I ran across a good article giving four reasons why it is difficult to lose weight, by K. Alicia Fetters contributor to USNews June 10, 2016. You can read the article by clicking the reference follow.

Who we are genetically influenced is health. In 2007, researchers identified a common gene variant by 20 or 30%. "The genes are in our jeans."

In the past 30 years, this gene is not changed but our environment sure has. Fetters writes, “Modern society is set up for us to consume more calories than we burn every day. We just eat more than we did in the past. A lot of food that makes us fat is advertised healthy. Woe is me!

Our bodies are programmed to not want us to starve. In the past, this is many people alive, but today this drive is easily manipulated by her current environment of food, food, food! Our biology and hormones actually working against us to lose weight.

If we lose weight there is a drop in our basal metabolic rate, the number of calories you burn just being alive.

Fetters illustrates this by comparing two men who both way 200 pounds. One of them has always weighed 200 pounds. The other used to weigh 300 pounds and lost weight to two 200 pounds. They are now not equal, for the one who lost weight will have a lower metabolic rate. They will actually walk and fidget less than they used to.

I wonder if the 300 pounders always tended to exercise less than the 200 pounders? If the exercise habit doesn’t change that might explain the metabolic difference?

Obesity can contribute to long-term dysfunction in appetite and rewards centers of the brain, as well as insulin and leptin resistance encouraging fat storage, increased hunger, Fetters reports. 

Not surprising with age there's a natural decline in the metabolic rate.

Binge eating disorder affects approximately 2,000,000 Americans any a clinical level. Why do we eat pass what we need, memories, emotions coping skills learned in childhood affect how we look at food.

What can you do to make weight loss easier?

Just realizing that weight loss is hard can relieve some of the confusion and frustration for those who are 

struggling to lose weight. Almost 2 months ago I started with the premise that losing weight is hard. The reasons may be complicated and in personal experience compromised by so many difficulties. Knowing that losing weight is hard has a way of taking away the lifetime burden of it. My effort right now is can it be done. This is part of a long-range goal for me to attempt. 

We need may not be able to control the environment around us, we can take control of our personal environment in our reaction to it. I can use the app my net dairy to eat only what I have investigated and planned and ignore the calorie-rich environment. Divide what I eat out to fit my plan. Choose portions within my range to lose weight, including my fun foods. Use the information gained to live within a plan to lose. 

Like any health plan get the support you need. 

One idea as weight is loss learn to do muscle resistance known to increase our metabolic rate

Weight loss is hard, especially if we have been fat for a long time. Can weight loss really be done? The US News article explores the problems. If I lose weight, what might then can I expect? What information and plan gives me the best chance? Think through the article and questions for yourself and keep walking.

https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2016-06-10/4-reasons-its-so-hard-to-lose-weight-and-how-to-bust-through-them

Exploring why is so hard to lose weight

I ran across a good article giving four reasons why it is difficult to lose weight, by K. Alicia Fetters contributor to USNews June 10, 2016. You can read the article by clicking the reference follow.

Who we are genetically influenced is health. In 2007, researchers identified a common gene variant by 20 or 30%. "The genes are in our jeans."

In the past 30 years, this gene is not changed but our environment sure has. Fetters writes, “Modern society is set up for us to consume more calories than we burn every day. We just eat more than we did in the past. A lot of food that makes us fat is advertised healthy. Woe is me!

Our bodies are programmed to not want us to starve. In the past, this is many people alive, but today this drive is easily manipulated by her current environment of food, food, food! Our biology and hormones actually working against us to lose weight.

If we lose weight there is a drop in our basal metabolic rate, the number of calories you burn just being alive.

Fetters illustrates this by comparing two men who both way 200 pounds. One of them has always weighed 200 pounds. The other used to weigh 300 pounds and lost weight to two 200 pounds. They are now not equal, for the one who lost weight will have a lower metabolic rate. They will actually walk and fidget less than they used to.

I wonder if the 300 pounders always tended to exercise less than the 200 pounders? If the exercise habit doesn’t change that might explain the metabolic difference?

Obesity can contribute to long-term dysfunction in appetite and rewards centers of the brain, as well as insulin and leptin resistance encouraging fat storage, increased hunger, Fetters reports. 

Not surprising with age there's a natural decline in the metabolic rate.

Binge eating disorder affects approximately 2,000,000 Americans any a clinical level. Why do we eat pass what we need, memories, emotions coping skills learned in childhood affect how we look at food.

What can you do to make weight loss easier?

Just realizing that weight loss is hard can relieve some of the confusion and frustration for those who are

struggling to lose weight. Almost 2 months ago I started with the premise that losing weight is hard. The reasons may be complicated and in personal experience compromised by so many difficulties. Knowing that losing weight is hard has a way of taking away the lifetime burden of it. My effort right now is can it be done. This is part of a long-range goal for me to attempt. 

We need may not be able to control the environment around us, we can take control of our personal environment in our reaction to it. I can use the app my net dairy to eat only what I have investigated and planned and ignore the calorie-rich environment. Divide what I eat out to fit my plan. Choose portions within my range to lose weight, including my fun foods. Use the information gained to live within a plan to lose. 

Like any health plan get the support you need. 

One idea as weight is loss learn to do muscle resistance known to increase our metabolic rate

Weight loss is hard, especially if we have been fat for a long time. Can weight loss really be done? The US News article explores the problems. If I lose weight, what might then can I expect? What information and plan gives me the best chance? Think through the article and questions for yourself and keep walking.

https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2016-06-10/4-reasons-its-so-hard-to-lose-weight-and-how-to-bust-through-them

One bowling ball down

Weigh in day, lost a bowling ball, 16 lbs. Reset a new goal through September 31 lbs. Clothes are fitting better. Each day I know where I am at.
The can and how is happening, but how will I do in the long run. It helps to know foods and drinks that I enjoy can still be enjoyed. Choosing amounts that are healthful the app helps me plan.
This is all new for me so will it work into new habits?
I plan to continue researching why this stuff is hard for us to achieve. Keep walking. 

Reporting on the immune system, read a good article

Matt Richtel, a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter for The New York Times, wrote an article published in the New York Times, What is the Immune System?

Our body is filled with all sorts of organisms. It is our immune system that ignores most of them as harmless as it is looking for threats to our bodies. When they discover a threat they seek to remove it. We need the immune system and our job is to support it.

I read recently were some cancers have adapted abilities to fool our immune system. It kind of reminds me of the many ways bad people have adopted new strategies to get away with crimes and good people countered. The whole business can be complicated.

Matt writes “inflammation can feel like a stuffy nose, sore throat, tummy ache, fever, fatigue or headache. Yes, the symptoms of an immune response feel lousy, but you must suffer a little to keep the rest of your body healthy over the long term.” 

The art is to develop a balance. To know when to support immune system and help your body fight the battle in side and experience the stress of life which is normal.

There is always a priority working in the body for survival. If we think we are going to be eaten by a lion then our

body sends out chemicals that energize and focus our body to fight or flight. All energy used in the immune system is diverted to get out of Dodge while we can. As long as the threat continues our immune system doesn't work as effectively. In the modern world our predators are two legged. If, we spot a  danger we should have heightened senses and be prepared to fight or flight.

The problem Mr. Richtel points out if this threat last too long or more likely is an imagined threat lasting too long our immune system loses its ability to fight the internal bad guys.

What is real and what is imagined, it is good to identify. Letting go of unwanted stress takes work, but it is worth it. 

So our job should be to support our immune system by sleep. It is during the sleep cycle that our immune system does its best work. Good sleep is #1

Exercise can:

• “Exercise that relieves stress helps modulate the adrenaline cycle that can be so detrimental to health. 
• Aging people who exercise regularly develop more T-cells (key immune cells) than their sedentary contemporaries. 
• Exercise is crucial to avoiding obesity, and obese people experience increased inflammation.” Having less inflammation allows our body to have more resources for what matters.

When we are sick and exercise will actually work against us. There is a time to rest.

Learning to reduce stress is also very helpful. Taking time for deep breathing, meditating on the good thoughts can help the body to direct its energy to the immune system fighting the good fight inside our bodies. Let go of negative thoughts and worries and focus on the positive realities that are the opposite of painful thinking. 

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,
Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

Being exposed to germs helps us fight off germs. Dirt can be our friends. It is a good article to read with links to research. Keep walking

https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/improve-your-immune-system?searchResultPosition=1&redirect=true

weightloss and a kitchen safari

So far 13 lbs. This particular approach I am trying is early in the game. My attempt is an effort to exploere the question of why is it so hard to lose weight? Another question, Can a healthy weightloss occur when one is older? Walking with the fatman I have experienced alot of setbacks and failed attempts. In the last five weeks I have challenged my self to the task of weightloss. Another question I have asked myself is can I encourage others who can't lose weight. I do think it is hard.
When I look at the day's numbers being on track helps me to not wonder in a safari to kitchen that may bag me a couple of thousand of calories. It is really easy to put on the lbs. The app My Net Dairy is helping to have information of where I am at to help me shut done eating late at night.

Eat meal forces me to plan what I am eating. To think about the portion in regard to health has its own spin. I think too pull this off helps to have others give their thoughts, but then move on.
Besides the diet, I am still working on the fitness game. One switch I am working on is to change from a owl and do things more in the day. I think it will lend itself to move movement.
Getting to bed and knowing when to quit eating are two things I am learning to do. You may be thinking da! But actually losing weight is hard and each of us have our own battles. Mine just happen to be too many.
Another observation I have become aware of is if I have reacched my goal, exercise actually helps lose weight. Calories lost because of exercise is not to eat more but to help the weight to go down. This is actually a new concept in my experience. In the past I would have used exercise to eat more. What do you think? Keep walking

It is early in the game but it is working

Hopefully one day I will be back at the
weight in this picture, by mid summer
I will be halfway there.

Todays ago I weighed in and I have lost 6 pounds. The app MyNetDiary is working. Most days I am below my calorie goal. The information feedback I'm helping me make decisions. That is almost 2% of my body weight. OK, I am still early with this idea. What I really like is the control it gives me to help me make decisions both what to eat and when to say no. Because of the app, I chose certain foods to be within the limits set. At Arby's, I chose a classic beef because the calorie count was 360, at Boston market I chose mash potatoes with no gravy and saved a few hundred calories.
At home, I am more likely to stay within one serving. The app told me to pick up more calories at breakfast. At night I know I can't do the night runs through the kitchen. It is rewarding knowing what I did on my eating that day I am losing weight without having to check the scales.
Another change I am working at is to be awake more in the daytime and sleep more at night. I want to experience more of the warmer part of the year up and around. More time to bike outdoors and sunshine. I think I will move as well. The more movement greater the weight loss.
can we lose weight healthily when we are older? That is what I want to find out.
Today I will strength train with bands, body exercises, dumbells, and TRX.  I can only imagine if I

lose weight I will look like a prune. I want to retain my muscle. Muscle is harder to develop as we age. Our ability to grow muscle is slower than when we were younger. With work, we can grow muscle at about 10 to 20% of what we used to. That is our new reality, but the good news is we can grow muscle. We knew we could slow down the decline, but new research suggests we can grow muscle if we work at it.
It is widely recommended that we strength train 2x's a week. Dr. Ken Cooper realized he had to change the % of exercise to more strength training over aerobics. This has influenced me to spend more time with resistance training. Feel good about it if you follow the recommended guidelines of twice a week. 150 minutes a week of walking, the exercise of all kinds is a very doable number for most of us. You and your doctor know what is right for you. Any kind of exercise can help our weight loss. Considering my weight I burned 200 calories in my 16 minutes of resistant training. If I factor in my 30 minutes of biking on recumbent which will add 285 cal. to my day. That is 46 minutes of exercise of the 150 I need for the week. My heart is purring.
My confidence in taking off the weight becomes a real thing. Keep walking

We all need encouragement

Punching into an app to track what I eat and reach a calorie count that will help me lose weight is so encouraging. Like me, you may be out there overweight and not making progress. Reading and viewing possible strategies that may help. As we age, exercise may even become more challenging to assist our weight loss.
I take two medicines that are known to slow metabolism and increase weight. I don't even want to go into the many bad habits I have.
But I want to encourage anyone who may read this, despite many setbacks I haven't given up. I deliberately have not written on weight loss because I put it on the back burner while I worked on other things, like how to get moving when walking became more difficult. For me, my recumbent bike and other means like shadow boxing, modifying aerobic exercises to fit my balance problems and actually using indoor walking to improve ba

I know you almost feel sorry for the little guy

lance. When you have Cerebral Palsy believe there are adjustments you have to make as you age.
This stuff is really a work in progress. Maybe it is really a work in progress for all of us. What I have learned is to stay at it ready to try what will work for you.
It is tougher to put good things into practice. Life is often two steps forward and one step back. For those who are heavy, we can fall off the wagon a few times. We can be knocked to the canvas and struggle to make it to the eight count only to have our weight like boxer poised to knock us out again. Man is it easy to give up.
In the last year, I have looked at why it is so hard to lose weight. Our fat cells have a vote as they secretly make known their demands to be healthy and big. A lot of food can be eaten with no thought given to it at all. Some of our favorite foods have a lot of calories. Portions that are helpful are hard to learn. How we eat and how much we eat are learned way before we ever thought about it. Our habits may even be irrational and crazy.
It is easy to give up.
We do have good information and strategies that can be used and be a light at the end of a long tunnel. At My Portion. com I got an idea of what it looks like to have a calorie count for a guy my size to lose weight.
At mynetdiary.com I really uncovered a practical how to. I can actually track the food and brands I eat. By looking at nutritional labels I can type in foods that match what I am eating. I can factor in exercise and movement to see what calories I am burning. The feedback and information help me to make choices that at the end of the day show me I am on my way to losing weight and today is good.  All of the days so far I have been below the target rate of calories and many days like today I am hundreds of calories below. Today I am 800+ calories below my 2200-2400 hundred count. Whatever the progress I will report how effective it is. My goal is 30 lbs by August 10th.
I will be still the fat man but moving down. Keep walking 

Getting a grip

One of my biggest problems is keeping track of what to eat and how much. It is pretty much a given what I see to eat easily leads to over eating. At night I can become a eating monster consumming far more than I need.
There is a saying that my brother said of me often that is true. "Put the food in front of his and he will eat it. He eats everything. And I mean everything." So true Thomas Paul.
Everything I eat I eat fast. Some have measured my fast eating to the speed of sound or light. OK I may be exaggerating.
My son and his wife are losing weight for summer. They are using an app MyNet Diary with good results. Rather than tell me about it he loaded it on my phone. He is rather smart that way.
The first day we were up in Chicago eating out. He typed in what I was eating and set my goal for

vacation to give me a boundry number if I reach it I will lose weight. The first day I went 300 calories over target goal of 2400 calories. I visted several sites to calculate to maintain my weight now and where do I need to go if I want to lose weight, 1 or two pounds a week.
Even though I went over the first day, if I repeated that every day I would lose 1/2 to 1 pound a week. The app made me aware of my needs to make a late nite adjustment.
To reach my gaol by vacation I am at a 2,217 calorie budget. The four days since I have been under my calorie budget. The app also factors in your movement and adds to the budget. If I hit 2,400 or 2,500 I am still losing weight.
The second part of my plan is to restore movement, improve balance, strength and endurance without falling. My exercise classes vary each day from indoor walking, shadow boxing, biking, resistant training and flexibility. With hiking poles in hand I will walk some of our trails. A work in progress. There are things I have done that work for me so I have hope. Keep walking

https://www.mynetdiary.com