Why Is It So Hard to Lose Weight Sometimes?

March, 2010

by Morella Devost

I was once in a place of feeling incredibly frustrated with my body's lack of cooperation with what I wanted it to do. Ever been there? Chances are you have. You're feeling sluggish, awful in your clothes, unable to wear most of them because they don't fit, and the ones that kinda' fit look horrible. And you're determined to not get new ones... Yup, been there.

Back then I was eating what I believed were "healthy" foods: tons of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low fat, the works! Yet I was overweight, obsessed with food, always hungry and tired, and couldn't figure out why I wasn't able to lose the weight!

I was doing many of the things that people do when they want to lose weight but they were not working.

Here's the thing, there's a lot of bad advice coming from many magazines, media, personal trainers, and even from nutritionists that gets people stuck and feeling frustrated. Here's some of it:

Eat less, exercise more: the classic patronizing advice! This gets people obsessed with counting calories and points and perhaps eating the wrong foods for their body type. The result? You feel hungry, deprived, unhappy about your food and in many cases not getting the results you want.
Eat low fat: only about 1/3 of the people will do well on a low fat diet. In many cases, forcing yourself to eat low-fat will result in (a) depriving your body of essential fatty acids that your body needs, and (b) eating more carbohydrates that it doesn't need.
Eat low carb: again this will only work for about 1/3 of the people. Many others feel horrible in high protein, high fat diets. They get constipated, they smell bad, and they feel heavy.
Count your calories/points: the obsession with calories and points is doing a lot of people a lot of harm. It essentially turns food into the enemy to be kept under control. The other thing it does is introduce horrendous zero-calorie stuff as OK. Diet sodas are a great example of something that was not made by nature and shouldn't be inside your body, but now because it's zero calories we start to think it's good. Besides, who in the world wants to live the rest of their lives counting points and portions? In reality, food is the source of life, and what will work for you long term is to fall in love with the foods that bring you life.
Avoid "bad" foods: having "sinful foods" that make you "fall off the wagon" also usually leaves you feeling deprived. There must be balance in order to do anything for the long haul.

Then there's the really bad advice that will get you in trouble:

Diet pills: these will seriously mess with your metabolism and your hormones, making it even harder to sustain any weight-loss you are able to achieve.
Eat 5-6 small meals a day or graze: this only works if you are exercising rigorously. The whole idea behind eating throughout the day is to force your metabolism to stay high because of digestion. But again, it messes with your hormones and then you gain weight VERY quickly as soon as your exercise routine slows down. Have you ever seen the way NFL guys balloon as soon as they stop playing in the league? Exactly.

The real issue why you might be struggling to lose weight is hormones.

There are three key hormones that play a critical role in turning on your body's fat-burning abilities: insulin, leptin and glucagon. Leptin is like a traffic signal. It lets your brain know when there is need for fuel whether from food or whether it's time to start burning fat, it signals for insulin and glucagon to turn on and off as needed. Insulin is the red signal that says to your body: don't burn fat right now because we're getting plenty of sugar and other good stuff from food. And glucagon is like the green signal that tells your body that food is not present and it's time to burn some of the stuff you stored away as fat.

It's a survival mechanism that you either burn the calories from your meals OR you burn fat from your energy stores, but not both at the same time. You wouldn't start eating a second apple when you have one half eaten, right? You'd save the second apple for later. Same thing with your fat, your body won't burn it until there's nothing else to burn.

Eating all day, overeating and eating too many sugars really whacks out these three key hormones.

What to do?

Find out your metabolic type. Some people need more protein and fat than others; they're the protein types. Other people need more fruit and vegetables, less fat; they're the carbohydrate types. And finally, a third group of people need a little of everything, they're the mixed types. Once you know what your metabolic type is, you'll find it extremely easy to eat foods that keep you very satisfied, help you balance your hormones and lose weight without feeling deprived.
Bring your body into rhythm through the key six metabolic habits for hormone balancing. If you don't remember what these are, we covered each one of them over six newsletter issues last year. If you'd like to read them now, click here (Metabolic Habits #1 - #6).

If you feel you need support with your weight-loss goals, I'd be happy to do a consultation with you. Just email me.