Ever wondered why you’re experiencing difficulty losing fat, even when you’re exercising frequently? The truth is that there’s more to shedding a couple of kilos of fat than just regular exercise.

While hammering down a regular exercise routine gets you one step closer to reaching your ideal body, it’ll help to be aware of the factors you might be overlooking that might be a roadblock to your weight loss success. 

In this article, personal trainer Janet Lee from Fitness Lifestyle Performance shares 4 reasons why you may not be losing fat.

1. Hidden Sugars in Your Food

Reading the nutrition label on the foods that you eat goes beyond just counting calories. Keep an eye out for hidden sugars in your food, especially in those that we least expect them to be in. These include in products such as sauces (condiments and dressings), bread, breakfast cereal, dried fruit, and smoothies to name a few. 

With the way that many products are being marketed on supermarket shelves these days, you might think that a lot of your favourite brands are becoming more health conscious with their organic, low-fat or whole-wheat products. However, be careful of these “healthy” processed goods, as some of them may actually contain high levels of sugars. 

When reading nutrition labels, take note of the list of ingredients listed and where they are sourced from. As much as you can, opt for whole foods such as fresh fruit over packed dried fruit (which typically contain lots of hidden sugars used during processing), vinaigrette for your salad instead of bottled dressing, or a handful of nuts or all-natural trail mix. 

2. Inconsistent Nutrition Regimen 

Jumping between different nutrition regimes can severely affect your body. Your body needs time to adapt to nutrition plans, and results can take up to a couple of months or more to show any response. It helps to only make necessary adjustments to our nutrition plans to suit our bodies.

If your goal is to lose fat, conduct in-depth research on the different nutrition plans available while understanding how they affect your body in terms of your goal. After choosing one that’s most suitable for you, stick to it and be consistent with it for at least 3 to 6 months (together with your exercise plan) to see results.

3. Poor Sleeping Habits 

One of the biggest factors that hinder fat loss is a lack of proper rest. Sleep deprivation is also associated with the development of depression, reduced immune function, imbalanced eating habits, and changes in hormones such as increased levels of cortisol – all which have the ability to contribute to weight gain. Getting enough rest is especially important when you’re training intensely to allow your body to recover quickly. 

Create a sleeping schedule that allows you at least 6 to 8 hours of rest. Remember to consistently keep to the routine to ensure that your body gets ample rest. This way, you’ll find that losing fat will come a lot faster.

4. Repetitive Training Plans 

While following a training plan is helpful, our bodies start to adapt to them and plateau after long periods of repeating the same routine. Moreover, athletes and well-coordinated individuals tend to adapt and plateau faster since their bodies have gotten used to the basic foundations of training. Adhering to a particular training style can also stall losing fat and training progression.

To avoid this, you can switch your training programme from focusing on losing fat to hypertrophy and strength training. This prevents training plateaus and in turn, you’ll continually reap the benefits of your training.

On a final note, remember that our upper body often plateaus faster than the lower body so it is best to change up your exercise routines more frequently and include variation in your training program.

Take note that the above are only some of the factors that could be preventing your fat loss. There are many other causes too since progress is never linear and it takes time and patience to see how our bodies respond and recover.

Contributor: 

Fitness Lifestyle Performance was founded by Janet Lee. 

Fitness is a way of life, whether you are looking to transform your body composition, gain muscles or improve sports performance. 

Fitness Lifestyle Performance believes in building a solid foundation and consistent progression with longevity in mind for your fitness journey.