January 29, 2020

The top 15 reasons why you don't lose weight on a low-carb diet

Die Top 15 Gründe dafür, dass Du während einer kohlenhydratarmen Diät kein Gewicht verlierst

Low carbohydrate diets are very effective when it comes to weight loss. This is a fact that has been proven by a large number of studies. As with any diet, many people stop losing weight on low-carb diets before they reach their desired weight.

Here are the top 15 reasons why you won't lose weight on a low-carb diet.

1. you lose fat, but you don't realize it

Weight loss is not a linear process. If you weigh yourself every day, there will be days when the weight on the scales goes down, while on other days it goes up. This does not mean that your diet is not working as long as the general trend is downwards.

Many people lose a lot of weight during the first week of a low-carb diet, but this is mainly water. After this initial phase, weight loss will slow down significantly.

Of course, losing weight is not the same as losing fat. If you are weight training in addition to dieting, it is possible that you are building muscle and losing fat at the same time, especially if you have just started resistance training To ensure that you are losing fat, use something other than the scale to monitor your progress. Use a tape measure to measure your waist circumference and have your body fat percentage measured every month.

In addition to this, you can also take photos and document how your clothes fit. If you look thinner and your clothes fit looser, then you are losing fat - regardless of what your scales say.

2. you are not reducing carbohydrates far enough

Some people are more sensitive to carbohydrates than others. If you are on a low-carb diet and your weight has reached a plateau, it may help to reduce carbohydrates further.

In this case, you should reduce your carbohydrate intake to under 50 grams per day. If you want to get below 50 grams of carbohydrates per day, then you need to eliminate most fruit from your diet, even if you can still eat small amounts of berries. If that doesn't help either, reducing carbohydrates to under 20 grams per day may work. In this case, you only eat protein, healthy fats and green leafy vegetables.

3. you are stressed all the time

Unfortunately, just eating healthy and exercising isn't always enough. You also need to make sure your body is functioning optimally and your hormonal environment is favorable.

If you are stressed all the time, your body is in a continuous "fight or flight" mode, which is characterized by elevated levels of stress hormones such as cortisol. Elevated cortisol levels can promote hunger and cravings for unhealthy foods (1).

If you want to reduce stress, you can use meditation and breathing exercises. Reduce distractions like online news and read a book instead.

4. you don't eat real food

A low-carb diet is about more than simply reducing your carbohydrate intake. You need to replace carbs with real, nutritious foods.

Ditch all processed low-carb products like Atkins bars and the like, as these are not real food and are not good for your health. Instead, stick to meat, fish, eggs, vegetables and healthy fats if you want to lose weight.

Even treats like Paleo cookies and brownies can cause problems - even though they are made with healthy ingredients. These foods should be seen as occasional treats - not something you eat every day.

It's also important to eat enough fat. If you try to reduce your carbohydrate intake and your fat intake at the same time, you will end up very hungry and feeling poorly.

Eating almost exclusively protein is a very bad idea. Low carbohydrate intake with high fat intake and moderate protein intake is the way to go if you want to achieve the state of ketosis that comes with an optimal hormonal environment for fat loss.

5. you eat too many nuts

Nuts are real food - there's no doubt about that. However, they are also very high in fat. 70% of the calories in almonds, for example, come from fat. At the same time, it is very easy to eat too many nuts. Their delicious taste and high energy density can lead you to eat large amounts of them without feeling full.

Personally, I can eat a whole bag of nuts without feeling satisfied - even though a bag of nuts provides more calories than a whole meal. If you eat nuts (or worse, nut butters) every day, chances are you're eating too many calories.

6. you are not sleeping enough

Sleep is very important for overall health and studies show that a lack of sleep correlates with weight gain and obesity (2, 3). A lack of sleep can make you hungrier (4). In addition, you will feel tired and less motivated to exercise and eat healthily.

Sleep is one of the pillars of health. If you do everything right and still don't get a good night's sleep, you won't see the results you expect.

If you suffer from sleep disorders, then you should see a doctor. Sleep disorders can often be easily treated.

Here are a few tips to improve your sleep:

Avoid caffeine after 2:00 p.m.
Sleep in complete darkness
Avoid alcohol and physical activity during the last hours before bedtime
Do something relaxing like reading before going to bed
Try to go to bed at the same time every night

7. you eat too many dairy products

Another group of low-carb foods that can cause problems for some people are dairy products. Some dairy products are not only low in carbohydrates but also high in protein. Like carbohydrates, proteins can increase insulin levels, which leads to energy storage.

The amino acid composition of milk protein makes it very effective at raising insulin levels. Dairy proteins can raise insulin levels just as much as white bread (5, 6).

Even if you seem to tolerate dairy products well, consuming them too frequently can have a devastating effect on the adaptations that need to take place to allow you to reap the full benefits of low-carb diets due to the increase in insulin levels.

In this case, you should avoid milk and reduce your consumption of cheese, yogurt and cream. Butter is fine as it is very low in protein and lactose and therefore does not raise insulin levels.

8. you are not exercising properly (or at all)

You should not be exercising with the aim of burning calories. The calories you burn during exercise are usually insignificant and can easily be offset by eating a few more bites at your next meal.

However, exercise is important for both physical and mental health. Exercise can help you lose weight by improving your metabolic health, increasing your muscle mass and boosting your overall well-being.

However, it is important to do the right type of exercise. Nothing but cardio on the treadmill is unlikely to give you good results and too much of it can even have a negative effect.

Training with weights: Working out with weights will improve your hormonal environment and increase your muscle mass, which will help you lose weight in the long run. Interval training: High-intensity intervals are an excellent form of cardio training that will boost your metabolism and increase your natural growth hormone levels.

Low intensity cardio: Being active and doing some low intensity cardio like walking is a great idea. The human body was designed to move, not just sit in a chair all day.

9. you are eating too many "healthy" sugars

If you're on a low-carb or ketogenic diet, then supposedly healthy sugars like coconut sugar or brown cane sugar are just as bad as table sugar. These sugars are high in carbohydrates and prevent your body from adapting to the diet. This also applies to honey, agave nectar and other sugars.

Calorie-free sweeteners, on the other hand, are fine for most people, but you should think about limiting these sweeteners if you're struggling to lose weight. They often contain digestible carbohydrates as fillers.

10. you have a medical condition that is hindering your diet progress

Certain medications are known to stimulate weight gain. If you look at the list of possible side effects of the medications you are taking and see "weight gain" on the list, then you should make an appointment with your doctor. Maybe there are other medications that don't cause weight gain.

If you are doing everything else right and still not seeing results, then a medical problem could be the cause. Many hormonal disorders result in weight loss problems, which is especially true for hypothyroidism.

In this case, you should also make an appointment with your doctor. Explain that you are having weight loss problems and that you want to rule out medical problems as the cause.

11. you are constantly eating

It's a persistent myth in health and fitness circles that everyone should eat many small meals throughout the day. This topic has been well studied scientifically and no benefits of eating many small meals have been observed (7, 8).

Rather, it is natural for people to eat fewer meals per day and sometimes go longer periods without food. Some people use a dietary regimen called intermittent fasting, which involves eating only within an eight-hour eating window or fasting for 24 hours once or twice a week. This can be very helpful when it comes to breaking through a plateau.

12. you cheat too often

For people who are able to control themselves, occasional cheat meals or cheat days may be fine. For other people, however - and especially people who are prone to food addiction - cheat meals are likely to do more harm than good.

If you cheat often - either with small cheat meals here and there or even entire cheat days where you eat nothing but junk food - it's easy to completely ruin your progress. More than 1 to 2 cheat meals (or 1 cheat day) per week is too much.

If you can't control yourself around unhealthy foods, then you may be suffering from an eating disorder. In this case, it's a good idea to cut all junk food out of your life completely.

13. you eat too many calories

At the end of the day, it's the amount of calories consumed that counts. One of the main reasons that low-carb and ketogenic diets are so effective is that they reduce appetite and make people subconsciously eat less.

If you're doing everything right but still not losing weight, try counting your calories for a while. Aim for a calorie deficit of 500 kcal per day, which in theory should result in you losing 1 pound of weight per week (although this doesn't always work in practice).

14. you don't have realistic expectations

At the end of the day, weight loss will take time. It's a marathon - not a sprint. Losing 1 to 2 pounds per week is a realistic goal. Some people will lose weight faster, while for others it will take longer.

However, it's important to keep in mind that not everyone can look like a fitness model. At some point, you will reach a healthy set point weight that may be higher than what you initially hoped for.

15 You've been on a diet for too long

I don't think it's a good idea to stay in a calorie deficit for too long. The leanest people in the world (bodybuilders and fitness models) never do this. They alternate cyclically between building muscle and dieting.

If you maintain a calorie deficit for many months (or even years), your metabolic rate will eventually drop. If you've been dieting for a long time, a two-month phase during which you aim to maintain your weight and build some muscle might be what you need to get your dieting progress back on track.

Of course, this doesn't mean that you should eat unhealthy foods during this time, but rather that you should eat a little more of the good stuff.

Once these two months are over, you can start dieting again.

References:

Source: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/15-reasons-not-losing-weight-on-a-low-carb-diet#section15

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