Don’t give up!

Let me ask you one simple question today: how many times have you tried to diet, changed something with your diet, started or increased exercise or implemented any other “lifestyle” behaviour to achieve a certain health or weight-related goal?

How many fad and other diets have you tried? Calorie counting, weight watchers, low-fat, low-carb, paleo, keto, gluten-free, cleanses, whole-30, Mediterranean, vegetarian, FODMAP… Or any other from the endless list of choices for whatever is currently in fashion.

How many exercise regimes have you tried? Yoga, jogging, swimming, aerobics, hot yoga, Zumba, HIIT, strength training, loop, spinning and thousands of more fitness options.

Have you perhaps tried supplements, herbal teas, juices, meal-replacements or maybe even weight-loss medications or surgeries? Many of us are desperate enough to try anything to lose weight, indeed.

Have any of these diets, exercises or other changes resulted in long-term changes (at least over 2 years – preferably over 5 years) in your weight though? And if so, did you have to continuously apply your preferred restriction or exhaustive physical activity to keep the weight down (so called maintenance)?

There is this famous quote, that apparently is not really Einstein’s: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Yet, when we fail to maintain our weight-loss (if we even manage to achieve it in the first place), we believe we personally failed, or we simply chose a wrong method. We admonish and shame ourselves to get motivated again to either return on the regime of our choice or try something else. This time it must be different! This time it must work! This time I will make these healthy improvements to my lifestyle and keep these changes forever so I can stay thin and healthy! Right???

No, not really. According to research, up to 95% of people simply fail to achieve any substantial weight-loss or fail to maintain any weight-loss in long term, regardless of the diet, exercise or other lifestyle changes applied. And it is not our fault!

Helpful in understanding why the likelihood of success is so slim is concept of Weight Set Point. Our bodies are amazing in regulating many things – our temperature, hormones, and blood pressure among others; our weight very much included. There are many factors that will affect at what level our weight will be stable – that level, called our weight set point is very difficult to change. If anything, it can usually be increased easier than decreased, as we have evolved to slow down metabolism and store more fat reserves to deal with famines and ensure the survival of the species.

When you make changes to your food intake or increase activity (usually both of those) in order to lose weight, you are sending a “famine” signal to your body. Unfortunately, your body does not care about thin-ideals, culture norms and your dreams of fitting into size x dress. It only cares about you not starving, so it decreases your metabolic rate and changes appetite hormone levels. In no time, you feel always hungry, cold and generally annoyed. No wonder it usually does not take long for you to stop this self-imposed famine! If you are a more strong-willed type, you might be able to stick to your diet a bit longer. That’s probably even worse for your weight-regulation system. In response to this atrocious situation, your body “decides” to increase your weight set point as soon as you start feeding normally. This is the main reason why most people who lose weight, regain more than they lost after they return to their usual habits. If you like entertaining videos on YouTube, you might want to watch this one.  I think it explains this idea quite well.

If you are like me, a somewhat successful dieter in the past, your weight is likely a bit (or much) higher than it would have been if you have never dieted. For most people it is a very disturbing realization, that they would possibly stay at the lower, stable weight had they never tried to lose it. It is not our fault though! We are swimming in a diet culture where we are told that the pursuit of lower weight is admirable, advisable, and achievable. My triple A’s – triple LIES!

Once the normal eating is re-established, the weight will eventually settle at our weight set point. It may be lower, the same, or higher than our current weight and we do not have any control over it. This is for our bodies to decide and the actual work we need to do is this: we have to learn how to trust our bodies to do the best they can with all our history of dieting, our genetics and any other circumstances. Trusting our bodies is our birth right – trusting ourselves is the only way to find real and sustainable peace in our lives. If you want to find that trust with a help of a diet-recovery and weight-neutral coach, feel free to schedule a free discovery call with me.