“Why is it so hard to lose weight?”

It has been on my mind for a while the question, “Why is it so hard to lose weight?” Begs to be answered. You can look on any health show at the audience and there are no lack for obese participants. Many times I am seeing obese people filmed, one man was sleeping watching a game and the announcers made fun of him. To be honest and fair I laughed before they started talking. Often you will see people drinking a soda, or a bag of chips or whatever the food gurus say not to eat and the commentator or implied audience looks down and judgmental at they have a person choosing something we probably all like to eat. We are born hypocrites.

Consider how easy it is to put on 10 pounds in a year. It only takes 100 calories a day more then you burn. I'll hundred calories is not much. 

For a minute let's entertain the idea that we really don't know how to lose weight. There is a real possibility that there are many things that work against us. For a moment, let us set aside the few pictures of fat people we see everyday and in multiple times more pictures the beautiful people which I think gets us a little off track. What keeps us from losing weight?

1. Guilt
2. Aging (we live in a fallen world)
3. Our brains
4. Our hormones
5. Our organs
6. Our muscles
7. Our created or evolved desire do not starve to death 
8. Our lack of physical work due to a change in how we work
9. Our technology vs. walking
10. Our dependence on processed foods

I can go on with the bigger list and I'm sure that you can add a few things then I'm not thinking about but you get the idea. There are both reasons why we put on weight and a hard time getting it off. Since most of us are having a problem with this let's dispense with the guilt. In surfing the net on the subject today it is clear that we need more study on this question. If you are like me the task of being healthier is ahead of us. We can't give up but we can think, “Damn this is harder than I thought.” I think the swearword catches the frustration a little better.

It seems clear that weight loss is a long term goal. The fact is when we decide to lose weight we will have to deal with her own body fighting us about this. Chemically the body tells us to put the fat back on for at least two years after we lose the weight. Losing weight also may jumpstart depression and other mental struggles. The goal of better heart health outweighs our internal battles but let us be prepared for a lifelong goal. Keep walking