, buckwheat porridge, bananas, avocados, chicken meat and liver, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, fresh herbs, nuts. To help yourself relax and lift your spirits, use any healthy ways: nature walks, workouts, yoga, meditation, massage, dancing to music. The movement will not solve your problems, but it will give you the strength to cope with them.
You have health problems
As sad as it is to say this, overweight can be a symptom or companion of many diseases - from diseases of the stomach, intestines, heart and kidneys to diabetes, others endocrine disorders and even tumors. If your weight does not come off despite eating healthy and physical activity and at the same time you feel unwell (for example, nausea, stomach pain, shortness of breath, constant fatigue, extreme thirst, frequent headaches, frequent infections, etc.), be sure to consult a doctor!
Solution: It will be even better if you are examined by a therapist at least once a year, and, if necessary, by other doctors. Any disease is easier to prevent than to treat, so do not neglect preventive examinations.
Stanislav Mikhalchev, personal trainer, certified specialist in sports nutrition(B. Weider College) .
Power Errors
No. 1. Wrong diet. Eating in the afternoon and a hearty dinner contribute to the deposition of excess fat. It is better to eat high-calorie dishes for breakfast and lunch, while dinner should be more modest; you should eat no later than 2-3 hours before bedtime. If you are really hungry, you can drink a glass of kefir or eat an apple. You shouldn’t go hungry forever - it’s dangerous for your health. Besides, if you lose your temper, you might just overeat. It is better to eat more often, but in small portions.
#2: Not getting enough sleep. During a night's rest, a person loses weight. But in order for calories to be burned, you need to sleep at least 7 hours every day. By the way, it’s worth keeping in mind: if you sleep the required amount of time, but go in for sports, then extra pounds can be confused with weight gain. muscle mass. If this is the case, you need to continue exercising and eating right.
No. 3. Snacks. What happens if you eat a small piece at the computer, watching TV or while cooking? Even if the portions are small, they will still take a toll on your body. And then the question will arise again: “Why am I not losing weight on a diet?” It is necessary to give up snacks or reduce them as much as possible. An alternative to seeds/sweets/sausages should be dried fruits and nuts.
No. 4. Lack of water. If a person drinks enough water, his work improves gastrointestinal tract, metabolism decreases, calories are burned. Scientists have proven that water promotes the breakdown of fats. Therefore, drink at least 1.5 liters of purified or still water.
№5. Incorrect assessment of calories, fats and carbohydrates in food. We believe that diet products can be consumed in unlimited quantities. Actually this is not true. You can gain extra calories if you overdo it with diet foods. Therefore, it is necessary to control your food intake and not eat too much, even if it is an apple or oatmeal.
Fitness mistakes
No. 1. “Non-sports” nutrition. This is what accounts for 80% of all fitness failures. If you study every day for 2 hours, don’t think that “everything will burn out.” Even professional athletes do not eat as they please, but in accordance with a special diet. It includes vegetables and fruits, a lot of protein and complex carbohydrates, and a minimum of sweets.
Recommendations: do not indulge in fatty, salty, smoked and sweet foods. Fitness classes give you the right to add 200-500 calories to your diet per day of training. Moreover, you need to get these calories from complex carbohydrates (cereals, porridge, vegetables).
No. 2. Confusion in the head. According to various estimates, from 20 to 80% of those losing weight suffer from a lack or unsystematic knowledge: not everyone can afford a personal trainer, and amateurs who do not have the necessary information write on Internet forums.
By training without a clear plan, not knowing how to alternate exercises correctly, neglecting the technique of performing them, you risk, for example, not losing weight, but building up the muscles on the front of your thighs - typical mistake those who independently “burn fat” on a bicycle or exercise bike. Or enlarging your waist is a problem for “athletes” who are passionate about pumping up their abs and oblique abdominal muscles. By the way, these exercises do not help you lose weight at all.
Recommendations: if it is not possible to consult a personal trainer, study physiology yourself. Find credible sources of information, magazines and websites where specialists—regularly practicing sports doctors and trainers—write.
No. 3. “The excellent student complex.” According to expert observations, half of people are prevented from losing weight... by perfectionism. A person has never taken care of himself and suddenly realizes that he looks terrible - and he urgently begins to put himself in order. Such enthusiasts spend 3-4 hours a day in the gym, or they give themselves such a workout in an hour that they then barely crawl home. After suffering for a month, they begin to dislike fitness or get injured. There is only one result - a return to a sedentary lifestyle.
This mistake, inappropriate load, was found in about 50% of people - they walked either too fast or too slow. We pushed ourselves into aerobics and exercise machines or, conversely, were lazy.The load can be either too intense or too weak. And also, it does not correspond to what a person expected to get from classes. And then he simply won’t train regularly and at the right time, which means he won’t lose weight.
Recommendations: try it different types fitness and choose what you like. To calculate the required training intensity, arm yourself with a stopwatch or heart rate monitor and find the Karvonen method on the Internet: using the formula, it will help you assess how much a particular load is suitable for you.
No. 5. Schedule. For 60% of those who complain about lack of results, training occurs either too rarely or lasts too short. American doctors observed 5,000 people losing weight for 7 years. On average, they lost 27 kg and kept the weight off for five and a half years. So, these people did fitness for an hour every day. And don’t be alarmed by the words “workout” or “fitness”—in both studies, they meant normal walking.
Why am I not losing weight?.. Try to ask this question in an unfriendly online community, and comments like “eat less” and “stop complaining, go to the gym” will immediately fly in. But the reason for stalled kilograms does not always lie in a lack of effort on the part of the person losing weight! Often things are spoiled by little things that we don’t even know exist...
Power Errors
Why am I not losing weight on a diet? Why doesn't training help? Where do the extra kilos come from?.. These are the questions asked by 9 out of 10 people who are losing weight, once they discover that their efforts have ceased to bring results. Do not rush to curse nature and broad bone! Most likely, the reason for stopping the weight lies in yourself.
1. You “bite”
Many people unknowingly indulge in excess every now and then. They pop a prune into their mouth while passing a bowl of dried fruit. They pinch off a piece of pizza ordered for relatives. They finish the last slice of potato to wash the pan. If you add up all these “trifles”, the result will be impressive!
Are you convinced that low-calorie yogurt or an apple will pass through the body without leaving a trace? Then don’t be surprised by the impressive belly, which doesn’t want to go down. EVERY dietary product has its own calorie content, and you cannot enjoy it uncontrollably.
Even with dietary products you need to know when to stop
2. You're undernourished.
The reverse process occurs - you dream of losing weight quickly and choose starvation diets. Naturally, the body is hostile to the idea and holds on tightly to every calorie. And the harder you push, the more violently your body will sabotage your efforts.
3. You don't distribute your meals correctly.
Many of those who ask “Why am I not losing weight by eating right?” make the same mistake: carefully monitoring the caloric content of their diet, they eat only a small part daily norm, but the evening meal is turned into a feast for the stomach. And they are sincerely perplexed as to what’s wrong – after all, they don’t eat too much, everything is part of the diet! Meanwhile, the lion's share of what you eat at night is stored directly in fats, even if your dinner does not contain heavy and unhealthy food.
4. You give up snacking
When the stomach receives food 5-6 times a day, it gets used to the new feeding schedule and behaves calmly. If the “feeding” time is reduced to three main meals, by the indicated hour the stomach will be empty, hungry and determined to snatch a bigger piece. It is difficult even for truly strong-willed people to resist his urges.
Fractional meals will provide the desired result faster than a hunger strike
5. You do not follow the drinking regime
Due to a lack of water, metabolism is disrupted, cells become clogged with waste products, and fat burning slows down.
6. You abuse products that retain fluid.
Salt, sugar and hot spices can play a cruel joke on the body by retaining water in its cells. And this means swelling, pressure fluctuations and 1-2 extra kilos on the scales. Once again asking yourself the question: “why don’t I eat enough, but I’m not losing weight?!”, calculate how much salt and sugar actually ends up on your plate.
Try replacing sugar with cinnamon and stevia, black and red pepper with ginger and fresh herbs, and salt with soy sauce.
7. You like to snack in cafes and restaurants
It is difficult to obtain reliable information about the calorie content of food prepared in such establishments. Either reduce your trips to public catering establishments, or familiarize yourself with the menu in advance, the composition of the dishes stated in it, and clearly determine what you can eat and what you cannot eat.
Study the ingredients of your dishes carefully
8. You overestimate the importance of diets
Placing hopes only on limiting caloric intake and neglecting exercise, a person quickly finds himself in the dilemma of “I don’t eat and I don’t lose weight - why?!” It’s all the same: the body does not burn accumulated calories.
Video: Why aren't we losing weight?
A simple reason for excess weight as explained by Artem Doruchenko
Errors related to physical activity
9. You lead a sedentary lifestyle
Anyone who, returning home after a run, sits down at the computer and does not get up until the evening, has no chance of losing weight.
Try to move more during the day! Get up from your desk more often and take a few steps around the office, and on weekends, give preference to active recreation.
10. You overestimate the possibilities of sports
A common complaint: I may not be on a diet, but I exercise and I’m not losing weight! Why? But the fact is that active training will not bring benefits if it is not supported proper nutrition. You'll probably strengthen your muscles, but what's the point if they remain hidden behind rolls of fat?
11. You don't go to the gym regularly.
As long as a person shows up at the gym three times a month, it doesn't matter in the slightest how intense his workouts are. All the same, the efforts are not in vain. But hour-long exercises three times a week or 30-45 minutes devoted to sports daily will bring much more benefit.
12. You... have already lost too much!
Perhaps you trained so hard that you managed to build muscle, the mass of which compensated for the weight of the lost fat. Do you agree, a pleasant version?
Dense muscle is heavier than loose fat
Psychological causes of excess weight
13. You don't think through your actions well.
If you don’t have a clear diet and training plan, don’t expect the numbers on the scale to go down; chaotic throwing around rarely leads to a decent result.
14. You are under stress
Men are no less susceptible to depression than women, although they are trained to hide their feelings. And while you are depressed, exercise through force and are poorly motivated to lose weight, the weight stands still and is not going to move.
15. You want everything at once
Getting up at 5 am, jogging, grated carrots for breakfast, 2 hours in the gym daily, kefir for dinner... Perfectionism, forcing a person to take a massive attack on excess weight- not the best the best option. You will most likely get off to a good start, but you will quickly burn out. Don’t try to embrace the immensity, move towards your goal in small steps.
