TWO WEEKS INTO JANUARY… SO WHY AREN’T YOU LOSING WEIGHT?

If you started the year by making a solemn promise to yourself to lose weight and get in the best shape of your life, you’ve already taken those difficult and important first steps. You’ve joined a gym, got some stylish workout wear, made some significant changes to your lifestyle and it’s starting, slowly but surely, to become a habit. It now feels off when you go a day without hitting the gym. Feeling the burn has become as essential to you as breathing air. Yet, despite all the hard work and effort that you’re putting in, you’re not seeing the results you would have expected.

It can be frustrating and disheartening when your efforts don’t seem to be paying dividends. If, two weeks into your healthier lifestyle you aren’t losing weight or seeing visible results, these may be the reasons why…

You need to keep your expectations realistic

First of all, if you’re to achieve sustainable weight loss it should be done gradually at a rate of around a pound a week. While many achieve dramatic results in weeks or even days with dubious detoxes and spurious cleanses these results are rarely sustainable and the people who lose large quantities of weight quickly tend to pile it all back on again. Seriously, how long can you expect to live on 1000-1200 calories a day?

Keep your expectations of yourself realistic and remember that it may take weeks or even months before you notice a visible difference. That’s why you should weigh and measure yourself to track your progress!

You’re not doing the right exercises

You’re showing up at the gym 3 to 4 times a week and that’s terrific… But are you getting the most out of your workouts? The exercise you undertake at the gym should match your goals. You can spend in excess of an hour on the treadmill and burn hundreds of calories yet this may not necessarily be the best way to achieve the results you desire.

Instead of low intensity cardiovascular exercise, consider the benefits of circuit training- see https://origympersonaltrainercourses.co.uk/blog/benefits-of-circuit-training for more details. You should also consider strength training as this will change your shape and proportions while also making your metabolism more efficient as you build lean muscle mass.

You’ve confused “low fat” for “healthy”

When you’re trying to make healthier dietary choices you may be tempted to reach for the low fat foods on the supermarket shelves. However, it’s worth remembering that low fat doesn’t always necessarily mean healthy.

Fat doesn’t make you fat, but an insulin spike like the kind you get from eating foods containing hidden sugars can make you store energy as body fat. And here’s the thing… When you take the fat out of food it tastes nasty. Thus, food manufacturers replace fats with sugars to make them taste nicer… But rarely does this make them healthier.

You’re counting calories… But that can be an oversimplification

Finally, while counting calories can give you a handy overview of your diet, it’s important to remember that not all calories are created equal, nor does your body use them in the same ways. For example, a can of Coca Cola and an egg contain the same number of calories… But nobody in their right mind would argue that they are nutritionally the same.

As well as tracking calories you should also track your intake of macronutrients like fats, proteins and carbohydrates!