Weightloss is something that I believe every woman at some point in her life wants or tries to achieve. I know it one of the main reasons I have a job, and I have been there… in an unhealthy way, but thats for another day. Today I want to go over the top 5 reasons I see in women as to why they cannot seem to get the weight off, even IF they are doing all the things you would think would be right to get it off. Such as working out, watching what they eat, etc. I am going to go over these reasons THEN give you tips on how to start changing things around in a balanced way to see the scale start to change. 

The Top 5 Reasons I Have Discovered That Women Cannot Lose Weight

• • Improper Diet

    • When I say improper diet you probably think of Mcdonalds, cake, all the bad fried stuff most of us know about… but what about sugar? What about eating too much “diet” foods or processed stuff?? Do you ever consider that those “gluten free” “healthy” foods may be causing harm too? Well they can.
      • Of course most of us know Fried stuff and super sweet stuff can pack on pounds but we also need to pay attention to some of the “healthy” stuff we are eating too. Too many calories every day are still too many…. Regardless if it is good stuff or not. 
      • We also need to look at that label on those healthy items….Checking for fake ingredients can help lower inflammation, as the more fake stuff you consume the more inflamed your body becomes because it does not recognize it, and over time- that can lead to extra weight. 
      • Then there is sugar…. If you are a woman who has found herself not being able to lose weight like she once could. Then definitely pay attention to this. You could have estrogen dominance issues…. Or some other hormonal imbalance and added sugars will cause more harm than good. Even too much good for you sugars can be a problem. 
    • Then there is the opposite end of the spectrum of not eating enough….
      • Working out hard can definitely help you speed up your metabolism but pair that with inadequate caloric and nutrient intake form food and you will eventually find yourself with a messed up slowed down metabolism. You can only do so for so long. Take it from me. I messed up my thyroid from doing it years ago. 
      • Also note that if you are not eating enough to help repair muscle that is worked during exercise you will never allow that muscle to rebuild, and we want that! Lean muscle is what burns fat at rest.
    • Lack of vital nutrients that can support weightloss and metabolism- when you eat bad or not enough your body will not get the adequate nutrients it needs from food to help with energy, metabolism, and other things. 
    • When you eat poorly it can also disrupt your gut microbiome. This getting out of whack can mess with your digestion and cause you again to not absorb nutrients well. This can lead to many other dysfunctions throughout your body inhibiting weightloss.
      • A study on artificial sweeteners and the microbiome indicated that they actually induce glucose intolerance in the gut which can lead to metabolic disease. 

• So to recap:

• • Why you cannot lose weight in regards to your diet could be from:
    • Eating complete crap (fast food all the time, sugary processed foods all the time, fake stuff too frequently, and healthy things that are still processed and loaded with sources of sugar which can cause inflammation)
    • You may not be eating enough which can cause metabolism dysfunction over time and an inability to rebuild lean muscle to help burn fat.
    • Your poor diet can lead to micronutrient imbalance.
    • Bad food can disrupt your microbiome and cause you not to absorb nutrients as you should as well as lead to imbalances beneficial bacteria and increasing non beneficial bacteria causing inflammation- which leads to weight gain.

• • Your Workouts

    • If you have not been pushing yourself hard enough, if you have been doing the same thing for too long, or you workout when you are already stressed in other ways your workouts could be hurting you. 
      • Your body changes over time so your workouts should too, whether it is in recovery time, load or volume or reps all of these things should be changed every 6 weeks or so to ensure your body does to adapt/plateau.
      • • Depending on the time of your cycle you are working out- your hormones and cycle can have an effect as well.
          • During the first half (if you are regular) your hormones are rising and you essentially have more energy. ALong with that your metabolism is slower so you can do higher intensity training along with heavier lifting to help increase your metabolism. It is also shown that women burn more fat during this time. During the second half of your cycle (luteal) phase you want to start slowing down. As hormones drop your body tends to see an increase in cortisol, going too hard then means you will not recover as well and you could cause more inflammation internally leading to little weight loss.
        • Another indicator is that we dont need to always work out like men. Most studies of weight loss are actually done on men vs women because of our cycle lasting 28 days and fluctuations in hormones. Men are easier to control, they have a 24 hour hormonal cycle. Meaning the weightloss shown in numerous studies may not apply equally to women

• • Lack of Sleep

    • When you dont sleep you increase stress on your body because it does not allow you to fully recover and repair. 
    • REM Sleep is vital to emotional health. Lack of it can cause you to never fully be content, you may be on edge more and see rises in anxiety levels. These things also lead to increased stress on the body – aka increasing inflammation and potentially causing weight gain. 
    • Your metabolism follows a circadian rhythm (24 hour cycle) if you have irregular sleep schedules it can throw your metabolism off and cause it to slow down and/or increase stress hormones. 
    • Lack of sleep can cause you to increase your risk of type 2 diabetes because it can throw off stress hormone levels. It can cause low levels of leptin which is your appetite suppressing hormone causing you to overeat. It can also cause high levels of gherlin which is your hunger hormone again leading to more eating. Cortisol can rise because lack of sleep makes you more susceptible to stress.

• So to recap:

• • Sleep could be to blame if :
    • You are not getting REM sleep
    • You are sleeping at different times every night and throwing off your circadian rhythm
    • You are not getting enough which in case causes stress, hunger and female reproductive hormones to go all over the place.

We have already eluded to the following two but to dive deeper in understanding the last two reasons are hormonal imbalance and stress. One leading to the other and vice versa.

• • Hormonal Imbalance

    • Essentially hormonal imbalance can mean low progesterone, high estrogen, high and low hunger hormones and high stress hormone levels 
    • First lets focus on progesterone and estrogen imbalance.
      • When cortisol is high progesterone can be low because our body uses progesterone to make cortisol to respond to stress. So elevated stress levels be it internally or externally can cause an imbalance over time. 
      • When progesterone gets too low – then estrogen tends to go on the increase – when this happens things like PCOS happen. Too much estrogen also causes a vicous cycle with sugar as too much can lead to the sugar in our blood to not be used as energy and instead be stored as fat – that then leads to more estrogen being released. So the cycle just keeps going.
      • Estrogen imbalance can also effect the estrobiome (in your gut) which can lead to other imbalances.
    • Your thyroid plays a role in metabolism and hormonal imbalance can affect that as well.
    • We touched on hunger hormones but note that any imbalance there can cause you to over eat. 
    • High cortisol that never gets to recover or lower back down causes inflammation in our body, it can cause estrogen and progesterone imbalance, it can cause type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance with its role on energy metabolism. 

• So to recap:

• • Having any sort of hormonal imbalance can make you potentially not be able to lose weight because:
    • It can make your body be tricked into thinking it needs ot hang on to sugar as fat.
    • It can cause type 2 diabetes.
    • It can lead to inflammation and disruption of the microbiome.

• Stress

  • ALL THESE THINGS CAUSE A TYPE OF STRESS
  • Stress is bad- it causes inflammation- we know inflammation can cause disease but it also can cause issues with our metabolism. 
    • It can slow it down 
    • It can hold onto too much because your body thinks its in a fight or flight state so it needs as much food to hold onto as possible.
  • Stress also can deplete micronutrients from your body and cause you to have decreased energy and metabolism as a result. 
    • Your metabolism needs certain nutrients to function optimally. Your thyroid needs them too- without them it can either slow down or speed up to impact your health in a negative way.
  • It can cause your hunger hormones to get wonky and cause you to be hungry 24/7- eating crap too often- hence recreating a bad cycle.

• Try to go to bed around the same time every night. The better a routine your body is on, the better your metabolism can function. 

• Try to limit processed foods (even if they are “organic”) a cookie is still a cookie.
• Look at nutrition labels of everything- if you need help with this check out my last video on labels.

Change up your workout routine. Change it up every few weeks. Increase reps, increase load (weight) or change up the style. Another great approach is to sync it with your cycle. You can find out more about that at the video linked below.

Try to decrease stress – take 5-10 minutes a day to just be still. Deep breathe, take in nature or your surroundings, read a book. Doing this small stuff can make a BIG difference.

If you try all of this and after a while you are still not seeing results then go to a functional doctor near you and get your labs done. Test your hormone levels. You want a functional doctor because they look at EVERYTHING not just your thyroid but everything that supports it. Including micronutrients.

I hope this helped you have a batter understanding as to why you may be at a plateau. If you need help find someone who can help you come up with a plan. Stay accountable and keep trying, do not give up! Sometimes it takes longer than we like, but the biggest thing is to just keep changing and trying, be open to change and learn patience. You want to not only lose weight but create a healthy life to go along with it.

Want to see this info in my latest Youtube (I go a little more in depth) – Check out below!