Three reasons you’re not losing weight, from Ronny Terry

YOU'VE been plugging away at this weight loss malarkey for a while now, and despite emptying your cupboards of junk and searching for the latest quick fixes online, the scales are showing about as much movement as the Magic Roundabout during Friday’s rush hour.

It was never meant to be this way

With anyone and everyone banging on about how much weight they’ve lost and how quickly they did it, you’d think it we’d have it all wrapped up by now.

But as it stands, losing weight is still an incredibly tricky and often lonely process accompanied by occasional highs and depressingly frequent lows.

But amidst all this confusion and noise there are three obvious, but often overlooked, reasons you may be failing to lose weight. If you can get to grips with these basics, you can fix up your fat loss and drop some serious poundage in no time.

Not enough NEAT

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis is a big science term for the energy you burn doing anything and everything that isn’t planned exercise, eating or sleeping. The walk to work, your job - even the amount you fidget - all counts towards your NEAT.

Estimates suggest very active people can burn up to 50% of their daily calories from their NEAT compared to sedentary (posh for lazy) individuals with as little as a 15% contribution.

Let’s take two people, identical in every way, but one drives a car to work, sits down all day and then comes home and watches tv, and the other walks to work, walks around at work and then walks home.

If they are both trying to lose weight, person one is going to have to cut their calories by much more than person two.

In fact, person one could go to the gym four times a week and still struggle to burn the same amount of energy as person two does through their NEAT alone.

It’s not rocket science, but we all know someone that says they have a ‘slow metabolism' and usually these are the people that move the least.

The easiest way to increase your NEAT is to move more. You can do this any way you like – dancing, skipping, wheelbarrow race – but the simplest way is by walking.

A good place to start is 10,000 steps a day.

Most smartphones have built-in apps to track your daily steps, so it’s easier than ever to keep an eye on your NEAT.

In fact, your phone has most likely been tracking yours without you knowing – have a look and see; I dare you.

You have no idea how much you are eating

If we all agree that we lose weight when we burn more energy than we consume through food and drink then knowing how many calories you are getting through each day would seem a logical place to start if you want to lose weight.

Cutting down on junk food or reducing your booze intake may be enough to get things moving, but if you’ve been struggling to lose or maintain your weight for a while, diligently logging what’s passing your lips will take out the guess-work and speed up your progress.

There are loads of free apps out there, such as myfitnesspal, that make calorie tracking a doddle. OK, you may have to faff about a little to start with, but see these apps like Facebooks for your body fat – it’s time work out who your friends are and who you need to block to get ahead.

And as well as knowing the calorie content, tracking your food will make you more aware of other areas of nutrition that could affect your health, such as saturated fat or salt levels.

Oh, and I bet you can’t guess the calories in a Costa hot chocolate – it’s criminal.

You’re inconsistent

You can’t buy your wife flowers from the petrol station on Valentine's Day and show her no affection for the other 364 days if you want a blissful marriage.

In the same respect, making an effort with your diet one week and then not bothering the next will do nothing for your waistline and leave you tired, frustrated and desperate for another quick-fix.

Any diet that puts you in a calorie deficit will work if you are motivated to stick to it through thick and thin, smiling through the good times and accepting a little wobble and a few tears along the way.

I’m not saying all diets are equal, but jumping from one to the next in the hope of finding the missing link every time a little effort is required or when things have slowed down won’t set you up for success.

Summing up

Moving more, monitoring your food intake and being consistent – you’ve heard all of this before right?

But maybe that’s the problem.

Perhaps, with all the information flying around about losing weight, you’ve missed the wood for the trees. You’ve spent too much time worrying about if you should be cutting out bread or alcohol when you could have been looking at the bigger picture: calories, being active and taking action.

It’s never too late to get to grips with your weight, and by starting out with the basics, you can easily create a strong platform for long-term results.

For more of my weight loss tips, and free giveaways visit www.swindonweightloss.com