Help…I’m Having Trouble Losing Weight

Losing weight can be a frustrating task; you think you’re doing all the right things, but the scale just won’t budge. Why?

Using the wrong approach

Eating like a bird all day will do you NO favors. Consistently eating in a calorie deficit causes your body to go into protector mode. Your body doesn’t understand the difference in ‘there’s not enough food for us to eat’ and ‘I’m not eating as much because I want to lost weight’. Your body thinks you are literally starving to death, therefor it will SLOW DOWN your metabolism and hang on tight to stored fat as an attempt to save your life.

Doing the wrong type of exercise

Hour-long workouts every day causes your body stress and does not allow for proper rest/healing. When cortisol levels (the stress hormone) are high, our body is in a state of “fight/flight”. The body doesn’t recognize different types of stress: trying to escape from a burning building vs. doing cardio for 1hr. When your cortisol levels are high, the body can’t prioritize weight loss. It’s most effective to decrease workouts to 3-4 times per week and focus on more strength training than cardio. Every day there should be a focus of increasing NEAT movement (how many steps you take in a day).

Chronic Inflammation

Inflammation resulting from intestinal permeability and poor gut health causes a lot of bloat and over all puffiness. The standard American diet (SAD) is made up of numerous inflammatory foods and products (processed foods), is high carb, high sugar, and is low in fiber. Aiming to consume mostly whole foods and getting at least 25g of fiber daily will help decrease inflammation and aide in the elimination of toxins. Consider incorporating a good probiotic such as Just Thrive and some high quality magnesium but also remember that any supplement won’t make up for a crappy diet.
*you can use code “THEAUBREYFAM” on the Just Thrive website to save 15% & the code “AUBREYFAM” on the Jigsaw Health website for $10 off.*

Vitamin/Mineral Deficiencies

Our hormones must be in balance in order for our bodies to lose weight. If you are suffering with vitamin/mineral deficiencies your body cannot produce and balance hormones. Deficiencies will also lead to increased cravings, which despite popular belief, cannot usually be controlled with willpower alone. Consider HTMA testing(also called nutritional testing) to identify exactly which minerals you’re deficient in so that you can supplement in a smart & effective way.
If you think your hormones are a reason for your struggle to lose weight, I recommend signing up for my free 5-day Hormone Reboot challenge.

Not getting enough sleep

7-8hrs of sleep a night is necessary, end of story.
If you struggle with being able to easily fall asleep at night, that might indicate that your adrenals (where our stress hormone is produced) might need some TLC & attention, this would be another reason to consider getting HTMA testing as it gives insight into your adrenal health.
One of the easiest things you can do to support your circadian rhythm, which is what dictates our sleep-wake cycle is to get into the sunlight for 5-10minutes first thing in the morning & again around sunset when possible.

Wrapping Up

As an overall reminder: the scale does not define you, it does not define health, and it is not the only way to measure progress. I spoke of the scale above because ‘weight’ is the most commonly used “tracker” for health/weight loss. It’s super important to remember that muscle weighs more than fat, so your body can look differently, but the number on the scale could be the same.

Take before & progress photos so you can compare. Take time to notice if your clothes fit differently. Take measurements. Ask yourself how are you feeling? Do you have more energy? Are you sleeping better? Do you feel less stressed?