Have you done the diet thing? Have you been to Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, done the Zone Diet or Atkins? Have you lost weight in the beginning only to regain more when you stop dieting?
If this is you, the reasons are simple, in fact there are 6 reasons why you may not ever lose one single kilo of weight.
- Medications
There are numerous prescription medications that cause you to gain weight. Anti-depressants are notorious for packing on the pounds. As if being depressed is bad enough, add weight gain to the equation...it can't be good.
As Jon Gabriel states in The Gabriel Method 2009, "medications can add to your toxic load and clog your liver and make it harder for your body to burn fat."
If you are on medication, check with your health professional that what you are taking is essential or life threatening, if not then consider trying natural alternatives that don't make you fatter.
- Hormones
Hormones such as extra oestrogen can cause weight gain. Many people with endocrine problems and fluctuating hormones have trouble with weight gain.
Check with your Doctor or Naturopath for ways of testing your hormones, this could be the barrier that is preventing weight loss.
- Thyroid
The thyroid is a gland that produces Thyroxine and helps to stabilize your metabolism. Metabolism is the rate at which you break down food. If you have abnormal levels of thyroid hormones then this could be slowing down your metabolism and making it very difficult to lose weight even if you are eating very little.
Disease, medication and lifestyle can affect the thyroid. If you are inactive, then you body has no reason to quickly break down food.
Have your thyroid checked or find out a simple way of testing it at home.
- Diet
If you have been dieting for years, then you should know by now that you just can't eat junk food if you are trying to lose weight. Junk food such as take-away fast foods, lollies, potato chips, chocolate etc, will only leave you hungrier.
These foods may fill your stomach for a short few minutes but you will remain hungry because you are starving your body of nutrients. It is crying out for good food like fruit, vegetables, protein and complex carbohydrates to fill your cells with vital nutrients.
As long as your cells remain empty of nutrients, you will remain hungry and continue to eat junk.
Get real, eat real food and lose real weight.
- Disease
Some diseases can make it difficult to lose weight. It may be something such as Cushing's Disease or an infestation of gastrointestinal parasites. If you think you may have a disease that is preventing weight loss, please talk to your doctor, even have a full medical to rule out any contributing factors.
- Education
You can't expect to know about foods, nutrition and physiology unless you have studied it. So if you are attempting a diet, don't expect the weight loss to last because long after your weight loss guru goes home or your miracle weight loss pills have run out, you may not have the right amount of education to keep the weight off yourself.
Make a point of doing some research and learn about your body. If it is overweight, it is screaming out to you, help. Stop ignoring the signs, they are right there in front of you when you stand in front of a mirror. Go there now and have a look. What is your body telling you, is it saying "Hey there, don't I look great, you're doing a wonderful job of looking after me."
So when you're ready to lose some serious long term weight loss, consider these 6 factors and always check with your health practitioner first.
