If you have been trying really hard and doing everything in your might to shed extra pounds and still not seeing any results, then blame it on your own body for resisting and fighting back to save fat from melting away. It’s a fact that when we try different methods to lose weight, we also tend to trigger biological processes and mechanisms that make fat burning a lot harder. Can you believe it, your body ups its ante and works in the opposite direction to hold on its fat deposits and can even make you regain weight! So, it’s important to find out the biological reasons that kick into action and how to correct them during your weight loss journey. So, here you go:

1. When you start losing weight, your Metabolism will Dip: Metabolism is the mechanism through which the body torches up calories from food as energy. When we make an effort to lose weight, the body lowers metabolism in order to conserve energy, and makes it extremely difficult for us to reach fat deposits. When the metabolism dips considerably, one can encounter “weight loss plateau,” where the body reduces its caloric expenditure to compensate for the low calorie intake. When your metabolism dips or becomes sluggish, it’s absolutely essential to find ways to fix it since a high metabolism can accelerate the pace of weight loss. If your body has dipped metabolism making it difficult for you to shed extra pounds, read about “8 Ways to Fix a Broken Metabolism.”
2. Malfunctioning of Leptin Hormone: Leptin is the satiety or fullness hormone that sends signal to the brain that you are “full” and have had enough food. Leptin and ghrelin (hunger hormone) work in tandem, with ghrelin hormone rising up only when there’s a need to replenish energy; however, when leptin malfunctions, it fails to send signal to the brain even when you have had enough food. As a result, one tends to overeat and gain weight in the process. Leptin resistance can also slow down your metabolism and increase the level of ghrelin hormone. Leptin also pushes your body to burn stored fat to produce heat. This hormone also plays an important role in the regulation of thyroid gland, growth hormone, and adrenal glands. So, we can easily state that when leptin malfunctions, you would find it difficult to lose weight because the body is always in a state of hunger. To increase leptin hormone, stay off refined foods and increase the consumption of healthy fats. Check out the weight loss diets on the Rati Beauty app on how to include the leptin-beneficial food in your diet.
3. Increase in Stress Hormone Cortisol: There are various studies that have proven beyond doubt that stress can increase belly fat, even in skinny women. Cortisol impacts fat distribution and causes fat to be stored around the abdominal area. Read about “10 Tips to Lower Stress in order to Lose Weight.”
4. Set Point Theory Kicks in: If you think that your body is refusing to shed extra weight even after eating as less as possible and exercising, most possibly “set point theory” has kicked in, where your body is fighting to maintain a certain weight, blocking all your weight loss efforts to get lean. The set point theory says that the body will hover around a specific weight and will fight and defend to stay this particular weight. It indicates that your weight may go up or down temporarily but will ultimately return to its normal set range. If there’s severe calorie deprivation (by following crash diets), the body will become fuel efficient and adapt itself to run on fewer calories. It does so by making metabolism slow, raising the appetite, increasing the levels of hunger hormone “ghrelin,” and bringing about changes in fat-burning hormones. As a result, you tend to burn less calories, and eventually, when you come off the diet, the metabolism will remain sluggish and weight gain would be rapid. Read about “5 Effective Ways to Overcome Set Point Weight” in this post.
5. Fat Burning Hormones and Enzymes Go out of Whack: Certain hormones in the body make you fat and keep you fat! Insulin and cortisol are two such hormones that are responsible for both weight gain and weight loss, depending on their levels. A deficiency of certain nutrients can severely affect the hormones that are necessary for weight loss, and that’s why a weight loss diet such as on Rati Beauty will help you to eat the right nutrients for the body to function properly and lose weight as well.
6. Insulin Resistance: Insulin is known as a blood sugar regulating hormone, but it also plays a big role in fat metabolism. When there is high amount of glucose circulating in the bloodstream on a steady basis, after a point, body cells become less responsive to the efforts of insulin. When that happens, all extra circulating glucose is directed to be stored as body fat. If you are trying to lose weight, it would do a great deal of benefit to remember that insulin resistance can actually prevent further weight loss and encourage storage of body fat. In fact, high and frequent insulin secretion will block fat burning (aka lipolysis). Insulin resistance also lowers metabolism, leading to weight gain. To improve metabolism and mend it, try correcting insulin resistance because it’s the hormone which can open the door to release stored fat in the body for burning when there is calorie deficit through dieting and exercise. To correct insulin resistance, stay away from refined carbs, white sugar, eat veggies, increase protein intake, and also correct magnesium deficiency if any.
7. Dip in Melatonin Hormone: Less number of sleep hours can absolutely halt all fat-burning efforts by lowering leptin, and increasing stress and hunger hormone. A good night’s sleep, ideally for 7 hours or more, is necessary to optimize all fat-burning hormones. To get good sleep at night, the hormone melatonin needs to be at good levels, and for that to happen, avoid using gadgets during bedtime, listen to soothing music. Here are some additional tips that will help you to conquer insomnia and sleep well at night.
8. Increase in Food Cravings: The body tends to heighten food cravings when calorie intake is lowered, creating an imbalance in ghrelin, leptin, insulin hormones. High stress, anxiety and emotional dependency on food can also trigger food cravings. When there’s extreme calorie restriction, we tend to have unwanted cravings too. Read about some amazing tips to counter cravings – 18 Effective Tips to Beat Cravings for Indian Junk Food and Eating These Simple Things Can Strike Down Cravings.

Taking care of these biological factors can increase your chances of weight loss, so do not ignore them.

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