I’m Exercising, But Why Am I Not Losing Weight?

It’s frustrating when you’re not able to lose weight despite your best efforts. Many factors influence body weight and could be part of the reason why you’re not able to trim your waistline.  

1. Not getting enough sleep: Lack of sleep can leave you physically hungry due to hormones called ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin signals hunger and leptin is responsible for stopping it. Low secretions of leptin slow down your metabolism and leave you with constant feelings of hunger.  
2. Not making the right diet choices: Consistently binging on unhealthy food hurts your weight loss goals. Research suggests exercise alone may not contribute to substantial weight loss without sufficient changes to the diet.  
3. Not controlling your calorie intake: People who have difficulty losing weight are simply eating too many calories. How many calories you're eating versus how many calories you're burning is an important factor in weight loss.  
4. Not drinking enough water: Drinking a glass of water before your meals can benefit weight loss. People who drank half a liter of water 30 minutes before meals lost 44% more weight than those who did not. 
5. Over-exercising: If you exercise too hard daily, there is an excess of inflammation in your body. All the added inflammation makes you gain more weight than you lose. Your body eventually adapts to your workout regime, so you burn fewer calories and slow down weight loss progress.  
6. Other health conditions: There are some medical conditions that can drive weight gain and make it harder to lose weight. These include hypothyroidism, polycystic ovarian syndrome and sleep apnea. Certain medications can also make weight loss harder, or even cause weight gain. 

Here’s a few simple changes that could help you move toward your weight loss goals: 

1. Choose your diet carefully: You can start this by tracking your daily intake of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. It helps when these three groups are sourced from whole food, grass-fed and organic sources. 
2. Sleep well: Studies show that poor or insufficient sleep can increase the risk of obesity and diabetes. It is also possible that a lack of sleep can disrupt the body's ability to regulate hunger. According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults ages 18 to 65 should aim for seven to nine hours of sleep per night and older adults should aim for seven to eight hours. 
3. Get the right exercise: Some forms of exercise can be counter-productive and cause inflammation in your body. This can not only stress your metabolism but also stimulate the release of stress hormones like cortisol.