Six Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight

     You have made the decision once and for all to lose some of the excess weight piling up around your midsection and spilling out from your clothes. You feel you are doing things right but that weight is refusing to budge. What could you be doing wrong you ask? Well here are a few reasons you may not be having the success you would like.

1.) Eating too little - Not eating enough food throughout the day is probably the biggest mistake people make. They miss meals thinking that it will help them lose the fat quicker. But the human body is much smarter than this and if you do not eat enough food it will slow the metabolism (the body's engine) adapting to the food reduction and draining you of the energy you need to exercise properly.

2.) Not eating regular small meals will not help shift that weight. Meal timing is important and you need a small meal containing 300-400 calories every 2-3 hours through the day to keep your blood sugar levels stable. This will reduce intense food cravings and the likelihood of binging.

3.) Not eating enough protein. Protein is very important for fat loss. Meat, fish, dairy products are all sources of protein. Each small meal should contain at least 20 grams of protein. This can make the difference between great fat loss results and no results at all. Your body has to work harder to process protein and it will keep you full for longer. It is about a balance of the macro-nutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) that will get you losing fat quickly.

4.) Dropping the calories too low. If you only drop a couple of hundred of calories below your body's requirements you will keep under your body's radar system watching for approaching famines/starvation. This will keep your metabolic rate as high as possible which is what is needed as this is your fuel burning rate.

5.) Not doing proper exercise in your fat loss program. Muscle tissue is where fat is burned for energy so, it is important that strength training exercise is done to speed this up. Working the muscles under a load is the fastest road to fat loss. Just look at bodybuilders and physique competitors as nobody has lower body fat levels than them and this is what they do.

6.) Relying on 'cardio' type activity thinking that this is proper exercise. Recreational activities like walking, jogging or cycling are just that. Fun things you can do as part of an active lifestyle. But do not replace a proper exercise program with them. Do your muscle building and maintaining exercise first and if you have time left over do your 'fun' easy things. This is especially true if you have become overweight. You need to speed up your metabolic rate and only working your muscles will achieve this.

If you can make sure you have these six things right you can expect great fat loss results. Neglect any one of these areas and you are going to be very disappointed in the lack of progress towards your fat loss goals. Even if your belief system is holding you back from making these changes try them anyway. You will wish you had implemented those things years ago once you will see what they can do for you.

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