Are you discouraged about losing weight? Too many failures to count? Consider the following
As we get older we tend to add weight. You may be thinking, “No **** Sherlock.” Since I have taken up the walking with the fat man blog, I have lost weight 60 lbs. and have regained the weight and have added 10 lbs. to boot. I have found weight-gain happens after weight-loss. After repeated failure, not just by me but by most people I know, drive me back to ask Why?
My experience and observations have only underscored how difficult it is to lose weight. In the articles below, looking at the research behind them I have found some interesting facts:
- The odds are against you if you are obese to lose weight for healthy BMI
- If you lose your weight by dieting and even exercise the odds are against you to keep the weight off once you have reached a goal. You are more likely to put the weight back on.
- Fat cells basically send messages to feed them and keep them healthy. It is stressful to lose weight in our body always fight stress.
- Fat cells send chemicals that lower the metabolism (How do fat cells think?)
- Most of our strategies lose weight don't work. Dr. Leibel said, that losing weight “is not a neutral event,” and that it is no accident that more than 90 percent of people who lose a lot of weight gain it back. “You are putting your body into a circumstance it will resist,” NYT 2011
- It is harder today to lose weight then if you were the same age you are today than 30 years ago. If someone was 65 years old 30 years ago and weighed 290 lbs. would have an easier time losing weight then someone today all things being equal. WP 2015
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| Having a hard time losing weight? Of course you are! These little buggers are always sending out singles - more! |
Take a minute to think about what you observed. You have seen people lose weight by surgeries to shrink the stomach and liposuction only to put the weight back on. I eat less than I used to, but my metabolism is slower. I am not alone in this experience as it turns out. The bottom line is, “It is hard to lose weight.” All of the numbers are stacked against us.
Is this just looking for reasons to enable failure? I think that is a fair question. The reality I see the failed efforts by well intentioned people. I am one of them and it bugs the **** out me. That motivated me to look at science and reality to begin to build a more successful outcome.
It would be easy to give up and say the hell with it. But the truth is our efforts actually to be healthcare better then not doing nothing at all. An overweight person eating the right food and exercising is less likely to die from being overweight almost as a person who has and healthy BMI and exercise habits.
Exercise helps fat to send the right messages to our brain for better metabolism and weight control. While 10% of our fat cells die every year our bodies replace them and if we follow a heart healthy diet and exercise the cells replaced will be thinner. Those thin fat cells want to become fatter. This will be never easy. Our strategies have to include what fat cells are telling us.
Two things I know will help:
Eat a heart healthy diet.
Get 150 minutes of exercise a week.
Getting fat cells thinner may be a real pain in the butt. Keep walking
Do you know someone struggling to lose weight? Share this blog with them, it may help them understand why it is so hard. There is a lot more to it than "will power."
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/are-fat-cells-forever/?action=click&contentCollection=Well&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article
I actually think this is a pretty good entry
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