The 7 Things That Cause Weight Loss Resistance

#6: Toxicity

You might choose a detox or cleanse program to get lean and sexy for your high school reunion.

Partly fat burning comes from increased protein and healthier organic foods you eat on that cleanse. But reducing your toxic burden can also help you overcome weight loss resistance.

According to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives, for instance, bisphenol-A (BPA) can bind to fat cells and increase inflammation. Inflammation, you’ll remember, is a huge culprit for weight loss resistance.

Another study in the Alternative Medicine Review showed numerous environmental toxins could inhibit thyroid metabolism, leading to weight loss resistance.

Toxins can also create leptin resistance. When toxins bind to brain receptor sites, they stop “hearing” leptin’s message. Plus, toxins can interfere with your mitochondria, your cells’ “power plants” that burn fat for energy. In both cases, your body’s machinery can’t do its job and fat burning comes to a halt.

Strategies to detoxify: Eat plenty of protein, good fats, and sulfur-rich foods every day. Make sure you’re getting 35 grams of fiber from food and (if necessary) a supplement. Once or twice a year, consider a more comprehensive cleanse such as the PEERtrainer 14-Day Fresh Start Cleanse.

#7: Low-Calorie Diets

Maybe you had a friend who vigilantly followed a 1,200-calorie diet. At first, she lost several pounds a week. And then, by some cruel fate of nature, her weight loss just stopped. Like most people, she concluded she wasn’t being strict enough and pushed her calories down to around 1,000.

Despite her complaints about damaged metabolism, what she was experiencing was completely normal. Her basal metabolic rate (BMR) was compensating for her decreased calorie supply.

Besides keeping you hungry and cranky, low-calorie diets raise your stress levels. A study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine showed women who ate a 1200-calorie or less diet increased their cortisol levels. Researchers concluded that low-calorie diets “may be deleterious to psychological well-being and biological functioning.”

Conclusion

If you get just one thing from this article, it’s that hormones, not calories, run the show. Weight loss resistance happens when you send your body the wrong messages. If you’re eating a 1,200 calorie high-carbohydrate diet, you’re cranking up insulin and cortisol levels, both of which signal your body to store fat.

Strategy: Focus on food quality rather than just calories. Eating 500 calories of salmon and spinach, for instance, will help you burn more fat than 200 calories of pizza.

When you do this, you eat in a way that also reduces the effects of stress and insulin response