It is difficult to lose weight. Everyone will tell you, “It’s calories in versus calories out that matters” — as though your body were an algebra equation. Truthfully, if it were so easy, everyone would have passed this exam.
“There are so many more things that come into play, and those are genetics, environment, sleep habits, and muscle mass, just to name a few. Weight is extremely complex,” remarks Amy Gorin, RDN, plant-based eating specialist in Stamford, Connecticut.
Although certainly challenging, losing weight is not out of the question. It’s helpful to celebrate the little victories (increased vegetable consumption, increased walking). It may also be useful to work backward and identify those elements that are getting in your way or causing a stall.
Learn about these eight typical obstacles and you can be back on track to winning at losing.
- Your Gut Health Is Interfering
New studies are revealing how critical your microbiome (your gut’s bacteria) is to your health and possibly to your weight. In June 2020, a review in Preventive Nutrition and Food Science reported that probiotics, prebiotics, and symbiotic (combinations of probiotics and prebiotics) can prevent weight gain. It also said that individuals with less diversity in their gut microbiomes were more likely to have a higher body mass index (BMI). What to Do Start by adding more prebiotics to your diet, advises Kirby Walter, RD, owner of The Nourish RD in Chicago.
“Prebiotics are fiber that feeds the good bacteria in your gut.”. You might be consuming all the probiotics, but without nourishing this good bacteria, it can’t multiply and become a majority in your gut,” she says. Add more prebiotics to your diet through emphasis on fruits and vegetables. Celebrate diversity (green beans one day, kale the next, and a tomato salad afterward) to introduce your gut to a variety of prebiotics that will make it contented. A Simple Method to Decrease Fat in Cooking
An easy way to decrease fat during cooking is shown to you by Chef Daniel Green.
- Genetics Are Not on Your Side
It is a harsh fact: It could be that we cannot select the body shape or type we would like and seamlessly end up there with the diet.
In terms of weight, “genetics matter a great deal, though people don’t want to hear that,” says Jason R. Karp, PhD, author of Lose It Forever. He references research on Swedish twins who were brought up together or apart. “The findings of this and other twin studies have demonstrated that approximately 70 percent of variation in the weight of people is due to genes.”. That’s a pretty big influence,” says Dr. Karp. Then, of course, there’s the set-point weight range theory, which is that your body is basically content at that range.
It’s where you may end up if you’re living well and being happy (translation: nutritiously without deprivation and exercising but not to excess). When you attempt to lose weight too far below your set point, “your brain — not your willpower or your conscious choices — reacts to losing weight with strong equipment to drive your weight back up to what it finds normal,” says Karp. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center explains this concept of set point and points out that the gradual, slow weight loss is the solution to changing your set point. What to Do If you do not wish to regain weight after losing it, you will need to keep consuming fewer calories, says Karp, and as Beth Israel recommends, slowly. That is losing no more than 10 percent of your body weight every six months; for a 160-pound woman, that is 16 pounds within six months.
If that sounds hard to stomach, remember that this information can be profoundly empowering — and really liberating.
It can give you the freedom to forgive yourself for the body you have, instead of beating yourself up because you haven’t reached a goal weight or look or because you don’t have willpower. You can use it as a boost to practice healthy habits that feel good, no matter what clothing size you might end up wearing. According to a review of studies published in March 2021 in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, weight-inclusive interventions can help lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose as well as improve body image, self-esteem, and certain mental health disorders. It can be a lot of work on yourself, and a HAES dietitian can assist you in making the transition. The Association for Size Diversity and Health offers a search function to locate professionals in your region (the tool is in the process of being updated and won’t be available until September).
3. You’re Getting Older and Losing Muscle
“Once women enter menopause and estrogen levels start to decline, they lose muscle as they get older,” explains Gorin. Actually, muscle mass drops 3 to 8 percent per decade after the age of 30, reports research. That’s significant, because, according to the Mayo Clinic, muscle burns more calories than fat.
“Post-menopausal women gain more body fat and require fewer calories as they age,” Gorin explains. Furthermore, normal changes in fat tissue that occur with aging can lead the body to gain weight, according to a September 2019 article in Nature Medicine.
What to Do You can’t stop the clock, but you can regulate your habits of health.
“Individuals of any age can lose weight and maintain weight loss, provided that they establish the habits that are required and develop a plan to handle any slips in behaviors leading to weight gain,” says Karp. Good behaviors are incorporating nutrient-dense foods as the foundation of your diet, reducing empty calories (e.g., processed and high-sugar foods), and incorporating resistance training into your weekly exercise routine to restore lost muscle, Gorin recommends.
4. Your Medicine Cabinet Is to Blame
Some drugs contribute to weight gain or interfere with your attempts at weight loss. Among them, says the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York: insulin for diabetes, some antipsychotics or antidepressants, some treatments for epilepsy, steroids, and blood-pressure-lowering medications such as beta blockers. These can contribute to weight gain because they tamper with your metabolism in some fashion, affect your appetite, lead to water retention, or lead to tiredness, causing you to become less active.
What to Do If your doctor or you notice you’ve gained weight unintentionally, discuss it. Don’t change your meds and stop taking them even though you’ve gained weight, recommends the University of Rochester Medical Center. Your doctor can switch you to another drug or change your dosage in some instances. But if that’s not an option, speak with a registered dietitian who can set you on the path of healthy eating.
- You Underestimate Your Portion Sizes
The issue with serving sizes on packaging is that they’re quite arbitrary. While there’s been an effort to make serving sizes on packaging more realistic (such as moving from a half-cup serving of ice cream to two-thirds cup, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration), it’s still an outside standard that bears no connection to how hungry you happen to be or what your body actually requires.
What to Do Gorin recommends planning what you’ll eat for the day.
“This can be done by either logging your food in a food diary to see how many calories you’re actually consuming, and adjusting portion sizes if needed, or working with a registered dietitian to create an easy-to-follow meal plan,” she says. Goran has created mix-and-match meal plans that cut through the confusion and eliminate the portion-size guesswork. There are also tons of meal-planning apps at your fingertips. One of the top-rated ones, Lose It! (free on the App Store and Google Play), allows you to monitor calories, goals, and progress.
6. You Eat Mindlessly or When Distracted
Mindless snacking while you’re in a trance in front of the TV or on your phone can leave you asking, What did I just eat? A September 2022 meta-analysis in the journal Appetite concluded that distracted eating is linked to increased BMI. When you pay attention to what you’re eating, you can make the brain-body connection that you’re full and satisfied.
What to Do Gorin suggests cooking for yourself whenever you can. “When you take the time to cook or even put together ingredients, you understand the care that goes into preparing the foods you consume — and you might be more inclined to sit down and enjoy your food rather than just wolfing it down,” she says. And take at least a few minutes away from the electronics to eat, Gorin suggests.
- You Starve Yourself, Then Overindulge
In a bid to reduce calories, it’s easy to starve yourself during the day attempting to consume as few calories as possible and even skip meals.
But if you do so, your body will compel you to eat — and this starvation can boomerang, says Walter. Ninety percent of my weight-loss clients aren’t consuming enough at lunchtime and then they overeat,” she says. If you starve yourself all day, your body’s defense mechanisms will take over — the ones that make you want to get food, adds Walter. Consequently, it’s no wonder if you gobble a significant bag of cookies rapidly late at night. What to do Eat on a regular food routine, says Walter.
If you eat at set times during the day, your body will learn to expect that you’re going to give it enough nutrition. And besides, she adds, even if you’re dieting, plan how you’re going to fit an assortment of foods into your day so you won’t feel restricted. For example, can you eat an Oreo following lunch? Will you allow yourself a scoop of ice cream when you take the kids out on Saturday?