The most straightforward approaches to shedding a few pounds are to exercise and maintain a healthy diet. However, it’s easier said than done. Disappointment easily arises when the desired results are not met. Aside from the difficulty of losing weight, one may struggle losing fat at specific parts of their body. Frustration brews when you try your best to lose fat at specific areas, for instance, the belly, but to no avail. If you’ve reached this stage, perhaps it’s time to look at some of the things that you might be doing wrongly. There may have been a few things you’ve overlooked and these factors may very just be the reason why the results did not come to fruition.
1. Having A Bad Sleeping Schedule
Weight gain is not just the result of the things you’ve been putting in your body. Arguably one of the most important activity for your body as it uses this time to recalibrate and repair your body essentials.
The most straightforward relationship between a sleep-deprived body is having not enough energy the next day to exercise. Going further in, your body produces more cortisol, the stress hormone, which further increases the likelihood of stress eating. In addition to an increased cortisol level, the level of ghrelin also spikes. Ghrelin is a hormone that helps to stimulate appetite, and thus, you’d go hungry quickly when you didn’t clock in those hours.
Thus, be sure to maintain a consistent sleeping schedule and ensure that you clock in at least 8 hours of sleep every night.
2. Wrong Exercises
Many make the mistake of doing different types of exercises without understanding the muscles that they’re activating. If you’re not activating the muscles of your desired body part, then it’s only understandable why you’re not losing weight in that area.
For instance, contrary to popular belief, crunches don’t actually reduce belly fat. Crunches work on the rectus abdominis, the muscle that runs from your rib cage to your pubic bone. But to effectively lose weight in your belly area, you need to work on that muscle and 3 others: internal and external obliques, and the deepest abdominal muscle. Losing your belly fat will not be as effective if you didn’t activate all 4 muscle groups. Thus, instead of working on an isolated area of your body, a cardiovascular exercise such as swimming, will work much better.
3. Be Mindful Of The Types Of Fat You’re Consuming
It is not a crime to eat fatty foods, but it will pose a problem should your body be the one who pays for it. Contrary to popular belief, a healthy amount of fat is needed for normal bodily functions such as temperature regulation, the absorption of nutrients, cell growth and production of essential hormones. Thus, getting rid of fat from your diet is not only impossible, but unadvisable. That said, what you can do is ensure that the fats you’ve been consuming have little to no unhealthy fats, which are trans fat and saturated fat. Apart from the extra calories (fats contain 9 calories/gram, twice the amount of carbohydrates and protein), you’d also cause cholesterol build up in your arteries, leading to ailments such as arteriosclerosis and heart attack.
Reduce your intake of foods high in saturated and trans fat, and replace them with healthier options, such as avocado, whole eggs and nuts. Be aware of what you put in your body at all times.
4. Ageing
With age, the body loses its ability to burn calories as effectively as it used to. Your metabolic rate slows down, especially so when you reach menopause. The drop in estrogen will cause your body to gain weight, which is frustrating if you also take into account the drop in your metabolic rate. Since your cell recovery rate is not as efficient, exercise will not give you the results as quickly as you wish to.
Thus, it may be wise to consider going for slimming treatments. Not only will it help you shed a few pounds, but it will be easier on your body when you do exert energy in a physical exercise.
Conclusion
Weight loss is challenging, but you can do yourself a favour by noticing the few things that may hinder your progress. Of course, this also means that you need to have the patience to try and tweak your journey one step at a time. If not, you can always opt to ease your burden a bit by going for an effective weight loss treatment.
Unfortunately, due to COVID19, we will be temporarily cease all operations from 7th April 2020 to 4th May 2020. Whilst we look forward to help you achieve your desired waistline, your health comes first! Let’s stay indoors, stay fit and help flatten the curve!