Top 5 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight

Top 5 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes, 54 seconds

In this post we’re covering five reasons you’re not seeing the weight loss results you want. AND how you can improve them.

But, as always, if you know what section you need, go ahead and jump to it!

• Diet & Nutrition
• Training Habits
• Neglecting Muscle Groups
• Lacking Variations
• Not Resting
• How To Improve

 

Diet & Nutrition

We know you know that your diet plays a large role in your weight loss progress. BUT, did you know that there is scientific evidence backing up certain diet claims and weight loss?

That’s right! This isn’t your typically eat healthier- track your macros sections; we’re digging deep and pulling out the figures!

Water (1,2,3,4)

Our bodies are made of around 60% of water. So it may seem like staying hydrated is one of those no-brainer tips. But what makes this interesting is that the percentage of water in fat tissue vs lean tissue is not the same.

Can you guess which type of tissues requires more water?

We’ll give you a second to think about it…

…

If you guessed fat tissue, I’m sorry to say that wasn’t correct. The correct answer is lean tissue. And that should make sense because lean tissue serves more purposes. While fat tissue helps insulate the body and preserve heat, lean tissue and muscle help boost metabolism.

Like lean tissue, water serves a bunch of purposes too:

• Lubricating Joints
• Regulating Body Temperature
• Assists In Flushing Waste
• and a ton more!

‘Okay Same Day we know water is important but how does it influence weight loss?’

Great question!

• Drinking water before meals can increase satiety, promote fullness.

When you’re full, you’re not likely to keep snacking. It can be this simple.

• Increased water intake can also increase lipolysis.

Lipolysis refers to the breakdown of fat. As we mentioned above, lean tissue requires more water intake. And one of the functions of lean tissue is to boost metabolism. When you boost your metabolism, you’re going to increase fat breakdown. So, keep your muscles hydrated!

How Do I Know If I’m Drinking Enough Water?

Well, there’s no exact science to how much water you should be drinking. But you should trust your thirst. If you’re thirsty drink more water. Special circumstances may require you to drink even more water; like during exercise or warmer weather.  Generally, you can tell how hydrated you are by the color of your urine. The darker the yellow, the more dehydrated you are. You want to aim for a pale lemonade-like color.

But you also don’t want to over hydrate. When you’re urine is really pale almost clear or clear, you need to re-hydrate with salts and electrolytes. We go into a new EAA product that’s great for re-hydrating below, click HERE to jump to the breakdown!

Macro-Nutrients (5)

Almost any weight loss diet blog is going to amplify the effects of a high protein diet. And they’re not wrong to do so! Protein has this great property. It can actually stimulate energy expenditure. Thus increase absorption, digestion, and metabolism (thermogenesis). And it does this way better than the other macro-nutrients. But… that doesn’t mean they don’t have their place.

The ratio of your macro-nutrients doesn’t directly influence your weight loss success. What matters most is calories in VS calories out. But calories aren’t created equal. And that’s why diet’s like IIFYMs are so successful for everyone. Macro-nutrients do, however, influence other factors related to weight loss like how full you feel.

We see these types of comparisons all the time:  Broccoli VS Doughnuts

Energy-wise, 100 calories of broccoli and 100 calories from a doughnut provide the same content. But, 100 calories of broccoli is around 4 cups. That’s a lot of chewing …and fiber. With all the fiber in broccoli, you’ll feel fuller faster. Depending on the type of doughnut, you’ll probably be eating around half or less for the same calories.

Fats(6,7,8,9, 10)

‘Do I NEED fats in my diet?’

Yes, you do. They are essential for providing your body energy and supporting cell growth. Even more so, fats help your body absorb nutrients and produce hormones. You just need to make sure you’re eating the good fats; monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

‘But how does help with weight loss?’

Omega 3-Fatty acids, aka Fish Oil, aka DHA, is our primary contender here. But we also have healthy fats like MCT oil and coconut oil that also help with weight loss. We’ll touch on each!

Omega 3‘s: This nutrient can help you lose weight in a few ways. First, it can help with appetite suppression. Which is great for anyone who struggles with cravings. But it also can help increase metabolism. Because of this, you may find yourself burning more calories at the gym.

MCT Oil: The first thing to be noted about MCT Oil is that its a saturated fat. Technically a bad fat, but there’s a few cool properties that have created the buzz around it for weight loss. Like fish oil, it can help reduce appetite and may improve metabolism. But what’s even cooler is that it can help improve gut health.

Coconut Oil: If you haven’t picked up on the trend yet; coconut oil also helps with reducing appetite and increasing metabolism. But it may target abdominal fat for weight loss better than other fats. The best part of coconut oil is how easy it is to add to your diet. By swapping olive oil and butter with coconut oil, you’re already getting in on the benefits.

Carbs (11,12, 13)

Carbs… one of the first things people decide to cut from their diet is carbs. And there’s positives and negatives to keto and low carb diets. Firstly they can improve your blood levels of “good” HDL cholesterol. But cutting carbs may also reduce the number of total LDL particles in your bloodstream.

Not only that, but low-carb diets can reverse all five key symptoms of metabolic syndrome. This condition can increase your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. And probably what you’re interested in; low-carb diets lead to more short-term weight loss than low-fat diets. Studies also show that cutting carbs can reduce your appetite and calorie intake. But low-carb diets seem to lose their advantage in the long term.

Keto and low carbs work by putting your body into a metabolic state called ketosis. When this happens, your body begins relying on burning fat for energy, instead of storing it. But getting to ketosis is always easy and can come with some side effects (keto flu). Luckily there are products like Keto Lean to help you get to ketosis faster and maintain your energy levels.

‘Okay, but what if I don’t want to cut carbs?’

Like fats, there are good carbs and bad carbs. Good carbs are like fruit, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. Bad carbs consist of processed foods. So by simply reducing the processed foods in your diet you can still keep carbs in your diet, while losing weight.

 

Training Habits (14,15)

Everyone knows that eating a healthier diet or adding an exercise routine will help with weight loss. But according to a study from 2011, the combination of both is where you’ll find the most success.

But here’s the real scoop, exercise itself, is not very effective to lose weight. However, it is essential for preventing weight regain.

Research supports that exercise improves:

• cardiovascular fitness,

• insulin sensitivity,

• glycemic control of type 2 diabetes,

• blood pressure,

• and depression scores

To train or not to train isn’t the only question we want to answer though.

We can break this down even further; aerobic training is more effective for weight loss and fat reduction than resistance training. So if you were relying on weight lifting alone to lose weight, we’re sorry to disappoint.

Again this is going to come down to energy expenditure aka calories. While resistance training will be better for muscle development, cardio is king for overall to lose weight. Or rather a balance of both.

Let’s look at the study:

Willis et al. compared aerobic exercise (calorie equivalent to 12 miles/week), resistance exercise (3 days/week), and a combination of the two to determine changes in body mass. What they found was that weight loss and fat mass reduction occurred with aerobic training to a more significant degree than with resistance training after the 8-month trial. But more so, resistance training did not enhance the change in total body mass compared to aerobic training alone.

‘Okay Same Day, but how do I prevent weight regain with exercise?’

There was actually a study for that too. In this study, they measured total energy expenditure with the doubly labeled water method. The results suggest that physical activity in the range of 11–12 kcal/kg/day (900 calories/day for an 81-kg woman) may be important to prevent weight regain. But keep in mind physical activity means anything resulting in energy expenditure, not just exercise.

If you’re struggling to hit that mark, there are simple things you could do. Like take the stairs, walk to closes places you’d normally drive to, or even take a fat burner. When looking for a fat burner, in this case, you want a thermogenic. This is a product that aims to increase energy expenditure. Unfortunately or fortunately, there are a ton of fat burners and if you’re not sure what to look for, it can be confusing.

Simply put you want something with a thermogenic blend of ingredients in general. These ingredients include:

• Citrus Extracts
• Pepper Extracts
• Even some stimulants like Caffeine, Green Tea Extract, and Yohimbe.

 

Neglecting Muscle Groups (16,17,18,19,20)

We know we just told you that aerobic training is better for overall weight loss compared to resistance training, but that’s not the full story. While we’re sure some of you are just looking to lose weight and may not be interested in building muscle, getting that toned physique does require some weights.

What does this mean?

To reduce body mass, you’ll need to incorporate aerobic exercises.

To increase lean mass, you’ll need to incorporate resistance training.

Incidentally, there’s another reason your weight might be dropping but your physique isn’t up to par – you’re losing muscle instead of fat.

If you’ve been keeping up with the other sections in this post you, you understand why losing muscle is a no-no. But let’s dive in deeper.

What Does Muscle Do?

Well first things firsts, there are 3 types of muscle with very important roles.

• Skeletal Muscle

These are our mobility muscles. They are ones we control to do things, like me typing this sentence.

• Smooth Muscle

Our smooth muscles line the inside of blood vessels and organs. They’re essential for things like digestion.

• Cardiac Muscle

Are cardiac muscles are located in the heart and pump blood throughout our bodies.

Which Muscle Group Does Resistance Training Help?

All of them! For skeletal muscle, we think of the typical things; increased hypertrophy, protein synthesis, etc. But, for smooth muscle resistance training can improve hypertension. The biggest benefit is for our cardiac muscle. Resistance training for as little as an hour a week can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes from 40-70 percent.

And for weight loss? Muscle and calories burned have a positive relationship. Meaning when one goes up, the other does as well.

How Can You Increase This Process?

The rate of muscle growth is different for everyone. But there are natural ways you can speed up the process. No, it’s not pro hormones or steroids..its plant, and we don’t mean your vegetables. Brassinosteroids and ecdysteroids are natural anabolic agents. There isn’t a ton of research on there effect in humans but the studies that are available are pretty positive.

In fact, it may increase protein synthesis and decrease/inhibit protein degradation like IGF-1. As well as, increase strength and hypertrophy.

So where can you find these natural anabolic agents?

We carry a could, some are blends and some are just your plant “steroid”. The most common is laxogenin aka 5-Alpha-Hydroxy-Laxogenin. This compound is great for the things we mentioned as well as improving recovery. We’ll dive more into laxo below! Click HERE to jump to it!

But like we mentioned above, there are other compounds other than laxogenin. Another product fitting the bill is Myo stack from Blackstone labs, which features Ajuga Turkestanica Extract. And a bunch of pro hormones features a combination of plant steroid compounds.

Lacking Variations (21,22)

We’ve all been there before. The dreaded plateau. But what’s happening during that plateau? Does progress literally stop? And how can you avoid it if you haven’t hit one?

Alright let’s start from the beginning when you start losing weight, you lose some muscle with fat. As we mentioned before, your muscle helps keep your metabolism up. So when you start losing muscle mass, your metabolism starts slowing down. This causes you to burn fewer calories than before you started. (Another reason resistance training is important).

So even if you’re consistent with your diet and exercise for weeks on end, you’re weight loss might stall. What you have to do at this point is change it up!
This can be a change in your diet or physical activity. Consider cutting your calories a little more or increasing your physical activity.

Remember physical activity includes anything that burns calories so don’t limit yourself to the gym. The important thing to remember is that a plateau doesn’t mean you’re not doing well. It is super important to celebrate your success and continue striving for it.

Also, changing up routine doesn’t just focus solely on diet and exercise; you can change up your supplements too. A product slowly gaining fame in the weight loss supplement world is Recomp Rx.

We’ll go more into the details about Recomp Rx at the bottom of this post (feel free to jump down). But for this section, we’re going to leave it to the reviews:

• “The aid in transformation is staggering. I lost 3 pounds of fat and put 6 pounds of muscle within a couple weeks. ” Review by Joel H.
• “This is one of the best products I’ve ever taken. Real stuff. Real results. Blackstone labs has another forever customer!”  Review by Cati C.
• “I can already tell it’s working and only been using a week! Super fast shipping too!” Review by Kristin H
• “Love this product. Been on it for about 2weeks and can already see I’m tightening up while remaining the same weight! 5 stars from me!” Review by Matt W

Not Resting (23,24,25,26)

We know we bring up sleep all the time. But it’s just that important. In fact, multiple studies indicate a link between lack of sleep and an increase in BMI (body mass index) and weight gain. Like-wise many sleep disorders are worsened by weight gain.

What if you sleep enough and don’t have sleep disorders but wake up feeling un-rested?
Studies indicate that inadequate sleep can trigger your hunger hormones (ghrelin and leptin). This means that poor sleep can increase your appetite.

So how much sleep is required?

This may come to a shock to you. But according to the Mayo Clinic, the amount of sleep recommended for adults is 7-9 hours.
Now we understand some people feel rested and ready to go in a short span of time, but this may reflect back in more complex mental tasks.

Luckily there are natural ways to improve your sleep and how fast you fall asleep.

First and foremost, you should aim to go to sleep at the same time each day. This helps your body establish an internal clock. This next tip may scare you away, but, you should try not to sleep in on the weekends. We hate this one too! The thing is, the difference from weekday to weekend sleep cycles can cause jet-lag symptoms. (Which adds into why Mondays are so difficult).

Another big way to naturally help you sleep faster is controlling your exposure to light. Melatonin is a hormone produced in the body that helps regulate sleep. But it’s triggered by light exposure. So if at night you have bright lights (from regular lights to devices like your cell phone), you’re increasing the time it takes to secrete melatonin. Meaning it’ll take longer for you to fall asleep. Also exercising during the day can help improve your quality of sleep. Whereas exercising at night may make it more difficult to sleep at night.

Melatonin

As we stated before, melatonin is a hormone naturally produced by the body. But, it’s also a supplement. As a supplement, its gained in popularity over the last several years.
But how does it help and is it safe?

Current evidence suggests that melatonin supplements are safe, non-toxic and not addictive.
If you’re interested in trying melatonin and haven’t tried it before we would recommend taking it at a lower dose. Generally, it’s recommended dose is between 1-3mg,  but you can increase it to 5mg.

In the US, it is widely available but for other countries (like the EU, Australia, and Brazil) you may need a prescription for it. Check out our international shipping page for information on importing melatonin. https://www.samedaysupplements.com/international-orders.html

 Natural Supplements To Help Lose Weight

In this section, we’re going into detail on some of the products we mentioned above. All these products are safe to take by both men and women. And just as important, while these products may be useful for weight loss and fitness in general, everyone will have a different experience.

EAA +Hydration

Chances are you’ve heard BCAA’s and those are great. But EAA’s is all that and some! Of the 20 amino acids, 9 are considered essential. These 9 are what you can find in an EAA whereas BCAA’s only have 3. Each of the 9 amino acids helps in their own way.

The 9

• Lysine plays a role in growth hormone secretion. This supports muscle repair, and important for structural proteins and connective tissue.
• Methionine helps the body process and eliminate fat, promotes cardiovascular health, and supports liver function to help the body eliminate toxins.
• Phenylalanine has a pain-killing and antidepressant effect and is necessary for the synthesis and release of neurotransmitters.
• Threonine supports fat metabolism and immune function. Like lysine, it’s also a crucial component of structural proteins and connective tissue.
• Tryptophan is a precursor for serotonin, which regulates sleep, appetite, and mood.
• Leucine is critical for protein synthesis, blood sugar regulation, and growth hormone production.
• Isoleucine helps prevent muscle from breaking down during exercise, which could lead to faster recovery. It’s also important for immune function, hemoglobin production, and energy regulation.
• Valine helps stimulate muscle regeneration and is involved in energy production.
• Histidine is a precursor to histamine, which can help you fight off the cell-damaging free radicals. It’s also a precursor to carnosine, which helps turn lactic acid back into useable fuel and reduce soreness.

But amino acids aren’t the only thing EAA+ has to offer. It also contains

• Coconut Water
• Taurine
• Calci-K (Calcium Potassium Phosphate Citrate)
• Astragin (Astragalus Membranaceous Extract and Panax Notoginseng Extract)

This is it’s hydration blend.  Let’s start at the top. Coconut water is great for a lot of things like for your heart, lowering blood pressure and it’s antioxidant properties. But it’s also great for restoring hydration and nutrients like electrolytes. Which you can lose a lot of in a sweat-filled workout. (27)Next, we have Taurine. Taurine is effective for promoting endurance, increasing alertness and enhancing recovery. (28) To help absorption further you have the Astragin.

Laxogenin

We currently carry 4 products with just Laxogenin. But there are a bunch of pro-hormones that feature it in the formula.

• Laxogenin Plus By Repp Sports ~100mg
• Laxogenin 100 By Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals ~100mg
• Anogenin By Blackstone Labs~25mg

Outside of helping with protein synthesis, laxo also helps reduce cortisol. Cortisol is the stress hormone is released by your body during physical assertion or even mental exertion. And whenever you have high cortisol levels it signals the body to store fat and signals the body to burn muscle. So anything that’s going to blunt cortisol to a certain degree is also going to work in your favor. On top of that, it has antioxidant properties and can help improve joint pain.

Myo stack

Myo stack on the other is a little different. For starters, it’s multiple ingredients no just one compound like with laxo. Instead, Myo Stack contains:

• Rhaponticum carthamoides
• Ajuga Turkestanica extract
• 25R, spirostan-5a-diol-6-one-3-one

Probably compounds and extracts you’re not familiar with. But they work very well together.

The rhaponticum carthamoides is an adaptogen. It’s great for increasing lean mass while reducing fat. But we love it for its effects on performance; both physical and cognitive. (29)

Then you have your Ajuga Turkestanica extract which is our plant steroid. Studies indicate that this plant can improve Notch and Wnt signaling. These pathways become dysfunctional as we age, so younger crowds may not notice these effects right away. (30)

Lastly, we have the 25R, spirostan-5a-diol-6-one-3-one, which is another natural anabolic compound. This compound has been shown to significantly enhance protein synthesis void of any androgenic pathway activity. †

Recomp RX

And our last product is Recomp. Recomp Rx features a very simple formula. It literally contains two ingredients:

• Ursolic Acid (125mg)
• Banaba Leaf (60mg)

The Ursolic Acid is great for preventing muscle loss (catabolism) and weakness while also promoting hypertrophy. But that’s not all, some other research indicates, this potent compound stimulates skeletal muscle activity which spurs muscle growth and may reduce fat gain. (31)

The Banaba Leaf contains corosolic acid. This compound helps enhances the body’s glucose-controlling properties. Studies indicate it improves glucose transportation, but also enhance insulin sensitivity. Meaning you’re body uses carbs for energy and to build muscle first, instead of storing it as body fat. (32)

 

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