If you’re like most people, your efforts to lose weight probably consist of adhering to a healthy eating regimen and workout schedule. But sometimes in your efforts, you fail to see results. This can be frustrating and make you want to give up, especially if you’ve been on your weight loss journey for a while. When this happens, it’s time to give your fitness plan a once-over.

From dieting fads to water consumption, there are some things YOU could be doing that are hindering your own weight loss journey and not even know it. Take a look at some of the biggest reasons you’re not losing weight.

Reason 1: You’re Not Drinking Enough Water

Water can impact your weight in many ways. Did you know that water is an appetite suppressor? In fact, our bodies tend to confuse hunger with dehydration. So one easy way to tell if you’re actually hungry or just dehydrated is to drink a full glass of water before a meal to identify where your hunger pains are actually stemming from. In doing this, you’ll find that you don’t require as much food to satisfy your hunger.

Consuming water also flushes your kidneys, rids your body of wastes, and contributes to the overall functioning of your organs, which in turn, aids in weight loss.

Reason 2: You’re Eating Too Many Calories and Not Enough Vegetables

Some people like vegetables and some people don’t, but more people like unhealthy, fatty foods than vegetables… and that’s a fact!

One thing people like to do is “reward” themselves when they’ve “done good” with their workouts. The only problem with these rewards is that people feel like they need to reward themselves every time they complete a workout, and that’s just not how it works.

One of the driving factors to weight loss is your calorie intake, and your “rewards” are more than likely high in calorie count. You have to keep your eye on the prize and focus less on treats and more on your vegetable intake.

If you like vegetables, how are you preparing them? Are you drenching them in butter, frying them, or cooking them in fatty meats? The way you prepare your vegetables can completely deplete their nutritional value.

If you seriously want to see a change in your vegetable intake, consider a weight loss juice cleanse. This is going to give you the necessary vegetable intake you need, it’s packed with vitamins and minerals, and it has a great taste. This is perfect for those who aren’t fans of veggies but still want the benefits of consuming them.

Reason 3: You’re Not Getting Enough Sleep

Getting adequate sleep plays a major role in the impact of your weight loss efforts, especially in terms of your appetite. The average adult is supposed to get seven to nine hours of sleep, but most people don’t get near as much sleep as this… Most people get between five to six hours, and this amount is the very thing putting you at risk of having greater body fat. It even impacts how effectively you lose weight on a controlled caloric meal plan.

According to sciencealert.com, sleep influences two appetite hormones known as leptin (the hormone that decreases your appetite) and ghrelin (the hormone that stimulates your appetite). When your leptin levels are high, you usually feel fuller, when your ghrelin levels are high, you feel hungry. Sleep deprivation increases your ghrelin levels, making you eat more.

Reason 4: Your Portions are Too Big

If you’re eating healthy meals and still not losing any weight, it may be time to look at how much food you’re eating, ie, practice portion control. Our bodies and minds tend to work together and sometimes play tricks on us. We think we need a certain amount of food to feel full but we actually don’t need that much.

Take a look at how much food you’re putting on your plate. You don’t want to eat until you feel stuffed. You want to eat until you feel content. As you start to eat smaller portions, your stomach will shrink and conform to the smaller portions, leaving you feeling fuller with less food.

Once you lose weight and get to your goal size, the trick is how to keep the weight off, right? For some people, this is harder than trying to lose the weight in the first place.

But ultimately, you want to just continue on the path that you’ve been on. Continue to make exercise a regular part of your daily routine, keep drinking water, and minimize your consumption of “bad foods.”

True enough, you’re going to want to reward yourself for all the hard work you’ve put in to reach your goal, but just remember to keep an eye on those rewards… If you’re not careful, you’ll look up and regain all the weight you just lost.