6 Habits That Are Hurting Your Weight Loss Results
6 Habits That Are Hurting Your Weight Loss Results
Building healthy habits is a crucial part of your weight loss journey. Apart from ensuring that you’re eating healthy food and getting enough exercise to be in a caloric deficit, you also need to make sure that your lifestyle is right for your goals.
In this blog, we’ll be talking about 6 habits that may be affecting your weight loss and how to correct them. Let’s get started!
Habit 1: You’re Not Getting Enough Sleep
Rest plays an important role in weight loss. Without enough sleep, your muscles can’t recover faster and grow better after your workouts.
Furthermore, lack of sleep can also affect the way your body stores insulin and sugar which leads to more fat storage especially around the waist.
If you don’t have enough sleep, you’re also likely to feel tired throughout the day. This affects your decision making in terms of choosing healthy habits like eating whole foods and exercising.
Adults need 7 or more hours of sleep at night. In order to achieve this, you can:
- Set an earlier bedtime
- Increase your physical activity during the daytime
- Minimizing distractions near your bed like electronics
Habit 2: You’re Always Stressed
Excessive stress can have a negative impact on your weight loss goals. Not only does it prevent you from maintaining a healthy weight but it also prevents you from shedding excess pounds.
This is because of your body’s natural response to stress. When you’re under constant tension, your body secretes cortisol as a way to increase your energy levels. This hormone, unfortunately, also increases your glucose production and slows down your metabolism.
This leads not only to increased fat storage but also to behaviors that lead to weight gain including emotional eating, craving unhealthy food, and sleeping less.
So if you want to lose weight, you need to manage stress better. You can try to avoid things and situations that stress you out. You can also pick up activities that help release pent-up frustration like working out or running.
Habit 3: You Drink Alcohol Too Much
Consuming alcoholic beverages, like wine, in moderation can be beneficial for your health. However, if you’re trying to lose weight, you might want to rethink the way you enjoy your favorite cocktails.
Many alcoholic beverages like beer are loaded with sugar and calories which can add up and put you in a caloric surplus.
Alcohol is also known to reduce your blood sugar levels which, in turn, increases your appetite. You’re more likely to overeat and indulge in calorie-laden food as you drink more alcohol.
Habit 4: You’re Skipping Meals
Some people think that in order to be in a caloric surplus and to lose weight, you need to eat less so the skipped meals. However, this is not a healthy approach to weight loss. When you miss your meals, you can get over-hungry so you when you do start to eat, you tend to compensate and overeat.
Skipping meals also:
- Causes the body to lower its metabolism (how much energy it needs to function)
- Causes us to burn less energy (fewer calories)
- Can lead us to gain weight when we eat our usual amount of food
Instead of skipping meals, it’s best to keep a balanced diet of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats. You can also focus on high-volume foods that you can eat more of and fill you up for longer without sending your caloric intake upwards.
Habit 5: You’re Not Drinking Enough Water
Proper hydration is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Getting enough water daily is essential for the optimal performance of your body. Furthermore, water plays an important role in weight loss. This is because water helps:
-
Suppress your appetite by keeping the stomach feeling full
- Temporarily increase the body’s resting energy expenditure, or the number of calories burned while resting
- Improve the body’s ability to eliminate waste through sweating, urination, and bowel movement
- Promote lipolysis or fat breakdown
Habit 6: You’re Over Estimating Portion Sizes
Even the healthiest food can send your total daily caloric intake upwards. This is because not all healthy food is low in calories like avocados and nuts. So it’s important know how much of a certain food group you should be having each day to keep you in caloric deficit.
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