Are you happy with your weight? Great! You can skip this article.

Do you want to lose weight and know how? Great! You too can skip this article.

Do you want to lose weight and can’t? Do you work so hard and torture yourself with weird diets and waste tons of money at the grocery store on stuff that someone swears will help you change your body and life forever and feel hungry all the time and STILL can’t lose the weight you want to? Ok. Well then, this article is for YOU.

I love to learn stuff. Especially stuff about exercise and nutrition. Lately I’ve been learning a lot from a really great website called Authority Nutrition. They put out this great list of 11 common reasons people can’t lose the weight they’d like to. I absolutely love this list and think it’s spot on. Here are my thoughts on their list:

1. Protein. This is a big one. Sufficient protein intake MUST be a part of your diet if you want to gain muscle. Remember, the more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns at all times. Some people call this an increased metabolism, although it’s a little more complicated than that. Additionally, protein help you feel really full, satisfied, and energized for long periods of time.

2. Processed Grains. Some people might call this a low-carb diet. And yes, if you avoid processed grains, you will end up passing on a ton of carbohydrates. When we skip processed grains, we say no thank-you to breads, wraps, pastas, pastries, cereals, and many snack foods. These kind of processed carbs are low in nutrition and high in calories. They’re also loaded with preservatives and additives to enhance flavor and give them a long shelf life. All of these things can cause inflammation in the body, which can negatively affect health. Good carbs are whole foods like oats and low sugar fruits and veggies. Those kinds of foods are filled with real nutrition your body can use and can help you feel satisfied and invigorated.

3. Low-Fat and “Diet” Foods. Many people still think that the best way to lose weight is to buy up a ton of processed foods that boast being low in fat and calories. Like I said above, processed foods really have to pile on the chemicals, preservatives, additives, and salt to make up for the flavor they lose when they cull out all the fat and calories. Additionally, the Precision Nutrition article cites numerous studies that prove that low fat diets don’t actually help people avoid heart problems or cancer, nor does it help people lose weight. And a lot of times, when people avoid fat they tend to eat a lot of carbs instead. And we discussed above why that’s not a great idea. Finally, many people think it’s good to replace butter with processed oils and margarine. But again, processing and additives don’t add nutrition to our food and instead introduce chemicals and preservatives.

4. Juice. Oh juice, you trendy little mess. I bet there’s not one of you out there who doesn’t know someone who swears by some kind of magic juice for staggering weight loss results. Maybe it might even be you? The problem with most juices is that they’re usually loaded with sugar to make them palatable. Let’s just say you’re eating 2000 calories of regular food per day and you decide to try an all-juice diet. Because it’s just liquid, you end up drinking about 400 calories a day. Of course you’re gonna lose weight! However, the second you stop juicing and start eating regular food again you’ll gain it all right back. And while you’re on the juice cleanse you’re probably not going to feel great because you’re probably drinking a ton of sugar and not getting much nutrition (and probably zero protein!). This is a recipe for inflammation and yo-yo weight loss and gain. And if you add juice to an already nutritionally appropriate diet, you’re probably just adding in unnecessary sugars. Not exactly a route to weight loss.

5. Don’t Obsess Over Calories. If you eat 2000 calories a day and your diet comes from all whole, unprocessed and nutritionally dense foods that include plenty of protein you’ll feel satisfied, energized, and healthful. You’ll have plenty of oomph to do you workout and build muscle. Your hormone and inflammation levels will stay stable. Your body will incinerate calories while it’s exercising, building muscle, and working through all that fabulous fiber and nutrients you’re throwing its way. You’ll sleep well and feel happier, lowering your cortisol levels, a hormone that causes weight gain. Now let’s imagine that you eat 1500 calories a day all from candy, Doritos, and beer. I bet, even though you’ll be at a 500 calorie deficit that you won’t lose one pound. You’ll feel terrible, lethargic, and won’t have the building blocks you need to build muscle. I bet you’ll even be hungry and feel unsatisfied. In other words, not all calories are created equal”.

6. Whole Foods (No, not the grocery store!). I’ve been saying this for a while now and I’m going to say it again because I truly believe it’s the most important thing we can talk about when we talk about nutrition. Eat whole foods! What does that mean? Eat things that are minimally or totally unprocessed. Find out where your food comes from! You should care about the source and how it’s grown/raised. Farmer’s Markets are are growing in popularity every year. If you have access to any, please visit them as much as possible to eat things that are grown and raised in a responsible, chemical and hormone free way. You can also support your local economy and enjoy extra flavorful food that is grown outside in an appropriate season. You’ll get more nutrition, more satisfaction from your meals, and feel like a vital part of your community.

7. How Often to Eat. This one is my favorite. As nutrition science evolves, we too have to evolve and let go of old ways of thinking and eating. We have to be flexible and accept that maybe our old eating habits are not necessarily the best. New studies have shown that eating 5-6 small meals a day do little for boosting our metabolism, and that the overall amount of food we eat in a day is more important than the number of meals. The most interesting part is that short periods of famine are very beneficial to human body, because it produces a cellular repair press called autophagy. I used to be one of those people that would keep my body constantly in the “fed” state,  however that hasn’t been happening for the past year or so since I got really busy with my work, which naturally forces me into short periods of hunger. It’s a win/win situation for me and I bet it’s a huge relief for you too. No more stressing about all the snacks and small meals you have to plan during the day. Just eat your breakfast, lunch and dinner and if you happen to skip one of those, just make sure your overall amount of food for that day makes up for it.

8. Eat Your Yolks! Lots of people think that it’s dangerous to eat egg yolks because they’re high in cholesterol. But the yolk is nutritionally dense, holding almost all of the protein, vitamins, and minerals in the egg. The Authority Nutrition article cites a bunch of studies that prove that eating eggs has little to no effect on bad cholesterol levels and only increases the good cholesterol levels. Eggs are pretty amazing. You should eat ’em, yolks too.

9. “Health Foods”. Just because the package says it’s healthy, it doesn’t mean it’s true. Sadly it’s mostly the exact opposite. Beware of the words “organic”, “gluten-free”, “heart healthy whole wheat” or “vegan”.

Organic sugar is still sugar. Gluten free junk food is still junk food.

Heart healthy whole wheat is made out of modern wheat which has nothing to do with the nutritious wheat our ancestors ate. It has a similar glycemic index as white bread and can cause inflammation and increased cholesterol levels. Vegan products grow in popularity these days, and are often marketed as convenient replacements for non-vegan foods, but keep in mind that these are usually highly processed products that offer zero health benefits.

10. Butter is a natural fat. If you guys have been following me for a while and checking my food journal, you know how much I love butter. I even put it in my coffee! That’s a real love. Unfortunately it’s been getting a bad wrap from mainstream nutrition, which advises us to replace natural sources of fat such as meat and butter with processed vegetable oils and margarine. Why would anyone want to replace traditional foods with pseudo-foods that only make us fat and sick? Some folks just still don’t get it…

So, that’s my take on the AN list. Do you have any other big bullet points when it comes to losing weight? What are some of the challenges you face when you’re trying to lose weight? ‘Id love to hear all about it in the comments.