It’s a fact that the human body absolutely hates to lose weight and likes to hoard fat instead. During evolution, when food was scarce and the next meal often difficult to acquire, the body adapted to a mechanism whereby all the extra calories got packed off to be stored as fat in case there was an energy crunch in the future. This worked for us when it was difficult to survive in harsh conditions. However, in the current scenario, this efficient survival mechanism is working against us because calorie-dense food is aplenty and access to sugary treats (which the brain rewards us with dopamine) convenient. In such as situation, the body turns into a hoarder, converting all these extra empty calories to fat. If you are someone who managed to trick the body into shedding weight by following a calorie-deficit diet and consistent exercise, congratulations! But recently, to your disappointment, the weighing scale shows you have gained all the weight back! It’s frustrating when you have put in so much hard work, over a few months, managed to lose oodles of weight, but just a few days of slacking, brings you back to square one. You can’t figure out what made the scale go up so high! Don’t fret! In this post, we will underline 5 reasons why it’s so hard to keep the weight off so that you can be careful the next time around.
1. You Made Just a Short-Term Plan: When you consider eating healthy and exercise just a part of a short-term project, you would most probably resort to crash dieting (extremely unhealthy), resorting to food deprivation and starvation to achieve the goal weight. Crash dieting is not a sustainable way to shed weight, and once you come out of the diet, weight gain is imminent. Yo-yo dieting never works if you want to stay fit and healthy all your life. Instead, eat healthy and nutrient-dense food, continue to be physically active, and this would help to maintain optimum weight.
2. Your Metabolism Slowed Down: A sluggish metabolism is the reason why most people find it extremely difficult to burn fat. When someone loses a lot of weight, the metabolism gets compromised. And with crash dieting, the body goes into a starvation body, trying to conserve as much as fat as possible, and does so by lowering metabolism. If you are struggling to maintain goal weight, maybe you should try to boost the metabolism. A few effective ways to have a healthy metabolism is by eating nutrient-dense food, exercising regularly, leading an active lifestyle, sleeping for 7 or more hours, and lower chronic stress.
3. Made No Lifestyle Changes: Weight loss is not all about “less calories in and more calories out.” A sedentary lifestyle, sleep deprivation, and high stress levels will definitely lead to weight gain, even if you are eating within the daily limit of calories. Remember to make positive lifestyle changes along with maintaining a calorie deficit. Also read: “17 Small Lifestyle Habits That Will Help you with Weight Loss.”
4. Fell Back on Old Eating Habits: Do practice mindful eating even after losing weight. Practice portion control, eat healthy, cut down on processed and sugar consumption. Do not fall back on old dietary habits that led to weight gain in the first place.
5. Slacking on Exercise: Even if you have lost a considerable amount of weight by dieting alone, you need to exercise to maintain the weight. Even brisk walking will do. Regular exercise not only burns fat, it is an awesome metabolism booster. Also, with exercise and building of lean muscle tissue, you can increase your resting metabolic rate, and stay at your goal weight permanently.
Summing up, it’s not so hard to maintain goal weight if you are following the right strategies and diet plan. If you are trying to lose weight and keep it off forever, do check the Rati Beauty diet. Download the app for more details.
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