How To Lose Weight Fast–And What’s Hindering Your Progress
Takeaways
Energy balance determines your weight. To lose weight, you must create a calorie deficit (i.e., burn more calories than you consume).
Certain health issues, like hypothyroidism and hormonal imbalances, can hinder your weight loss progress. Addressing these issues may help get your weight loss back on track.
Improving your dietary habits and incorporating resistance training into your exercise routine could help you achieve a calorie deficit necessary for weight loss.
Avoid losing more than 0.5 kg (1.1 lb) weekly; rapid weight loss could cause muscle loss, increased appetite, and slowed metabolism. You also face an increased risk of nutrient deficiencies.
If you haven’t had any success with losing weight via lifestyle interventions, you may be a suitable candidate for weight loss medications. Speak with a doctor to find out more.
Losing weight can feel like a constant struggle. No matter how you exercise or tweak your diet, sometimes the numbers on the scale refuse to budge or stall after a while.
To understand why that may be so, you should first know that your energy balance determines your weight. If you eat fewer calories than your body burns (i.e., negative energy balance), you’ll lose weight—and vice versa. But what about when you’ve increased physical activity and made diet changes and your weight loss plateaus?
To get out of a weight loss plateau usually requires a change in strategy and plan. Other times, it could signal underlying health conditions that cause your metabolism to slow, making your body “inefficient” at burning calories, thereby holding on to excess weight.
If you suspect an underlying health condition could be preventing you from making weight loss progress, read on.
This article explores the possible reasons you're not losing weight and, more importantly, the steps you could take to (finally) get the excess weight off.
Health issues that hinder weight loss
1. Hypothyroidism
Hypothyroidism, also known as underactive thyroid disease, is a condition where the thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormones.
As thyroid hormones control your metabolic rate (i.e., how quickly your body uses energy), people with hypothyroidism have a slow metabolism. In other words: they burn fewer calories at rest and during activity—making weight loss more challenging.
Symptoms of hypothyroidism include:
Feeling tired
Hair loss
Dry skin
Constipation
Weight gain
Hypothyroidism is diagnosed by a blood test that shows high thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and low thyroid hormone levels. TSH is a hormone made by the pituitary gland that tells the thyroid to make thyroid hormones. It’s elevated in people with hypothyroidism because the body recognizes it’s not making enough thyroid hormones so it makes more TSH in response.
2. Hormonal imbalances
Hormones play a crucial role in weight loss and maintenance. So, your struggle to lose weight may hint at hormonal imbalances (i.e., you have too much or too little of certain hormones). Common “culprits” include testosterone, estrogen, and leptin.
Testosterone: Helps burn fat and put on muscle; low testosterone levels are linked to higher levels of body fat and less lean muscle mass.
Estrogen: Helps regulate appetite, speed up metabolism, and prevent overeating. Menopause is marked by a significant decrease in estrogen levels that is commonly linked to weight gain.
Leptin: Helps decrease appetite and regulate body weight. Certain individuals have high leptin levels, which causes increased hunger and difficulty losing weight
Stress and poor sleep can also throw your hormones out of balance and cause high cortisol levels. When your cortisol is high, you’re more likely to eat high-calorie foods rich in carbohydrates and saturated fat, making it difficult to lose weight.
3. Polycystic ovary syndrome
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a condition common among women of reproductive age that could cause infertility, irregular periods, and weight gain.
Women with PCOS often have high insulin levels. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that transports glucose into cells, where it is burned for energy. High insulin levels promote fat storage, increased appetite, and weight gain. This is why women with PCOS often struggle to lose weight.
4. Medications
Certain medications may be hindering your weight loss.
Medications that cause weight gain include:
Antidepressants
Diabetes drugs
Antipsychotics
Gabapentin
Cushing's syndrome is a condition caused by high levels of cortisol that is linked to weight gain. It’s most commonly caused by taking hydrocortisone (cortisol as a medication) to treat inflammatory disorders like asthma and autoimmune diseases.
The best ways to lose weight fast
Improve your diet
The fastest way to lose weight is through eating better. It’s possible to lose 5 to 8.5 kg (11 to 18.74 lb) over the course of 6 months by changing your diet and reducing the amount of calories you consume.
When it comes to weight loss, research has found that there is no one best diet. No matter which diet you follow (e.g., low-carb or low-fat), you will lose weight—so long as it's healthy, sustainable, and puts you in a calorie deficit.
So make sure you find a diet that makes you feel good and leaves you feeling full and satisfied.
If you want to learn more about how to put yourself in a caloric deficit to control your weight loss, read this guide.
Incorporate resistance training
No one disputes the role of exercise in losing weight. However, when it comes to exercise, most people assume more cardio is the key to their weight loss struggles. While cardio is a necessary part of a healthy weight loss journey, doing cardio-only is not the best strategy for sustaining weight loss.
When you lose weight through cardio exercise, it’s mainly due to lost water and muscle mass. This decrease in muscle mass will eventually cause you to plateau. Less muscle means you’ll burn fewer calories at rest. It also means you’ll need to eat fewer calories to keep losing weight. To counteract this vicious—and unsustainable—cycle of eating fewer and fewer calories, you need to put on more muscle. That’s where resistance exercise comes in.
Resistance training is one of the best ways to lose weight fast. It increases your muscle mass, helping you sustainably burn more calories in the long-term.
How quickly can you lose weight and stay healthy?
In general, it’s best not to reduce your daily caloric intake by more than 500 calories. This results in 0.5 kg (1.1 lb) weight loss a week.
Losing weight faster than this can be counterproductive and potentially harmful.
Research shows rapid weight loss causes muscle loss, increased appetite, and a slowing of metabolism. When your body doesn’t get enough calories, you will start to lose muscle mass. Muscle mass burns more calories than fat, which means you'd end up burning fewer calories than before. Eating too few calories can make you tired and less likely to move around and exercise. This also means you're burning fewer calories.
Rapid weight loss diets can even become dangerous as they increase the risk for nutrient deficiencies. Many diets that cause rapid weight loss involve cutting out entire food groups, causing you to miss out on important vitamins and minerals. For example, vegan and vegetarian diets are at a greater risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 is a vitally important nutrient needed for nerve function, red blood cell formation, and DNA synthesis. It’s also needed to process carbohydrates and fat for energy.
Low- or no-carbohydrate diets that cause you to shed pounds quickly also cause you to lose a lot of water weight. This can lead to dehydration, as well constipation, fatigue, and headaches.
Losing weight should be a safe and sustainable process. This means your weight loss efforts shouldn’t cause new health issues. You should also be able to lose weight and keep it off without experiencing rebound weight gain or constant hunger.
This weight loss planner will show you how to lose weight safely and keep it off in the long term.
Can medications help you lose weight?
If you've been trying hard to lose weight but have been unsuccessful thus far, it may be worth seeking professional guidance. A doctor would be able to diagnose any underlying health conditions that could be preventing you from losing weight and treat it with the help of medications
Weight loss medications work because they act on a biological level. When coupled with a healthy diet and regular exercise, weight loss medication can help you lose weight effectively and safely, overcoming biological factors that could be hindering your progress.
Currently, the FDA has approved 5 drugs for long-term weight loss. These include:
Orlistat (Xenical, Alli)
Naltrexone-bupropion (Contrave)
These medications work by suppressing your appetite or reducing the absorption of fats and carbohydrates.
It’s important to remember that medications aren’t a replacement for exercise and healthy diet when losing weight. Instead, they are best used in combination with these weight loss strategies.
Who can benefit from weight loss medications?
If you haven’t reached your weight loss goals with diet and exercise alone, you may be a good candidate for weight loss medications.
Doctors usually prescribe weight loss medications if your body mass index (BMI) exceeds:
- 30 kg/m2 or
- 27.5 kg/m2 with concurrent obesity-related comorbidities
Losing weight requires you burn more calories than you’re consuming. If you’re struggling to lose weight, there may be underlying factors responsible. Remember that your weight is 80% determined by your genes. While diet and exercise are key components of a safe and sustainable weight loss plan, certain medications can help make your weight loss goals easier to reach.
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