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Personal trainer tip: Why am I not losing weight?


It’s very easy to get annoyed, angry and frustrated if you’ve started working out at home or in the gym, and/or started eating healthier, but you’re just not losing weight. Why is that?

Working out and nutrition are, of course, very important, but if you aren’t getting results from this alone, then there is much more you can be doing!

Here are a few pointers of four key areas that might kick-start the fat loss and help you get the results you’re after…

Workouts Working-out is obviously very important to achieve your results. Make sure you book your workouts into your diary to ensure they get done, just like you would a business meeting. You wouldn’t just not show up to a meeting, so why would you treat your own health and wellbeing as a lesser priority and skip your workout?

Aim to workout 3-4 times per week, whether it’s at home, in the gym, in the park etc. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is the most effective method of training for fat loss and isn’t too time consuming, you can have an awesome workout in around 20-30 minutes which will set your metabolism on fire! Strength training is also a great way to burn fat and build lean muscle.

Nutrition

It’s important to remember that we aren’t all the same, there isn’t a one size fits all nutrition plan. You should follow a nutrition plan that is sustainable, i.e. a sensible balanced diet that you can see yourself sticking to forever! This is more likely to give you the results over time, so many fad diets only give short term results and aren’t realistic in the long term.

There are lots of different plans you can follow, generally it is a good idea to eat little and often, with lots of protein, fibre and water, moderate fat and low starch (carbohydrates). Eat the best quality food where possible to get the most nutrients.

Stress / Mindset This is a huge part of it that not a lot of people either know, or appreciate the significance of. We all lead busy and stressful lives; you may know that stress raises cortisol, which in turn can lead to storing fat / making it hard to burn fat.

Have a think, what can you do daily to reduce stress? Is there anything you can do that will put you in a good mood? This will help to lower cortisol. This can be meeting up with friends, going for a relaxing walk, meditating/yoga, taking a long shower/bath etc. Look after yourself, all of this can be just as, if not more important than doing an extra workout!

Sleep

Also, don’t forget the importance of sleep. Sleep deprivation negatively affects your hunger hormones which can make you more likely to feel hungry and have cravings the following day, plus not make you feel full when you do eat. This is a cycle you don’t want to happen when trying to lose weight.

Daily movement This can be just as important as actually working out. By daily movement we mean non-high intensity training, leave that for your workouts.

This is more about staying active throughout the day, things like going for relaxing walks, using stairs rather than the lift, housework and gardening etc.

A great way to monitor this is with a step tracker - challenge yourself to increase your movement every day, make a game out of it! Ideally aim for around 10,000 steps a day (which is about 5 miles).

Conclusion

If you can achieve this, you’ve done your workouts, stuck to your nutrition plan and you’re stress levels are under control, then you should start seeing some good results.

A good way to track this is keeping a daily eye on your levels of stress, hunger, mood, energy and cravings. If one, some or all are off kilter then this will be the reason you’re not getting optimum results.

If you need any assistance on your journey we’re always happy to help. You can get in touch with our expert personal trainers by calling 0117 403 7600 or emailing info@efitbristol.co.uk.

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