Losing weight is a process that requires time, effort, and consistency to see results. Following the right kind of weight loss diet and regular exercise will bring about the physical transformation you desire. However, certain factors can make the whole journey difficult and you might not see the extra pounds melting off even with regular exercise and dieting. Read about such 10 common barriers that are acting as roadblocks and making losing weight difficult for you.
1. Binging on Healthy But High-Calorie Foods: Excess of everything is bad, and the same age-old theory applies for “healthy food” as well. There’s no doubt that clean and healthy eating is the foundation of a good weight loss strategy, but the point is to remain within calorie deficit even with the healthiest of foods. No food is calorie free; there’s some amount of calories that every food carries, and without mindful eating and portion control, they can put you into calorie surplus and lead to weight gain instead. There’s a wrong notion that there’s no need to count calories with healthy food, but absolutely not, you need to practice portion control with every food (even cucumber, quinoa, oats), that’s on your plate! In this post, we list down “14 healthy foods you are probably overeating” and might be the reason you are not able to shed extra pounds.
2. Pro-Inflammatory Foods in Diet: Chronic inflammation affects normal functioning of the body – from digestion to hormonal function. When the body continues to remain in chronic inflammation for a long period of time, it can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, digestive issues, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Seed oils, processed food, refined carbs, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, fried foods, aerated beverages can all be counted as pro-inflammatory foods that raise inflammation in the body and make burning fat quite difficult.
3. Not Following a Diet That you Do Not Enjoy Being On: Dieting is not about abstaining from all food and slashing calories as low as you can. You can get lean by eating the right kind of food, without starving or crash dieting – do check out the Rati Beauty diet for more details.
4. Not Enough Protein: It is believed that protein is the single-most vital nutrient if you are trying to losing some serious weight. Fitness experts, dieticians recommend keeping your protein level high in order to lose weight. When you consume protein, it increases the levels of the satiety hormones, reduces your appetite, and burns more calories. Start your day with a protein-rich breakfast, include fiber and healthy fats in other meals because it has been proven through studies that protein, fiber, and healthy fats keep you satiated for long, curbing appetite, and unnecessary hunger pangs. Find protein-rich meals on the Rati Beauty diet.
5. Letting Guards Down During Weekend: Most people following a weight loss diet often schedule “cheat meals” on weekends because that’s when we plan outings with friends, go on date nights, and have brunches and family dinners. However, cheat meals do often get converted into a “cheat day” and cheat weekend, with absolutely no control of calories consumed. It’s okay if this happens occasionally, but the issue is when this pattern gets repeated weekend after weekend, ruining our progress and getting us off the weight loss wagon.
6. Sleep Deprivation: Lack of sleep can or sleeping for less than 7 hours, has been found to trigger cravings for unhealthy food, increase hunger hormone “ghrelin” and stress hormone cortisol. All these factors add up and lead to weight gain instead of weight loss. Make a conscious effort to sleep for 7 hours or longer to calm down out of whack hunger hormones.
7. Leading a Sedentary Lifestyle: Dieting won’t do you much good if you lead a lazy and sedentary lifestyle. And by sedentary lifestyle, we mean physical inactivity for most part of the day. Working out in the gym for one hour and then sitting at the work desk for the rest of the day, will undo all your efforts. Try to be on your feet for most part of the day, get up from the work desk every few minutes, and take all calls on the phone standing. Being active helps a great deal when you are trying to get lean.
8. Chronic Stress: If there’s one factor that prevents someone from losing weight, it’s a state of chronic stress. Every person in this world has some level of stress in their day-to-day life, however, stress levels should ideally drop down and not be in a heightened state always; however, when that’s not the case, it’s called “chronic stress,” which releases the stress hormone “cortisol,” that raises blood sugar in the body, triggering insulin release, and as we all know, insulin is a fat-storing hormone too, which leads to extra calories to be stored as fat, especially around the abdominal region. Just like sleep deprivation, there’s another factor which can make your appetite ravenous, and it’s chronic stress. Anxiety, stress can trigger overeating, binge eating, and emotional eating, all of which can lead to weight gain. Find ways to de-stress, go for a walk when you feel stressed out, or indulge in an activity to take your mind off.
9. Dehydration: Since the body cannot properly differentiate between hunger and thirst signals, we tend to confuse “thirst” for hunger, and turn to food to curb hunger pangs, adding unnecessary calories that are hard to burn off at the end of the day. That’s why, stay hydrated always! Drink a full glass of water upon waking and sip on water through the day, not stopping at 8 glasses a day. Keep a bottle handy at all times and keep refilling it through the day. By doing this, you would notice less hunger pangs.
10. Gut problems: The gut is called as the “second brain” of the body and that’s because it runs a majority of functions, from absorbing nutrients from the food, to keeping immunity level high, and it also prevents weight gain and combats depression. An imbalance in the gut flora can throw a majority of bodily functions into tizzy and that’s why it’s extremely important to keep the gut flora happy. Make sure you are consuming probiotics through food sources like curd, pickles and having fermented food such as idli, dosa, ambali, dhokla, etc. regularly. Fermented food supply healthy bacteria, prebiotics, probiotics, clears up toxins, boosts better absorption and supply of nutrients into the bloodstream. Most importantly, fermented food helps to reduce inflammation and chronic inflammation can trigger fat storage and stall the whole weight loss process.
So, these were some common barriers that can stall your progress, and weed them all to get lean and fit.
14 Healthy Foods you are Probably Overeating
10 Ways to Eat Less Without Feeling Deprived
Source: Makeupandbeauty
