28/11/2016
Worth a read!
When people struggle to lose weight they often look for something to blame, generally anything but them self.
Whether it's their genetics or slow metabolism it usually is anything but them.
The truth is often very simple, they're doing the basics wrong and are creating an environment where they are likely to fail.
Some of the main reasons are:
There isn't a calorific deficit: In order to lose weight you must be in a calorific deficit, eating 'healthily' does not necessarily create a deficit, you have to expend more calories than you consume.
Not working hard enough: the main way to ensure you are in a deficit is to exercise, the more calories we expend whilst training, the likelihood of remaining in a deficit is increased. In order to expend more calories we need to work hard and the truth is most people simply aren't doing so.
NEAT: Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis are the calories we burn through activity we wouldn't class as exercise, simply moving around and completing everyday tasks. When we are 'dieting' we tend to decrease the levels of neat due to perceived tiredness or lack of energy. NEAT can make a decent contribution towards a deficit so ensuring levels don't drop will improve the chance of staying within a deficit.
Sustainability: One of the biggest issues is starting a plan or program that is impossible to be consistent with. If you can't see yourself sticking to it long term then it clearly isn't going to yield long term results. Start with small achievable goals, once you've reached them set some new ones and look to consistently reach targets. As well as getting you closer to your overall goal, the reaching of those goals will give you a morale boost and hopefully increase motivation levels.
