So you’ve followed every diet going, you’re getting your steps in, taking all the supplements and doing all the workouts, but your body doesn’t seem to be playing ball. 


Perhaps all the diet hacks and workout schedules that used to work for you just aren’t cutting it….if anything, you might feel like you’re falling further from your weight loss goals. 


And please let me tell you, it really isn’t that you’re eating too much, often the complete opposite is true!

As I dive into the root causes of stubborn weight retention, you will hopefully start to see why diet culture is failing you (and your body). 

So here’s the most common reasons I see people struggling to lose weight, even in the mother of all calorie deficits!

1. You’ve been pushing your body too hard for too long 

If you’ve been yo-yo dieting for years, with prolonged calorie deficits and a gruelling workout schedule. Your body will respond accordingly by slowing your metabolism to preserve calories. You will get to a point when you can’t trick your body into overriding this with the odd ‘cheat meal’ or ‘refeed day’. Your body is smart, it will hang onto body fat as a survival mechanism. 

Without enough calories and insufficient recovery from workouts, your body will start using other tissues for fuel leaving you in a catabolic state (using muscle for fuel). Muscle is your furnace for a healthy metabolism. 

2. Your thyroid is struggling

Your thyroid is the governor when it comes to your metabolism, and not only will your thyroid slow in response to undereating and overtraining but also in the case of elevated thyroid antibodies (eg with hashimoto's - thyroid autoimmune disease). 

If you’ve been told by your doc that your thyroid is ‘fine’, then ask them what they’ve actually tested (usually just TSH, which tells us sweet FA). If they’ve not run a full panel of thyroid hormones and antibodies, push for this, or you can test through medichecks.

When thyroid antibodies are raised, you have to get to the root cause, this is where microbiome testing can be really insightful. We’d be looking for the immune trigger such as signs of food intolerances, leaky gut, overgrowths of toxin-producing bacteria, parasites, all that good stuff ;) 

 

3. Your blood sugar levels are wreaking havoc

This one I’ve covered many times, if you’re not eating enough, it’s likely you’ll have insufficient fat and protein to maintain a healthy blood sugar balance. Overtime, rapidly fluctuating blood sugar levels (which I often see with people substituting meals with caffeine) will cause insulin resistance. 

This means that your body is struggling to up-take glucose (sugar) into the cells to be used as fuel, instead it gets converted to triglycerides and stored as body fat, often around the lower belly.

This is exacerbated in an underfed state when you can’t build/preserve muscle mass. Active muscles lap up glucose without the need for insulin (this is also why you need to prioritise strength training and building muscle, over endless cardio)

 

4. You have elevated levels of cortisol

Undereating, smashing endless HIIT workouts and surviving on caffeine would also be the perfect storm for elevated cortisol levels (your wake and stress hormone excreted from the adrenal glands). 

This puts us into fat storage mode (saving calories so we have the energy to escape that sabre tooth tiger we’re running from aka another set of burpees fuelled only by a cup of coffee).

When your cortisol levels are chronically elevated, this essentially puts the breaks on for the whole cascade of hormones (including your thyroid = decreased metabolism). 


5. Your stress bucket is full 

As well as over training and prolonged calorie deficits, there are many other factors which can be perceived as stressors for your body:

  • Fluctuating blood sugar levels

  • Food intolerances creating an immune response

  • An inflamed and toxic gut

  • Poor sleep

  • Disrupted circadian rhythm (sleep/wake cycle)

  • Low levels of chronic stress (eg work/family/finances etc)


All of these factors can kick our bodies into ‘fight or flight’ which will contribute to the preservation of calories.

So as much as it can feel like your body is working against you when the calorie deficit is no longer getting you results, it’s actually just that we can’t override our built in mechanisms for survival. 

Give me a shout, if you need help getting to your individual root cause, but my first suggestion would be slow down, eat more and be kinder to body, we cannot starve our metabolism into submission. 

Coach Harri

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The content in this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding your health.