We all know that the theory of eating fewer calories than our body requires results in weight loss, but sometimes that is not enough. Many factors sometimes hinder our weight loss process. There are many individual barriers and environmental barriers which play a crucial role in affecting weight loss.
Let’s know more about these barriers:
Individual Barriers
These barriers arise due to a person’s own thought process, belief and attitude
- Knowledge: Lack of knowledge about portion sizes and not knowing when to stop eating can decrease weight loss commitment and also lead to inaccurate food tracking in a person’s diet.
- Craving: People on a diet usually crave their favorite food, which is calorie-dense most of the time. Eating more calories can slow down the rate of weight loss.
- Emotions: This includes eating food to deal with negative emotions, also known as emotional eating, and stress, also known as stress-eating. Stressful circumstances can make you overindulge in unhealthy foods which later hinders your weight loss plan.
- Lack of patients and willpower: Many people give up when they don’t see desired numbers on the weighing scale or just a slight change. When you don’t see results despite doing the needful, your willpower decreases and you feel a lack of motivation.
- Lack of sleep: Lack of sleep can change the hormones associated with appetite regulation. Lesser sleep duration leads to an increase in hunger hormones that lead to overeating.
Environmental Barriers
These barriers arise due to external factors present in the environment that we live in.
- Family: A person may face constant criticism from family members and relatives if their diet is different from the family’s eating habits.
- Social Life: If frequent outings, social events, vacations are a part of one’s lifestyle, it can slow down one’s weight loss journey.
- Work schedule: Busy work schedule, no time to cook, travel job not letting you stick to the diet can also become a hindrance in following a diet
- Presence of food: Being around food all the time can increase your craving and affect your commitment to the diet.
- Income/cost-related factors: Not affording a healthy diet meal and eating more to avoid wastage of food can result in the consumption of more calories.
