Let me know if this sounds familiar. You decide to embark on a weight loss journey. You start a new diet, you get yourself a gym membership and begin exercising. At first you start seeing some results here and there, but after a while the scale does not want to budge.

It feels like no matter what you do, you can’t lose weight.

I know how you feel. I’ve been there.

As much as I hate to admit it, weight loss is harder than what I would like it to be.

But that does not mean that you should give up on your weight loss journey! It’s not that you can’t lose weight and that you’re stuck where you are forever. It means that there are some tweaks and adjustments that need to be made.

There are a lot of potential reasons why you are not losing weight. Eating too many calories, not exercising, following fad diets, medical reasons, too much stress, lack of sleep, not doing resistance training, just to name a few.

I am here to help!

This article lists 27 reasons why you’re not losing weight.

Under each section (reason) there are actionable tips to quickly resolve them and start seeing results again.

Weight is Not a Good Measurement of Progress

The term weight loss is one of the most flawed fitness jargon out there.

In our minds, when we see the number on the scale go down we automatically believe it’s a good thing.

The diet, workout and hard work is paying off. I am losing weight, yay!

And vice versa, when we see it going up we believe it is a bad thing.

All that hard work and I’m still gaining weight? Screw this!

Unfortunately, our body weight is not two dimensional.

Your weight is influenced by a number of factors such as muscle, bone, water and body fat.

For example, when you first start exercising and dieting you might see a drop in weight due to the sudden change in your lifestyle. After a while, your weight might not move an inch, but you are still noticing signs of improvement. Your abs are starting to show and you’re more lean. Your body composition improves with time, but your weight hasn’t moved much. This is because you have gained some muscle and your bone density has increased as a result of exercise.

After a while you might even notice you have gained weight while dieting and working out, but your composition has drastically improved.

A good example is that of Kelsey Wells.