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7 reasons why you cannot lose weight
June 7, 2009
Web MD recently published a piece with the eye-catching title “Why You Can’t Lose Weight”.
I won’t shock you when I say that a LOT of reasons that were listed in the Web MD article are as obvious as an elephant, but for some reason so many people are still not able to understand them and integrate them in their lives.
There really isn’t much mystery anymore when it comes to losing weight. It’s been so incredibly well documented, you’d think that everyone living in Western world would be thin and healthy, but as you know obesity is one of the most serious health issues facing many wealthy countries and the problem seems to be getting worst each year.
I’ve extracted the six reasons reported by Web MD preventing millions of men and women from losing weight and keeping it off:
1) Being a woman puts you as risk for weight gain: Because women have less muscle then men, you burn less calories. Weight training for women is so important because you burn calories in your muscle cells, not in your fat cells.
2) Low resting metabolic rate combined with high metabolic efficiency affects how much weight you gain or lose: You “burn” fuel (calories) at a lower rate while resting, and you are efficient at using calories while exercising (aka exercising will help you burn more calories than if you were a couch potato).
3) You HATE exercising: Just like some people prefer chocolate ice cream to strawberry ice cream, so people LOVE exercising while others don’t. It might be more than being finicky, it seems that some people are genetically predisposed at enjoying exercise more than others. Some people really-truly-deeply hate exercising because their genes would much rather sit on a sofa and channel surf all weekend long as opposed to going for a run or hitting the gym.
4) How do you deal with your emotions? The reality is that people deal with emotions and stress differently. While I tend to cut food out when I’m stressed because my stomach is in such a knot that the idea of food is too much to bear, other people eat everything in sight. Oprah has been quite public this year about the medical reason behind her weight gain and the emotional reasons that caused her to eat more than she should. Oprah is not alone in dealing with emotional woes with food.
5) You’re always hungry: Some people have bigger appetites than others and that obviously contributes to how much food they ingest compare to others. If you combine that tendency to have a bigger appetite with poor quality food choices, then you will face challenges in keeping a healthy weight level.
6) Your mom made you fat: I’ll admit that not even I knew of this one and I was completely stunned when I read that mothers who keep high-fat diet while pregnant are somewhat responsible for their offspring’s lifetime of weight issues. Research studies suggest that what your mother (and even your grandmother) ate may have an effect on you and your body weight! This might be a huge wake-up call to some many women who still are following the philosophy of “I’m eating for two” in order to eat far more than is necessary for their pregnancy.
7) What you ate as a toddler affects how easily you gain as an adult: It really worries me when I see parents giving their kids a lot of fast food because these kids grow up thinking that it’s actually food.
Just in case you thought this list from WebMD is your licence to throw your hands up in the air and declare “I’m fat and there is nothing I can do about it” … think again.
Just because you we’re dealt a bad hand doesn’t mean you cannot do anything to reverse your bad luck … if you don’t believe me ask professional poker players like Annie Duke. Ok, your weight issue is not like playing Blackjack, but if you don’t do anything about it … it’s like playing Russian Roulette with your quality of life.
Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography
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June 7th, 2009 at 15:04
Do you consider yoga a good exercise? Do you consider yoga to be any type of muscle building exercise?
I started yoga, really enjoyed it (5 to 6 days a week), lost some weight. Felt so good added some scuplt classes to lift some weights and floor exercise. The elbow had problems, cut back on amount of weight, then stopped scuplt classes. Attempted to continue yoga but finally had to quit. Its been 3 months the only thing that has helped is acupunture. I think the elbow is about 90% back to normal. I think I’m ready to go back to yoga.
I was able to do cardio while the elbow healed but I get bored.
I need to lose weight, should I be doing or find some type of weight training even if I’m doing yoga?
June 8th, 2009 at 9:53
Pam,
I’m not your medical doctor, personal trainer or nutritionist and I’ve not met you in person, but from your comment I’d say that you’ll need to get the green light from your doctor for your elbow condition.
I’m a strong believer in weight training for women. I’ve been a hardcore weight trainer for over a decade now and have always been quite careful to avoid injury.
Yoga is fantastic for flexibility and you do work you core and building strenght. I’m sure that you’ve lost some weight by going yoga because once you start taking care of yourself it shows in so many different areas of your life.
That said, in my opinion, if you want to take you weight loss to the next level you’ll need to find a cardio excercise you like because you need that intensity + you NEED weight training.
The best thing I can suggest is for you to work with a personal trainer for a few sessions to learn the basics and get better results!
Once you have the basics, you can get some fitness and exercise DVDs for your home if you don’t want to workout at a gym.
I hope that helps and thanks for dropping by!
September 7th, 2009 at 21:09
Well, I eat everything when i’m depressed. But I don’t gain weight that fast, it’s just my tummy which is getting bigger, maybe because after eating all I do is just sit with my computer.
Yeah, these are the facts that people already know, but they just don’t apply it in their everyday lives.