The Struggle is Real: Understanding Why Weight Loss is So Hard
Losing weight is one of the most common goals for people looking to improve their health and feel better about their bodies. However, it can often feel like an uphill battle against your own body. Why is it so hard to lose weight and keep it off long-term?
Your Biology Works Against You
First, it helps to understand some of the science. Our bodies have evolved over thousands of years to store fat very efficiently as an adaptation to periods of food scarcity. For most of human history, the next meal was not guaranteed. Our bodies still retain this fat-storing programming even though constant access to abundance of calories is now the norm.
When you lose weight, whether through diet, exercise, or both, several biological mechanisms kick in that try to pull your weight back up. These include:
- Reduced metabolic rate - This slows the rate you burn calories even at rest
- Increased appetite signals - Ghrelin, the "hunger hormone" increases, while leptin, the "fullness hormone" decreases
- Insulin resistance - Your cells become less sensitive to insulin, causing excess blood sugar to be converted and stored as fat
In order to continue losing or even maintain weight loss, you have to fight against all of these biological adaptations through continued calorie restriction and exercise. This requires constant diligence and effort.
Motivation is Hard to Sustain
Losing weight requires eating less and moving more. Sounds simple, but in reality, making daily decisions to support weight loss goals is mentally tiring. Motivation is difficult to sustain over the long term when you have to make continual sacrifices.
For example, watching portion sizes takes a lot of discipline when your favorite foods are in front of you. Finding time for meal planning and exercise can also be draining when you have job, family, and other priorities demanding your time and attention.
As the enthusiasm that fired up your initial weight loss efforts starts to dwindle, old habits become appealing again. Maintaining motivation is critical to continuing progress when you've already lost the first quick and "easy" pounds.
Stress Undermines Goals
Chronic stress makes losing weight more difficult due to elevated levels of the hormone cortisol. Cortisol triggers glucose production, insulin resistance, fat storage in the abdominal area, and increased appetite. All of these biological effects of stress can sabotage weight loss efforts.
Additionally, many people cope with stress by emotional eating of indulgent, highly palatable comfort foods. Stress reduces willpower to resist temptation and stick to healthy eating habits. This emotional eating tends to happen in the evening which deposits extra calories just before bed with little chance to burn them off before your metabolism slows down during sleep.
Your Environment Shapes Choices
Humans are highly influenced by their surroundings. When calorie-dense food is omnipresent at the office, in social situations, and during holidays and celebrations, sticking to reasonable portions is very difficult. The constant availability and temptation wear down even highly motivated dieters over time.
Likewise, getting regular activity is a challenge when you have a desk job, long commute, and things like chores or family obligations eating into your free time. Engineering opportunities for physical activity into a packed, sedentary schedule requires both planning and determination.
Old Habits Die Hard
After years or even decades of developing eating, exercise and lifestyle habits that caused excess weight gain to begin with, turning over an entirely new leaf is extremely challenging. We are creatures of habit, and once those habits form grooves in our brain, it takes conscious and constant effort to rewire new habits.
Making minor slip-ups along the way is almost inevitable with the degree of hypervigilance required to stay on track long term. When those occasional slip-ups happen, having the resilience to get right back on track instead of falling into old patterns is critical to regain lost ground quickly.
Strategies for Losing Weight and Keeping It Off
While losing weight and keeping it off over the long term is very challenging for the reasons outlined above, there are strategies you can implement to stack conditions in your favor.
Set Realistic Expectations
First and foremost, set reasonable expectations about the pace of weight loss to avoid frustration, impatience, and giving up when rapid results don't happen. Generally, aim for 1 to 2 pounds of fat loss per week maximum for sustainable long term loss.
Also, anticipate challenges that trigger slips, plan for plateaus, and be diligent about getting right back on course when you veer off track. Perfection is impossible, but persistence pays off as progress compounds over time.
Form New Habits
Focus your effort on building daily habits that support your weight loss goals over the long term. For example, get in 10k steps per day, bulk up meals with low calorie dense vegetables, switch out unhealthy snacks for fruits and proteins, etc. Repeat these new behaviors consistently to ingrain habits.
Control Your Environment
Instead of relying on sheer willpower, control your environment and food choices by removing triggers. Don't bring problem foods into your home that will tempt you. Schedule meals and snacks so you aren't starving. Give yourself no choice but to take daily walks.
When unhealthy options are less convenient and unavailable, making positive decisions is much easier. Self control becomes less taxing when you engineer your environment for success.
Adopt a Flexible Program
Design an eating plan built around your food preferences so its sustainable for your tastebuds long term. If you hate what youre eating, you'll never stick with it. Build in flexibility so you can adapt to life's unpredictability and special occasions.
Likewise, choose enjoyable forms of movement you can stick with long term like walking, hiking, sports or resistance training. Consistency over time trumps intensiveexercise programs that quickly burn out.
Troubleshoot Challenges
Review setbacks objectively to understand triggers, rather than judge yourself harshly. If holiday parties threw you off track, choose lower calorie cocktails and plan for the onslaught of treats next time. If injury prevented your usual workout routine, supplement with pools, ellipticals or recumbant bikes that enable you to move safely.
Isolate challenges as they occur, develop solutions to counteract them, and apply what you learn. With time, you build resilience and fewer circumstances can impede your forward progress.
Staying Focused on the "Why"
When working towards goals that require high effort levels over long periods of time, staying focused on your why serves as the emotional fuel to persist through challenges that will arise.
Why do you want sustained weight loss as your goal? What will that enable you to experience that drives your ambition? Keep the vision of improved energy levels to play with kids, confidence to wear beloved clothes tucked away in the closet, sense of pride reaching a long sought after milestone weight to center your emotional resolve when temptation strikes or motivation lags.
Weight loss is simple in concept but difficult to execute in daily practice over the long haul. Understanding the scientifically proven challenges your body and environment exert makes it possible to compassionately troubleshoot setbacks when they happen to get back on course.
While the struggle is real, lasting success is within your reach by thoughtfully using strategies to navigate challenges and keeping your "why" at the core to energize consistency. With realistic timelines, flexibility and self-compassion, progress can compound to reach your goals.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new treatment regimen.
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