1. Drugs.
It is no secret that psychiatric meds especially antidepressants make you gain weight. Some of the commonly used ones are Celexa, Prozac, Remeron, Paxil, Zoloft, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Risperdal. All these drugs make you feel better but in doing so they increase your appetite, which leads to weight gain. Eating the right amount of protein, drinking enough water and eating healthy fats like avocados, eggs and nuts can keep you full longer and help with this issue. Diabetic medications like Amaryl, Glucotrol, Micronase, Actos, Prandin and Insulin can make you gain weight. Cutting down on your carb intake will not only improve your diabetes, it will also make you lose weight. Steroids can increase your appetite and make the body retain water, hence leading to weight gain. Drugs that prevent migraines and seizures. Elavil, Depakote can also lead to some weight gain. Over the counter allergy medications like Zyrtec, Benadryl and Allegra can also cause minimal weight gain.
2. Hormonal imbalances
Excess of Insulin and insulin resistance can lead to increased blood sugar and increase in body fat. Poly Cystic Ovarian syndrome can also cause increase in body fat. If your thyroid hormone production is running low, it could slow your metabolism down and make you gain weight. Are you a female getting hit by perimenopause or menopause. The change in hormones can make you gain weight.
3. Stress
Stress and lack of sleep can increase the levels of Ghrelin, this can in turn can make you super hungry all the time and make you gain weight. Lack of sleep also puts more stress on your body and your body takes that as a lack of nutrition and your body holds on to everything you put in your mouth and that my friend leads to weight gain. Adults with poor sleep have a 55% greater risk of becoming obese.
4. Sleep Apnea
OSA leads to poor sleep quality and puts unnecessary stress on the heart and the rest of the body causing weight gain. Please talk to your doctor and get a sleep study done, the treatment could change your life and help you lose weight and live longer.
5. Water
You are not drinking enough water. People drinking 16 oz of water before a meal have shown to lose 44% more weight than the ones that don’t. On an average anybody wanting to loss weight should drink around 64 oz of water a day.
6. Protein
You are just not eating enough protein. Protein is the single most important nutrient in losing weight. Protein not only keeps you full longer, it also helps build lean body mass, which in turn will burn more fat and help you with your weight loss efforts. Consuming 25-30% of your calories in protein can boost your metabolism by 80-100 calories per day.
7. Vitamins
Your body is deficient in vitamin B12 or vitamin D. These vitamins are very crucial for the proper functioning of your body and a deficiency will not only make you tired and achy, it will also put a damper your weight loss efforts.
8. Diet
You are eating really bad or eating too much of the good food. No matter which diet you follow, you have to create a caloric deficit to lose weight. Maybe you are eating healthy. A hand full of nuts seams like a good snack, having it a few times a day though will really jack up the number of calories you are consuming.
9. Exercise
You are not exercising. Whether it is lifting weights or doing cardio, they both tone your body and help build lean muscle mass. Lifting weights also prevents your metabolism from slowing down. Please don’t go and start with spending 2 hours at the gym or start with HITT(High intensity interval training). Your body is not used to it, you could get hurt. Start walking and slowly progress to everything else. Do more of the NEAT stuff. Hmm… What is NEAT? Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). This is the energy spent by your body in doing small tasks when you are not sleeping or exercising. So get moving, do the dishes, go up and down the stairs, clean the house, do yard work. INCREASE your NEAT.
10. Expectations
Your weight loss expectations are unrealistic. You didn’t gain it overnight and you can’t lose it overnight. It is going to take time.
These are the top 10 reasons why you are not losing weight. Please talk to your doctor and get tested for thyroid hormones, Vitamins B12 and D. See if your medications can be adjusted. Sleep better, sleep more, reduce stress. Eat better and eat less. Drink enough water and eat enough protein. If you snore a lot and feel tired all the time, you could have OSA, please get a sleep study done. Start exercising and slowly increase it. Replace some of your meals with precalculated meal replacements. My neat nutrition can help.