It’s quite frustrating when you are doing everything right, following all the golden rules to lose weight to the T, but the extra pounds just refuse to melt away! Hitting the gym with a vengeance will not be fruitful without straightening out underlying conditions because they might be the actual reasons why you are not losing any weight despite dieting and exercise. Calorie deficit is the key to unlock weight loss; however, in certain conditions, burning fat can be a bit more complicated than maintaining a deficit and burning calories through exercise. So, let’s find out what underlying causes make it extremely difficult to lose weight.
1. Insulin Resistance: Insulin, which is a blood sugar regulating hormone, also plays a huge role in fat metabolism. When we eat high-glycemic foods (sugar, refined carbs, etc), the level of blood glucose rises. When that happens, insulin is released by pancreas to regulate and bring down glucose levels and also to carry glucose into body cells to be used as an energy source. However, when there is high amount of glucose circulating in the bloodstream on a steady basis, after a point, body cells become less responsive to the efforts of insulin. When that happens, all extra circulating glucose is directed to be stored as body fat. If you are insulin resistant, it can prevent weight loss and encourage storage of body fat. In fact, high and frequent insulin secretion will block fat burning (aka lipolysis). Insulin resistance also lowers metabolism, leading to weight gain. To correct insulin resistance, stay away from refined carbs, white sugar, eat veggies, increase protein intake, and also correct magnesium deficiency if any.
2. Thyroid Issues: Hypothyroidism results from an underactive thyroid gland and appropriate treatment from a doctor becomes absolutely necessary to treat the symptoms. An underactive thyroid fails to produce enough T3 (triiodothyronine) and T4 (thyroxine) hormones, and these hormones are needed to regulate metabolism, and in such a situation, weight loss becomes a lot difficult. Do seek medical help to rule out hypothyroidism.
3. Leptin Resistance: Leptin is also called the “satiety” hormone. Low level of leptin keeps one in a constant state of hunger and you would constantly crave for food, all through the day, calorie surplus, and creation of more fat in the body. There are two hormones that regulate your appetite – ghrelin is the “hunger” hormone which signals the brain that it’s time to replenish energy and that the body needs food to do so whereas leptin (satiety or fullness hormone) signals the brain that there’s enough energy and your appetite decreases, and you would stop craving for food. In short, leptin (which is secreted by fat cells) regulates appetite and signals the brain that you have had enough food. However, when leptin function gets impaired, it fails to send signal to the brain, and the body is always in a state to replenish energy through food. As a result, one tends to overeat and gain weight in the process. Leptin resistance can also slow down your metabolism. All these factors not only prevents weight loss, they can make you gain weight with each meal. So, it becomes important to correct leptin resistance and here’s “How To Boost Leptin Hormone For Weight Loss” in this post.
4. Birth Control Medications: Not all, but certain birth control pills tend to cause slight weight gain, but the good news is that it’s due to water retention, and also temporary. If water retention is an issue, here are “12 Home Remedies to Reduce Water Retention.”
5. Steroid Medications: Certain steroid medications have been found to increase appetite, cause fluid retention, disturb sleep pattern, and also disrupt functioning of certain hormones. To avoid these side effects, continue watching your diet and exercise regularly.
6. Not Eating a Balanced Diet: For the body to function and also for important fat-burning hormones to remain at optimum levels, nutrients are necessary. Vitamin deficiencies and lack of nutrients have been strongly linked to obesity. Counting calories would totally be ineffective if you are not nourishing the body with vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients through the diet. Lack of vitamins, vitamin D3, magnesium, calcium, iron, chromium, coenzyme Q10 can absolutely stall the fat-burning process. It’s important to follow healthy diets, like Rati Beauty diet, to lose weight successfully that are not based on food deprivation and help you eat a nutrient-rich diet and be in calorie deficit at the same time. Download the Rati Beauty app for more details.
7. Chornic Stress and Tension: When you cannot keep a tab over stress, it can cause a lot of damage to the body. Increased stress levels also increase the production of hunger hormone “ghrelin” since it acts to lower stress and that explains why most people tend to overeat when they are stressed out or even just anxious. Stress has also been linked to increase in belly fat. Burn the stress off by working out, listening to music, yoga, pursuing new hobbies, or just taking a stroll with your pet.
8. Gut Imbalance: Maintaining a healthy gut is of supreme importance because an unhealthy gut can lower immunity, increase weight, cause hormonal imbalances, affect mental health. Read about “15 Ways to Improve Gut Health” in this post.
9. Chronic Inflammation: If you have been counting calories, exercising for hours together, and still not shedding any significant weight, it’s most probably inflammation that is stalling weight loss from happening. When one puts on weight, leads an extremely stressful life, eats processed food, sleeps only for a short period of time, a protein called as C-reactive protein, which is considered to be an inflammatory marker present in the blood also rises up, making the body more and more acidic. Inflammation makes the body insulin resistant, and by now we know that insulin is also a fat-storage hormone which triggers the creation of new fat cells. So, inflammation triggers insulin resistance, which in turn leads to more insulin production, and larger creation of fat cells which converts all extra calories into fat, and stores it particularly around the belly area. Here’s how you can “Reduce Inflammation in the Body.”
10. Sleep Deprivation: Sleep deprivation throws all hormones out of whack, especially leptin and ghrelin, increasing the level of ghrelin and dropping leptin. When you sleep well at night, the levels of sleep hormone melatonin increases which in turn lowers hunger and stress hormones (ghrelin and cortisol respectively). Also, a good night’s sleep is extremely essential to reset metabolism and keep the fat-burning process correctly. In fact, sleep deprivation even for one night considerably increases inflammation, which is one of the major reasons for weight gain. So, do sleep for at least 7 hours every night to lose weight successfully.
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