Having trouble losing weight? Maybe both of your hands are up because you single-handedly believe this is the biggest battle of your life. Inside this post, I share 5 hidden reasons you’re not losing weight and how to change it. Bringing you a glimpse of hope.
Weight loss is not an easy battle. Even though countless people tell you how to lose weight in six easy steps, it’s rarely easy. It’s a long shot if it even works.
I’m sure you’ve wondered why – which is what I want to explain today. But first, let me remind you that you didn’t get to this weight on purpose. It’s okay to let go of the shame and recognize there was a reason behind where you are. Allowing yourself some grace in this process is key to making it stick.
I also feel the need to remind you that health is much more important than weight loss and should always come first. Losing weight to get healthy is a backward equation. If you want to make it last, you must focus on getting healthy to lose weight, not the opposite, no matter how tempting that may be.
The starting point to any weight loss journey is understanding how your body works. Putting less emphasis on how the diet works and more on how your body is responding.
Remembering, just because it worked for someone doesn’t mean it’s healthy. What is healthy is understanding your body and what a healthy weight is for you. To set the goal, but refuse to get lost in the goal. Putting your attention into the process and the action that creates the feeling you’re actually seeing. This is what it means to experience health, and if you can experience it, you’ll desire more of it.
But if you’re struggling with health and weight loss, here are five reasons that could be the culprit.
1. You’re too focused on the calculation.
I don’t want to knock health calculations because they can be important, but putting all of your attention into a calculation gives you a false sense of control. Health is rarely boiled down into a perfect equation, but rather how your body uses what you provide.
Making health less about calories and more in how your body uses those calories.
What your body does with what you provide could be the very answer you’ve been looking for. How your body channels energy to either use to live or store and conserve in body fat. But you have to become aware of how you feel throughout the day.
It’s not a matter of what food is good or bad but what is good or bad for you.
Pay attention to how your body is channeling energy rather than how you calculate that energy. Does that food or activity make you feel light and energized or heavy and dense? Do more of what makes you feel light.
2. You eat at the wrong time of the day.
Throughout the day, your energy needs change, as do your hormones. Meaning there are more efficient times of the day to eat than others.
The best time to eat is when your metabolism is revving, and your insulin sensitivity is high. Making the cells ready to use the energy you are providing.
These patterns tend to follow the sun’s cycles. When the sun is at the highest point, so is your energy. Making breakfast and lunch the most critical times to consume energy. Not at night when 80% of people eat 80% of their calories. The calories are more likely to be stored rather than used.
The goal is to eat most of your food early in the day and less as evening approaches. Commit to ending nighttime snacking, aiming to stop eating three hours before bed.
3. You’re emotionally exhausted.
Emotional energy accounts for 70% of your total energy level. How much energy you have determines what your body does with body fat. To put this simply, if your body’s energy level feels threatened, you’re more likely to hold onto the energy (or body fat), even storing it if it’s available. Making weight loss nearly impossible.
Your emotions are making a difference. Arguably they make the most significant difference biologically, even more than what you eat. Pay attention to how you feel and learn to let go of those emotions that don’t serve you.
This takes work. But learning how to let go of emotions opens up your energy flow. Creating an environment of safety rather than scarcity which changes your mind patterns.
- The next time someone cuts you off in traffic, let it go.
- The next time you look at yourself in the mirror, let go of the negativity you hold onto.
If it’s not serving you in a healthy way, then it’s amplifying what you hate. Let it go and choose love.
4. You are using only food to refill your energy tank.
Energy is a critical component of the body. But as The First Law of Thermodynamics states: energy is neither created nor destroyed. Which means that you have all of the energy you need.
However, everything we encounter in life influences that energy for good or bad, channeling it in different directions. When this happens, you can feel exhausted and lack energy, making you reach for more food.
But food isn’t the only place to refill your tank. It is just one of many. Remember, your emotions are the highest form of energy – meaning a little laughter can go a long way. So can the sun, moving your body, physical touch, doing some soul-care, sleep, or doing something you love.
If you feel like you’re working with low energy and just ate a good meal, try doing something other than reaching for more food. Once you recognize these as energy sources, you’ll begin to crave them as you would anything else.
5. You go too far to the extreme.
Health is found in the balance. All-day, every day, your body is working to maintain homeostasis. And it’s in that perfect balance that health exists. Yet, we know change takes change, meaning you have to push your body, encourage it to do something to see change.
This is what I call the yo-yo approach. It’s the give and take of the body. You can’t just push it, but you have to pull back and bring it back into balance on the other side.
The health system has figured out that pushing the body equates to results. That’s why there are endless diets on the market that push your body. But they rarely work long term because pushing your body to the extreme eventually becomes too much stress signaling a threat. Leading to survival mode, and soon enough, you’ll be fighting the very vessel you’re trying to change.
The pushing works, but you have to bring it back into balance on the other side.
- Do the hard workout, but drink the water and eat a nourishing meal afterward.
- Push your body with a 36-hour fast, but make sure you get plenty of sleep and eat nourishing meals to break your fast.
Don’t just eliminate or restrict but keep it realistic by understanding that all things are constantly working to achieve balance – your body is no different.
Body Knowledge
If you understand how your body works, health becomes simple, and weight loss naturally happens.
