Why Diet And Exercise Will Not Make You Lose Weight

I'm sure this is making you uncomfortable...why diet and exercise will not make you lose weight.

 Back in our twenties and thirties, losing extra weight was a matter of simply eating a little less and moving a little more.  After the age of forty or so, there are many functional reasons that we can no longer just eat a little less and move a little more to easily shed pounds.  

Many women, and men, are told by health professionals and experts that if they ate right and exercised they would lose weight.  It's just not that simple anymore. If we really knew the reasons why we are gaining weight as we get older, we wouldn't suffer unnecessarily and go on every fad diet and starve ourselves over and over again.

So what's going on?  Well, as we age our metabolic rate (our ability to burn calories) slows down every year.  We lose our muscle tone which in turn flips our fat to muscle ratio.  More fat and less muscle slows our metabolism even more.  If we are eating the same foods and not making any changes year after year, we would still gain weight!  How frustrating is that?  Throw in stress,  thyroid issues, medications, diabetes, lower hormone levels and other medical conditions, and you have a very resistant weight loss journey.

Here are some things you can do that can jump start your metabolism:
 PHASE ONE:

• Eat smaller, portion controlled food during the day rather than 3 square meals
• avoid all sugar, especially in the morning.  Eating sugar first thing will trigger your fat storing mechanism so that most everything you eat for the rest of the day will be stored as fat.
• participate in a weight bearing exercise class or use home exercise CD's for 30 minutes, 3 times a week. 
• Cardio exercise for one hour four times a week.

 If Phase one does not produce the results you are looking for you need more:

• Check your thyroid, look at the medications you are taking to see if they are the culprits to stalling normal weight loss. If they are, then you need extra help in the form of getting your thyroid issues under control. If medication is your issue, then supplements to help you lose weight can be very useful to jump-start your metabolism.
• Is stress wreaking havoc on your weight loss effort?  If you're chronically stressed, your body will hold more visceral fat in your midsection. Find an outlet every day to reduce your stress.  Read more, take baths, enjoy the company of friends.  Again, if this is not helping, you need supplement help.  Brown seaweed has been shown to reduce visceral fat. A high quality supplement can be found at http://benewbody.com/ 

Still having trouble losing weight?

• lack of sleep, irritability, loss of sex drive, dry skin, irregular periods, can be sign of loss of hormones.  As we age, we are losing estrogen, testosterone and other hormones that were abundant when we were younger.  Hormone loss will also make losing weight very difficult. I recommend seeing an anti-aging doctor who can perform tests to check your levels and suggest treatments.  I'm a fan of bioidentical hormones.  You can read more about them in this great book by Suzanne Somers.

If you have any other suggestions on how you stay trim and fit, I'd love to hear them!
www.purennaturalfatloss.com