Grrr! I Can’t Lose Body Fat No Matter What!

When you stop to think about it, it’s not really surprising that we can’t lose body fat easily. Our bodies spent eons developing efficient ways to store fat, burn fewer calories and fend off starvation. It kind of makes sense that it’s going to a challenge to lose fat quickly.

Body fat in and of itself isn’t bad. You do need some fat on your body for several reasons. But too much body fat can lead to chronic disease issues. The best way to lose fat is focus on your diet, exercise routine and lifestyle.

However if you’ve been exercising regularly and eating and living healthily and still can’t lose body fat, take a look at these 5 reasons that could be the cause.

5 Reasons You Can’t Lose Body Fat

1. You’re Doing Too Much Cardio

Most people think that you can lose body fat by running long distances. Humans are designed to run. We spent a long time, in our history, running through the woods trying to catch our food. But we didn’t spend hours running at a constant speed. Running and other cardio exercises should be limited to short bursts, maybe 30 minutes at the most.

Running at a steady state over extended periods of time has been shown to increase cortisol, decrease human growth hormone, and suppress hormones that are needed to burn body fat. Long bouts of cardio can cause the body to use muscle for fuel.

2. Skipping Protein

For your body to do basic chemical reactions that allow things like oxygen exchange (breathing), you need the right amino acids. The only place that the body stores amino acids is in muscle tissue. If you’re skipping out on protein, you force your body to use its own muscle tissue to fuel basic metabolic processes. Livestrong.com recommends that you consume protein and simple sugar immediately after your workout.

Even if you don’t eat meat, you need to make sure you are getting protein after every workout. This includes physical activity that you may not think are workouts. For example landscaping and other manual labor jobs are going to require a lot of protein. If you’re not eating protein, you will lose muscle mass at a higher rate than fat.

3. You Always Under-Eat

Chronic under eating is typical on a diet. That is what most people do when they try to lose weight. People don’t look at trying to change their body composition. They just see the number on the scale. According to My Fitness Pal, under eating can slow your metabolism, cause muscle loss (sound familiar?), and under eating puts you at risk for nutrient deficiencies. Dieting causes your metabolism to slow, which means you have to eat even less to “lose weight,” which causes your metabolism to slow. See how this can be counterproductive?

The slower your metabolism is, the faster any excess calorie consumption will turn to fat. You definitely won’t be losing any. Instead of trying to eat less, focus on trying to build muscle. Muscle burns fat and is more compact than fat. It will give you that fit aesthetic you’re looking for, and you may not even lose one pound.

4. Avoiding Weight Lifting

Men’s Fitness highlights lifting weights and gaining muscle as one of the fastest ways to lose body fat and build muscle. Adding muscle increases the body’s ability to burn fat. Testosterone, a major factor in muscle building, is one reason men can burn fat faster than their female counterparts can

Women tend to avoid lifting weights because they are afraid that they will “bulk up.” The truth is that the average woman does not have enough testosterone to cause the extreme hypertrophy seen in female body builders. Therefore, this fear is no reason to avoid lifting weights, where you can build muscle that will burn fat.

5. Stress

An article in Prevention magazine noted that stress is one of the major factors in why people cannot lose body fat. Stress releases a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol does many things in the body during stressful times. This includes slowing digestion and increasing the body’s ability to store fat.

Stress does other things that can lead to an increase in body fat as well, including emotional overeating and stress binge eating. Unfortunately, we live in a chronic stress environment. If you’re doing everything right and still not losing weight, then you should check out your stress levels and do all you can to reduce it.

Can’t Lose Body Fat?