Why am I not losing weight? Some key mistakes to weight loss

Some big mistakes you might be making when trying to lose weight!

Here is a few big mistakes I tend to see more and more guys.  They stem from a lot of concepts that society has a little twisted, and hope they help!

1) Cutting calories:  A lot of people think losing weight comes down to calories in and calories out, and this is simply not the case.  Calories in and calories out has a rather huge hole in it's design; and that is the fact that our bodies deal with different calories differently.  Additionally, many people cut the wrong calories or too many calories.
     Cutting too many calories is a major problem that I see far too often with young women.  Some believe that by eating next to nothing they will lose weight and that is simply not the case.  Yes it is true that cutting calories can cause weight loss, but most of this is usually due to a cut in BAD calories. By cutting too many calories you actually put your body into something called ketosis.  Ketosis is when your body reaches a state where it believes you are dying because you haven't eaten enough calories.  This stems from evolution and allows our bodies to survive when food is scarce.  Similarly to you turning your laptops screen brightness down when you are saving energy, your body will conserve energy when you are starving yourself.  Your body will slow down your metabolism so as to not waste any energy and calories you need to run your bodies basic needs.  In simple words, by not eating, your body stops using, which is a vicious circle of slowing down your weight loss.
      Along with this calorie cut comes the cut in essential calories!  Nutrients like protein and fats are essential to your body working to lose fat.  If you look back at my article on carbs, you will quickly realize that most people are cutting out the wrong nutrients (often people cut out fats and not carbs).  By not eating fat your body will not burn stored fats, as well as it will not soak up the essential fat soluable vitamins.  Here is a quick chart to show you what you may be missing!

Table 1: Vitamin facts.
Vitamin	Source	Physiological Functions	Deficiency	Overconsumption
A (retinol) (provitamin A, such as beta carotene)	Vitamin A: liver, vitamin A fortified milk and dairy products, butter, whole milk, cheese, egg yolk.  Provitamin A: carrots, leafy green vegetables, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, winter squash, apricots, cantaloupe.	Helps to form skin and mucous membranes and keep them healthy, thus increasing resistance to infections; essential for night vision; promotes bones and tooth development. Beta carotene is an antioxidant and may protect against cancer.	Mild: night blindness, diarrhea, intestinal infections, impaired vision.  Severe: inflammation of eyes, keratinization of skin and eyes. Blindness in children.	Mild: nausea, irritability, blurred vision.  Severe: growth retardation, enlargement of liver and spleen, loss of hair, bone pain, increased pressure in skull, skin changes.
D	Vitamin D-fortified dairy products, fortified margarine, fish oils, egg yolk. Synthesized by sunlight action on skin.	Promotes hardening of bones and teeth, increases the absorption of calcium.	Severe: rickets in children; osteomalacia in adults.	Mild: nausea, weight loss, irritability.  Severe: mental and physical growth retardation, kidney damage, movement of calcium from bones into soft tissues.
E	Vegetable oil, margarine, butter, shortening, green and leafy vegetables, wheat germ, whole grain products, nuts, egg yolk, liver.	Protects vitamins A and C and fatty acids; prevents damage to cell membranes. Antioxidant.	Almost impossible to produce without starvation; possible anemia in low birth-weight infants.	Nontoxic under normal conditions.  Severe: nausea, digestive tract disorders.
K	Dark green leafy vegetables, liver; also made by bacteria in the intestine.	Helps blood to clot.	Excessive bleeding.	None reported.

 Additionally, cutting proteins out of your diet slows down your rebuilding of muscles.  This means that any gym gains will be slowly diminished in another vicious circle, the protein lacking circle.  When your body is deficient of nutrients, your body will start using itself for energy.  This means that yes you may lose a little bit of fat for quick energy, but you will also be losing your muscles.  Essentially, you are having your muscles broken down, and not rebuilding, and thus you are spiraling downward more efficiently.  

      To add to this calorie cut, there are the issues that come when you go back to eating calories.  When you starve yourself and then eat bad calories, your body essentially grabs and stores them like you would store food in your cupboards for later.  Because of this, not only have you slowed down your metabolism, you have also become more efficient at storing bad calories as fat!  Again starting a downward spiral and tougher losses in the future.

2) People don't drink enough water!  By not drinking enough water in a day, your body will do all it can to hold onto it.  Water weight can lead to bloated looks.  By drinking water your body won't feel like it needs to hold onto it for the future.  I know it sounds crazy, but drink water to lose water! 

3)Doing only cardiovscular training is a long slow plan.  Doing cardio will only make you more efficient at doing cardio.  Make sure you also weight train in circuit style workouts.  This will jump start your metabolism as well as burn more calories and tighten your body up!  Why not lose fat and build the body you want at the same time!  Especially when it is a more efficient way of burning calories!  If you must do cardio everyday for your own feel good sake (which I completely support) make sure you switch it up and train with intervals.

4) Eating before bed.  So many people think that eating before bed is bad for you, however, most people have never thought about this too much.  When it comes to eating before bed, the important message is WHAT you eat before bed.  Eating calories that are packed with slow acting proteins allows your body to keep out of ketosis longer, and effectively keeps your metabolism going.  Much like breaking your day into 6 small meals instead of 3 big meals, this will keep your metabolism on it's toes! In fact eating cholesterol before bed with a vitamin d pill, actually boosts testosterone production over night which can lead to more muscle gains!  Don't worry ladies you still have 1/10th of the testosterone us men do, and this will not make you jacked, but simply help firm up those muscles!

5) People just don't get enough protein!  Often times there is one huge barrier to getting through the first couple weeks of calorie cutting.  The issue with cutting calories is hunger, and this is amplified after a workout.  If you are hungry while on a carb reduced diet it is because you are not getting enough protein.  Most people cut calories by eating things like salads, however, salads are not nearly as calorie dense as most food.  Which means you need to eat a lot more salad or you need to add things like legumes to make up this caloric deficit.  

6) Look for hidden calories!  A lot of calories are hidden in foods we think are healthy.  Things like dressings, sauces, drinks, and spreads are all packed with hidden calories like icing sugars and preservatives.  Keep your eyes open!

7) READ EVERYTHING FAT FREE!!!!!! Fat free substances may seem healthy but they are quite the opposite.  Avoid these whenever possible and if you must make sure you check the label.  If you can't read the words or sugar is at the beginning (as in most) play it safe and leave it on the shelf as many fat free products pack their products with icing sugar!

8) Stop trying to target your fat loss to certain areas.  Genetics and gender play huge rolls in where your fat would like to store.  All too many people do abs to lose their belly and this is a bad idea.  I always like to explain fat in this analogy.  Fat is like a winter coat and is stored on the outside of your body.  If a man builds abs underneath his jacket of fat (without working on cutting down the thickness of the jacket), than the jacket will only protrude further out, and add inches to your waistline.  You want to put on a thinner coat as well as build muscle under your jacket.  Losing a belly comes down to diet and exercises, and unfortunately, targeting areas simply just hasn't been proven to be affective.  Stored fat calories are going to be burnt off everywhere, so deal with full body exercises  and focus less on problem areas.  I have seen all too many times women who do abs so much their pants stop fitting and their bellies remain.  Take off that jacket and workout smart!

9) Last but not least, don't give up!  Muscle weighs more than fat, and when first starting out can build quickly.  Many people will live and die by the scale and this is a bad way to track progress.  If you lose 5 lbs of fat but gain 5 lbs of muscle, you have done yourself a 10 lbs favor, however the scale hasn't changed at all.  Keep in mind that gains and losses go both "weighs".  Don't quit because the scale goes up, most people will put on muscle at the start of any weight loss goal, and this can show on the scale

Hope that helped a little more everyone!

Cheers

Ryan Trueman

Ryan.Trueman@dal.ca