Most people with a goal of weight loss, lose a few pounds at the beginning of their journey. Others keep the momentum going and lose weight for the first few months of their health journey. Some however aren't so fortunate. Their progress may stall after the first 5lbs comes off or after 10-20lbs of weight loss. No matter where you are at on your journey, if you have plateaued on the scale or around the waste line this article will discuss the aspects of weight loss you may be overlooking.

Losing weight isn't calories burned through exercise alone. Most people cling to this idea and typically it's cardio junkies. They think the more calories I burn during the workout the better off I am or the more weight I should lose. This isn't always the case. You need your body to be as healthy as possible to lose weight. You need to give it the environment to lose weight consistently. A scenario to picture is parents to a new born baby. Doesn't matter if you put yourself in the shoes of the mother or father. Both are losing massive amounts of sleep. Both have random and weird schedules while caring for the child. Their eating may not be the best food either because of time restraints, lack of energy or convenience. Nobody would disagree and think that this environment is the ideal environment to consistently lose weight.

Sleep

So what are some of these overlooked areas? First is sleep. Sleep may be the most important pillar of health we have. You can eat crappy food for a while and be fine or eat one meal a day and still be healthy. But go three nights in a row without sleep and you'll have big problems. So yes, shoot for eight uninterrupted hours of sleep every night. Make it a top priority to have a bed time routine everyday. That might look like reading for the last hour before bed. Or it could be taking a warm shower and keeping the lights off for the last hour. There are a lot of things you can do before bed to have a good night sleep. But sleep must be a priority.

Quality of Food

Next overlooked area is quality of food. From my experience a lot of people that want to lose weight run to counting calories first and tracking everything they eat. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but people often overlook food quality when counting calories. Not to mention the rigidity of lifestyle this puts on someone. The mindset shift while people count is typically one of, "if it fits my calories and macros I can eat it". This misses the point when it comes to the environment you are putting your body in. Even if it is more calories I'd much rather people eat chicken, ribeye, eggs, milk, fruits, vegetables than drink or eat protein shakes. Or I would much rather them eat foods that are going to satisfy them rather than just fit their calorie's. Yes oreo's may fit into your macros but are they good for you? Same apply's for frozen processed meals They may fit your calories but a whole foods home cooked meal is going to be a better environment for your body to be regularly.

Circadian Health

Finally the last overlooked area of weight loss is your circadian rhythm. For those unfamiliar with the term, it is your body's 24 hour clock or cycle. This ties into the first two points we touched on earlier. Your body was meant to do certain things at certain times of day and be in a certain environment. It is not normal to eat a big meal at midnight. Or work grave yard shift jobs for years on end. It's also not normal to be on technology and bright screens right before bed when the sun has already set. Not adhering to your body's normal circadian functions can make weight loss hard. Another way to picture circadian health is routines you put your body in. If you can wake up and go to sleep on a regular schedule and not jet lag yourself this does wonders for your body. It creates rythem within it's 24 hour cycle and this will time up things better. Your sleep will improve because your body knows when it is time for bed and time to be awake and alert. Or your body will know it's time to wake up and move and it can get your body into a state of ready to workout easier. The bottom line is try to create routines that you can do on a daily basis that won't screw up your internal clock.



Conclusion

Now these three overlooked avenues won't fix everyone's problems. But it will take a lot of people pretty far down their health journey. If you currently don't do any of these points we talked about, start with one and only work on that till it is a habit. Typically they say a habit takes a month to form. So work on one of these points till it's been a month in a row. Then add the next one do the the same thing. Then the next and so on and so forth. If you have comments about any of them, email me at chase.wenzl@uncivilized-wellness.com. Otherwise hopefully these tips help you break that plateau.