Losing weight why is it so hard for so many people?

[skylights]

For the average person, yes, simply restricting calories and increasing physical activity will make them lose weight.

That doesn't make it either healthy or sustainable.

I'm assuming Jix is a pretty normal guy with no significant physical or psychological issues that would prevent him from losing weight and no significant environmental obstacles to losing weight. In this case, awesome, I'm glad it's working for you. :]

For others it's not so purely chemical-behavioral, and it will take different strategies to get them to a healthy state. These are much less clear, much less supported, and much less of an easy fix. Personally, I think actually the majority of overweight people are overweight because of a combination of socioeconomic, psychological, and behavioral reasons. Depending on the state of each of those variables, it will be easier or not to impact weight. Behavior is probably the easiest fix of the three.

Personally, I am more healthy at a relatively heavier weight now than I was having body image issues and eating a can of chicken soup and a salad a day and then a whole box of Pop-Tarts out of nowhere once a week when I was 13. I am muscularly built and I hated my body as a teen, and unsucessfully tried to starve myself (unsurprisingly, when you're mostly muscle and not much fat, you don't lose much weight). Now, would I lose weight if I ate better and exercised more? Yes. Would I be healthier? Maybe, as long as I didn't fall back into the psychological and behavioral patterns I used to have. My biggest obstacle personally is hitting the middle ground between too little and too much, in particular because I am poor at judging my levels of satiation and exertion. As of right now, I'd rather be a little soft around the edges and eat like a normal person than be a more physically healthy weight and grapple with psychological dysfunction. For me, losing weight is hard because it's so tied up in psychological struggle and self-esteem.

 

[ChocolateMoose123]

It's hard because it's hard! Lol. People think it's easy to get off the couch and break a sweat? It's not but its necessary. Eventually, feeling good and healthy gets addicting.

You have to be disciplined. At least, at first. It gets easier once it becomes habit. It's a lifestyle change! Not just a choice. Healthy living (emotionally, physically) has to be a priority for you - not just losing weight. That's a benefit.

Educate yourself. No diets!!

Set realistic expectations. Above all - No excuses. You're in control of you.

I'm 34 and have recently hit a wall with losing weight so I joined a jujitsu gym. I'm hooked and the workouts are showing me how much time I wasted on elliptical and moderate weights. I wasn't pushing myself hard enough. So, find a workout that works for you. I'm in the best shape of my life now.

 

[Orangey]

It's hard because it's hard! Lol. People think it's easy to get off the couch and break a sweat? It's not but its necessary. Eventually, feeling good and healthy gets addicting.

You have to be disciplined. At least, at first. It gets easier once it becomes habit. It's a lifestyle change! Not just a choice. Healthy living (emotionally, physically) has to be a priority for you - not just losing weight. That's a benefit.

Educate yourself. No diets!!

Set realistic expectations. Above all - No excuses. You're in control of you.

I'm 34 and have recently hit a wall with losing weight so I joined a jujitsu gym. I'm hooked and the workouts are showing me how much time I wasted on elliptical and moderate weights. I wasn't pushing myself hard enough. So, find a workout that works for you. I'm in the best shape of my life now.

That's why I think purchasing a decent heart rate monitor is the single most important tool for fitness, whether for weight loss (the calorie burn calculating ones are handy here) or increased athleticism. It's very easy to slack off, so having the stupid thing beep at you when you've dropped below a certain heart rate zone is helpful for letting you know that you need to step it up. It also helps to save time...you can see that your heart rate has adjusted to a certain activity and that your calorie burn is not as high anymore, so you can either move on to another more intense/efficient activity or move up in time/frequency/intensity. You won't run into the problem of "oh shit, I'm not losing as much weight running two miles three times a week as I used to...what's happening?"

It also gives you some data to play with, which in conjunction to keeping track of your calories/macros, gives you a sense of control over the various factors that contribute to weight loss/fitness/increased performance. So you can change things and experiment to see what factors are key to conditioning your body at any specific point in time.

P.S. - I try to write without using the universal "you," but I was lazy this time and I don't feel like editing again. So, @MPD2525, when I say "you" I am not referring to you personally.

 

[Rail Tracer]

I wasn't pushing myself hard enough.

That's why I think purchasing a decent heart rate monitor is the single most important tool for fitness, whether for weight loss (the calorie burn calculating ones are handy here) or increased athleticism.

What I've found works for me is to have a friend or a gym mate to exercise with. Especially if the other person has more experience to get you through. Sort of like an unofficial coach to push you to do more.

Things like play catch up with that friend (he/she might be faster) which makes you run harder.
Having that same friend look at you work on free weights (no fear of not being able to bench your last rep since the person there can help you out.)
Once you can catch up to a reasonable spot with that person, both can help push each other further.
One person can pester the other to exercise and get motivated to move.

So whether it is getting healthy, losing weight, or gaining bulk, it is sort of a mutual benefit to have another person to exercise with.

 

[skylights]

It's hard because it's hard! Lol.

Lol, truth. No pain, no gain - er, loss.

 

[pollyfes]

In my general observation people usually fail to lose weight, because they are not actually committed and strong at back of their mind. As for the purpose, first of all you need to be firm on your stand and do whatever it takes. With out any lame excuses.

 

[Bamboo]

I don't think it was mentioned, but I think the fixation on weight is a mistake.

Health =/= being a certain weight.

Weight is, however, a convenient metric to measure, but it's only roughly related to actual overall health.

Unfortunately, "health" is harder to measure.

Personally, I want to stay fit and healthy and be able to stay active for a long time while keeping up a certain baseline level of athleticism now in the present. The weight is pretty unimportant.

 

[Thalassa]

 

[Thalassa]

I don't think it was mentioned, by I think the fixation on weight is a mistake.

Health =/= being a certain weight.

Weight is, however, a convenient metric to measure, but it's only roughly related to actual overall health.

Unfortunately, "health" is harder to measure.

Personally, I want to stay fit and healthy and be able to stay active for a long time while keeping up a certain baseline level of athleticism now in the present. The weight is pretty unimportant.

Yeah like I saw a girls lacrosse team today while I was in Panera Bread, they were high school or college age, and they were all about my build (I mean in terms of having things like hips and/or breasts and muscle, and not being at all waif-like or thin). None of these girls were what I'd call slender, but they were all extremely healthy and fit. They were so muscular they could probably break your neck with their thighs.

 

[wildcat]

"Nahhh that's crazy talk, fat people must just be unaware of the benefits of dieting and exercise!"

People may not live in the real world. Their body does.
Look at the first rule in physics:
Weight is the counter measure of gravity.

Apropos gravity is the counter measure of weight.
Think thin.

 

[Bamboo]

Yeah like I saw a girls lacrosse team today while I was in Panera Bread, they were high school or college age, and they were all about my build (I mean in terms of having things like hips and/or breasts and muscle, and not being at all waif-like or thin). None of these girls were what I'd call slender, but they were all extremely healthy and fit. They were so muscular they could probably break your neck with their thighs.

Yeah I met some soccer girls the other day and they looked very healthy. The word that came to mind was "robust." And they were pretty attractive in my eyes, too, though that's a separate issue.

But even then, healthy isn't just pure muscle either. I understand how body builders do the whole bulking and cutting thing, but high muscle with no fat mass thing strikes me as unhealthy LOOKING. I don't know if they are actually any more or less healthy than any other group.

 

[Thalassa]

Yeah I met some soccer girls the other day and they looked very healthy. The word that came to mind was "robust." And they were pretty attractive in my eyes, too, though that's a separate issue.

But even then, healthy isn't just pure muscle either. I understand how body builders do the whole bulking and cutting thing, but high muscle with no fat mass thing strikes me as unhealthy LOOKING. I don't know if they are actually any more or less healthy than any other group.

Yeah one of my yoga instructors was talking about how building EXCESS muscle (that kind of huge, ripped, unnatural muscle look) actually impedes flexibility and other natural abilities of the body, and stiffness is something associated with age and death...and having zero body fat actually makes a person pretty stiff and inflexible.

Balance in all things. I agree that having the most bulk of muscle in the room isn't a passcode to healthy any more than being very thin is.

 

[Giggly]

Yeah one of my yoga instructors was talking about how building EXCESS muscle (that kind of huge, ripped, unnatural muscle look) actually impedes flexibility and other natural abilities of the body, and stiffness is something associated with age and death...and having zero body fat actually makes a person pretty stiff and inflexible.

Balance in all things. I agree that having the most bulk of muscle in the room isn't a passcode to healthy any more than being very thin is.

Interesting, especially about bulky muscles.

 

[jixmixfix]

Losing weight sucks that's for sure.....it It feels so uncomfortable...will power is the key.

 

[The Ü™]

Whenever I enjoy a night of heavy drinking (especially liquor), I tend to feel much lighter the next morning.

 

[Quinlan]

I vaguely recall reading something about how the risk factors associated with a high BMI apply regardless of whether the bulk is made of muscle or fat. Something about having a bigger body (whether fat, muscle or being tall) means your heart has to work harder, to pump blood and such, or something like that.

 

[jixmixfix]

I vaguely recall reading something about how the risk factors associated with a high BMI apply regardless of whether the bulk is made of muscle or fat. Something about having a bigger body (whether fat, muscle or being tall) means your heart has to work harder, to pump blood and such, or something like that.

THat's blood pressure and if you are overweight and have normal blood pressure you should be fine I think.

 

[Quinlan]

I think the main reason why it is so hard to lose weight (both individually and on a national scale) is because we actually know very little about the cause of obesity. Now people will say the cause of obesity is overeating and/or not exercising enough but what is the cause of those behaviours? Gluttony and sloth? Well what is the cause of those sins? Bad souls ?

Is the fat mouse more sinful?



The problem is that the hormones that drive feeding behaviours (things like leptin and ghrelin) have only relatively recently been discovered, we know very little about them. So researchers have been in the dark for decades building up a whole industry on getting people to eat less when they didn't even know what was actually driving the eating in the first place. It's like trying to understand gigantism and dwarfism while ignoring the effects of growth hormones "Well clearly the fellow with gigantism has eaten more or exercised less than the person with dwarfism" which is technically true but does not explain why there is such a size difference.

So the problem is most of the weightloss advice out there is based on the idea that people are perfectly rational, extremely efficient calorie burning machines, unlike all the other animals on earth. We should have a Leptin index of foods instead of a Glycemic index, if you eat the foods that increase Leptin sensitivity and avoid the ones that don't then you will feel full and satisfied for longer and you will lose weight. But no one knows what those foods are or even if it's the foods that are causing Leptin resistance or some other unknown factor that breaks down the Leptin signaling and tells your brain that you're starving.

 

[Guy V. Malaxia]

Interesting, especially about bulky muscles.

IIRC too high of muscle volume puts stress on the organs and impedes their function to some degree.

The high-muscle, low-fat physiques suck the life out of your energy levels as well. Unless you've hit the genetic lottery, maintaining that kind of tissue ratio actually drops your overall strength compared to a body who has a little bit more fat. It's my understanding that most men are at their peak strength around 20% body fat, while the majority of male models are sitting somewhere in the single digits to early teens.

Just goes to show that the stereotypes associated with "perfect" bodies aren't perfect from a physiological standpoint. A shame we get bombarded with this kind of expectation.

 

[_eric_]

It isn't all to do with habits or whatever. A lot of it is dependent on how much brown fat you have. Brown fat burns regular [white] fat. People who are very obese tend not to have very much of it. I don't know whether not having much of it in the first place contributes to the start of obesity, or if it gets converted/broken down as a result of becoming obese and further reinforces obesity. Possibly both, I really can't say as I haven't read a whole lot about it.

Here's one article for a quick overview of what that is.

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/the-truth-about-brown-fat.html#b