A low-carb diet is one of the most trusted diets for its ability to promote healthy weight loss. Despite following this miraculous diet to the latter, some people have not been able to lose weight or, if at all, have lost just a slight of it.
When you are on a low-carb diet, most of your calories must come from protein and fat. Many people have managed to attain their dream weight with this diet, while some people are on the verge of falling off from it. This is a common thing with any diet that claims to help one lose weight – people giving up on it before they even move a step. What could be the problem? Why is your bodyweight static despite spending money on the diet and doing your best? Peer into this article to see the reasons why.
1. You Are Emotionally Stressed
You can always lose and maintain a healthy weight with just exercising regularly and eating clean. As a way of catapulting a healthy weight loss, you may want to rid your mind and body of stress. Caring for your mental health is very important in keeping you healthy and promoting weight loss.
Constant emotional stress keeps your body in an alert state and increase the level of cortisol in the blood. Cortisol is a hormone your kidney release in response to stress. When this hormone is constantly elevated, you will be feeling hungry and crave for junk foods. To eliminate stress, you can meditate, read a journal, do deep breathing exercises, and brisk walk among other methods of stress management.
2. You Might Not Be Aware That You Are Losing Fat
Losing weight should not be confused with losing fat. You need to understand that losing weight is not a linear process where everything will go perfectly as planned. No. at one point you will be losing weight and at other times you may gain it as well. Well, this doesn’t mean that your low-carb is ineffective. Observational studies indicate that most people who have just begun on this diet tend to lose weight more in the first week. Keep in mind that this lost weight is mostly water weight. As time goes by weight loss declines. For instance, if you are new to weight lifting or bodybuilding, you will obviously lose fat and at the same time gain muscles. Instead of measuring your weight, you can take measurements of waist circumference, body fat percentage, or see how your clothes currently fit.
3. You May Be Binging On Nuts
Nuts are an excellent source of fat besides several beneficial nutrients. Almonds, for example, provide up to 50% of fat according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Additionally, you may unlikely feel full with nuts because their energy density is high. For that reason, many people overeat nuts, even consuming a bag of them without being full. Unfortunately, this only packs more calories and fat than anticipated. It would help if you would stop snacking on nuts or rather take them less frequently.
4. You Are Deprived of Sleep
Having quality and enough sleep every night is vital in keeping you healthy and promoting healthy weight loss. Several studies have linked lack of enough sleep with overeating and obesity. You are likely to feel hungrier if you lack sleep. Additionally, lack of sleep may increase your feelings of fatigue, exhaustion, and lethargy, making you lack the motivation to eat healthy food and exercise regularly. If you have a sleeping disorder, which is common but treatable, you may want to talk to your healthcare provider. Alternatively, you may involve the following tips in improving your sleep:
- avoid taking caffeine at least 3 hours before bedtime.
- ensure your bedroom is in complete darkness.
- avoid taking alcohol or beer before bed.
- avoid exercising a few hours before bedtime.
- try reading to relax your mind so as to fall asleep easily.
- normalize sleeping at the same time every night.
5. You May Be Taking Lots of Dairy
Dairy is one of the foods included in the low-carb diet as it is low in carbs. However, some people have problems with dairy. Protein is an abundant nutrient in dairy, and it usually raises your insulin levels. A rise in insulin levels stimulates the body to store more energy. While your body may tolerate dairy without any problem, it may affect your metabolism negatively and even cloud the benefits of low-carb diet. For that reason, it may help if you could cut back on dairy and its products like cheese and yogurt.
6. Your Exercise Ineffective
There is no clear cut to defining an effective or ineffective exercise but an exercise more than 40 minutes would help. Its worth noting that how effective your exercise is, determines the status of both your mental and physical health. Doing the right kind of exercise is important and you can try mixing cardio and bodybuilding. Weightlifting helps you burn fat, increase muscle mass, and increase hormonal levels. High-intensity interval training improves your metabolism and increase the production of human growth hormone.
7. You May Having a Comorbid Condition Preventing Weight Loss
Endocrine conditions such as hypothyroidism can be a nuisance to weight loss. Weight gain is one of their initial signs. It would help to talk to your healthcare provider about your struggle with weight loss despite investing energy and following the low-carb diet. He will help you rule out any suspected condition. Similarly, some medications also have weight gain as a side effect. If so, replace the drug with an alternative one.
8. You Are Eating Intermittently
Many people have been made to believe that eating frequent and small meals spread throughout the day, is good. However, several studies on this area have not attested to these claims. Intermittent fasting that also encourages eating frequently within the eating window, is also not for everyone. Therefore, if you want to lose weight, you will need to talk to your healthcare provider before partaking on the on such an eating pattern.
Conclusion
Weight loss is possible with healthy eating and regular exercise. A low-carb diet can also help one lose weight if it is done right. One may fail to lose weight with a low-carb diet if they eat frequently, lack sleep, or are emotionally stressed.
I believe that nutrition science is a wonderful helper both for the preventive improvement of health and adjunctive therapy in treatment. My goal is to help people improve their health and well-being without torturing themselves with unnecessary dietary restrictions. I am a supporter of a healthy lifestyle – I play sports, cycle, and swim in the lake all year round. With my work, I have been featured in Vice, Country Living, Harrods magazine, Daily Telegraph, Grazia, Women's Health, and other media outlets.
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