9 Hidden Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight No Matter What You Try

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Is your thermostat making you gain weight? Now that might sound crazy, but if the scale isn't budged, no matter what you've tried this and eight other surprising reasons could be making you struggle to lose weight. So here's number one, you're not getting enough neat. Neat? What is that? Well, NEAT stands for non exercise activity thermogenesis, which refers to the energy expended during physical activities that are not classified as exercise. So what the heck is neat then? It's things like moving around, fidgeting, tapping your foot, pacing, standing. Turns out people with higher levels of NEAT tend to have higher metabolism. And this makes sense because when you think about it, 10 to 15% of your daily expenditure, your caloric expenditure is neat, right? So higher metabolism, lower body fat compared to those people who have low levels of neat. Now here's the challenge. You don't really think about neat, right? So neat can account for a lot of of what's going on during the day, especially if you're not doing a lot load of exercise. So we really want to think about how do we get this up because exercise is usually 5 to 10% of the caloric expenditure. And neat, 10 to 15%. So what do we need to do to get it to 15% or maybe even 20% of your daily caloric expenditure? Well, here's what you can do. Do what I'm doing right now. Stand up, right? So I actually am recording this right now in front of my standing sitting desk. So I try to keep my desk high and stand as much as possible. You've heard that sitting is the new smoking, right? There's a reason for it. You know how they tell you at the store to park farther away? Except every time I drive up to a store, there's no parking close by, right? There's loads of parking farther away. Really do it. Park farther away. Take the stairs and fidget as much as possible. Just start to look at how much more you can walk. By the way, here's what's cool, your fitness tracker. Whether it's An Oura Ring Fitbit Apple watch will help you monitor this as well. So you just want to be moving and as much as possible. All right, so I kind of alluded to this one when I talked about your thermostat. But another reason you may not be losing weight is you're just too comfortable. And when I mean that, I mean too comfortable in terms of your temperature. Because in our super comfy modern society, we're all about keeping the temperature at the perfect level. I know I am right. My temperature at home is 70 degrees. And if it does get a little cold, I put on more clothes. If it's too hot, I take some off. This has shifted a lot from where I grew up because I grew up in Northern California and I still remember going to school in a T shirt when it was like 60 degrees. And so now I live in Florida. If it's 60 degrees in Florida, you pull out your puffy jacket. You really want your body to do the work to adjust to the cold or heat that makes your metabolism work. So instead of using the thermostat, which by the way is going to save you money too, right? Keep your Thermostat not at 72, drop it down, right? So keep it lower. So you actually have to do your own warming up, make your metabolism do the work here. There are some other things that you can do and they are totally worth it. I'll tell you about the first one that I did. It's cold exposure. I have a cold plunge at home and I want you to think of a cold plunge as the opposite of a hot tub. So hot tubs, like Yahoo, cold plunge, like, ah, they're going to be 40 to 50 degrees. And when I'm home, I try to do this a couple times a week. Here's why. It's like getting a metabolic shot in the arm. First thing you want to think of when you're doing cold exposure is you want to get cold enough so that you're going to shiver for about 30 minutes afterwards. I will tell you, when I first started doing this, I went a little overboard and I was like cold for hours. That's not the point. About 30 minutes afterwards you're shivering. And just the shivering alone can increase your energy expenditure. And guess what? You're burning more calories. But that's not the real big reason you're doing. I mean, that's exciting, but the real reason you're doing that is because of what it does to your fat. So we have brown fat and white fat. Brown fat's the very metabolically active fat. It's got a lot of mitochondria. It's boost your metabolism, it's thermic, right? And turns out when you do cold exposure, you brown your white fat. Also when you do cold exposure, you get this big endorphin response and a big drop in your appetite. The next thing that happens when you cold plunge is you reduce inflammation. So here's a little caveat with that, is this is fantastic. We want to reduce inflammation, but we don't want to reduce it right after we do a big hard weight workout. Because what happens after a big hard weight workout is your body's breaking down and then it goes through muscle protein synthesis. If you go in there and stop it with cold exposure, you can interrupt the repair process. So what I do there is if I'm going to the gym, I try to go get cold, then get myself warm again so that I'm warm to go to the gym. And then I wait 24 hours to do my cold plunge till the next morning. Now, if you're traveling, you can't do a cold plunge. You could still do cold shower. It's not quite as good, but it still works. Okay. Now, on the opposite end of the spectrum, you're getting super cold. Now I want you to get uncomfortably warm too. And you can do that through a sauna or a steam. These actually act like exercise mimetics. They mimic exercise because they bring your heart rate up and they boost your endorphins. Now, here's a couple of things that are cool about the heat. So toxins are stored in your fat cells. And the sauna, especially infrared saunas, can help release those toxins. So that's super important because we know if we have a big toxic load, our body actually tends to hold onto fat to keep the toxins stored away. Another cool thing with saunas is they're great for sore muscles. Now, really important when you're doing these is you're sweating, right? And when you're sweating, we know already, you should drink about half your weight and body half your weight in ounces every single day. But when you're doing exercise, where you're setting, when you're doing sauna, you're going to want to also replace electrolytes. So that's my reignite Wellness Electro Replenish. That's what I have when I'm doing this. I also take it to the gym with me. Now, I have a sunlight and sauna at home. But if you don't have access to a Sauna here, a couple other things. Easy alternative hot bath. And bonus points, add an Epsom salts because that's going to help you detoxify and it's going to give your body magnesium. And of course that magnesium and the hot bath can also help with weight loss and of course, or sleep rather. And if you help with sleep, you know what you help with, you help with weight loss, right? All right, number three, you got into a workout rut. It's so easy to fall into this. I mean, but first of all, could we get like a big, you know, yay for us that we are working out? I mean, so first of all, let's celebrate ourselves for working out. But let's make sure that when we are working out, we're getting the most out of it. Because the whole point of exercise is to be progressive. If you're going to the gym doing the same old thing, you're not going to continue to get results. You have to continue to push and progress in order to improve. Here is the important thing for you to know. Exercise doesn't get easier. You have to increase the intensity, whether that's by adding speed, by adding more weight, by adding balance, by adding duration, by adding volume, right? You've got to increase something in order to continue to progress. Now here's the thing with exercise. It's kind of this whole catch all phrase, right? When you're thinking exercise, I want you to think of the big bucket of muscular strength and endurance. And then cardiorespiratory fitness and balance also has to be added in the mix here because when you start to look at the lower risks of all cause mortality, you gotta think of strength, balance and cardiovascular fitness. So I break this into resistance training using weights or the trx. I love the TRX and great to travel with your body weight bands. And this ideally includes compound movements that help with everyday life. Things like squats and bent over rows and push ups, right? Things that you would normally do in life so that you can easily get the groceries out of the car. Now when you think of cardio training, I want you to think of things like cycling or walking, jogging, running the stairs. And then for core balance and flexibility, I look at things like yoga or Pilates. And your program needs to have all of these things, but you want to really prioritize your weakest link. So if you go, you know, I love going to the gym, but I hate doing cardio. Well, make sure that you prioritize that cardio also, it's bonus points but really important to include Some fun outdoor sports, first of all, to get outside, get into nature. But also that will include some agility, like pickleball. Great example. Big advice here. Work with a qualified trainer or coach, because this is, this is what you can do. You don't have to work with them every time. Get them to create a program for you, like every six to 12 weeks, and then give you metrics to monitor so that you know that you are improving. Remember what you measure and monitor. You can improve. Right? Okay. You're not getting enough protein. Now, here's what's sad. The typical adult American woman is getting somewhere between 45 and 60 grams of protein a a day. If you're following the RDA of 8 grams per kilogram body weight, then you may think, oh, I'm doing fine. But nope, not true. Because the leading protein researchers, they're all agreeing that that is, like, abysmal, totally low. And really that you want to be looking at having somewhere more around 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of target body weight, which is basically double that RDA right now. If you aren't getting enough protein, that means you're getting your calories from fat and carbs. That's like a recipe for weight gain, right? Low protein diets also can lead to muscle mass loss. And here's the deal. If you aren't actively feeding and building muscle, then Starting at age 40, guess what happens? You start to lose 1% of your muscle mass a year and 2 to 4% of your strength. You do not want to help this process. You want to interrupt this process. And one of the ways you interrupt this process is protein. Protein is the macronutrient superstar for fat loss. Just eating it in optimal amounts can help you put on more muscle. Now, obviously, I want you to lift weights, too, but just eating the protein can do that. Also, it's the most thermic macronutrient compared to fat and carbs. It requires 20 to 30% more energy to be digested and assimilated. Plus, it's way more satiating because it takes longer to be digested. So it's keeping your hunger hormones calmed down and quiet. All right, so how much protein should you have? Excellent question. What you're going to do is you're going to take your target body weight, you're going to multiply it by 0.7 to 1, and then divide that by your total number of meals. Let's make this simple. So let's say you weigh 150 pounds. You're eating three meals a day. Your protein range is somewhere between 105 and 150. So your meal range is 35 to 50 grams. The most important meals are what I call your bumper meals. That's when you break your fast. And the last meal before bed. You got to prioritize protein at these meals. Super duper important. You're not getting enough sleep. Now, we've all been there. You had a crappy night's sleep, and you wake up the next morning and guess what? You're hungry. And you're not hungry for that protein rich load smoothie? Nope. You want to go to the local Starbucks to get that mocha latte and that whipped with the whipped cream and let's call it what it is, that muffin is gut cake, right? And then that just like starts the downward spiral because now you're hungry all day long. And if you've ever had this happen, you're not dreaming this up. This actually happens when you don't get a good night's sleep. One poor night of sleep, you have increased ghrelin, which makes you hungry. You've decreased leptin, so your brain isn't getting the message to stop eating. So it's a double whammy. But there's more. You also have increased insulin resistance. So one study looked at nine healthy people after a night of solid sleep, eight and a half hours, and again after a night of four hours of sleep. And they found that in just one night of sleep deprivation created insulin resistance in healthy people. Now, high insulin levels, they increase fat storage, they increase appetite, and insulin resistance can impair the body's ability to use carbs and fat for fuel, which then contributes to weight gain. Now, I know, I know sometimes these night happen, but you want to do your very, very best to minimize them and make sure. I think this is the most important, that you're really prioritizing sleep. You're eating the right food, but you're eating it at the wrong time. Because now you know it's not just what you eat and how much you eat that matters. It's also when you eat. It's critical to work with your body's circadian rhythm to optimize your body's hormonal response to food. So here's how this works. So in the morning, you wake up. Cortisol rises to wake you up. And as this happens, melatonin goes down. Now, while your body's waking up, so is your pancreas, which is how your body secretes insulin in response to your meals. So you want to wait at Least an hour, but really more like 90 minutes to three hours. I think the sweet spot's probably around 90 minutes to two hours after waking up to break your fast, to give your pancreas the time it needs to get online again. Okay, now in the evening, cortisol's going down to help prepare you to sleep. Melatonin's coming up. And melatonin's coming up to put your body to sleep. And you know what else puts to sleep? Your pancreas. So now it's not as good as responding. So those late night snacks, and let's be real here, they're not broccoli and salmon, are they? Those late night carbon fat bombs are going to create even more problems than if you had them earlier in the day because you don't have the insulin needed to bring the blood sugar down and you aren't up and moving to use that food as fuel and to suck that sugar into your working muscles. And now you're supposed to be sleeping and what are you doing? You are digesting instead of resting and restoring. That's why nighttime eating is a big old risk factor for metabolic syndrome and obesity. It also really destroys your sleep quality, which then adds that double whammy because now you've got the poor sleep problem that I just talked about, right? And then of course, snacking. Snacking at night and during the day is problematic as it keeps blood sugar and insulin up above fasting levels, which then stops the fat burning. So the way we're going to do this correctly is to eat the majority and ideally all of your calories during daylight hours. So what you're going to do again, wake up, eat 90 minutes to three hours after waking, eat every three to six hours. Important, stop eating three to four hours before bed. You may be unknowingly overeating because you're eating hyper palatable ultra processed dirty foods. So in the end of overeating, taking control of the insatiable American appetite, Dr. David Kessler describes the irresistible combination of salt, sugar and fat. Like let's think nacho cheese Doritos, which by the way, pull back the kimono. When I was in college, I still like, I will never forget this, the orange fingers. I ate a two pound bag of nacho cheese Doritos at a college party. Holy smokes. Never ate them again after that. I will say, but you know, it's like one of those things, you know, the, the commercials are, you can't eat just one, right? Or the soda and the pizza. These hyper palatable foods just Override all your sense, all your ability to control the amount you eat. You just want to have got to have more and more and more and more. And the studies are showing, and I don't think we need a study, we all have experienced this, that they may be capable of triggering an addictive process similar to hard drugs. In fact, I still remember this study where they gave lab rats Oreo cookies and, and then they gave them an opiate and then they gave them the choice between the two of them. And you know what they choose? They choose the Oreos. Yep. So now, as you probably experienced, many of the ultra processed foods are created to be hyper, hyper palatable. Right? Which if you feel like, oh my gosh, this is a trigger for me, guess what? You're in front of a hyper palatable food, which is an awesome business strategy, but it's really a rotten health strategy. So if you've got a little hold, like some of these foods have got a hold on you, what are you gonna do? You have to break up with them, swap them for whole or minimally processed foods. It's gonna hurt you for a couple days and then you'll totally forget about it. And here's another thing that can help. You wanna build your plate protein first. So first you do the protein. The wild salmon, the pasture chicken, right. The grass fed beef. Then you add in the non starchy vegetables and then the rest of your macros would come from a little bit of healthy fats, a little bit of slow low carbs, like maybe some berries or some lentil or some. And track your macros. Man, it makes such a huge difference. I've been really focusing on this and it is just eye opening to see and it can really help you identify. Some of these things are sneaking in to your plate. You will see in real time how much these ultra processed foods are just wreaking havoc. So figure out your numbers, use an app to track them and adjust as you need because again, what you measure, you can improve. You are not drinking enough water. Now you have heard that you're supposed to drink at least eight glasses of water a day or better marker, really half your body weight in water. But did you ever wonder like why, why do I need to do that? Is this just like some weird urban legend? Well, it's actually super important advice because even mild dehydration can raise your stress hormone cortisol and it can cause you to store more fat, especially belly fat. In fact, this is wild. When you're dehydrated, your body actually makes Fructose from glucose. So normally we take fructose and turn it into glucose and store it as glycogen. No, not here. Or we make, we turn fructose into fat. What happens here is glucose is made into fructose when you're dehydrated, which then gets turned into fat. Dehydration can also lower your metabolic rate. It impairs your body's ability to generate heat, it decreases physical performance and it makes you hungry. So the opposite's true too. Though drinking water can boost your metabolism as much as 30% for up to 30 minutes after you drink it, it suppresses hunger. It helps you detoxify. Now here's the thing. How much water should you drink? Because you also don't want to go overboard on the other side. But if you're drinking about half your weight in ounces of water, unless you are like hot, humid environment doing saunas and sweating, then you're going to want to add some more. And when I'm doing that, I also add in my electrolytes. Again, my electro replenish. Okay, number nine, I talked about this a little bit, but let's talk about your environment. If your environment is toxic, so environmental toxins can be a major problem, creating weight loss resistance. Here's how these toxins build up in your body. Think of your body. Your body is not just a chemistry lab, it's also a history book. And you want to be detoxifying every single day. But if you are getting more toxins in than you're getting out, guess what? The toxins are building up. And you know where they go? They go in your fat cells and then they start messing around with things. They interfere with the normal functioning of hunger and the metabolism regulating hormones like insulin and leptin. They also increase chronic inflammation and they damage your gut. In fact, one of the biggest ways I see people get fat, food intolerant is because of toxic burden, all those things which also beyond that also impairs thyroid function, lowers your metabolism because your body doesn't want to release the fat because the fat's got the toxins. All of this obviously just puts the brakes on fat loss right now. This is a way bigger topic, obviously. I kind of just gave you a little bit there, but a way bigger topic than I can go into in this video. So you're going to want to check out the next one where I share more on how toxins impact your weight. Plus most importantly, nine simple actionable steps to help you detox and feel great again. For more info on this and other health topics I cover or to rate and review. Find me on Instagram, Facebook and my website, jjvirgin.com and don't forget to subscribe to my show so you won't miss a single episode. And go to subscribetojay.com thanks again for being with me this week.

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