Have you ever noticed how most people hover around a sticking point with their weight loss? Whether they feel that they’re 2 pounds overweight, or 20 or even 200, they tend to hang around the same weight range of about 5 to 10 pounds. Why is that? I’m convinced of two main reasons for this phenomenon, one being biological and the other psychological.
Your stubborn fat: We all have at least one thing in common. Our body’s primary goal is to survive. Period. It will place this goal ahead of all others, including how you feel about your body’s appearance, how you feel when going through a detox or illness, etc. It will basically take you to the extremes of pain and discomfort if it means achieving this ultimate goal of survival. It simply does not care about your feelings.
A major part of this ‘survival protocol’ is energy storage. Your body loves loves loves its fat because the more it has, the longer it can survive without food. It’s like money in the bank, or a savings account to be more specific. Do you usually use that money for everyday purchases? No? Well neither does your body. It uses the food you eat each day as fuel and puts the surplus in the fat bank. The simple logical secret here is to use more energy than you consume (daily and weekly) and force your body to dip into its reserves. Simple, but not easy.
Your stubborn sabotaging subconscious mind: I’ve never met anyone that wanted to lose extra weight that didn’t already have underlying mental and/or emotional reasons for keeping that extra weight (usually fat) on their body. The tricky part to this one is that the reasons are almost always kept hidden from your conscious mind. Getting to the bottom of these issues can be a lengthy and complex process, but also a very rewarding one, and I highly recommend seeking the help of a trusted therapist or friend. But there’s also a simple tie in with your body’s survival protocol that may be sabotaging your weight loss efforts.
Somehow, your subconscious mind makes an agreement with your stubborn surviving-body that you’ll both maintain a certain level of extra fat storage, and there appears to be absolutely no logical reason for it. You simply agree (on some level) to maintain a certain weight, even after you may have decided (consciously) to lose weight.
Have you ever been in a position where you had a bunch of extra pounds to lose, and during some part of your day, you experienced a strong feeling of ‘hunger’ and you proclaimed to anyone within hearing distance “I’m starving! I need to eat something.” You actually felt like you might die if you don’t get something to eat right at that moment, even though each one of your pounds of stored fat has enough energy to keep you alive for days… each pound.
So, this is where you could have your ahah moment of opportunity and realize that your stubborn body is sending you a very powerful signal that you better go and shove some food in your belly right now or you might die soon because it doesn’t care how much saved up fat energy it already has. You just have to realize that when your body is using (losing) its fat, it feels like you’re dying… or you may just feel hungry. 😊
Either way, you’re going to have to get used to that feeling if you ever want to be successful at losing weight and keeping it off. I’m not telling you to starve yourself of vital micro and macro nutrients, but getting used to creating an energy deficit and using your stored fat for fuel, a little bit each day and week, is the smart way to go.
If you need help creating a healthy, flexible, and personalized meal plan for consistent fat loss, please don’t hesitate to reach out and we’ll get you started on a path to success.
