The problem with people who desire to lose weight is that they think they can achieve weight loss by eating a healthy, stable diet. The problem with that is, by exercising and keeping up a healthy diet, you will *maintain* your current weight. You have to *cut back* in order to lose weight. I currently weigh about 129 pounds, and I remember being 143 and feeling helpless. I wasn’t a pig, and I didn’t have particularly unhealthy eating habits. I tried time after time to lose weight, and always found the second day the hardest. The first day was easy: the feeling of dissatisfaction with an undesired image would usually propel me through the first 24 hours, but the moment I allowed my guard to drop on the second day, all was lost. When I finally maintained a healthy diet and exercise routine, I lost a couple pounds and then flatlined. I couldn’t lose anymore. I was eating three meals a day, regular snacks, and was exercising three times a week. What was wrong with me?
The problem was, I was taking in a certain amount of calories and getting rid of the same amount. I was right back to where I started. Therefore, to lose weight, you *do* have to give up parts of a diet that are considered acceptable when you simply want to maintain your weight and not decrease it. Those snacks, however healthy or multigrain they might seem- lose them. They’re extra calories that your body really does not need! You might feel the slight tinge of hunger, but it’s nothing your body can’t easily cope with until the next meal. Cut back on your meal sizes. We all know at what point our hunger is satisfied. Don’t go over that limit! So many people who try to lose weight think that as long as the food they eat is healthy, they can eat however much of it that they want. Not true! Healthier foods may benefit you more than nutrient lacking foods, but the buildup of calories is still the same, and any that are not used by the end of the day will add to your weight. By adding a self-suited exercise regimen, you will find the pounds dropping. It worked for me, and I’ve never tried one fad diet. Ever.
Once you lose the weight you desire, you can work back slowly to a bigger calorie diet. This does not mean you can indulge in your old eating habits once more. However, your objective goal is no longer to lose weight, but to maintain your current weight. This means you simply have to burn off all of the calories you intake – not more than what you intake. Now, those little multigrain snacks -if you so desire- are okay.
Losing weight, I have to say, is about determination. It’s not easy, and I think we try to comfort each other by sharing stories of lament and idealizing together that since it is so hard, not working, and perhaps some of us don’t have the willpower, than there must be an easier way. There is not. No fad diet is going to cure your weight loss (in the long run). No pill is going to help. It’s hard work, but if you have the determination – and yes, the willpower- to follow it, you will see results.

i think thats absolute crap, emily. many people gain that peace and acceptance when they finally get the weight off. gaining peace and acceptance is what motivates some people. you don’t have to accept yourself to change something. sometimes you have to change it first. it might not sound very good, but it is true. u can call it insecurity or whatever, but if it motivates someone enough to lose weight, who cares?

http://www.backtothefridge.com/blog/elephant/
http://www.backtothefridge.com/blog/psych-out/

That is if anyone’s still interested in the topic. If you’re not, I don’t blame you. I’m plum tuckered out now!

So you said, “How do you explain me or anyone else who has successfully lost weight?”

I say that you, me, and everyone else who has successfully lost weight has done so because at some point the calories burned exceeded the calories consumed. No one argues that point. (I hope!)

Of course, your original question is why is it hard. You correctly point out that we do lots of other hard things: wake up early, raise children, brush our teeth. So I believe what you’re asking, in effect, is “why is weight loss so much more difficult than all the other difficult things we seem to deal with just fine?”

And my answer to that is because I don’t believe that eating can be considered a “choice” the same way brushing our teeth is. Why? Because eating is closely tied to our innate survival instincts and brushing teeth isn’t. Getting up early isn’t. Making kids eat broccoli isn’t. Moving to a new house isn’t. Every single decision we make, from the very difficult to the no-brainers, all come down to a near-instantaneous weighing of options, or as I like to call them “vectors.” The brain processes dozens, hundreds, probably even thousands of vectors at any given point to come to a single decision. Each vector has a direction, velocity, and weight. Subsequently, not all vectors are equal.

Let’s take a look how this might work. It’s time to brush your teeth. What vectors are there? I’m tired. I’d be okay if I skip a day. I really want to keep my teeth. I know I should do this every day. What if I have to kiss someone? Eventually your brain processes all these vectors and the net sum of the vectors is your choice: you do or do not brush your teeth.

Now another scenario. Your body has sent hungry signals. What do you do. Let’s look at the vectors: I’m hungry. I like food. Food is close by. I shouldn’t eat. I have made a lifestyle change and therefore I will not eat. I could get a glass of water and see if that helps. I have a weigh in tomorrow. I have a blog post next Monday. Eventually your brain processes all these vectors and the net sum of the vectors is your choice: you do or do not eat.

So my biology argument (as well as my “hard choice”) argument ties in with this fact that eating typically has a much, much heavier, stronger vector than many of those other things. Consequently, it wins out more often, and consequently we have a harder time controlling our eating. Yes, some people are blessed with a very “light vector” food component. Most of us aren’t. But I don’t think it changes my premise (or theory).

And hopefully I’m done. :)

One day I’ll get this all written up into a single, coherent message.

Now, I don’t know why I can be watching the same tv show as my hubby and he is blissfully watching the show and I am sitting there next to him thinking about the ice cream in the fridge that has my name on it. I will make the effort to get out of my comfortable chair and walk into the kitchen to partake……hubby wouldn’t consider that. He full tired and enjoying the movie and we just ate supper for heaven sake.
Why are we different? We just are.

Land of plenty??? I feel like we are constantly tempted by food, commercials, friends, and family. We not only have an abundance of food, but it is fast, easy, and filled with bad things for you. Not to mention that it is fairly cheap. I refer to my great grandparents. Gram never bought a bag of premade cookies. Or, a frozen meal in a bag etc……
Everything was homemade. That ate 3 meals and they breaked for coffe about 3:00. EVERY DAY! They drank cream, used butter, and ate chicken WITH THE SKIN ON! They never went to the gym or made a conscious effort to walk, run, etc….They worked it off.

Hmmmmmm where am I going with this. It just seems to me that with all these convienciences that we all have to be so much more aware of what we put in our bodies, including drinks, food, water, exercise, etc ….

This of course is my observation with my own self and does not represent anyone else on this site. ha ha ha ha

How? Getting up after 5 hours of sleep to go to work is hard….. Parenting is hard…. Nursing a child is hard…. Algebra is hard…. Remember to brush my teeth before bed is hard…. buying a new house is hard… moving is hard…. getting your toddler to eat broccoli is hard….

We, as human being still do these things. We do things daily that are hard. How does that lend to your argument?.

I’m not doubting it’s hardER for some. But you seem believe it’s impossible. I disagree.

So really playing devils advocate ….

How do you explain me or anyone else who has successfully lost weight?

Could it be tied to US farm subsidies that make certain foods cheaper than others? (corn, dairy versus fruits & veggies)

Could it be related to our out-of-control consumer culture that argues against self-denial?

Why do we follow one self-preservation strategy (eating in time of plenty) even as it is killing us (diabetes, heart disease, etc)?

Why do I crave cookies and chocolate but not apples and bananas?

Why do women choose bad men? Hey, don’t you think it’s a similar situation? Why do we make choices that hurt us in the end, you know?

What about the millions of people who live in the same environment who DO NOT have weight issues?

You actually answered it yourself, “Now I’m first to admit we are all different.” Yes. We are all different. We share the same basic DNA blueprints. But once we’ve been “instantiated” we are unique. Some of us have weight issues and some of us don’t. Some of us become highly paid NBA stars and some of us don’t. Some of us get cancer and some of us don’t. But I don’t think that invalidates my biological underpinnings.

You’re right when you say “Chalking it up to a simple… ‘We are designed to eat’ isn’t good enough for me.” Because, once again, I still have not been able to construct the words that properly get my point across.

What makes me happy is that you say, “Because losing weight means making hard choices and sometimes we just don’t want to do that.” Because it highlights the very point I’ve yet been unable to make.

“Making hard choices”
“Just don’t want to”

If you really, really dissect these statements using the pure biological argument, what does it mean to make a choice? I don’t believe that “making a choice” is as easy as making a choice. I think choices just happen, unbidden, but then our higher order brain functions interpret this as something we actively took part in. That’s why I said this is hard to swallow, because it goes against everything we like to believe about ourselves; about being in control.

Think about it: do you actively and consciously choose to be happy? (I’m not talking about an overarching, lifestyle kind of thing, but the pure and simple emotion of being happy at a given point in time.) Do you choose to be angry? If someone cuts you off in traffic, do you whip out your spreadsheet, made two columns of pros and cons, add up the numbers, and then come to a decision, “Yep, that’s it. That action is going to piss me off.” Do you ever choose to be sad? Or do certain inputs touch nerves and trigger sadness? Do you choose to be hungry? Or does hungry just happen?

Hungry just happens. Like any other feeling or emotion or sensation: it just happens. And our bodies react. For many of us, the biological need to feed forces us to overeat. For some of us, like Roni’s husband, their biological need to feed has an off switch. How do I explain that? Maybe they’re just more advanced from an evolutionary point of view. Obviously that’s not going to happen to the entire species at once: it could be that some of us have actually finally adapted to this new, non-scarce food environment and in ten thousand years, 97% of us will catch up to these outliers.

I don’t think caving in when presented with a bag of Doritos or a plate of cookies is a lack of willpower. No more than I think NOT caving in is a sign of willpower. If your husband worked in a bakery or pizzeria and never ever ate, is it because he won some massive internal struggle and his willpower overcame the desire to eat? Or his body is such that it says, “Nope. Don’t need that. No biggie.” That’s awesome that some people are like that.

But I don’t think that means the rest of us are just too weak or lazy to make those “hard choices.” There’s more to it than just making a hard choice or wanting to follow through. The very fact that the choice is hard at all lends all the weight I need to the biological argument. :)