Why Can't I Lose Weight?

You really want to lose weight, you've been trying to lose weight and get fit for some time, but somehow it just isn't happening. "Why not?" I hear you scream through clenched teeth.

Well, there are probably several reasons and the most likely of them are

1. You are still eating too much. It is astounding how much the average person can pack into their stomach in the course of a day. Once you develop a habit of eating up big, it takes a really conscious effort to cut down.

You must not eat till you feel full cause it takes your stomach 20 minutes to get the message. You can consume a lot of calories in 20 minutes and this may be where you are doing the damage. Or you could be mindlessly grazing all day. Either way, you have to keep careful track of how much you eat.

2. You are eating the wrong type of food at the wrong times. It you wake up each day determined to eat less, you may be starving yourself at the wrong end of the day.

Many would-be weight-losers begin their day with deprivation; no breakfast, no morning tea, a low fat tub of yoghurt for late lunch, a small sugar hit for afternoon tea, a pre-dinner drink or two with a packet of salty snacks, a big dinner complete with plenty of carbs, a rich desert, a well deserved bedtime snack (because you ate hardly anything all day).

And next day, with the acrid stench of defeat hanging heavily in the air, back to skipping breakfast again.

It is no deprivation for you to turn your calorie intake upside down, it's just a new habit that will take a few short weeks to get used to.

If you eat a decent breakfast, have healthy snacks morning and afternoon and sit down to a really nutritious lunch, you will use those calories for good (giving you the energy to think and work and exercise) not evil (parking excess fat on your poor innocent hips and belly).

3. You are not allowing your body to partake of the regular exercise it needs. You have to incorporate heart rate lifting, mood enhancing, fat burning exercise into your weekly routine. Up to one hour a day brisk walking will do it for you (have a rainy day contingency plan so you don't fall off your program).

If you know you need to lose weight, if you feel unhappy about your weight and you don't like the way you look, then you have to change what you are currently doing to alter your thoughts, feelings and body shape.

That's about all there is to it. Eat less than your overweight body needs, eat the right foods at the right time and get moving every day. Then, and only then, you will be assured of losing weight.

Rosie Peters gives common sense advice, encouragement and tips for weight loss, sensible diet and lifelong fitness. Sometimes it's not what you want to hear, but what you need to know. Visit Rosie to get diet advice and fitness tips for losing weight

Rosie's e-Book Weight Loss is Simple may be what you're after. Check it out & get a FREE copy of her popular e-Book Fat No More, while you're there.