Why does it seem that weight loss is so elusive for some of us and so seamless for others? That’s the question that Scale Warfare and I were asking ourselves today, and we didn’t really come up with a great answer, so I thought I’d open it up for discussion here.
In my own case, I’ve been trying, albeit off and on, to lose weight for 3 years now. I’ve actually been trying to lose weight my whole life, but I’ll say that I’ve been really active in the weight loss blogging community for the last 3 years. Some days I feel like I eat, work, and sleep nothing but weight loss and related topics. Yet I haven’t even begun to lose a significant amount of weight and keep it off.
Why is that?
The easy answer is that once I get a bit of success, I get “cocky” and think I can scrimp on measuring and counting and then I fall back into old, bad habits. I get complacent and stop working out as much. I stop preparing food ahead of time. I’m inconsistent. I give in to urges and cravings.
But there has to be more to it than that, doesn’t there? Because I’m more often counting, planning, and preparing than not. I’m more often restricting, watching, and denying than not. So why doesn’t the weight come off more easily?
And why does it seem like some people start eating their veggies and the pounds just fly off. It doesn’t seem fair, does it?
But then again life isn’t fair, and so maybe I’m meant to work harder at this than someone else might have to because that’s the way it goes. Just like I have an easier time writing this blog post than someone else might. And some of you can run marathons and others of us can’t. We’re all different and unique, so maybe our journeys are, as well?
Because if it were as simple as calories in vs. calories out then I should have much more success than I’ve had, and I reckon that many of you are in that same boat.
So what is it?
I may never figure out the perfect formula for weight loss, but I will say that for myself I’ve been really trying to stay with it. To catch myself before I completely derail my progress. To make tiny changes or major tweaks, but to keep up with what I’ve started and not get deterred from my mission.
Because I can want it all day long but I’ll never achieve it unless my actions are consistent, comprehensive, and continual. So I have to fight the good fight and know that even when the scale doesn’t show a loss, my body will catch up eventually as long as I am doing all the right things.
What do you think? Is it just a matter of patience and perseverance, or is there something else?
I think it all boils down to what a person wants more, to lose weight or eat what they want, when they want it. I want to lose but I think in this moment I want to eat more. It’s hard to keep focus on the bigger picture, long term goal of being skinny.
You’re so right. That’s why it’s good to have each other as reminders.
Before I lost weigh I used to feel the same way. I think what was happening to me was that I would make say, 60% good choices. Then I felt so darn good about myself for making SO many good choices that I would give myself all sorts of pats on the back, free passes, special occasions, etc. thinking that I deserved them. So those 40% free passes basically evened everything out, canceling out all my “good choices.” Same with working out–I’d feel so proud of myself for working out, I’d have a nice little snack when I came home from the gym…likely canceling out the work I just did. When I finally lost weight, it was because I went 30 full days with not ONE pat on the back. I was 100% for 4 weeks, didn’t weigh myself (so I wouldn’t get down if I didn’t lose a ton the first few weeks), and just resigned myself to the rules I had set for myself. My social life sorta sucked, but it was worth it to commit for 30 days with no exceptions. I think balance is important long term, but not when it’s time to buckle down and get the work done.
I love this!!! You put it PERFECTLY.
I’m going to do exactly this. And I’ll earn my #7daychip then my #30daychip while doing it.
You were able to write a post that captured everything I was feeling today
Leave it to the English teacher to be able to do a fantastic job of verbalizing what I’ve been feeling!
I think there are a LOT of reasons why weight loss can be so elusive.
First, I think many of us address the SYMPTOM of the problem instead of the root of the problem. I can’t tell you how many times I lost weight (significant amounts) on one program or another, but I always gained it back because the weight? Symptom. And I needed to heal the real problem, or at least START the work on doing that.
Second, I do not believe it is as simple as calories in vs. calories out, and recent studies are starting to support this. WHAT you eat matters as much as HOW MUCH you eat, in terms of calories. If you eat 1,500 calories/day of Twinkies and mashed potatoes, your energy, body, mind, workouts, weight, shape – EVERYTHING – are going to look very different than if you eat 1,500 calories of whole, healthy foods. For example, I tried the 4-Hour Body diet, where you eat protein, veggies, legumes, and healthy fats. No fruit. No starches. No white stuff. No sugar. And I ate like a PIG. And? I LOST WEIGHT. So the QUALITY of the calories matters as much as the QUANTITY.
Finally, (and there are SO many more possible reasons, but my comment is already going to rival your post for length!) I think we are very often dishonest with ourselves on how well we’re really doing. I know I was. It’s so easy, or at least if FEELS easy in the moment, to fudge on things. To add an extra scoop of oatmeal. An extra teaspoon of butter. An extra 1/2 C of cereal. Or just to “wing it” and *assume* that since we’ve been doing this so long, we know how to make good choices. Well I am living proof that lying to yourself will get you nowhere. It’s only once you are willing to be BRUTALLY honest (not brutal or mean to yourself, mind you) with yourself that you will see lasting success. I decided this last year to stop kidding myself. To quit hiding from my mistakes. To quit saying I was doing great when I wasn’t. Etc. And that made a huge difference for me.
Whew! Sorry for the novel!! Great topic!
You’re so right about the “fudging” or lying to ourselves. That’s one nice thing about Medifast; no guesswork and not much room for fudging.
For me, personally, I have used food as a comfort and a friend my whole life, when I go on a “diet”, it’s like saying goodbye to a good friend, and it’s sad in a way. My relationship with food my whole life has been for all the wrong reasons, someone once said to me that we need to eat to live not live to eat, and that has some truth to it, but food gives me great joy and happiness, and I think finding something else that makes me happy that I can substitute for food would be part of the battle, but the other part of the battle is the one I fight in my own head and that, by far, is the hardest. I honestly think that is why I have never successfully been able to keep off weight I’ve taken off at various times in my life. Changing a mindset is hard, but that is the key to permanent weight loss, I have yet to accomplish that.
I couldn’t agree with you more. And I think I’m finally ready to start changing my mindset, a little bit at a time.
So, no one figured out what the photo was an allusion (literary reference) to? C’mon, you’re breaking this American Lit teacher’s heart!!
I have no idea what the picture is lol…PoliSci major here though.
So I guess I’ll say, then. It’s a reference to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby is looking out at the green light and hoping for a future with Daisy Buchanan, who lives along the other shore in East Egg. It’s a reference to an illusive dream that isn’t easily attained.