Why is it so easy to put on weight and so hard to lose it? Here’s 10 things you can do to make it easier.
November 3, 2021
By Claire Jones
Question:
How many calories more than your body needs do you think you need to eat every day, to put on a stone in a year?
Answer:
The equivalent of 2 bourbon biscuits.
Still think those little snacks don’t matter? The ones we conveniently forget we had…?
There are a number of reasons why it’s so easy to put on weight…
- Our brains are designed to make us want and enjoy food, and have more than lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes.
- Our bodies are designed to lay down fat and we have an unlimited energy storage capacity. We are designed to overeat and store the excess to see us through until the next meal, which might not be for a long time.
- These are survival mechanisms but unfortunately they’re not appropriate for today’s society, as there is no shortage of food, so we have to learn to manage in that society otherwise will always be destined to be overweight. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. It means that everything is right with you. Your body is doing what it’s designed to do, but this survival mechanism is no longer appropriate for the society that we live in, and is actually harming us. There’s little we can do about society on individual basis so we have to learn to manage ourselves within it if we want to be, and stay, healthy.
- Food manufacturers know how we are designed, and so they have made food hyper-palatable and irresistible. They put on special offers, make the portions supersized, and we crave ever more of them, and get used to those larger portions.
- We live in a society where we can get whatever we want, whenever we want it, including food and drink. Food and many other things are available everywhere, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. We have so much freedom, and can do whatever we want whenever we want. We’re like spoiled toddlers or teenagers with no boundaries. But we need boundaries just like toddlers and teenagers do.
- We live busy, stressful lives and don’t pay much attention to how much energy is in what we eat compared to how much we NEED.
- We are less active than we are designed to be, and this affects how our bodies function, including how much energy we burn and how well we make use of it.
- We often eat when we are not hungry, and develop habits like snacking, comfort eating and excessive portion sizes that are hard to break.
If we only need to eat the equivalent of 2 bourbon biscuits per day more than our bodies need, to put on a stone in a year, yet we may be eating much more of a surplus than this each day, it’s easy to see how quickly the weight can go on.
But why is it so hard to lose it?
- Because we are hard wired to enjoy food, and so we eat for so many reasons, not just hunger.
- To lose weight requires eating less and especially of those foods that are hyper-palatable, that we love, and that everyone around us may still be eating, and we don’t want to do that.
- It requires sacrifice, determination, discipline, and patience. Things that are hard to maintain for very long, especially when we are busy, stressed and tired or upset, never mind hungry, and of course when we celebrate.
- We are impatient and want instant results.
- When we try to diet we can upset the mechanisms that control how our bodies work, and that affects how our minds work. If we are fully compliant with a diet and exercise program 100% of the time we get results. But the problem is doing that is incredibly difficult because we’re going against our biology. It’s incredibly rare for most of us to stick to the program 100% of the time because it’s not very enjoyable to restrict ourselves all the time.
- We don’t take time to learn about what is right for us, so we tend to develop all or nothing thinking and that leads to ‘boom and bust’ behaviours like yo yo dieting, or binge-eating because we try things and last a little while, then go back to our old ways and label ourselves as a failure.
- We are going AGAINST our biology, and so we are in conflict because we are required to change our behaviour. That behaviour is based on our biology, ingrained habits and we often eat for many reasons other than hunger. Our bodies and brains fight back as we are not designed to lose weight voluntarily!
So what can we do about it?
We can’t change the world but we can change how we manage ourselves in it.
Knowledge, understanding and awareness are crucial, otherwise we are walking blindfolded in a booby-trapped jungle.
This is where I come in – I guide people through this, using the YourOneLife Framework for Success.
It’s important to work on the various factors that influence our behaviour, and improve our knowledge, understanding and skills. We need to have realistic expectations about what we can fit within our lives and how much time it will take to lose weight.
- We need to be motivated to make the changes required
- We need to make a commitment and stick to it
- We need to believe we can do it
- We need to believe we are worth the effort
- We need to take responsibility for our behaviour
- We need to improve our knowledge about what to do, and learn about ourselves, our preferences, and our personality
- We need to develop our skills to manage ourselves and our behaviour
- We need to put practical things in place to make it easier, including making changes to our environment
- And much more…
It’s NOT easy, so it’s no wonder this is such a big problem, but once we accept this, but do it anyway, it actually becomes easier, as long as we want it enough, and believe we are worth putting in the effort for.
Remember, most things that are worth it are not easy, and we have an opportunity here to choose our ‘hard’. Weight loss may be hard, but dealing with an illness or disability caused or made worse by being overweight is, or is going to be, harder.
Here’s 10 things that may help…
- Be clear about what you want, and why.
- Be realistic about how much you need to lose and how long it will take. If you have a lot to lose, don’t necessarily expect to lose it all in one go, or in the same way, all the way.
- Be flexible and kind to yourself, and don’t try to change everything at once, except for in short, sharp, manageable bursts. However, certain programmes where you follow a prescribed diet can be helpful but they usually require significant commitment and changes to your lifestyle, and readjustment afterwards, so are best done with support.
- Pay attention to what, why and how much you are eating. Learn about what you are eating, and look at what small improvements you can make, be that the quantity or the quality or both. Make changes that are sustainable. Accept that you will have to change the way you eat for life.
- Think of how you manage your food in a similar way to how we are encouraged to manage our money – set a budget and stick to it, and look at where you can make savings.
- Get active – choose activities you enjoy but don’t get hung up on targets, just keep moving. Ideally incorporate some kind of resistance training to help preserve your muscle mass – this will help you to preserve your metabolism as you lose weight, along with many other benefits.
- Don’t reward yourself with food; find other ways to reward yourself. If we take something that feels good away, we have to find something to replace it with or we will rebel – so make it your mission to find something you can get stuck in to that is healthy for your body and mind. Make the journey as enjoyable as possible so that it doesn’t matter too much how long it takes. Certain exceptions aside, the longer it takes the more likely you are to be successful in the long run.
- Focus your attention on the day you’re in, and on making that as healthy as possible, and notice the benefits of it. Don’t worry about any further ahead. Write down all the benefits you notice about eating better and moving more NOW. It’s amazing how much the rest of our lives can change when we improve what we eat.
- Eat enough! Work out what YOUR maintenance level is, then eat a little less. Check this regularly, as it will change as you lose weight. How many calories we need changes according to our body weight and composition. When we reduce our body weight we reduce how many calories we can eat to be able to lose weight because our bodies needs less energy to move around and function. See point 6 about resistance training above.
- Get some help! Implementation is key. It’s not easy to do on our own, yet we assume that it should be, and beat ourselves up when we ‘fail’. If you still think you should be able to do it on your own, then read this article again, but this time be kinder to yourself. I know how hard it is, from 25 years of first-hand experience, and I got help. This is why I do what I do – to help you put all this into practice, consistently, so you can get the results that you want. There’s no shame in asking for help.
If you want to find out more about which of my services is right for you, then book your FREE discovery call here.
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