Six reasons you’re not losing weight
Reason #1: You try to follow a too restrictive diet plan
If your eating plan doesn’t fit you and your diet preferences, your diet is done for. People tend to sabotage their weight control efforts when they deprive themselves too much. Ann Fletcher, author of Thin for Life and Eating Thin for Life did a study on 20 so called weight loss ‘masters’ who had lost at least 20 pounds and had kept it off for 3 years or more. She found that these people were particularly good at one thing, dealing with cravings. Here’s how they did it:
>>Use Stopgap measures. Create a system for limiting the amount of fun foods you eat at a time—buying one or two ounces of candy instead of a bag, for example, and buying the smallest container of ice cream instead of an industrial drum
>>Make Tradeoffs. If you decide to eat something fattening, give up something else high in fat you were going to eat that day.
>>Don’t even start. Although it makes sense to allow yourself to treats occasionally, the best way to avoid the problem is to avoid the foods you know will trigger overeating.
Reason#2: You work out so you can pig out
Many physically active people think that regular gym dates will keep them from gaining weight. For example, let’s say you’re a 190 pound man. Now, let’s say you go to the gym after work. You warm up by walking half a mile on the treadmill, which causes you to burn 50 calories. Then you run 2 miles at a 7 minute mile pace. That’s 275 calories. You follow that with weight training, causing you to burn 200 more calories. In all, you’ve burned 525 calories. Then on your way home, you stop by for a burger, fries and a shake. You throw down 1,200 calories—more than twice what you’ve burned. Some men can get away with this because of youth, genetics, or massive amounts of calorie consuming muscle. The average man can’t
Reason #3:
You’re the accidental fat person
Sometimes you take in just as many calories by accident as you do on purpose. Are any of these you?
>>You work in an office and every employee’s birthday is celebrated with cake. Obviously, you feel it would be rule to skip out on the festivities, so you have a piece. One large slice of cake: 300 to 400 unexpected calories.
>>Your monthly planning meeting runs through the lunch hour. Your boss sends out for pizza, even though you usually have a turkey sandwich for lunch. You figure it wouldn’t be good for your career if you eat better than his nibs Half a pizza: 800 to 1,000 calories.
>>One of your co-workers keeps a bowl of candy outside her cubicle. You can’t stop by and say hello without grabbing some chocolate. Four bite sized pieces of candy: 200 or more calories.
>>Your kids never finish their McNuggets and fries. Instead of tossing them out, you gobble them. Three nuggets and half a small order of fries: 250 calories.
>>You’re hanging out with your friends on a Sunday afternoon watching the football game and somehow the chip bowl ends up in front of you. You can easily down 750 calories calculated at 50 chips a sitting at 15 calories a chip.
In all of these situations, there is pressure to eat what everyone else is eating. While some situations are unexpected and out of your hands, the best thing to do is plan ahead. Penny Kris-Etherton, Ph.D.,R.D, a nutrition professor at Pennsylvania State University says to “Make adjustments later on”. “If you eat cake at work, skip dessert that night”. If you eat more than you expect at lunch, eat less than you were going to at dinnertime.
Reason #5 You’re cutting fat, but not calories
The 155 men in the National Weight Control Registry, an ongoing study of weight loss maintenance, keep the fat in their diets below the recommended 30 percent of total calories. Still, if you’re cutting fat and not losing weight, maybe you’ve fallen into an old weight loss trap: Some people simply replace high-fat foods with greater volumes of low calorie foods, rewarding themselves with a box of Snackwells because they passed on a doughnut. The bottom line is, if you’re going to lose weight, you’re going to have to eat fewer calories. Three ways to cut fat and calories:
>>First eat soup or salads, which take up stomach space and make you feel full
>>Eat the food you want in its least processed state—a whole baked potato instead of french fries, fresh or frozen corn instead of corn chips. You can eat more while taking in fewer calories.
>>Eat fruits and vegetables at every meal. They fill you up and are filled with vitamins and other nutrients.
Reason #6 You Inhale Food
If you were a rat, you’d chow down for about 15 minutes, feel full, and stop eating. But you aren’t. You probably eat so fast that your stomach hardly has time to alert your brain to tell your mouth to quit chewing before your stomach explodes.
Solution: Try this drill during your next meal. On every bite, chew, swallow, put down your fork, and take a sip of water. See how long it takes you to eat. During subsequent meals, take just as long to eat, only without the drill.
