Being in the practice of helping women find their weight loss codes, I have come across some interesting things that can cause big weight loss stalls.

Today I’m sharing with you the two things that you can begin implementing today to help speed up your weight loss efforts!

“I am good on 5 hours of sleep, Karen”

I can’t tell you how many time I have heard that statement from my clients.

Let me tell you right now, five hours of sleep is not long enough for your body to recharge.
Sleep has a massive impact on our weight and is something that is commonly overlooked and undervalued. When we sleep we reset two key hormones in hunger –  Leptin and Grhelin .
These two hormones are the most potent hunger controls out there. Both hormones, help us to regulate appetite and hunger. When you go for periods of time with not enough sleep this will impact these two hormones and drive you to eat more food.

Not only that it has been scientifically proven that lack of sleep creates stronger cravings for high calorie foods. Studies showed the more sleep deprived people were –  the more they wanted junk food.

What can you do about this?

Hmmmmm how about GET MORE SLEEP! Ideally aim for 7.5 or more every night. A few tips to ensure a good quality of sleep is to quit watching TV and working on computers at least 1-3 hours before bedtime. The blue light that comes off the screens can suppress the production of our sleep hormone melatonin and will send signals to the brain that it is still light outside.
Be sure to use black out blinds and keep the room cool. Do not drink any caffeine after 2pm during the day and do not eat sugar within a few hours of going to bed. Make sleep a priority and do not take it for granted, sleep not only helps your entire body to restore itself but also regulates metabolism and hunger signals. If you have been chronically sleep deprived and begin getting consistently good sleep don’t be surprised if your weight starts to come down.

You’re not eating enough

SAY WHAT!? That’s right! You might not be eating enough!

This is a really hard one for women to wrap their heads around and even harder to implement. It has been driven into our heads that the more you eat, the more calories you have to burn and the fatter you will get.
However it is not so simple if you are anything like me & have spent a lifetime trying to eat less food. A possibility of not eating enough is something called re-bound weight gain. If your body is constantly being put through a form of starvation, it signals the brain that there is a famine and quickly lowers the metabolism and stores the fat! This is why after going on extreme diets you gain all the weight back plus some. When the diet is over and you begin eating more food this signals  your brain “Hey there is food around –  the famine is over quick, eat everything in sight, store some extra fat and prepare for the next famine”. On goes the vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting and gradually destroys our metabolisms. The less we eat the slower our metabolism can become.

What can you do about it?

Eat everything in site, fill your face and don’t worry about it!
Okay all kidding aside you want to eat the right foods and enough of them. This can be a tricky science of sorts because there is some truth to calorie in and calorie out. You want to eat foods that trigger there is plenty around to the brain and that will cause a natural caloric deficit without signaling to your brain that you are hungry. Sounds too good to be true I know, but there is a way.

Eating nutrient rich foods especially good fats and protein, trigger those hormones I mentioned above called leptin and ghrelin. Sugar and refined carbohydrates don’t have the same effect and will trigger a blood sugar spike instead. Eating too many refined carbohydrates will keep your body feeling hungry and keeps you in that fight of trying to resist eating more foods and starving yourself whilst lowering your metabolism. This is why I suggest to majority of clients to start with a Paleo based diet.
It is the only diet that I have come across where people can feel satiated and can create a natural caloric deficit without feeling like they are starving. The paleo diet is a great template to work from eating lots of vegetables, fruit, nuts and well sourced meats, seafood and fish. Bottom line is….eat the right foods and quit starving yourself or you may only get fatter.

Do either of these sound familiar? I would love to know – so leave me a comment and tell me which resonates with you.