By now you have been working out quite a bit in the hopes of bringing down your body fat percentage and maybe even lead to some weight loss, but for some gosh darn reason, yes I just said gosh darn for some reason or another, you can’t lose more body fat than you actually want. What’s going on? Well my dear friends, I’m glad to share with you some reasons as to why you’re not losing as much body fat as desired and by knowing that maybe we can start moving towards your ideal weight loss.

Eating too much – Well this needs to be said, regardless if you want to hear it or not. While you are working out as hard as you can, sometimes you give yourself a green light to eat more and more, and while I do agree, if you do workout quite a bit, you should be allowed certain leniencies but the word control comes into mind. A lot of people trying to decrease their body fat workout like crazy but forget to balance their diet in order to meet their new found lifestyle which pretty much leads to gaining weight instead. In fact if you are really serious about reducing body fat, check out my other article: The How To Guide Of Clean Eating. Doing a proper workout routine and hopping on the clean eating bandwagon will guarantee weight loss, trust me there.

Not enough protein – A lot of people don’t realize how important protein is during workout sessions and how it can help you lose the unwanted body fat. Protein is a primary building substance for muscles, when you workout you create micro tears in your muscles and protein helps repair them while making it stronger. Of course this shows that your body is working to the optimized setting, which is pretty ideal for reducing of body fat and weight loss.

Cut down your intake on sugary drinks like frappes and soda. Opt for healthy ones like smoothies made from organic fruits or better yet, make some tea.

You’re drinking sugar – Not literally I hope, but if you are holding a glass of soda right now, you might as well be. A lot of people don’t realize just how much sugar and calories they are guzzling down with each soda, pre-packaged juices and much more. If you really want to lose your body fat, put that glass down and pick up a clean glass of water. Sure the occasional coffee is good and to detox the body, nothing like a cup of green tea. In fact for more ways to detox your body, please feel free to read up on my other article: 5 detox drinks to burn fat.

You lack sleep – To lose body fat you need a full night’s rest. There are no buts, ifs or whatever about this, without proper sleep you’re looking at an uphill battle and nobody wants that when you are trying to lose body fat. When you lack sleep not only will your hormones go crazy, you’ll want to eat more and feel hungry faster than usual. Even worse your metabolism will slow down to a crawl due to the lack of sleep, which let’s face it will wreak havoc on your weight loss goals, wouldn’t you agree?

You overeat healthy foods – While clean eating and healthy foods do indeed lead to weight loss and reduced body fat within a lot of individuals, over indulging, even with healthy foods will lead to higher body fat percentages. A key example of easily over eaten healthy foods are nuts. Nuts are a great snack and really great for you, but since they are so easy to eat and take the place of your usual potato chips, you tend to go overboard and not realize you’ve eaten maybe 4-5 servings in one seating. Uh oh. Yes indeed, that is a lot of calorie intake for something that isn’t even a full-blown meal yet and you wonder why your body fat won’t decrease. Be weary that even healthy meals carry calories in them, as with all things in life, moderation is key to getting what you want.

Stress gets in the way – Yes you heard me, stress is getting in your way to reduce body fat. Not only is stress one of the leading reasons for a ton of sicknesses, it stirs up your cortisol production, which is a stress hormone that increases storage of body fat in the system and other negative results in your body. While usually cortisol is helpful in some situations, continued elevation becomes a challenge for weight loss and the successful reduction of body fat. As they say, never workout angry, you’re prone to hurt yourself and you aren’t making too much progress either. Relax and enjoy the workout, this will be sure to help you in the long run of weight loss.

Stress is inevitable, so it would help if you learn how to manage it. Make sure you give yourself time to relax and do some meditation from time to time.

Cardio might not always lead to weight loss – While cardio is awesome, if the intensity is too low or if you aren’t balancing it with proper sleep or nutrition, I’m afraid it could lead to negative results when body fat is concerned. I am a vehement supporter of running and I love it to its very core, however if you aren’t getting enough rest and food with it, it won’t lead to the proper results you are aiming for. In fact you could end up injuring yourself. Make sure to study your cardio properly as it will lead to weight loss however if mismanaged could just make things worse for you.

Regular workout – This might not need to be said but just in case, you are working out regularly right? I mean if you are serious enough and want to lose body fat, regular workout is pretty much non-negotiable. Of course some results won’t show up overnight, it takes time and perseverance to be able to get that body fat out of your body, however if you are quickly discouraged and tend to give yourself excuses to get off the treadmill or skip out on a workout, I think you just found out your main reason for not being able to achieve your weight loss targets.

It goes without saying that the fight against body fat is a battle that pretty much everyone goes up against. While getting healthy it is always a challenge to be able to achieve the weight loss you really want. However with the proper diet and research, it trims down your enemies to something that you can beat without a doubt. Keep trying and keep at it, body fat won’t just magically disappear much to our dismay, however it doesn’t always have to be there and we don’t need to live with it. There are a ton of ways to lose it and even when you aren’t losing it as much as you had hoped, look up the list above and maybe you can rectify the situation. Enjoy the battle against body fat and have fun getting to your goal, after all everything in life is a journey and the journey to getting healthy is a lot more fun when you smile along the way.

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