It can become increasingly frustrating and disheartening to not see changes to your weight as you may be hoping for, especially when you are being consistent with health changes over a long period of time.
In this blog, we will discuss possible reasons someone may not be losing weight as expected, then providing solutions to overcome these barriers. We also recommend booking with our fat loss dietitians for one to one, personalised support.
High cortisol levels
Cortisol is a hormone produced by the body, and levels fluctuate throughout the day. It is released in response to stress and can help with the body’s fight or flight mode. It also helps to control blood sugars, blood pressure and inflammation levels. High levels of chronic stress can cause a long term rise in cortisol, which is where it can impact weight loss.
Signs to look out for:
– Chronic stress
– Increased belly fat, despite weight loss effort
– Poor sleep or insomnia
– Fatigue
– Mood swings
How does it cause weight gain?
Chronically high cortisol levels increase fat storage, especially visceral fat around organs and middle, which can overtime increase insulin resistance. This in turn makes it harder to lose body fat.
How to manage
Stress management is key to reducing chronically raised cortisol. Practice ways to help you better control stress, such as yoga, meditation, therapy or exercise.
Practice the best sleep hygiene possible. Maintain consistent sleep and waking times, limit screen times an hour before bed, create calming bedtime routines.
Consider the type of exercises you do. If you regularly do high intensity workouts, swap these for more moderate and low intensity exercises such as walking and swimming. Frequent high intensity exercise can further elevate stress and cortisol levels in the body.
Unbalanced hormone levels
Certain female hormonal fluctuations can interfere with metabolism, promote fat storage and impact energy and mood.
Signs to look out for:
– Cold intolerance, hair thinning and fatigue (hypothyroidism signs)
– Irregular menstrual cycle, severe mood swings, signs of infertility (imbalance of FSH/LH hormones)
– Low energy, reduced muscle mass, reduced libido (signs of lower testosterone)
– Bloating, severe PMS symptoms (oestrogen or progesterone imbalance)
How does it cause weight gain?
The changes in hormones may be caused by a thyroid dysfunction such as hypothyroidism, which will slow metabolism. This in turn can make it harder to lose weight, even when in a calorie deficit and eating well. Female reproductive hormones FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) and LH (Luteinising hormone) can also influence weight. FSH can increase size of visceral fat cells. Even testosterone levels are important for hormonal balance in women. Lower than normal levels can lead to muscle loss, which can negatively impact metabolism.
How to manage
Request a medical checkup if you have not recently had your thyroid hormones and reproductive hormones tested for. Specifically, levels of TSH, T3 and T4, all thyroid hormones, as well as FSH, LH, oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
Ensure your consumption of iodine, selenium and zinc foods is optimal and not too high or low, as these nutrients can influence thyroid health and other hormone producing organs.
Further investigations may warrant hormone balancing therapy such as HRT or testosterone medication. However, it is crucial you have these health markers investigated for first, before starting on any medication or supplementation.
Menopause
Classed as the end of menstruation for women, this indicates a decline in oestrogen and progesterone hormones. Perimenopause can continue for a very long period of time, where women may experience symptoms of menopause, but periods have not completely stopped.
Signs to look out for:
– Increased abdominal fat with no change in diet or exercise
– Mood swings, hot flushes, night sweats
How does it cause weight gain?
During this time, there is a decrease in the hormone’s oestrogen and progesterone. This decline encourages the body to store more fat around the middle, compared to the hips and thighs. Due to the decline of oestrogen levels, muscle mass loss also increases, slowing down metabolism and making tasks harder as strength is reduced.
How to manage
Increase your exercise, specifically of resistance exercises as this can help to slow down the rate of muscle mass loss, and support the metabolism. Focus on a Mediterranean style diet which is plant forward, and regularly consume foods that are a source of phytoestrogens such as soy. Adjusting your overall nutritional intake may help, especially to help the body adapt to a lower metabolic rate. You may want to consider HRT (hormone replacement therapy) to help manage symptoms, but it is important to speak with a health professional first to understand if it’s suited for you.
Poor quality sleep
If you are sleeping less than 7 hours a night on average, or struggle to stay asleep, focusing on improving overall sleep can help with weight loss. Another sign of poor quality sleep is a reliance on caffeine to ‘get you through’ the day.
How does it cause weight gain?
Poor sleep will naturally increase the level of our hunger hormone known as ghrelin, and it also decreases our satiety hormone leptin. This means it is far easier for us to overeat, which can increase chances of weight gain.
How to manage
Look at your overall lifestyle to see what might need to be changed. For example, if you don’t already, ensure that you maintain a consistent waking up and bedtime, even on weekends. Have the bedroom at a cool, dark and quiet environment, to encourage rest for the body. It is also important to avoid screens for at least an hour before bed and consider a bedtime routine such as a warm shower, skin care, and reading before trying to sleep. If you chronically struggle with sleep, consider reaching out to a sleep expert to help you uncover why this may be, to work on improving this going forwards.
Yo-yo dieting
Coming from a background of frequent dieting, with fast, unsustainable weight loss followed by weight re-gain, this can be a common reason to see no weight loss.
Signs to look out for:
– History of rapid weight loss followed by fast weight regain
– History of extreme diet change and/or calorie restriction
– Signs of body adaptation such as maintaining weight even on a low calorie intake
How does it cause weight gain?
Regular restrictive diets initially can cause weight loss, but are most often unsustainable, leading to weight regain, and usually more than the persons starting weight. This is because the body can overcompensate for the deprivation during the diet, which negatively impacts overall metabolism.
Resting metabolic rate (RMR) can reduce, meaning that the body adapts to functioning with less energy overall, therefore causing reductions in metabolism. Hunger signals can be disrupted, increasing levels of ghrelin which lead to increased hunger, and reducing levels of leptin, a hormone that indicates fullness. These factors combined make it harder to lose weight again in a sustainable way.
As dietitians, we use specific formulas to calculate metabolic rate, however years of yo-yo dieting will negatively influence the metabolic rate, which can mean these calculations become over-estimated.
How to manage
No more overly restrictive or extreme dieting. Working on building up the metabolism over time to improve the energy that the body is burning. Work with a dietitian to very slowly increase your calorie intake (usually over weeks to months) to help support a better metabolic rate, for the body to burn energy more efficiently. They will adjust portion sizes, food groups and habits of eating with you, to ensure you are seeing results, in a sustainable way. Include regular strength training, as this can help to build lean muscle, which uses up more energy than fat tissue. Ensure that you are regular with meal patterns and focus on a small but realistic calorie deficit.
Undiagnosed health conditions
Certain medical conditions may go undiagnosed, but can interfere with weight loss, making it harder to see changes. Some examples can be PCOS and insulin resistance, which both have an influence on how excess energy is stored (as fat tissue).
Signs to look out for:
– Abnormal bloating
– Mood fluctuations, extreme tiredness and feeling faint
– Struggling to lose weight despite following a plan
How does it cause weight gain?
Certain medical conditions can interfere with the bodies ability to control hormones that have a role to play in metabolism. For example, hypothyroidism as discussed above, can impact the thyroid, which can then impact the metabolism. Another health condition known as Cushing’s syndrome, can occur when the body produces too much steroid hormones, which can then lead to weight gain. PCOS and type 2 diabetes can lead to insulin resistance, which then causes the body to produce more insulin. Excess insulin can lead to weight gain.
How to manage
If you believe you are struggling with an undiagnosed health condition, firstly keep a diary of your symptoms and ensure that you request a comprehensive medical check-up as soon as possible. You can also request blood tests via your dietitian. At Dietitian Fit, we partner with Genova and TDL lab. Please enquire to find out more about their services.
Medication side effects
Certain medications may interfere with metabolism or hunger levels. This can include certain antidepressants and steroids.
How does it cause weight gain?
If hunger levels increase whilst on certain medications, this can lead to overeating above our requirements. People taking certain medications such as antidepressants, may also be practicing therapy, which can be a contributing cause of the weight gain, rather than just the medication itself.
How to manage
It is important not to just stop the medication, even if you believe it is causing weight gain. Speak to your GP or health practitioner as soon as possible, who can advise possible alternatives for that medication.
Book in a free discovery call today with our team to find out how our dietitians can provide you with bespoke guidance to help you see changes to your weight once and for all!
