Andie Thueson » Wellness » Healthy Living » Tips for Healthy Living » Why Am I Not Losing Weight? The Answer May Surprise You.

Why Am I Not Losing Weight? The Answer May Surprise You.

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Losing weight can be tough. We’ve all been there… we’re watching what we eat, and we’re working out hard, but that dang scale just won’t budge! It can be seriously frustrating! But I’m here to help with some common and not-so-common missteps that we all make.

Before we dive into the “science” of weight loss. I want to touch briefly on the energetics of weight loss and our foundational beliefs around losing weight in the first place.

Our subconscious mind freaks out at the word “loss” because everything it knows about the word is a negative connotation and scary. So this next little bit of information I am going to lay out for you is the most important thing to grasp in this entire article.

1st, let’s be REAL careful of our wording around the word weight loss. Remove this term from your vocabulary immediately. You are not losing anything, only becoming a healthier version of yourself.

I also need you to know that YOU are sexy as hell as you are. Your being in existence is enough. The belief you need to LOOK a certain way to earn your worth is GARBAGE.

Instead, change your thoughts to something more like this…Wouldn’t it be super fun to have a smoking hot body to match my awesomeness?! Hells, yes, it would!

So instead of “needing” or “wanting” to lose weight, let’s reframe this to I am already sexy enough as I am, but it would be so fun to step into an even sexier healthier version of myself.

Doesn’t that JUST feel better in your soul? I know it does in mine!

Another energetic concept I want to introduce is that your food intake has very little to do with the resulting number on the scale.

What vibration are you in when you eat food?

  • Are you in shame?
  • Are you in guilt?
  • Are you in joy?
  • Are you in duty? I have to eat food I hate to look a certain way…
  • Are you in restriction?

We ingest way more than the “food” we eat – we ingest the emotions we attach to the food we eat and the belief embedded within that food we ingest.

If we believe that M&Ms are shame-y and bad and will make us FAT, guess what message our body gets? What if we had the audacity to flip the script and had a belief that M&Ms are a FUN and joyful food that our body loves? And that this fun little treat that would benefit our bodies?

I am a living tester of my theories, and when I shifted how I felt about the food I ate and released the morality of my food, my weight has no longer an issue. I stay at a healthy weight without very much effort at all, and that has NEVER been my experience until I changed my relationships around my thoughts and “weight loss” in general.

Our bodies are made up of energy. We are energy beings, and our food is energy. Knowing this is so important!

Remember that we are so incredibly powerful we get to choose what we believe about food.

So take some time and dive deep into what your beliefs around food and weight loss are. If you believe that losing weight is hard and tough and that you are stuck, then that right there may be the block that is keeping you from a slimmer image of yourself.

I am now getting off my manifesting and energetic soapbox and now putting on my personal trainer and nutrition specialist hat. Because I believe we do need a higher energetic understanding so we can overlay it with tactical real-world advice that is applicable to helping us understand the physicality of our bodies because we are both energetic and physical beings.

Photo of woman on a scale frustrated and asking herself why am I not losing weight.
Why am I not losing weight? The answer may surprise you!

Here are the 8 Most Common Reasons (physically) why you’re not losing weight)

  1. Office Sedation –Do you work at a desk all day? If you work hard and are zoned in all day in front of a computer, try getting up at least once an hour, as it will help increase your metabolism by 18%. Or just become a fidgeter and increase your metabolism by 54%. Our bodies need motion and physical activity. That is how we thrive! So get up and move more during your day!
  2. Not Getting Enough Sleep!! – lack of sleep is a BIG one, folks! Have you ever noticed that after a rough night with little sleep, the next day, your willpower is zilch, and you keep reaching for sugar and carbs? There are actually scientific tests that prove that sleep deprivation will put your body into a carb and fat-craving survival mode and can increase your overall cortisol levels and stress levels. YIKES! Shoot for 8+ hours.
  3. Eating Too Quickly…SLOW Down! –You’re not racing, and there are no awards for finishing first. Take the time to savor and enjoy every bite of your food! This will help your body send signals to your brain that you are full SOONER before you have already overeaten. This ties right back into the energetic component, take time to have a “moment” of connection and gratitude with the food you eat. Always check in with your emotions when you are eating.
  4. Skipping Meals –This is not for everyone, and it can cause your body to go into starvation mode, making you hungrier and more likely to overeat at your next meal. Plus, skipping meals could impede and lower your metabolism. Check-in with yourself! From a Human Design standpoint, some bodies do thrive with a bit of fasting, and there are others that really suffer when they are not getting a steady bit of calories daily. So be honest with yourself is fasting something that this helping or hurting you?
  5. Mindless Eating –We are ALL guilty of this–your kid didn’t finish their lunch, so you eat those last few bites of PB&J, so it doesn’t go to waste. Or you just have a handful of M&M’s while you’re standing in the pantry trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Sound Familiar? Those small, seemingly harmless splurges can add up and derail your progress. Stay focused! Make sure you are always aware of what you’re putting in your mouth. (That’s what she said…) I know you were thinking it. Always be intentional when eating. Check in and see what foods your body is wanting and needs. Try muscle testing to get better in tune with the needs of your body.
  6. Too Many Liquid Calories–One recent study found that Americans get 22% of their calories from liquids! That is crazy! Do yourself a favor, and DON’T drink your calories. Liquid calories can be fun, but they also do not provide a lot of healthy nutrients our bodies need. So be very wary of drinking your calories.
  7. Under-Estimating Your Caloric Intake- For years, it was trained into me calories in, calories out. As a nutrition specialist, I learned this concept. But as I evolved, there needs to be a balance. Yes, you need to know round about a calorie range that is correct for your body, and even knowing what macros work best for you is important. It is a really good baseline and place to start. Then you can start leaning into listening to your body more and more instead of counting calories and macros, which can be exhausting. I haven’t counted calories or macros for years.
  8. You’re Overestimating Your Caloric Burn –Just cause you killed it at the gym and the elliptical says you burned 600+ calories does not mean that those numbers are accurate. The only way to get an accurate account of calories burned is to invest in a Heart Rate Monitor; this can easily be accomplished with any of the fitness watches now available on the market. Also, I’ll add, do not use exercise as an excuse to eat more and “splurge.” As a coach, I will always remind you to listen to your body and honor it. Your body will need some good nutrition after a workout to help repair and replenish!
  9. Not Drinking Enough Water: A lack of water will cause dehydration which can muddy up your hunger singles so that you feel hungry when you’re actually just thirsty.
  10. Hormonal Imbalance –This is often a factor for women, although men can be affected too. If you are doing all the right things and your scale is not budging, get your hormones checked! I found out recently that my testosterone levels were way out of whack, which can make your body resistant to losing weight. This can make a big difference, but it’s hard to know if your hormone levels are a problem unless you get them checked. Our bodies are complex machines, and if your weight is really an issue and all the above have been addressed, and still, no progress has been made, it may be time to speak with a doctor. I recommend an integrative medicine doctor, who will talk to you about your health habits and get a better idea holistically what is going on. There may be medical conditions that need to be addressed.

The greatest advice I can give you is to STOP listening to all the “diet rules” and let them all go! EVERY single body is so completely different and needs different things to be optimal, and here is the hard pill to swallow only YOU know what your body needs most.

It is a journey to come back to yourself and truly trust your intuition and listen to your body and what it needs. I would love to help you on your journey. For that reason, I created a very unique product that combines my personal trainer and nutritional coach expertise as well as my very intuitive and Human Design (energetics of your body) health plan. I hate even calling it a weight loss plan (it hurts my heart.) But the program I offer will help you better understand yourself and your body.

Much Love!

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3 Comments

  1. Such an interesting read! Thanks for all the insights!

  2. 5 stars
    This was an amazing read! I read it 4 times already and sent it to a lot of my mama friends. I definitely don’t get enough sleep and I need to work on my water intake.

  3. 5 stars
    Such great tips, thank you! I have been practicing mindful eating and its been very helpful!

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