I watched my mom struggle with weight loss her entire life. She easily lost over 2,000 lbs during her life
- usually in 5-10 lb increments, only to gain it right back. [I refer to this as the 'rhythm method of girth control'
] Weight loss is easy. Anyone can do it. Even fast weight loss. But keeping it off is something totally different - it requires life-style changes. To me, the word 'diet' means 'temporary removal of weight'. If you don't want the weight loss to be temporary, forget about 'dieting' and make life-style changes instead.
It is easy to think that we are all the same - that are all human, so we all have the same biochemistry and physiology. I am growing to believe that this is absolutely not true. The problems of someone who hasn't exercised in years and is 100 lbs overweight are quite different from an athlete who has gained 10 lbs during the off-season.
The athlete has much more lean muscle mass (which determines basal metabolic rate) but has also trained her body to use fat as an energy source (meaning she has more fat-burning enzymes). When my mom dieted she lost weight
fast, often 2-4 lbs per week. It is extremely difficult to lose more than 2 lbs of
fat in a week. So every time she dieted, she lost muscle mass which in turn depressed her basal metabolic rate and made it more difficult to lose weight the next time. In her later years she would gain weight on 900 calories a day! The 'feast or famine' approach also encouraged her body to immediately store any excess food as fat. So as soon as she stopped 'dieting' weight gain was quite rapid.
The answer to this, metabolically, is to keep weight loss at an even, steady pace, while exercising for long, steady periods at a moderate pace. (Remember, we're not talking about athletes here, just about normal people who have been sedentary for a long time and are quite overweight). The purpose is to nudge the body into creating more fat-burning enzymes by exercising aerobically for long periods of time. Workouts should build up to at least an hour a day, five days a week. Weight loss should not exceed 2 lbs per week.
On the flip side is the food we eat. Lee has pointed out many times that modern food choices make it extremely easy to consume massive amounts of calories with little effort. The answer is not to eat
less but to eat
smarter. Make each calorie count! The main purpose behind a food log is
education... learning where all those hidden calories are coming from, and which changes have the greatest impact. A potato can be a low calorie snack, rich in complex carbohydrates. But if you put a couple of pats of butter or sour cream on it, it can become a high calorie, high fat food! A good on-line food log can help you make better choices. "Hey, what if I put salsa on the potato instead?"
I have often heard it said that overweight people have no self-control, that they are lazy and that they eat too much. I think this is not true. Overweight people who are struggling with their weight often eat far fewer calories than their slim athletic counterparts. The problem is that their physiology has changed so much it is difficult to make any improvement. Education is the key... learning which changes will have the greatest impact and learning to manage expectations so they don't quit after a few months.
But, as I said, everyone is different. Try different things to learn what is right for
your body... what works and doesn't.
But most of all...
Never Give Up