Losing body fat can be difficult for many reasons. Often, a lack of knowledge, not a lack of effort is holding you back.
Below are four factors that affect your fat loss goal:
Your metabolic rate has slowed down. The rate at which we burn calories slows down when eating in a calorie deficit. Meaning, your calorie target will only work until it doesn’t. If your fat loss plateaus and you’ve been 100% adherent to your plan, then it’s likely your metabolic rate has slowed down, and this is now the number of calories required to maintain your current condition. To continue losing body fat, the deficit must be increased through increased expenditure, cutting calories, or a combination of both.
You’re winging it. Intuitive eating to maintain your goal should be the goal. The problem is that we now have unlimited access to hyper-palatable, calorie-dense food which we can get delivered to our sofa. If you don’t have a basic understanding of calories it can be very easy to overconsume when relying on your intuition. It’s a skill that needs learning.
Stress! Our stress response should be short in length. Long enough to get us out of danger (fight or flight.) The problem today is the threats of tigers and starvation have been replaced by your daily commute, social media, or societal pressures. These threats are continuous, and as a result, chronically elevated stress levels are the new normal. Chronic stress can lead to all kinds of dysregulation in the body and make it difficult to lose body fat.
As a weekend warrior, it's easy to fall into the trap of maintaining a calorie deficit from Monday to Thursday, only to undo all your hard work over the weekend. Alcohol often plays a role in this, both directly and indirectly. The empty calories consumed during a night out can add up quickly, and the aftermath of a night out - such as lack of sleep, takeout meals, and snacking - can lead to demotivation and comfort eating in the following week.
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