When people want to lose weight and become healthier, they often turned to a diet. There are dozens of diets out there that focus on eliminating certain food groups, eating at certain times and even changing to liquids for a week. However, people often complain that they aren’t losing weight on the diet they choose, regardless of what they are doing. They eat less and still gain weight, even when it is coupled with some light exercise.
The problem is that dieting doesn’t work for everyone and it isn’t the best way to lose weight. If you want to shed the pounds you have to burn more calories than you consume, but sometimes there are things that can get in the way. These are the reasons why dieting doesn’t always work to help you lose weight.
It Makes You Hungry
The idea of a diet is to restrict the food that is unhealthy or causes you to gain weight, such as sugars, fats and carbohydrates. However, if you are too restrictive with your diet you will find that you are constantly hungry. While you may be able to resist the urge to eat at first, eventually you will give in and find the nearest food to eat, which nine times out of ten isn’t healthy. The hunger sends a signal to your brain that it needs energy and most people will reach for a sugary snack to boost their energy, but this will ruin the diet and make you feel worse. Instead of cutting back on all food, choose to eat healthier foods more regularly.
You Aren’t Eating Enough
When you cut down on food, you can lose weight, but do it too much and it can have the opposite effect. Restricting too many calories can actually make your metabolic rate slow down, which means you will go into survival mode. When this happens, your body conserves energy and will hand on to any body-fat, thus preventing weight loss. It is important to remember that not all calories are the same. You need to eat the good kinds such as protein and unsaturated fat, which will keep you feeling full, and avoid simple sugars that have no nutrients to offer. You need the right nutrients to help yourself lose weight and cutting down on food too much will hinder your progress.
Fatigue Sets In
Don’t only does eating little amounts of food make you hungry, it will also reduce your energy levels. This is when fatigue sets in and people who are on diets often complain of having no energy to complete their daily activities. They can even suffer from headaches from lack of nutrients and the extra water that is in healthy food. If you find that your diet is causing you to feel tired all the time, you need to switch things up or else you won’t be able to tackle everyday life, as well as working out.
You Don’t Work Out
It isn’t enough to diet or eat correctly, as that is only one aspect of working towards losing weight. You need to exercise regularly if you want to make any lasting changes. Most diets help you to lose weight, but as soon as you start eating normally again you will find the weight starting to creep back on. You need to keep moving if you want to burn calories, but if you restrict yourself too much you won’t have any energy.
You Become Obsessive Over the Scale
The problem that many people have when dieting is they become obsessive over the scale. What started as once a week has turned into once a day and when that figure doesn’t go down they begin to panic. They start eating even less, but that will only cause your weight loss to stall even more. You need to realise that weight fluctuates depending on what you eat, how active you are and how much water you have been drinking. Working out will also cause weight gain as you put on muscle mass that replaces the fat loss. This doesn’t mean you are putting on weight or stalling. A quick check with the tape measure will show that you are losing inches, so make sure you step away from the scale.
The Diet Isn’t Right for You
The truth is, a diet that works for your friend or colleague won’t always work for you. Everybody is different. Some people lose weight from their stomach first, while others will lose it from their hips. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all diet and most people have to do a lot of trial and error to find what works for them. The one that you can’t go wrong with is eating healthy and exercising more. Find good food that you enjoy and have fun while working out, either on your own or with friends if you need the support.
Dieting only works for a little while before you will hit a plateau, and even then, the same diet doesn’t work for everyone. Instead, make smaller changes over time to live a healthier life and your body will change as well.
