To wonder why people can't lose weight?

[Wishiwasholsk]

Medical conditions aside.

We moan about being fat but it's never enough to really change.

I'm 5 stone overweight and already the NYE goal is gone.

I am overweight and I am happy to stay as I am. I am not even trying to lose weight.
I have been up and down in weight over many , many years and now just love where I am. I am loved, happy, healthy (yes, I am) and active.
I can still buy ok clothes (size 14-16 depending on brand) and make sure I dress to make myself feel nice ,
I might not be easy on the eye but I'm not here for window dressing, I'm here to enjoy my life :)

Maybe some people aren't actually even trying to lose weight.

Food is cheap and people are in denial about their portion sizes.

Eat less, move more.

Admit that you will have to say no to some food for the rest of your life

Its worth it for the health benefits.

Fear of hunger for me. I get hungry and there's a bit of panic about it. My mum didn't eat much and regularly missed meals, but never realised cared that when she wasn't hungry, her kids still were.

Now when I'm hungry, I have to eat or I'm ravenous. Like I haven't eaten in days..

Getting started is the hardest part. Then it's eating something you shouldn't and then think oh well I might as well have this this and even this and I'll start again tomorrow or next week. I hate slimming clubs and won't go to one again. But it's quite hard doing it on your own.

I'm menopausal which is why I've gone, the weight seems to be piling on even though my eating habits remained as they have always been, so obvs my body is changing the way it uses energy and my endocrine system is less active, so something has to change.

This is what happened to me. I didn't realise until later and just went "ahhhhhh, damn!"

Genuinely, I wish I'd known about the Blood Sugar Diet twenty years ago (when it didn't exist!).

But... fast weight loss, no hunger, no cravings, and I feel great. It's been so easy. I admit, I've only been doing it 5 days, but I've lost 8lbs so I'm lighter than I've been for 7 years. I'm cooking dinner now and it smells amazing. I'm only eating nice food - no low-fat spreads or diet drinks - and I've found it mostly easy to refuse cakes, biscuits and other carbs.

Each time you try, you are actually getting nearer losing weight.

It’s not the failing diets that don’t work, it’s the not trying again soon after. Don’t give up.

Most people take several attempts to quit smoking, but each attempt gets stronger. And think of how many people have quit smoking, millions!

People give up too easily after a set back.

Doesn't work like that with diets. The vast majority regain the weight and more.

I'm sticking with cooking from scratch as much as I can, being as active as possible, but also being realistic that without resorting to heroic measures, I'll have to accept a compromise. Weight and dress size isn't so important to me but I do want to remain active and healthy.

No one has really mentioned the woefully few calories exercise actually burns.

A lot of people claim to get 'plenty of exercise' when all they do is walk the dog at a leisurely pace a few times a week.

People use a brisk walk to justify a slice of cake because they don't realise the walk is equivalent to about two bites, not a whole slice.

People go to the gym three times a week, and can't understand why it's not keeping pace with their weekend blow-outs. Probably because half an hour on a treadmill reading a magazine only burns about 100 calories. You might burn an extra 30 if you throw in 15 minutes of weights.

The only way I can maintain a healthy weight is my active full-time job plus small children, which easily gets in my 10,000 steps per day; 1800 calories per day in food; and 5-6 absolutely exhausting exercise sessions per week of at least half an hour - an 'easy' day for me is a Jillian Michaels third or fourth level Shred, and that's only around 180-200 cals burned. It's very hard to maintain, so it's easy to see why so many people are overweight. You need a lot of exercise to offset most people's diets, which they don't even come close to.

I also think the government's recommended daily intake of 2000/2500 calories per day for women/men is far too high. That is not my basal metabolic rate by any stretch - if I did nothing all day and consumed 2000 cals daily, I'd be the size of a house in very short order.

I think one of the biggest problems, is that we need to eat. Smoking, drinking alcohol are not requirements for our bodies. Yes, they can be pleasurable, but addictions aside, nobody needs to smoke or consume alcohol to stay alive. Food, otoh, is needed and changing the habits, literally of a lifetime, is really hard.

Because it's really hard. When I was pregnant, something clicked, that wasn't conscious at all - just suddenly, my body worked, and I felt full once I'd eaten, I didn't want a biscuit, and certainly didn't want 5.

I didn't put on any weight when pregnant, and it took no effort at all.

Then I had my baby, and it all went back to normal. I have to manually monitor my food intake, because I just don't have any feelings around it - I exist in a continuous state of 'I could eat' - I have to be totally stuffed to be full, or completely starving to be actually hungry, the rest of the time, I just eat what's there, and if it's too much, I put on weight.

I think that some (perhaps most) people are like I was when I was pregnant - they actually have feedback and don't have to put in the hard work to make sure they're not eating too much - my sons are certainly like that.

i just don't like most fattening food.

I agree with the above poster that says we're hard wired to eat when food is available. It's our instinct. It's a very very short time in the history of humans where we've actually had plenty of food (and only in some bits of the world) and we're nowhere near having evolved to cope with all this plenty.

OCSockOrphanage what is ‘fattening food’? All food will make you fat if you eat too much of it.

Whoever solves the answer to op's question will be a flipping billionaire is all I can contribute. It is one of life's great mysteries (in the Western World).

Loads of reasons as seen by this thread.

What was your New Year’s goal OP? Much too early to give up, we’re only 13 days in..,

For me it’s making time for exercise. My little girl is 18 months and I put a lot of weight on between going back to work when she was 13 months and now. I put on a bit during pregnancy and early maternity leave but actually was quite good as I exercised through pregnancy and did post-natal boot camps. The damage was done from 6 months plus.

I ate chocolate when I was stressed, struggled with making time for myself for exercise and social activities seemed to revolve around cake.i commute for nearly 4 hours a day and realistically I can’t rely on exercise during the week so I need to eat less and move more on my non-working days. I’ve also stopped finishing off my daughter’s food. That was a bad habit I got into which must have amounted to 300 extra calories a day .It has taken me a while to realise that I’ve developed some bad habits and because of time constraints I can’t rely on the gym to sort it like I used to. I’ve seen how easy it is for weight gain to creep up on you and how hard it can be to maintain weight if you don’t pay attention to it.

Post Christmas I’ve made more of an effort to go to the gym during the weekend when my husband can do childcare and I’m making an effort to eat healthier food. There is no doubt in my mind though that our food bill is more expensive when I’m eating better. That must be a barrier to many people. For example, when I’m at work I’ll go to itsu for lunch as I know I’ll get tasty but low calorie food but it s not cheap. Similarly, I tend to eat a lot of fresh fruit and veg and fish like salmon when I’m eating well. Those sorts of meals are a lot more expensive than preparing a big lasagne or pasta bake.

I have lots of willpower, I stick to very restrictive diets for months and months. Last year I spent 8 months on a diet. I also exercise a lot, whether I'm on a diet or not. The problem is I lose weight very slowly - a pound a month on 1,200 low-carb calories a day. It's completely off-putting. Usually after I've lost 6 or 7 pounds my body just stops losing weight and then I lose all motivation to continue.

One of the biggest reasons is that there is a whole industry full of fucking scammers who a) tell you (particularly if you are female) that you are wicked and worthless and lazy if you are not 'thin' and b) sell you products that guarantee any weight loss you achieve will not only be temporary but will result in a greater weight gain every time you switch one bottle of snake oil/book of bullshit for another.

EVERYTHING people are currently told about 'healthy' weight is pretty much bullshit. Human biochemistry is pretty variable. People who are a bit chubbier than fashionable will have much better, healthier, longer lives if they actually take no notice of the slimming industry. People who are very thin because they eat next to nothing (particularly if they take speed/coke and live on coffee and fags in order to 'stay skinny') are often much sicker than big-bodied, active people who eat a varied diet.

Weight loss is 90% food reduction
10% exercise increase

no amount of exercise can counteract too much cake

Its a pretty complex map

ElphabaTheGreen "I also think the government's recommended daily intake of 2000/2500 calories per day for women/men is far too high. That is not my basal metabolic rate by any stretch - if I did nothing all day and consumed 2000 cals daily, I'd be the size of a house in very short order."

I agree. Not that everyone isn't going to be different, obviously.

I'm at a healthy size now and I'm still not over how little food I actually need.

Weirdly, I find thinking "I hardly need to eat", rather than "I can't eat much without gaining weight" helps. There's something about phrasing it in a positive way that feels like it takes the pressure off.

I respond so badly to pressure over weight it's ridiculous. Any slight negativity and I'm straight in at the biscuits.

Similarly, I've found that promising myself a second helping in 20-30 minutes, if I still want it by then, works wonders. I go off and do something else, and by the time 20 minutes is over I've usually lost my eating mojo . At least by enough that it's easy to resist any temptation.

It's about feeling like "I can" rather than like "I can't", for some reason. The psychology of it can be pretty strange, considering it's "just" food.

bridgetreilly

8 pounds in five days is amazing! I know the blood sugar diet is 800 cals per day but is there any chance you can list what you've been eating?

Sorry to derail thread.

I'm at a healthy size now and I'm still not over how little food I actually need.
^
Just seconding this.

I'm 5'5, female and have a sedentary office job. I don't need 2000 cals per day, no matter what I tell myself.