Three reasons you aren’t losing weight

Change is hard.

It takes awareness and planning to make change last. One of the most common resolutions to change is permanent weight loss. I have seen many weight loss strategies come and go in my professional and personal life. With our access to information, our knowledge of nutrition, genetics, and human physiology, with our apps and devices, we really should be masters of weight loss and weight maintenance. Unfortunately, none of this seems to matter.

Why do we keep gaining weight, and what works to keep it off?

While I have witnessed many personal success stories, with clients losing 10-100 pounds and keeping it off, these are three of the most common beliefs that keep people from being successful losers.

Three reasons you aren’t losing weight.

1. It’s (not) your genetics.

While a group of medical professionals would like you to believe that it’s your genetics (BTW, they also have a weight loss surgery option they would like to sell you), people genetically predisposed to gaining weight also benefit the most from a healthy diet.

A 20-year study of over 8,000 women and 5,000 men showed that people with the genetic predisposition to obesity responded better to a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and low in processed foods, sugary drinks, alcohol, and processed meats. The Harvard researchers’ study also stated: “genetic predisposition is no barrier to successful weight management.”

2. The weekend effect.

The best way to change a habit is to be aware of what you are doing now.

It is the most basic principle of weight loss and weight maintenance. Track your food intake, be aware of portions, and understand how much you are eating. You need to be aware of what is happening to change something. There are a million and one ways to track calories. From the old-fashioned way, writing it down, to the more modern methods like taking a photo with your phone or using an app to track your calories. They work – if you use them and if you do it consistently.

This is the problem. Consistently we don’t do that.

Also known as the weekend effect. Whether it is January or July, we are better at tracking food from Monday – Thursday, and then we aren’t so consistent. Also known as the weekend effect. Those three days of not paying attention cancel out all the benefits of tracking your calories Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Because after Tuesday, even the calendar says,

3. It’s the food.

Seriously. That is it. Too much is too much. Too little doesn’t work either. That always backfires. 

Often people will say, “I’m not losing weight because I am not eating enough.” Sorry, no, that is not the problem. Or “I’m not eating enough protein.” Also not the problem.

If we are discussing weight loss, neither of these is the problem.

The problem lies in too much. As in too much food, regardless of whether it is protein, fat, sugar, or carbohydrates. Just too much.

Plant-based diets work so well for weight loss because you can eat a lot of food before it is too much. A lot.

That is one of the benefits.

The other benefits include getting enough fibre, a wide variety of health-promoting nutrients, improved gut bacteria, reduced transit time, and increased blood vessel elasticity, just to name a few and weight loss. Eating whole, unprocessed plant foods provides nutritional density without the calorie density.

We have known this for a long time. The study quoted below is from 1983.

What does that mean to you?

Eating foods that are low on the calorie density scale and high on the nutritional density scale means you can eat until you are satisfied without eating too much. You get the maximum nutritional benefits with the least amount of calories, but you can still eat until you feel satisfied.

Weight loss that works.

If you want to be a successful loser, start with these three strategies:

1. Fill your plate with whole foods, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

2. Track your calories, portion sizes, and eating patterns.

3. Fill up on nutrient-dense, low-calorie foods. These are plant-based whole, unprocessed foods. Make these the majority of your diet, regardless of anything else that you eat, to fill up on the highest-value foods.

What else works?

Other factors that may help you include accountability, a menu plan, social support, and public goal declaration. These are some of the psychological aspects of changing a habit. The ways that we can make new habits and change old ones.

These are important, but the most important is to start. Start with one thing and practice it consistently. You can do it.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla