You want to lose weight, you have the motivation, you have been monitoring your diet and you have been sweating it out at the gym – yet those pounds don’t seem to come off you. Here are ten possible reasons you should consider, which can prevent weight loss despite your best efforts.

Big portions

Even if you cut out fattening foods from your diet, portion control remains important. While a balanced diet contains fruits, vegetables, meats and grains, an excess of any of these is still bad for your body. Try and incorporate all the nutrients into your diet but in small, reasonable portions.

Bad sleeping habits

Lack of proper sleep actually slows down weight loss. When you are tired and drained, your body makes up for it by consuming more food for energy. In order to give your body proper rest, you need to sleep for a minimum of 8 hours. Moreover, you need to make sure that your sleeping environment is peaceful and relaxing.

Ignoring breakfast

Skipping breakfast is one the major reasons why people don’t lose weight. If you skip breakfast, your body will crave energy during the day and you will end up eating more than you should. Many people skip breakfast because they don’t feel like eating early in the morning, if that is the case, you should slowly try to eat small portions of light food in the morning.

Not exercising enough

If you sweat it out at the gym twice a week but don’t exercise at all on other days, you will not see any improvement. The key to weight loss is regular exercise; you have to be consistent with your routine in order to successfully lose weight. It is recommended that you workout properly four days a week to see the best results.

Sticking to the same workout routine

Sticking to the same routine can also lead to decline in progress. It is important that you keep tweaking your workouts with different exercises, changes in weights and number of repetitions. You should make a list of different exercises and alternate between them during the week.

Needless snacking

Those small snacks you take several times between meals can add up to a lot of calories and effectively negate all the hard-work you put into your workouts. It is important that you stick to having three proper meals a day and not take snacks between them to make sure you know how much you are consuming and how much you need to burn.

Not drinking enough water

Water is essential for your metabolism and without it, the body slows down, which means you don’t lose weight as effectively either. Most people are so caught up with monitoring their food intake and workout routines that they ignore the importance of proper water intake.

Starving yourself

Technically, eating less should lead to weight loss, but your body is more intelligent than that. When you starve yourself, the body actually goes into an emergency mode, where it starts storing everything and accumulating fat (for sustainability). Your metabolism slows down and consequently weight loss declines.

Not monitoring your routine

If you are not keeping a record of your food intake, exercise routines, weight and measurements, you are doing it all wrong. If you want to see definite results, you have to keep track of everything. Most people simply get into a routine without proper planning. If you note down everything, you will be able to observe the trends and adjust your routine accordingly.

Fooling yourself

Most people fail at losing weight because they fool themselves. Don’t cheat on your diet, if you have a diet plan, stick to it. Make sure you research different foods and find out how many calories you should be consuming. Make a habit of reading food labels and being picky about what you buy and eat. It is important that you educate yourself and make informed choices.