When you lose weight, your body defends itself.
It is common to lose a lot of weight in the beginning without much effort. However, weight loss can slow down or stop altogether, quite quickly.
The Icelandic nutritionist Krist Gunnars reports on her website 20 common reasons that explain this phenomenon. [1]
You will also find below his invaluable tips for crossing the glass ceiling and continuing progress.
1) Maybe you lose weight without noticing it
If you have the impression of having reached a glass ceiling, and no longer manage to lose more weight, perhaps you simply need to relax.
It is extremely common for the scale to stabilize for a few days (or weeks). This is NOT to say that you have stopped losing fat.
The weight of the body tends to fluctuate a few pounds at a time. It depends on your diet and your hormones, which have a powerful effect on the amount of water in your body (especially in women).
If you play sports to lose weight, it is also possible that you are gaining muscle mass. The phenomenon is particularly strong after the first sessions when we resume regular exercise. Bones, too, are strengthening. They become denser and therefore heavier.
These are good things because the goal is to lose fat, not just weight.
It is therefore advisable not only to use the scale to measure your progress. Do not forget to measure your waist and thigh circumference, and weigh yourself once a month with a scale that calculates your muscle, fat and bone content.
Another thing: the way your clothes adjust and your impression looking at you in the mirror is very good indications. This can evolve favorably even though your weight is stable. It's good then your body is improving.
Moral, unless you're stuck on the same weight for at least 2 weeks, you probably do not have to worry about anything.
2) You do not save what you ate
Awareness of what you eat is extremely important when trying to lose weight. Many people have no idea what they are really eating.
Studies show that noting what you have eaten helps to lose weight. It's not about counting calories or even weighing your food. Before starting your plate, put everything you want on your table and take a picture with your smartphone. If you can not help but nibble off meals (or if healthy snacks such as carrots or a handful of almonds are part of your healthy lifestyle to lose weight), take a picture too.
Keep this habit before putting anything in your mouth, including drinks (except water) as they are caloric, sometimes very caloric (fruit juice, alcohol). They act on their appetite even when they are at zero percent.
You can, of course, note what you eat in a notebook.
Studies show that the simple fact of noting or photographing what you eat makes you lose weight faster because you follow much better what you absorb.
And if your scale does not want to go down, go back to the movie of everything you've eaten in the last fifteen days. Maybe you will not be so surprised to have lost no more pounds. (1, 2).
3) You do not eat enough protein
Protein is the most important nutrient for weight loss.
Eating 20 to 30% of protein can increase energy consumption by 80 to 100 calories a day; moreover, you will automatically eat several hundred fewer calories a day.
This also greatly reduces cravings and the desire for junk food. (3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
This is explained by the effect of proteins on hormones that regulate appetite, such as ghrelin. (8, 9).
If you are used to breakfast, take advantage of it to consume a lot of protein on this occasion. The traditional English breakfast with eggs, bacon and white beans (rich in vegetable protein) is ideal from this point of view.
You also have the guarantee of having no trough during the morning, and it is even likely that you will hardly want to eat at noon (traditionally, the English did not have lunch at noon, hence the habit on the other hand tea at four-thirty: "Tea time!"). (10)
Eating a lot of protein helps to prevent the slowing of metabolism, a common side effect of weight loss. It also helps to avoid regaining the weight. (11, 12, 13).
4) You eat too many calories
Stagnation can have a simple cause: you simply eat too many calories.
I do not recommend counting your calories to lose weight. On the other hand, it is important to have a general notion of the subject, ie to be able to estimate roughly how much one eats calories a day.
Once a month, therefore, you can calculate for 3 days the number of calories you have eaten. You will have the intuition of what you have to keep the rest of the time. There are many free calorie calculators online on the internet.
5) You do not eat healthily
The quality of the food is as important as the quantity.
Eating healthy improves health and regulates appetite. Healthy foods tend to satiate faster than junk food, at equal calories.
Remember that many industrial products labeled "organic" are not healthy.
Try to put in your plate only simple foods and as close as possible to their original form.
6) You do not use your muscles
It is important to work your muscles in one way or another, otherwise, your diet will lose your precious muscle mass, while you lose your excess fat. (17)
Bodybuilding, in particular, helps to prevent slowing down of the metabolism and guarantees that your body is really healthy (18).
7) You crack too often (even on healthy foods)
In times of diet, it is common to want to "crack", which is to eat very quickly large amounts of food, well above the needs of the body.
This is an important problem. The worst is to "crack" on unhealthy foods (chips, Nutella) but cracking on nuts, almonds, cheese or dark chocolate is terrible too.
A single session of bulimia can ruin a whole week of well-rounded efforts.
8) You do not have endurance
Endurance sports have gained a bad reputation in recent years, but still, walking, swimming and running are the most effective ways to lose visceral fat.
Visceral fat is that which accumulates in the belly, around the organs of the abdomen. It is the most dangerous, the worst for health. Getting rid of them is one of the most effective ways to improve your health (19, 20).
9) You still drink sugar
Sweet drinks are the worst food to grow in our stores. Our brains do not react to the calories in sugary drinks to make us eat less of other foods. (21, 22).
This is not only true of sweet drinks like Coca or Orangina. This also applies to energy and vitamin drinks like Vitaminwater that are full of sugar.
Even fruit juice is a problem. They must never be consumed in large quantities. A single glass contains as much sugar as several fruits (unless you hurry only an orange, or an apple, which does not do much to drink).
10) You sleep badly
Bad sleep is deprived of energy. The body and the brain then seek to compensate by the addition of extra calories, especially in the form of sugar.
Good sleep is one of the most important things to look for your physical and mental health, as well as for your line.
Studies show that poor sleep is a major risk factor for obesity. Adults and children who sleep poorly have 55% and 89% more risk of becoming obese, respectively. (23).
11) You have not reduced carbohydrates enough
If you have a lot of weight to lose, or if you have metabolic problems like diabetes or prediabetes, then you should consider a low carb diet.
In short-term studies, this type of diet has shown that it loses two to three times more weight than the conventional low-fat diet, which is generally recommended (24, 25).
12) You eat too often
It is a myth that one should eat many, but light, meals during the day to speed up the metabolism and lose weight.
Studies show that the frequency of meals has little or no effect on burning fat or losing weight.
(30, 31).
It is also complicated and time consuming to prepare and eat food constantly. This makes the art of healthy eating much more complicated.
On the contrary, intermittent fasting is an extremely effective method of losing weight. Saving time is amazing, having no preparation, no food, no cleaning. This involves avoiding eating over specific periods of 15 to 24 hours or more. You will find information about this in this letter on fasting.
13) You do not drink enough water
Drinking water can help you lose weight.
In a twelve-week study, people who drank half a liter of water half an hour before each meal lost 44% more weight than others. (32).
It has also been shown that drinking water increases the number of calories by 24 to 30% throughout one and a half hours. (33, 34).
14) You drink too much alcohol
If you like alcohol and want to lose weight, it is better to drink a brandy mixed with a non-caloric drink. Beer, wine and alcoholic sweetened beverages are very high in calories.
The cocktails are the worst of all.
Also remember that the alcohol itself contains 7 calories per gram, which is huge.
That said, studies on alcohol and weight are contradictory. Drinking moderately does not seem to be a problem, while alcoholism and heavy drinking are correlated with weight gain. (35)
15) You do not eat in full consciousness
A technique called "Mindfulness Food" could be one of the most powerful tools in the world for weight loss.
It involves stopping, sitting at the table, meditating for at least 30 seconds before starting to eat, savoring every bite, while listening to the natural signs that tell your brain that you have enough to eat.
Many studies have shown that eating in full consciousness can lead to significant weight loss (36, 37) and reduce bulimia episodes (38, 39).
Here are some tips to eat mindfully:
Eat zero distractions, just you and your food, sitting at a table;
Eat gently and chew carefully. Try to become aware of colors, smells, and textures;
When you feel the signals of satiety, drink a large glass of water and stop eating.
16) You have a medical problem that complicates things
Some medical problems can influence weight gain and make it much more difficult to lose weight.
This includes hypothyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome, and sleep apnea.
Some medications also make it more difficult to lose weight, or can even make you fat.
If you think this is your case, discuss the problem with your doctor.
17) You are addicted to junk food
According to a 2014 study, approximately 19.9% of people meet the criterion of junk food addiction. (40).
People who have this junk food problem are in a situation similar to drug addicts. (41).
If you are addicted to junk food, eating less or changing diets may seem absolutely impossible. In this case, get help (Mincer Naturellement program).
18) You've been too private for too long
It is not necessarily a good idea to go on a diet too long.
If you have lost weight for several months in a row and you have reached a glass ceiling, then maybe you just need a break.
Increase your calorie intake by a few hundred a day, sleep more and work out to gain strength and a little more muscle.
Aim for the maintenance of your body fat for one to two months before you start trying to lose weight again.
19) Your expectations are unrealistic
Slimming is a generally much slower process than most people think.
Although it is often possible to lose a lot of weight in the beginning, very few people continue to lose weight at a rate of 0.5 to 1 kg per week.
Another major problem is that many people have unrealistic expectations about what is possible to achieve with a healthy diet and exercise.
The fact
20) You are too obsessed with diet
Diets hardly ever work in the long run. Be that as it may, studies show that people who make diets gain more weight in the long run. (42).
Rather than approaching the problem from a diet perspective, your first goal might be to become a happier, healthier, and healthier person.
Work on feeding your body rather than depriving it, and making weight loss a natural (and welcome) side effect
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