Why Can't I Lose Weight?

"Why am I not losing any weight?"  Hands down, this is the most common question I get from my clients.  My answer is always the same: "You are taking in more calories than you are using."  It is that simple.  To some extent, not all calories are equal.  Nonetheless,
bottomline, the reason you are gaining weight or not  losing weight  comes down to this: you are eating more than you need.

The reason you are not using all the calories you are taking in can be more complex.  Some physiological conditions can stymie your weight management program; e.g. hypothyroidism.  That is not the most common problem but, whenever I have a client who insists they are only eating three grapes and a lettuce leaf a day but still can't lose weight, I insist that, without changing any of their present eating and drinking habits, they keep a food diary for one week.  If it is only a vagrant gnat, I want to know everything ingested.  The food diary doesn't always reveal the problem because about a third of the time they either lie or think one little mint now and then or a glass of wine at night doesn't matter.  The fact is that one little mint a day can equal a one mile walk a day and 5oz. of wine has almost as many calories as a 12 oz. coke.

If the food diary doesn't reveal the problem, pay your doctor a visit.  Explain your dilemma to your doctor, have him/her give you a thorough checkup and include a thyroid function check in your blood panel.  If all comes back good, then we are back to too much food and/or too little exercise as the cause of the weight management problem.   If you find you have a medical condition that impedes weight loss it doesn't mean you can't lose weight.  It only means you will have to be a little more diligent.

Which is more important, diet or exercise?  Let's just put it this way:  Those who lose weight by diet alone rarely keep it off and those who attempt to lose weight by exercise alone rarely succeed.  OK, so you don't want to hear that you are going to have to adopt a lifestyle of exercise and healthy eating.  You have an option.  You can resign yourself to the fact that you will remain overweight (most likely in mounting proportions), find yourself unable to participate in a lot of activities, spend more on drugs and MD visits, suffer some form of cardiorespiratory illness, significantly increase your chances for several types of cancer, spend your senior years (if you get there) debilitated to some degree and likely to die a half decade or more earlier.  The decision is yours.