I’m gonna save you the trouble of reading this blog by giving you the 5 reasons you’re not losing weight right up front.

They are, in order of importance:

1. You’re dehydrated
2. You’re not getting enough sleep
3. You’re hungry
4. You’re not lifting
5. You’re stressed out.

Phew, that was a breeze! Tiger out…

Ok! Maybe we should talk about why those 5 specific things are sabotaging your weight loss and what you can do about it.

Sound good? Good. Here we go…

#1: YOU’RE DEHYDRATED

Did you notice that all 5 of the reasons are really basic? That’s not a coincidence.

They’re the basic foundation of good health, and if you want to lose weight you’re going to need to be in good health.

Staying hydrated is the big daddy of staying healthy AND losing weight.

If your body is dehydrated, you’re not losing body fat.

Not only that but your body is running at a deficit. You will be at a disadvantage for EVERYTHING.

If you want to start losing weight again, you should be rinsing your body out with 3 liters of water every day.

#2: YOU’RE NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP

Netflix measures success in watch time.

They have become very good at getting us to binge watch their content.
They’ve gotten very very good at keeping us up way past our bedtimes.

I can tell you why sleep is crucial to losing weight;

• Your body uses the sleep cycle to take care of a lot of maintenance and repair.
• If your body is not getting enough sleep, it doesn’t have enough time to repair itself and it starts breaking down on you.
• Losing weight requires a ton of energy and resources and if your body is breaking down it will be impossible.

…but that’s not the most important part. The most important part is that sleep FEELS GOOD. It makes our bodies FEEL GOOD, it makes our minds FEEL GOOD.

There is plenty that we deal with every day that makes us feel not so good. We need more of what makes us feel good.

It’s just a click of the remote away.

#3: YOU’RE HUNGRY

I’m just going to say it; if you’re hungry you’re not losing weight.

I know, WTF right!?

Since the dawn of abs we’ve been told that if we want a flat tummy we should be a little hungry all the time.

Well fork that!

That advice is not only terrible (and needlessly painful) but it’s wrong. It’s just plain wrong.

I could go down a rabbit hole of what happens inside of your body on a molecular level when you are using your body fat for fuel, but I’m not going to.

Instead, I’m going to break it down like this;

1. It takes energy to convert your body fat into energy.
2. If you’re hungry, you’re out of energy.
3. If you’re out of energy you’re not converting body fat into energy because….
4. It takes energy to convert your body fat into energy.

I hope that makes sense because I’m not sure how else to explain it.

#4: YOU’RE NOT LIFTING

I’m not going to get into my feelings about steady state cardio right now.
Let’s just say that I’m not a fan.

What I will say is this;
Cardio does not burn fat.

It doesn’t matter how many hours you spend in the “fat burning zone”, you are not burning an ounce of fat.

Your body just doesn’t work that way.

If you’ve spent significant time on an elliptical machine you know what I’m talking about.

What does help mobilize your fat for use as fuel is lifting heavy weights.

The reason is complicated, so let’s just say that it has a lot to do with repairing your body:

1. After a lift, your body has to repair itself.
2. That process requires a lot of energy.
3. A lot of that energy can come from your fat.

If you’ve only got a limited amount of time to spend working out (and who doesn’t) use it to lift.

You’ll get much better results.

#5: YOU’RE STRESSED OUT

Stress is one of the most dangerous things we face as humans.

It can have catastrophic effects on every part of your life, especially your health.

Stress management is vital to a successful weight loss program.

If you’re stressed your body is on red alert and the last thing it’s thinking about it whether you can fit into your jeans or not.

Stress can cause you to lose sleep, skip workouts, stop hydrating, eat too much, eat too little.

In other words, it affects everything.

If you want to lose weight, stress is your enemy and keeping it under control is your #1 job.

There you have it, the 5 reason you’re not losing weight.

Focus on covering these 5 basics and you will understand how important they really are.

If you’re struggling to lose weight and you need help building a good foundation, you know where to find me.

P.S. If you know someone that’s struggling with their program, share this with them. You could change their life.