7 Reasons Your Diet's Not Working

You've spent the last 7 days putting in your best effort to lose a pound or two. But your weekly check-in with the scale reveals (again) that you can't get your weight loss mojo in motion. The good news is that the problem probably isn't your willpower. You may be making common mistakes that even inveterate dieters fall prey to. These are seven surprising reasons your weight loss plan isn't working. Get the facts and get back on track.

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1. You aren't eating enough.
You may need to bump up your calories to stoke metabolism. When you dip below about 1,200 calories per day, not only are you not eating enough to get all your nutrients, but your body slows metabolism in order to hold on to precious calories, says Christine Gerbstadt, MD, RD, author of The Doctor's Detox Diet. Also, if you skip meals to lose weight, your body could lose its ability to feel full. Blame evolution, which has designed our bodies to resist famine and not the buffet table. For example, if you skip breakfast, the body assumes food is scarce. You need a morning meal to let your body know it's okay to burn calories. "Within 1 hour of waking, you should consume a 350-to 500-calorie breakfast, with 10 to 15 grams of protein and fiber to stoke the metabolic fire," says Dr. Gerbstadt.

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2. You reward yourself with food after exercise.
Burning 300 calories during a workout is cause for celebration...but rewarding yourself with a high-calorie treat doesn't add up to weight loss. You're likely to overestimate how much the workout burned off and underestimate how much you ate. "Even if you're just working out for well-being, you still have to keep calories in check," says Heidi Skolnik, author of Nutrient Timing for Peak Performance.

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3. You slurp diet drinks.
Research suggests that diet drinks may backfire: The taste of something sweet without the calories can cause your body to hold on to calories as fat. In a 2011 study, diet-soda drinkers had a 178% greater increase in waist circumference over 10 years, compared with non-diet-soda drinkers. "Artificial sweeteners can actually raise your insulin levels and lower your blood sugar, which may stimulate hunger and move existing calories into storage in your fat cells," says Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, one of the study's coauthors. Plus, fake sweeteners may not quell a craving like real sugar can, because sugar triggers a longer dopamine release. So even after downing two Diet Cokes, you may still want the candy bar.

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4. Your friends are fat.
Your chances of being overweight or obese increase half a percent with every friend in your network who is obese, finds a November 2010 study from Harvard. That more than adds up: Your chances of obesity double for every four obese friends you have, say researchers. Even if that friend lives thousands of miles away, your chances of gaining weight still go up, according to a 2007 New England Journal of Medicine study. That may be because your perception of being overweight changes--living larger seems acceptable since the heavy person is a friend. (Interestingly, having an obese neighbor that you don't know does not raise your risk.) Experts also think that a person's lifestyle and behaviors can subconsciously rub off on those in the individual's inner circle. But you don't have to ditch overweight friends to lose weight. In fact, if you embark together on an exercise plan, you can increase your fun and calorie burn: Research from Oxford finds that exercising with friends as a team can actually make the agony of exertion less intense. The same hormones that are released during social bonding, endorphins, also help quell pain. And once a friend starts to lose weight, you have a greater chance of losing as well (the mechanisms work both ways).

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5. You've eliminated wine.
New research from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that women who drank one to two glasses of wine daily gained less weight over 13 years, compared with those who did not drink alcohol-- 8 pounds versus 5.5 pounds, to be exact.

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6. Your diet isn't digitally enhanced.
You may already know that writing down what you eat helps you automatically reduce your calorie intake, simply by making you aware of each bite. But did you know that using a digitized program or application with positive feedback can help you lose even more? A new study from the University of Pittsburgh finds that people who monitored their diet and exercise with a digital device that provided daily feedback lost more weight and stuck with their diet longer than those who used paper and pen. Not only that, but the high-tech group increased their fruit and veggie intake more than paper users. And you don't have to log in daily or even weekly to benefit: One study found that dieters who recorded meals online just once a month were 3 times more likely to keep off pounds over 2 years, compared with those who did so less frequently.

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7. You've gone no-carb or fat-free.
Cutting back markedly on any one food group-say, carbs or fat--can leave you short on the nutrients you need to stay energized: One study found that dieters low in calcium and vitamin C had higher odds of putting on belly fat. The trick is a varied diet that includes healthy fats and good carbs such as fruits. After all, the biggest reason low-carb diets backfire is that, for the vast majority of people, they aren't sustainable over the long haul. It's a rare soul who can pass up birthday cake and pasta dinners for a lifetime. And as with all diets, once you quit, you regain the weight you lost and (often) more. These fluctuations can make it an even bigger challenge to lose weight next time.

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--By Tula Karras, Prevention

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