The weight loss blocker checklist
You should check these things first if weight loss is strangely difficult for you
If you have a serious hypothyroid issue, even if you eat 800 calories a day, you will still probably not lose weight, or even potentially still gain weight. Trying to out willpower yourself to weight loss with a hypothyroid issue is a fool's errand.
But the good thing about extreme hypothyroidism, you can detect it with some blood tests!
These are the list of things that are uncommon, but might be making weight loss difficult for you:
Hormonal issues (Thyroid, Sex, and Metabolic hormones, this includes diabetes)
Gut issues
Inflammation issues
Sleep issues
Some mental health issues
Rare genetic issues
There is a good chance that all of these things are fine, and you still have a weight problem, but if they are not, you will be sure glad to figure it out! If you’ve tried some basic things unsuccessfully, it might be worth it to go down this checklist and see if you have these blockers. It might be easier to fix things on this checklist than to force yourself to eat a diet that makes you feel bad.
Hormonal Issues
Thyroid
The thyroid is the metabolic thermostat of the body. If this gland is dysfunctional, then weight loss can become tough. Causes can be a lack of dietary iodine, eating or absorbing things that interfere with iodine metabolism, and many other potential causes.
Sex Hormones
I once saw as a joke that testosterone is a better Ozempic than Ozempic. If your sex hormones are all screwed up, it’s also fairly hard to lose weight. Conversely, if they are doing really well, then weight loss becomes naturally easier.
This also applies to women with their sexual hormone function.
Metabolic Hormones
If you are insulin resistant, weight loss is also difficult. Addressing your insulin insensitivity issues, although complicated, can help make weight loss easier.
If you have diabetes, that can also make weight loss difficult if you don’t have your medications dialed in well.
You can check your hormones with a comprehensive blood test either from your doctor, a functional medicine doctor, or many other services such as Function Health, Ownyourlabs, or Insidetracker. If a bunch of things come up as bad in those 3 categories, that might explain why weight loss is difficult for you, and you could work with a doctor to potentially solve them.
Women Specific Issues
For women, PCOS, Fibroid, and other issues can literally make weight loss harder. Solving your potential PCOS issue can also make weight loss easier. Conversely, fixing your weight issue can also solve your PCOS issue. Many of these are interconnected. Hormonal birth control can also make weight loss harder, so using non hormonal methods could help your weight loss journey.
Gut Issues
It is somewhat obvious when you say it out loud, but if your gut is not working properly, it probably makes it harder to lose weight, since you are not optimally digesting the food in your body. Certain conditions such as SIBO can create intestinal gas that you don’t feel, making your stomach look bigger than it actually is.
If your body has gut issues, then it’s probably not absorbing the food you eat well, potentially creating more cravings for a higher volume of food to get the micronutrition it needs, also inducing you to eat more calories than you should. It can also create increased inflammation throughout your body, which can also make weight loss difficult.
Some indicators that your gut function is not the best, or you're not treating your gut well:
Your stomach area makes gargling sounds daily
You get stomach pain and indigestion
You are not a 4 on the bristol stool scale regularly. You're regularly constipated or regularly have minor or major diarrhea.
You don’t go to the bathroom once a day at least. Or you go many times a day.
You get an urgent need to go make a bowel movement
You get a lot of gas and fart several times a day.
Your bowel movements or farts really stink.
You're intolerant or allergic to a food and you eat it somewhat frequently, such as lactose.
Many people think their gut function is ok, and that everyone has one of the issues listed above, especially once they start getting into middle age. That is actually not healthy gut function, and you are plenty capable of having a healthy gut at that age too. Try addressing your gut issues and/or seeing a gastroenterologist to fix them. You'll also feel much better in general if you do.
I found out I had low-key SIBO recently, and doing a ketogenic diet that removed all the things that could create gas visibly shrunk my stomach in a couple of days. Conversely, I drank some raw kefir and it increased my stomach size to the point where the next shirt size up felt tight, and I didn’t feel any pain or sensation in my stomach area other than the increased size. The next day my stomach shrunk back to its normal size.
I had a bunch of low-key gut issues since my 20s that did not cause me any inconvenience or pain for many years. I didn't think they were a big deal, just a variant of living. After my partner insisted that I do something about it because it was not normal, I discovered, yes, they were not normal and what good gut function was actually supposed to be like. I went to a gastrologist and got a bunch of things diagnosed. It also led me to research what would cause my gut dysfunction and avoid it.
Inflammation Issues
Inflammation issues is a grab bag for a bunch of issues that can cause chronic inflammation in your body:
Moldy house or food
Seasonal allergies, asthma
Food allergies that you trigger often
Chronic skin inflammation issues, such as eczema or psoriasis
Histamine sensitivity
If you have chronic inflammation throughout your body or are easily inflamed, then getting that under control can also make your weight loss easier. If you have a moldy house, that can ruin your life easily and significantly increase your chronic inflammation. Fixing your moldy house can also make weight loss easier as a result.
If you have chronic allergies, then going to a doctor to potentially reduce your allergic response can also make weight loss easier and so on.
Skin issues such as chronic eczema can also be caused by gut issues, so fixing your gut issues can also fix your inflammation issues.
Sleep Issues
Bad sleep is a well-known blocker of weight loss. If you only get 5 or 6 hours of sleep a day, even if you eat the same amount of food compared to a good sleep day, you will retain or gain weight. On top of that, sleep-deprived people have more of the hunger hormones such as ghrehllin, so they have to fight food cravings more. It's why you get late-night munchies, because your body is tired and probably should sleep.
So if you're trying to lose weight on 5 hours of sleep a day, focusing on fixing your sleep would be far more productive than trying to exercise and maintain a calorie deficit while fighting sleep deprivation munchies.
Sleep issues are also often circadian rhythm issues, which can come from a lack of proper sun exposure or too much bright light late at night.
Mental Health
Stress can cause weight loss to be more difficult. A high cortisol level often causes people to gain weight and stress eat. Anxiety issues often elevate this stress aspect too. Stress also disturbs sleep.
Gut issues can also be linked to anxiety issues, and fixing your anxiety issues can inadvertently also fix your gut issues.
There is a trend where people with various forms of neurodiversity have issues losing weight, and when they use diets such as the keto diet, improve their mental health. Healthily managing your neurodiversity issues can also actually help you lose weight.
(Epi)genetic Issues
Sometimes, you are dealt a bad hand in life, and weight loss can be harder for you due to your genetics or epigenetics.
One famous epigenetic expression is being the child or grandchild of people who lived through famine and other starvation situations. Many people of South Asian descent have several famines in their grandparents or parent's time, and this reflects throughout all people of south asian descent. Similarly, some children who have parents who survived the famine caused by the great leap forward in China have been shown to have a higher BMI than their peers who do not. This unfortunately means you will have to work harder to get similar results, but can be comforting to know that it is literally harder for you to lose weight than the average person and you're not 'weak-willed' or 'bad'.
You can check these things out by researching what can make weight loss easier or harder according to your ethnic background, or why weight loss is harder for people of your ethnicity and discover unique solutions for your ethnic genotype. You can also get a DNA test and use services such as genetic lifehacks to see if you have any specific genetic conditions that make weight loss harder or cause you to absorb or retain certain nutrients differently. The MTHFR mutation, although not directly related to obesity, is a famous example of one.
Misc Issues
Some other things that can make weight loss harder
Having bad dental health leads to inflamed gums. Good dental health can make weight loss easier.
Not getting any sun exposure.
Inadvertently eating some soap because your dishwasher doesn't rinse the detergent residue thoroughly enough, causing gut issues.