Those who are exercising and counting calories know the disappointment of not seeing the scale go down.
To be honest, it can be really discouraging and upsetting to not lose much weight after following a healthy diet and engaging in regular exercise for months. It also has a negative impact on someone’s confidence. However, research suggests that there may be some covert reasons why someone does not lose weight even after trying everything.
Actually, many people who regularly exercise but still do not lose the weight they had hoped for are making an effort. It takes more than just putting in more effort at the gym and eating fewer meals to lose weight. Our body’s ability to burn fat and calories is mostly dependent on metabolism, the process that turns food into energy.
Numerous factors, including heredity, age, sex, hormonal health, body size, muscle mass, and others, influence an individual’s metabolism. Similar to this, a person’s metabolism can be impacted by several things, some of which can speed it up and others that can slow it down.
If your metabolism isn’t functioning optimally, even rigorous exercise and strict nutrition may not produce the desired results. You can modify your approach without becoming discouraged, though, if you are aware of the hidden factors that could affect and slow down your metabolic rate.
Unbalanced hormones
The primary regulators of your metabolism, hunger, fat storage, and energy use are your hormones. Hormonal imbalance can make weight loss much harder, even with good workouts. Insulin resistance, hypothyroidism, insulin spikes, and thyroid malfunction all reduce your body’s ability to burn fat and may even promote fat storage. It accomplishes these goals by preventing your cells from absorbing glucose, which makes your body retain fat excessively rather than burning it off through diet and exercise.
Second, an underactive thyroid can reduce your resting metabolic rate, or how many calories your body burns when you’re at rest. This can make you feel lethargic and make losing weight more difficult. Progress may be further delayed by other variables, such as the transition into menopause or the cortisol imbalance brought on by stress.
What to do: Discuss symptoms with a medical expert. To develop a plan that goes beyond diet and activity, blood testing can measure insulin levels and thyroid hormones.
Exercise type and muscle mass
When it comes to how they affect weight, not all workouts are made equal. You may be missing one of the important components for increasing metabolism if your regimen is primarily cardio-intensive but lacks muscle training. Your metabolic rate will be higher if you have more lean muscle since it burns more calories at rest than fat. Your body might not be gaining or maintaining muscle unless there is adequate resistance or weight exercise, particularly if dieting or weight loss also lowers calorie intake. Over time, these changes may slow down your metabolism.
Action to take: Use body weight or weights for strength training at least two to three times a week. Make an effort to preserve or increase muscle mass by eating enough protein and, where suitable, lifting ever larger weights.
Stress levels and sleep
Sleep is a metabolic regulator in addition to being a time for rest. Hormones that regulate appetite and satiety, such as leptin and ghrelin, are impacted by sleep deprivation, which frequently increases desires for high-calorie foods and decreases motivation to exercise. Furthermore, prolonged stress elevates cortisol, a hormone associated with belly fat storage and a generally slower metabolism. Therefore, even with regular exercise, persistent stress might cause the body to store fat.
First and foremost, make sure you get seven to nine hours of restful sleep each night. Use relaxation methods like yoga, mindfulness, or breathing exercises to keep your sleep hygiene in check. These straightforward actions promote a better metabolic rate and help realign hunger hormones.
Hidden metabolic disruptors and gut health
The bacterial colony that lives in our intestines and is essential to metabolism is known as the gut microbiome. Gut dysbiosis, an imbalance of the gut microbiota, affects fat storage, increases the absorption of calories from food, and alters hunger signals, making it more difficult to lose weight when exercising and eating healthily. Such an imbalance can be brought on by a number of environmental and lifestyle variables, including inadequate fiber, stress, antibiotic use, poor diet, and high sugar intake. However, this is not the only factor. An additional layer of complexity to metabolism is the growing evidence that obesogens, which include compounds found in plastics like BPA and various environmental contaminants, may disrupt hormone function, metabolic rate, and fat accumulation.
What to do: Prioritize a diet rich in fiber, fermented foods, and antioxidants that is good for the gut. Reducing exposure to processed foods and some plastics may also be beneficial.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a health advice. We would ask you to consult a qualified professional or medical expert to gain additional knowledge before you choose to consume any product or perform any exercise.
