These 6 habits can make losing weight difficult

In addition to fattening foods, there are certain habits that make the path to the desired figure difficult. If you avoid these six figure killers, it will be much easier to lose weight healthily.

Smart food choices, exercise and mindful eating – these strategies can help people who want to lose weight for health reasons because of obesity to lose weight in a healthy and long-term way. Nevertheless, there are always habits that can thwart your plans:

Constant stress

With too much fast food or sweets, it’s easy to imagine that losing weight won’t work out. In contrast, stress makes it harder to imagine the effects on the figure. But: Stress is an absolute figure killer.

Stress hormones inhibit fat burning

Stress is one of the most common weight brakes. Above all, constant stress, which many experience from a challenging job, prevents the body from burning fat. When you are constantly under pressure, a lot of cortisol is released. The hormone inhibits fat burning and also promotes the storage of belly fat.

Study: Stress makes you fat

Researchers at Harvard University examined 2,500 hair samples from adult men and women and determined the cortisol level here. The result: The study participants who had high cortisol levels not only had a higher body weight, but also a larger waist. An important component in order to be able to lose weight better and, above all, to get rid of annoying belly fat, is therefore: Balancing stress and thus reducing the cortisol level.

Oversized portions

A look at the portion sizes over the last few decades clearly shows that our meals have become bigger and bigger. This applies to portions that are served in restaurants as well as to pack sizes from the supermarket. This means that more and more land on the plate at home.

Those who are used to a certain portion size rarely fill up less. Often times, however, less would be enough to fill you up and smaller servings mean fewer calories. So test out how much you actually need to get full.

Emotional food

A typical reason why it doesn’t work for weight loss is emotional eating, so eating for emotional reasons. Do you know that? You start the day with a healthy breakfast, follow your plan until the evening and then everything collapses.

Possible reasons can be a strenuous day, stress at work or the desire for relaxation and reward. For many, this leads to so-called emotional eating. Especially sugary and high-calorie snacks in the evening can ruin your weight loss plan so quickly.

Starve

Eat as little as possible – that sounds logical when it comes to losing weight. But it is not that easy. If you force yourself to eat as little as possible during the day, the desire in the evening is often so great that there is no stopping it. Everything is made up here that you have denied yourself during the day.

The evening meal not only leads to physical discomfort for many, it also makes them feel guilty. The result: The next day, starvation is announced again. For many, this vicious circle not only prevents them from losing weight, it also affects their mood.

In addition, starvation and overeating have significant effects on your energy and performance. It also interferes with restful sleep, which is particularly important for successful and healthy weight loss. So forcing yourself to starve is not a good way to achieve the figure you want. Instead, try sensible, planned fasting periods, such as intermittent fasting.

Sedentary lifestyle

Exercise is an effective and meaningful way to stay healthy, fit, and slim. Exercise in everyday life is just as important. Lack of exercise is one of the biggest figure killers. The less you move, the less energy you use. In plain language this means: the fewer calories you can take in without gaining weight.

In addition, the muscles gradually break down with little movement. The body is smart: True to the motto “Use it or loose it”, it breaks down what we don’t use regularly. Therefore, try to move as much as possible in everyday life. Use every staircase, every small footpath and take a bike instead of taking the car. More tips for more exercise in everyday life.

Fattening foods

The dose makes the poison – this sentence is without a doubt true. It depends more on what you eat on a regular basis than what you enjoy every now and then. The following foods are real fattening foods and should therefore only be given in small doses:

Sweet drinks

Whether classic soft drinks, organic lemonade or juice – sweet drinks have several negative effects. Not only are they high in calories, promote high levels of insulin and thus inhibit fat burning, they also make you want more sweets. Since this type of drink, unlike water, hardly quenches thirst, we drink more and more of them.

White bread

Whether toast, brioche or the classic white flour wheat – they all primarily contain one thing: simple carbohydrates. These work in the body in the same way as sugar. They are neither filling nor satisfied, which is why we usually eat a lot of them.

Breakfast from the baker

The range of bakers and so-called bakery shops is getting bigger and bigger. Above all, the range of sweets is growing. In addition to donuts, cakes and sugar snails, there are a number of sweet treats. Many have made it a habit to get their “breakfast” at the bakery on their way to work, which is more like a sweet than a filling meal.   

Bacon, salami and Co.

It’s oozing with fat, salty and tempting to eat more and more: bacon. The breakfast favorite of the English rarely ends up on our plate. That’s a good thing, because in principle fatty, processed meat products such as bacon, salami, sucuk and sausage should remain an enjoyable exception, especially when it comes to losing weight.

Smoothies from the bottle

You are doing your figure a disservice with these supposedly “healthy” drinks. Even though some of them are rich in vitamins, they also contain lots of sugar, which disguises itself in the form of fruit. Better to prepare your smoothies yourself and use vegetables for them. It has hardly any fructose, but plenty of valuable vitamins and minerals.

Knowledge to take away

For those who want to lose weight and who want to lose weight for health reasons because of obesity, the weight loss strategy can still be good, but when figure killer keeps interfering, the weight loss usually fails.

Stress, for example, is one of the biggest figure killers. It not only inhibits fat burning, but also promotes the storage of annoying and unhealthy belly fat.

A lack of exercise is also a classic brake on weight loss. Sport is important and good, but you can also achieve a lot with exercise in everyday life. So use every opportunity.

Every now and then, a fattening diet is an enjoyable exception, which is also okay when losing weight. However, if you resort to sweet drinks, store-bought smoothies, processed cured meats, and white bread too often, losing weight becomes next to impossible.