Clarice House Personal Trainer Nolan Sunnassee outlines to key reasons why people find it hard to lose weight.

As summer is rapidly approaches many are seeking to lose weight in order to get that beach body. But what the major reasons why you can’t lose weight and get into shape?

  1.  Toxicity – Chemicals, heavy metals, plastics, etc that are in our environment can hugely influence the bodies ability to lose weight and have been attributed to actually gaining weight (Rogers 2002). The toxins that cannot be naturally excreted are stored away in our body fat. If a person is then trying to lose weight the body can be resistant to releasing the toxins back into the circulatory system without enough detoxification nutrients.
  2.  Lack of sleep – Sleep is crucial for fat loss, lack of regular sleep effects your hormonal balance which encourages your body to consume more calories in the day (Patel 2006).
  3. High stress – Increases cortisol levels in the body. This can effect metabolism and cravings as well as increasing fat around your waist (Branth 2006).
  4. Poor hydration – a drop in 2% of body weight hydration can dramatically effect performance and physiological processes (Kleiner 1999).
  5. The wrong macromolecule balance – The ratio of carbs to fats to protein can be unique to the individual but its important to understand the effect each food type has on the mechanisms for weight loss. Most people under eat the essential nutrients that your body cannot manufacture itself.
  6. The wrong exercise selection – Different exercises produce different outcomes and for weight loss the wrong choice of exercise can make losing weight harder! Imagine your body is like a car, a 3 litre engine would consume much more fuel than a 1 litre engine. Therefore to lose weight making your body more fuel inefficient is a wise strategy for increasing metabolic rate and burning greater calories.
  7. Not enough exercise variation – When the same regime is applied for a prolonged periods, your body adapts to the stimulus and becomes more energy efficient. This means you will reduce the amount of calories you use for the same exercise duration and intensity.
  8. Too low exercise intensity – The level of intensity is key for positive body composition changes. A sprinters body is very different to a marathon runners body. They both run and do similar movements but it is the intensity which differs for each. Having worked in six gyms over thirteen years I see a great deal of misguided effort and lack of the correct intensity for the desired outcome.
  9. Lack of continuity – Poor long term results are obtained when weight loss not integrated into your lifestyle (Sarlio-Lahteenkorva 2001)

 

References

Branth, S et al, 2006, ‘Development of Abdominal Fat and Incipient Metabolic Syndrome in Young Healthy Men Exposed to Long-Term Stress’, Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovasculare Diseases, vol 17, issue 6, pages 427-435

 

Kleiner, S, 1999, ‘Water: an Essential but Overlooked Nutrient’, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, vol 99, issue 2, pages 200 – 2006

Patel, S et al, 2006,’Association between Reduced Sleep and Weight Gain in Women’, American Journal of Epidemiology, vol 164, issue 10, pages 947-954

 

Rogers, S, 2002,‘Detoxify or Die’, FL, Sand Key Company

 

Sarlio-Lahteenkorva, S, 2001,’ Weight Loss and Quality of Life Among Obese People’, Social Indictors Research, vol 54, number 3, pages 329 – 354