6 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight and How to Start Making Progress

You're doing the whole balanced diet thing and trying to get some exercise most days of the week to try to lose some weight. But so far the scale isn't budging. What gives?

While any efforts to improve your health are worth applauding, "weight loss requires self-awareness," says Abraham Betancourt, MD, a bariatric surgeon at Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Yes, losing body fat and keeping it off usually involves cutting back on your portions. But there are other factors you also need to pay attention to that could end up influencing whether you're able to reach your goal.

Some of the most common culprits? Not choosing the most nutrient-dense foods, skimping on sleep and letting your stress levels snowball, experts say. Here's a closer look at why these things (and others) can thwart your weight-loss success, and what to do about them.

Weight loss isn't ‌just‌ about calories, but they do matter. So if you're consistently taking in more calories than your body needs you may not reach your weight-loss goals. Ultimately, "you need to be eating fewer calories than you're [burning]," says Lisa Young, PhD, RDN, professor of nutrition at New York University and author of ‌Finally Full, Finally Slim‌, also known as a calorie deficit.

The ideal size of that deficit depends on your age, sex assigned at birth, height, current weight and your activity level. "It's very individual-based," Young says. But trimming around 500 calories a day is a good starting point for most people, according to the Mayo Clinic.

And it's also possible you're not eating enough: Getting fewer than 1,200 to 1,500 daily calories could actually stall weight loss as your metabolism slows and harm your health.

Highly processed foods and drinks like fast food, white bread, packaged snacks, processed meats, fried food and soda might satisfy a craving in the moment.

But they actually might drive you to eat more: In a small July 2019 study in ‌Cell Metabolism‌, people who could eat as much as they wanted on an assigned ultra-processed food diet ended up taking in around 500 more calories per day on average than people assigned to a unprocessed food diet.

Processed foods are engineered to make us want to eat more of them, and eating them teaches our bodies to crave them, according to the Cleveland Clinic. But when it comes to reaching a weight-loss goal, "food quality is just as important as the number of calories consumed," Young says.

Unchecked tension leaves you feeling lousy, and that stress can affect your weight.

The stress hormone cortisol ramps up your appetite and can send you scrounging for comfort foods, which tend to be higher in sugar, refined carbs and unhealthy fats, says Steven Batash, MD, a board-certified gastroenterologist at the Batash Endoscopic Weight Loss Center in New York City and Miami. In short, "stress makes us emotional eaters," Dr. Batash says.

If you're losing inches but not weight, the scale might not be budging because you've put on some muscle. "If you're exercising regularly and doing a mix of cardio and strength training, it's very likely that the ratio of muscle to fat, or body composition, is changing," Dr. Batash says. Even though your weight might read the same, you're likely leaner and stronger.

Sleep deprivation leaves you tired and cranky. And if you're falling short night after night, it can start to affect your weight.

Getting fewer than seven hours of sleep a night was linked with a higher risk of obesity than getting seven to eight hours of shuteye in a May 2022 ‌Nutrition Reviews‌ analysis. Sleep deprivation can ramp up appetite-boosting hormones, driving you to crave high-calorie foods that can contribute to weight gain, Dr. Betancourt explains.

If you're not losing weight with diet and exercise, you could have an underlying medical condition that makes it harder to shed pounds, like an underactive thyroid, Cushing syndrome or Prader-Willi syndrome.

Certain medications — like steroids, some antidepressants, antiseizure medications, diabetes meds, antipsychotics and beta blockers — can also make weight loss more challenging, as can conditions like arthritis that may make physical activity more difficult, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Lasting, sustainable weight loss tends to happen slowly. So if you're eating a balanced diet, getting enough exercise, managing your stress and getting enough sleep, you should start to make some headway.

If you're checking all the boxes and still not losing weight, let your doctor know, Dr. Batash says. They can help you figure out whether there's an underlying medical problem or another issue that's making it harder to lose weight — and help you come up with a plan to make progress toward your goal.