You start craving the food you love, but can’t have and take outs seem like a thing of the past, but you push yourself through it and once you’ve finished you’re at your target weight and you feel like a weight’s been lifted (literally!).
Now all you have to do is maintain your weight and sacrifice a few of your favorite foods to let that happen, but months down the line you start to realize that most of the weight that you lost has piled back on within the blink of an eye and maintaining your weight feels hopeless because it hasn’t worked for the past two months.
It can be absolutely heartbreaking when it feels like all your hard work has been for nothing, so the next best option is to start enjoying the food you couldn’t have and put more weight on, only to feel horrible about yourself and wish to make a change and find a doable diet again, it’s a vicious cycle.
But it’s not always your fault, so don’t be discouraged or disheartened when the weight doesn’t stay off, we’re going to be discussing some of the reasons why it’s so easy to gain weight and why it’s hard to lose.
Stop Blaming Yourself When The Weight Doesn’t Stay Off
We’ve all been there, once you see the weight start to pile back on after doing amazingly well to lose it, it’s totally disheartening, and thinking back to how hard it was to lose and the torture of going through boring diets is enough reason to put anyone off losing that extra weight, which is probably why so many people lose all hope once the pounds start piling back on.
Most people will just begin to blame themselves, that they’re destined to be ‘big’ and they feel it’s impossible to lose weight because they don’t have the strength.
That’s where the issue lies, putting yourself at the root of the problem gives you a pessimistic outlook on your weight loss and it pushes you to believe that it can’t be done.
It’s an easy route to go down, if you’re unable to lose weight then there must be something wrong with you, either that you don’t have the willpower to lose it or that somethings wrong with your body that prevents you from losing weight.
But there’s another element of weight loss that people often overlook, and guess what, it has nothing to do with you!
Burning More Calories Than You Take In Doesn’t Necessarily Result In Weight Loss
If you’ve lost weight before, then you probably know about caloric deficits, but if not a caloric deficit is where you burn more calories than you eat, resulting in weight loss.
It sounds easy, but it’s actually quite complex and difficult in practice.
If you don’t have a proper understanding of weight loss, you’ll never keep it off and if you expect things like crash diets to work, then you’re destined for failure because the people promoting them often simplify a very complex process, just to make the most amount of cash possible.
These are just a few of the reasons why simply cutting calories and doing more exercise won’t always help you lose weight healthily.
1. Homeostasis
Your body constantly wants to be in a state of homeostasis, which essentially means it likes to stay stable and normal.
Your body wants to be in this state so much that it’ll change it if you deviate from your normal routine, so if you end up gaining weight overtime, your body will decide that the extra weight that you’ve put on is ‘normal’ and will change its state of homeostasis to include this extra weight.
So, when you suddenly start a crash diet out of the blue, your body will actually see it as a threat to homeostasis and it’ll start to fight against the changes that you’re making.
It’s usually at this time that you’ll become disheartened from not seeing any change and stop the diet, which doesn’t allow the body to reset its homeostasis to the new, lower weight.
2. Just Exercising Isn’t The Best For Losing Weight
Of course, exercising is one of the best things you can do as it promotes a more active lifestyle and allows you to become healthier and burn calories at the same time.
It also helps you a lot mentally, and eliminates a number of mental health issues and sometimes physical problems.
But exercise alone doesn’t always lead to weight reduction.
Some research has found that your body will tend to adjust its level of exercise.
Whilst doing more physical activity will use more energy, your body will adjust to support the increase of activity by limiting how much energy is burned, making itself much more efficient at using energy.
For example, if you go out right now and run a mile, the effect that it’ll have on your weight will be much higher than if you’re a seasoned runner who’s been running for years!
3. Your Body Is Trying To Protect You
As sad as it is, your body would rather put weight on than lose it.
Your body doesn’t care about its appearance and it’s sole purpose is to survive and it needs energy to do just that.
So when you start robbing your body of calories, it’ll start to see that as a threat and will start to reduce how much energy you need to live. Which does make it incredibly difficult to lose weight.
Losing weight can feel hopeless, especially since your body is essentially working against you.
But in giving your body proper nutrition and the energy it needs, your body will start to help you as you lose weight, and this time you’ll be able to keep it off.
![How Many Calories Do You Need To Maintain Your Weight? [How To Calculate?]](https://calorie-counter.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/How-Many-Calories-Do-You-Need-To-Maintain-Your-Weight-How-To-Calculate-1.jpg "How Many Calories Do You Need To Maintain Your Weight? [How To Calculate?]")
