Aspire, Perspire, Nourish Yourself

Why am I not losing weight?

The other day I overheard two women talking in the gym’s change room about a topic dear to many women’s hearts. One said to the other, “I said to my doctor, ‘I’m exercising so why am I not losing weight?’” The other woman laughed as the first woman also said that her doctor told her to stop eating. Actually she said, “I’m kidding. He told me that I needed to raise my heart rate.” Nutrition and exercise intensity may be two possible actions.

Her original question is not easy to answer since there may be many reasons for experiencing difficulty losing weight. Our bodies are made up of complex systems and use chemical processes that elegantly and continuously work together to support our functioning. When any one of the systems and/or processes are out of whack, they cause many reactions in our body in trying to get our bodies back into balance.

Although the most basic equation for weight loss is to increase the energy we expend through physical activity and decrease the energy we intake through food, there is much more to it than that!

Important Consideration for Weight Loss

We don’t pretend to have the answer to weight loss. We just want you to think about a number of factors when planning weight loss. We also urge you to investigate these further with your health care practitioner and fitness coach. Here are some issues that make our top list:

Exercise and Physical Activity

We burn energy even lying down and when sleeping. Our basal metabolic rate is the least energy we need to maintain our body’s functioning at rest. This basal metabolic rate affects how easily we burn energy and therefore contributes to fluctuations in weight, how fat is stored, and our body composition. We want to keep our metabolism running well and fast. Although everyone may have a metabolic set point based on genetics, studies have shown that this point can be changed by physical activity, nutrition, and environmental factors such as climate.

In general, exercise keeps your metabolism up. In addition, the intensity at which you exercise, i.e. working out at a higher heart rate, is important for charging up the chemicals like growth hormones, testosterone, insulin sensitivity, and other hormones in your body that provide additional fat loss benefits.

Muscle vs. Fat

muscle photo credit: Freerange Stock

Why is muscle better than fat? The ratio of muscle to fat you have may also contribute to weight loss. Muscle weighs more than fat but it also burns more calories because it needs more energy. Studies have shown that strength training, which is used to build muscle, leads to calorie burn even after a workout is complete, while aerobic exercise did not have that effect (Ref 2). So, it is important to include strength training in your physical activity routine in order to build muscle and continue to burn calories.

Nutrition

We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again. Severely restricted diets do not work because they are not sustainable for the long-term. Your body needs energy to function so you need to give it enough good nutrition for your daily activities.

Do you know what and how much you should be eating? Although you may hate tracking your food intake, it is important to understand how much and what kind of food your body needs based on your goals, activity level and what your body can tolerate. Think in terms of what foods and how much of it will help you lose body fat rather than overall weight. Only after weighing our food and comparing the nutritional content do most of us understand the reasons certain foods help or hinder our weight loss efforts.

Food labels may suggest the food is healthy, for instance labeling as fat-free, but beware that there are many other ingredients in that food that may not be healthy, such as higher sugar content. Also, a whole grain is not a whole grain in every food that labels it as such. For example, some products are more processed than others even though they both contain whole grains.

It’s not only how much we eat but what we eat that makes a difference to weight loss. All three of the macronutrients – carbohydrates, proteins, and fat – are important to include in your nutrition. Carbohydrates are needed for energy, protein is crucial for tissue growth and muscle build, fat is also important for energy and essential for absorbing certain vitamins and mineral. Aim to include all three in every meal; however, determine what combination is best for you based on your goals and particular energy needs.

Consult a nutritionist for help determining the appropriate mix and to plan your nutrition intake based on your particular needs. If you’d like to contact Mary for help, please visit her site at www.foryourhealthnutrition.com.

Hormones

Natural changes such as aging, and menopause for women, cause hormones to get out of whack and affect our weight loss efforts. Other chemical imbalances caused by Thyroid problems, high stress levels, poor sleep, and bad gut bacteria can also lead to weight gain or problems with weight loss. As we mentioned earlier, our bodies are finely tuned systems that rely on a ton of chemical processes to keep us healthy. One small change in one hormone can trigger the production of another hormone or chemical to get our bodies to a balanced state. Balance, however, does not mean harmony! Too much of one hormone may lead to unexpected outcomes for our bodies.

Keep in mind that hormone changes are not just women issues. Men deal with age-related declines in hormones or male menopause which is also called “andropause”. In addition, men may develop Thyroid problems or have issues with cortisol levels and other conditions experienced by women due to stress levels or poor sleep patterns.

If you are having trouble with weight loss, your health care practitioner can help you identify issues with hormones and related conditions.

More confused?

As our above top list shows, there are more questions than answers to the issue of weight loss. Take an integrated approach by looking at your exercise regimen, nutrition intake, lifestyle routine, and underlying hormonal health.

Both of us have grappled with the issue of weight loss for over 25 years and appreciate the difficulty of making sense of all of this. In the end, health trumps weight!

References:

Hatfield, Frederick C., Fitness: The Complete Guide, Official Text for ISSA’s Certified Fitness Trainer Course, Edition 8.6.6, International Sports Sciences Association: Carpinteria, CA, 2013.
Turner, Natasha, The Hormone Diet: A 3-Step Program to Help You Lose Fat, Gain Strength, Live Younger Longer, originally published: Canada: Random House, 2009.
https://soundcloud.com/martinclinic/8-signs-that-your-hormones-are-off
http://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/its-complicated-calories-and-other-factors-affect-weight-loss/
http://www.coachcalorie.com/benefits-high-intensity-interval-training-hiit/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/mens-health/in-depth/male-menopause/art-20048056

Recipe of the Week: Traditional Lasagna

Kids + Fun = Physical Activity

Do you find it tough getting your kids off the couch and away from their electronic devices? If so, you are not alone. The 2014 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth reported that “61% of Canadian parents agree their kids spend too much time in front of the TV or computer” (2014, p. 42). In their report card, the United States also indicated a high rate of sedentary behavior related to time spent watching TV or using computers. Overall about half of U.S. children and youth meet the guidelines of engaging in 2 hours or less of screen time per day.

Global Assessment

In 2014, fifteen countries participated in a global assessment to compare physical activity levels of children and youth in each country. Researchers used a number of measures, surveys, and tools to complete the assessment against common criteria. They compared activity levels based on the following areas:

Overall physical activity
Sedentary behaviors
Active transportation
Organized sport participation
Active play
Health-related fitness
Family & peers
School
Community & the built environment
Government strategies and investments

The report cards showed that there was no consistent country leader overall and that the grades for indicators of physical activity behavior were low in most of the countries.
The grades also indicated that some countries led in some aspects, and fell behind in others, which offer a great tool for learning about how to integrate successful strategies employed in other countries. Read more about this very interesting assessment by going to Canada’s and the US’s reports. Both reports give a wealth of information on how to encourage more physical activity.

Kids Just Wanna Have Fun

As parents, we have busy lives and we try to schedule physical activities for our kids through extracurricular sports. We also expect schools to take care of some of the physical activity requirements. However, deep down kids are just like adults. We both need to be motivated to get up and get going. As adults we tell our kids to get away from their computers or iPods and get out to play, but do you remember when you were a kid? The first thing I did when I got home from school was turn on the TV and watch my favorite sitcoms like “The Brady Bunch”. That was fun to me. At that age I didn’t choose physical activity and needed to be doing something that was fun to engage in it. For instance, I could be talked into walking to the mall or skipping rope with friends or rollerblading to a friend’s house. It wasn’t until I was much older that I understood the importance of physical activity and engaged in it because of the health benefits.

Free play is an important part of life and teaching your kids how to enjoy that starts with doing fun things with your kids. It’s amazing how quickly the time passes when you are around people you enjoy, doing things you love to do.

Making Running Fun

The last couple of weeks, I’ve been helping out at my son’s school with the endurance running group. Kids in his school signed up for this activity as part of their physical education program. The first day I showed up, I expected them to be eager beavers, excited about running laps, measuring their distances and aiming for faster finish times. After all, they had chosen this activity.

Mr. Holland, the teacher in charge of the group, gave me the heads up just before I was to give them their first pep talk about how great running is for your health. He said to me, “We have a ragtag bunch of runners.” I understood what he meant when we got started. Some kids just took off and started doing laps, while others dragged themselves around the field complaining about how hard this was. As I asked kids why they chose running as their activity, most said that they didn’t like any of the other activities offered! I thought to myself, “Oh, boy, now what do I do?” That day, when we started horsing around to get them going, like running sideways and backwards, using running terms like “fartleks”, kids started laughing and forgetting about how hard running was. So, the solution for this group is FUN.

Our focus each week now is to make the activity fun regardless of how much running we get in. One day the kids do longer runs in the community, and the other day we run a little and do activities related to fitness like push ups, lunges, squats, jumping jacks and whatever else can get them better prepared for running. I think the kids are enjoying our time together. Before we started our last session, the kids were asking me, “What are we doing today?” and before we ended our last session they wanted to know what was in store for next week’s session. We all agreed that an obstacle course would be great fun!