Why a Strict Diet And Workout Won’t Help You Lose Weight

4 sure-fire reasons most weight trainers give up after a couple of weeks of failed results.

Weight loss can be a painful and lonely journey. Most people think having a strict diet can help them achieve their goals faster and escape the emotional stress of the weight loss journey. This is the number one reason people fail to reach their weight loss goal.

If you’re taking a more flexible approach to dieting — focusing less on whole foods and more on macronutrient needs — it’s a great way to get the most out of your macronutrients.

However, no matter how much attention you give to your nutrients, and exercising every day, losing weight will be next to impossible if you don’t deal with these roadblocks.

Ignoring your gut health

Your digestive system contains trillions of microorganisms that help to speed up food digestion. The microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) are known as microbiome and they may affect your ability to lose weight.

Your chances of losing weight, whether it be through diet or exercise, are influenced by the genes and enzymes within the bacteria living in your gut.

Two gut bacteria are associated with lean body weight. Akkermansia muciniphila and Christensenella minuta are good gut bacteria for weight loss because they are linked with preventing weight gain and are often found in slim individuals.

The food we eat plays an essential role in overall health. Different studies found that a natural plant-based diet reduces calorie intake, increases weight loss, and lowers metabolic markers.

It also nourishes beneficial gut bacteria because plants contain lots of different prebiotic fibers.

Consuming 30g of fiber every day from plants of different colors (think red peppers, orange pumpkin, purple carrots, etc.) may also help diversify your microbiota which is good for your overall health.

People who did not lose weight had gut microbiomes that break down starches at a quicker rate.

Eating more fruits and vegetables will give your gut a range of prebiotics that will keep it happy. By increasing the prebiotics in your diet, you feed the good bacteria in your gut.

If you don’t feed this good bacteria, it can’t proliferate and overtake the bad bacteria in your gut.

Taking too many meds

We often think medication side effects are merely physical symptoms such as dizziness, stomach ache, fatigue, etc.

However, some medications cause weight gain or get in the way of your efforts to lose weight. People who take drugs for heart diseases and type 2 diabetes are more likely to gain weight because of the insulin and sulfonylureas contents in these medications.

Obsessed people are at increased risk for many serious diseases and health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, and death.

Antidepressants are popular medications for weight gain. Especially, if you are taking SSRI (Selective Serotonin Uptake Inhibitor), the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants.

Other medications that contribute to weight gain include prescriptions for high blood pressure or depression.

While more medications- like migraine and allergies can increase your appetite or make you feel hungrier than you really are.

Oral steroids used for treating arthritis and rashes can reduce the body’s sensitivity to insulin, leading to insulin resistance. That, in turn, ramps up the production of the hunger hormone, ghrelin, which stimulates appetite.

If you are an obsessed person taking some of these medications that contribute to weight gain, consider alternative medications that contain bupropion or/and naltrexone that promote weight loss.

And eat more healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, beans, low-fat dairy, and nuts that need slow digestion and prevent an increase in your blood sugar level.

Not getting enough sleep

Many studies have found that people who are sleep deprived report having an increased appetite and a higher daily calorie intake.

As someone who doesn’t get more than 4 hours of sleep every night, I can attest to this fact.

During those hours I’m awake, I get very hungry. So hungry that I keep a bottle of groundnut and cashew nuts close by. Before I used to eat one chocolate bar when I get hungry. But, I noticed a significant increase in my weight over time.

So I swapped the chocolate with nuts. Since then I have managed to control my weight despite having less sleep.

Late-night snacking can also lead to digestive distress that further disrupts your sleep.

Whether your sleep deprivation is caused by insomnia or stress, it affects the body’s ghrelin and leptin production. These are the hormones responsible for hunger and fullness.

If you aren’t getting enough sleep, your brain increases the production of ghrelin and decreases leptin, leading to overeating and gaining weight.

Not socializing with friends

I know you are probably wondering how keeping an active social life affects your body weight.

Well for starters, talking is a form of exercise. People with a higher weight burn more calories talking than their thinner friends.

Scientists have revealed that an active social life and personal interactions with friends increase your level of brown sugar, which helps burn calories to generate heat.

Face-to-face conversations involve more sense and probably more brainpower than exchanging tweets or commenting on someone’s wall.

Energy-saving activities, such as sitting or lying down, do not require a lot of energy and therefore limit the number of calories you burn each day. But the more you socialize, the more you walk, the more you talk, and the more calories you burn.

Being socially active also helps improve your mental abilities, reduce stress and anxiety levels, build confidence, increase self-esteem, and make coping with life’s difficulties much easier.

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