@Journ1 wrote:
So, I’ve been working out 6 times a week for about two months. I count my calories and I have a deficit of about 10,000 every week yet I’ve only lost about 4 pounds. I even drink a gallon of water a day! Why can’t I lose weight ????
Losing weight is not a simple calories in and calories out as you would have probably noticed. Losing weight is more of a lifestyle change rather than a lifestyle alteration.
There are certain negative, stressful and toxic lifestyles that promote weight gain rather than weight loss. Changing one's lifestyle is more effective than altering one's lifestyle with a diet plan and seeing very little results`
There are only a certain way the human body will allow you to lose weight and that is, it has to be in a condition where there is no stress or threats that it has to deal with. Any presence of negative toxic relationships, environmental factors and social factors will influence the body to preserve body fat because it feels it is living in a threat environment and it needs to maintain its reserve (body fat) for that eventual crisis point (major illness, famine etc..). Stress or threat will produce a hormone called Cortisol and this hormone will prevent the body from using its body fat as part of its fuel. So you can restrict as much calories as you want in which you did, but what you'll do is the body will adapt to this lower calories and eventually 2 things will happen. One, it will slow down your metabolism; you will get hangry (hunger/angry), tired more and be more impatient due to low blood sugar. If the body doesn't get enough glucose from your diet, it will convert whatever your lean muscle mass you've got into glucose through a process called Gluconeogenesis. Both with result in you losing some weight but really at a cost of some bone density loss (you're not building and maintain bone mass) due to the massive calorie deficit as you won't get enough macro nutrients, minerals etc. This is will increase the likelihood of one developing Osteoporosis (bone loss). 1 in 2 women in North America suffers from Osteoporosis, where 1 in 4 men in North America suffers from the same ailments.
Most people do not realize the fact that drastic and severe weight loss comes with a high price and that is, food is not just calories. Food also provides your body that essential building and maintaining blocks for good body health. When someone cut their calories in their diet, they ALSO cut their daily requirement for nutrients, vitamins, minerals and dietary fat which are required to dissolve fat-soluble vitamins (vitamins that can only dissolve with the presence of fat).
The key to a health weight loss is to restrict calories, but also ensure you are getting enough of the vitamins, nutrients and minerals and dietary fat. You can use supplements to supplement those nutrients, minerals and vitamins that you are already getting from your current restricted diet. But you can not use supplements as your main source of vitamins, nutrients and minerals. Otherwise, you will develop an imbalance in your dietary needs and the body will tell you that.
In closing, when you do make the lifestyle change necessary to remove all toxic relationships, negative environmental factors (your job, your place of living etc) and any other negative factors will your body respond rather easily to weight loss. Otherwise, you will have to live with the consequences of a severe caloric deficit with a later price you will need to pay when you get older. And you will as I work in health care and I see many of these people now, after living a life maintaining their body image, face many painful health related issues where medication and anything else will and can not reverse the damage done.
