Why do people struggle to lose weight?

[Lotus Victoria]

People don't like to go outside their confort zone. That's why.

[Endus]

2. And most importantly. No. It is not more complicated than Energy in < energy out. No matter how conservative your body is, you cannot burn more calories than you intake, without losing weight. The body cannot create it's own calories. Otherwise our bodies would violate basic thermodynamics principles, you could live forever, never age, the universe would be undone because energy conservation would be violated, etc...

Let me clarify.

People generally track "energy in" by the caloric content of food you eat. But some people's metabolisms are more or less efficient, and make better or worse use of that caloric content in converting it into energy the body can use.

This is why two people can eat the same food, in the same amounts, and one will gain weight, and the other will lose. The one gaining has a more efficient metabolism, and is making more effective use of that caloric content. The one losing weight isn't converting as much, or is passing food through quickly enough that it retains caloric content, or what have you.

[Thoughtcrime]

Metabolisms slow down and food is delicious.

[McFuu]

Three months isn't long enough...it takes a long time to alter your gut bacteria. Probiotic supplements help.

You might also be going too long between meals, the body prefers quick energy when your blood sugar drops. Smaller, more frequent meals help with this.

Actually smaller, frequent meals aren't good for you either. It's been assumed for awhile that lots of small meals doesn't allow the body to natural lower blood sugar, leading to diabetes and other bad effects. Scheduled meals, largest coming a couple of hours after your work out, plus a fasting period daily is most people best bet.

Edit: forgot to mention recent studies have proven this school of thought.

[Orlong]

To add to that, if you've got a problem with alcohol, what's the first step? You stop drinking. Ever. Not even a sip. Alcoholics can't have a drop, because they know they can't control themselves, and they're far more likely to slip.

Now, imagine if an alcoholic needed to have a responsible drink three times a day just to keep living. There's a reason that doesn't work out. That's also the reality for anyone with dietary willpower issues; they CAN'T cut "food" out of their lives completely. So it's like an alcoholic trying to never binge even when they have a beer with literally every meal.

I cant believe Im going to agree with Endus for once, but hes 100% right on this one

[Shaderas]

BMR; base metabolic rate.

A lot of people say "it's just energy in, and energy out", but it's not that simple. Some people burn a lot more calories just by sitting around. Some people don't process certain foods the same way. You need to figure out how much of your intake is actually being converted to food energy, rather than being passed through without being absorbed, as well as how much your body consumes for day-to-day basics like walking around and breathing. Same for the "out"; people's energy usage varies somewhat, so some people get way more benefit out of a shorter workout than others.

Once you control for all those factors THEN you can get to "energy in < energy out", but without that, your numbers aren't right to begin with.

Out of curiosity, for those whose bodies can easily convert excess to fat, wouldn't this be considered an evolutionary advantage if they were in a different time or different locale? Just given our particular environment in developed nations, where food is no longer scarce is this a disadvantage at times. Just curious

[Deleted]

It's really not that bad. Are people just afraid of feeling a little hungry? I actually feel energized when I'm slightly hungry. 155 pound club.

Trying to get my six-pack atm for the summer.
Those last pounds are fucking hard tho.

You need to live like a hungry Afrikan and still do alot of gymtime so fucking low on energy all of the day.
Next to that to see yourself become weaker in the gym even when you spend more time there is also not very good motivation.

So yeah i think its a struggle atleast to get from 18% to 10% bodyfat.

[Endus]

Out of curiosity, for those whose bodies can easily convert excess to fat, wouldn't this be considered an evolutionary advantage if they were in a different time or different locale? Just given our particular environment in developed nations, where food is no longer scarce is this a disadvantage at times. Just curious

Yeah, people whose metabolisms are more efficient would, in theory, have the evolutionary advantage during times of short food supply. They'd get more out of a meal than their high-metabolism friend, and would be more likely to have fat stores from when there was a lot of food around, to boot.

It's an evolutionary "win" that's turned into a "lose" because food is so relatively cheap and plentiful in modern society. Similarly, people never needed to exercise, before. Just walking to and fro was all the exercise we needed, even riding a horse takes some physical effort. The entire concept of "exercise" is a modern invention, because of how modern technology doesn't line up with what worked best for stone-age homo sapiens.

[Delana]

Assuming they're actually trying and failing, it's likely a combination of habitual behavior being difficult to change and a poor environment for weight loss, as well as possibly an innately lower ability to exercise self-restraint. I think in general modern society is not a particularly great environment for staying fit, to say nothing of a ton of bad advice floating around. A lot of jobs are very sedentary; food is packed to the gills with fat and sugar to encourage us to eat and buy more; and finding opportunities to exercise can be difficult depending on your location and free time, which leaves you with basically the worst option of fighting your body's evolved desire to hoard calories when the opportunity presents itself.

I think this gets to the heart of the matter. People used to have JOBS that kept them fit. Now one has to sacrifice a significant amount of their free time to exercise, and even then, unless they really know what they're doing, it's not particularly time efficient. This is after working a job all day that is probably fairly draining/taxing mentally.

Also what Endus said in Post #14.
"To add to that, if you've got a problem with alcohol, what's the first step? You stop drinking. Ever. Not even a sip. Alcoholics can't have a drop, because they know they can't control themselves, and they're far more likely to slip.

Now, imagine if an alcoholic needed to have a responsible drink three times a day just to keep living. There's a reason that doesn't work out. That's also the reality for anyone with dietary willpower issues; they CAN'T cut "food" out of their lives completely. So it's like an alcoholic trying to never binge even when they have a beer with literally every meal."

I'd add that binge eating ("drinking in analogy") is sometimes culturally mandated for special events, holidays, most serious family dinners, etc. It's like expecting the alcoholic to kick the habit when he a) must drink at every meal, and b) occasionally has his mother/sister/brother/best friend encouraging him to binge drink. Most people are at least more understanding/aware of alcoholism. Try telling your mother that you're starting a diet to lose 60-100 pounds and that means you can't eat the meal she's prepared. It's usually not going to go over well. Everyone will expect you to cheat with/for them, to the extent that you're cheating all the time.

[Celista]

Actually smaller, frequent meals aren't good for you either. It's been assumed for awhile that lots of small meals doesn't allow the body to natural lower blood sugar, leading to diabetes and other bad effects. Scheduled meals, largest coming a couple of hours after your work out, plus a fasting period daily is most people best bet.

Edit: forgot to mention recent studies have proven this school of thought.

If her blood sugar is dipping so low that she's craving immediate-energy foods like sugar, then she's not eating frequently enough. Or she's eating a lot of processed carbohydrates that spike blood sugar. Low carb, eating smaller meals more often or switching to slower-digesting carbs can address this.

- - - Updated - - -

Trying to get my six-pack atm for the summer.
Those last pounds are fucking hard tho.

You need to live like a hungry Afrikan and still do alot of gymtime so fucking low on energy all of the day.
Next to that to see yourself become weaker in the gym even when you spend more time there is also not very good motivation.

So yeah i think its a struggle atleast to get from 18% to 10% bodyfat.

If your energy levels are dropping, you might need to try calorie cycling or a cheat day. That's usually a sign of metabolic slowdown.

[Drtydeeds]

Lack of discipline and self control.

[Deleted]

It's really not that bad. Are people just afraid of feeling a little hungry? I actually feel energized when I'm slightly hungry.

Because people make bad choices, and it's difficult to just revert a lifetime to doing so. Moreover, people might eat for other reasons than simply being hungry.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Food tastes good.

[McFuu]

If her blood sugar is dipping so low that she's craving immediate-energy foods like sugar, then she's not eating frequently enough. Or she's eating a lot of processed carbohydrates that spike blood sugar. Low carb, eating smaller meals more often or switching to slower-digesting carbs can address this.

The same effect can occur if you have a high blood sugar level and it dips down lower than what you've become accustomed. This is the problem with many small meals, the body adjusts to having a high blood sugar level, damaging itself trying not to allow sugar levels to get out of control. Which can result in diabetes.

Without specifically knowing her diet, it's safer to have her switch to an intermittent fasting than the many small meals. With an IF the body gets the chance to reset, which is important to determine if her feelings of needing sugar is related to taking in too much sugar and elevated insulin levels dealing with that, or she is in fact deficient in her diet.

I would link the recent study, but I can't find it. It's not hard to find many many articles/studies/reviews on why frequent small meals is bad for you, in the short term and long term. Just pop open google. It really isn't wise to suggest it to anyone. The only people that are going to want to eat this frequently are probably people attempting to put on muscle mass at the top 10%. What I mean is body builders/power lifters who are already strong and large and have plateau'd. But really they will be eating many larger meals.

Many of these advanced muscle building diets include fasting days. Eating at a surplus and well for 5 days, a cheat day that is about the same calorie wise, just different foods, and a fasting day to help the body recover. This style diet isn't going to be a year round deal, probably only used until the body reacts and the plateau ends, than back to a normal diet.

[Demona3]

Not liking sweet stuffs would be like gods gift to me

lol! I wish I liked a lot of sweet stuff, my 2 kiddos can't get enough sweets. Me .. I'm just like... ugh. Not sure about you, but I do enjoy a good salad with honey mustard dressing on it. That's sweet enough for me.

[Deleted]

I am convinced there is some kind of genetic component involved whether it's gut bacteria or whatever i don't know or a combination of traits.
I'm pushing 40, workout (gym) moderately and maintain a 4 pack easy and a six pack with some small effort. It's just how my body works. I'm also not a "joy eater" as in i don't derive a lot of pleasure from food even when i eat something i like, and more importantly, ones i had my fill i'm good. I have zero desire to keep shoveling food in my mouth after i sated my hunger. I also lack a sweet tooth even though i enjoy chocolate but i never really crave candy. Coca Cola is my only "vice" but i can live without it.

If i'm completely sedentary for a day i can get by with very little food without any adverse effect. Mostly i force something calorie rich like peanuts in to me on those days to maintain muscle mass.

I've noticed though that during bulks my body very quickly gets used to the increased calorie intake and i start feeling hungry a lot more. Thankfully it's very easy for me to resist such feelings when i go back to maintenance levels.

I should sign me and my father up for some kind of medical study. I'm sure they'd be able to find something?

For the record i'm 93kg atm with abs so i'm not some skinny manlet.

[Spl4sh3r]

I have disconnected from the feeling of hunger. I am unsure of what that feeling is.

[shimerra]

I have disconnected from the feeling of hunger. I am unsure of what that feeling is.

No you haven't.

[Hotmail]

Drive-through and 24/7 delivery.

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Losing weight is really simple.
If you know your TDEE which is not hard to get, you simply put yourself at a deficit every single day and you will lose weight.

You will eventually hit a plateau if your gameplan only consists of eating less. Going from obese to 'small fat' with this method is doable (and recommended, since physical activity is exceptionally more difficult when you weigh more), but going from small fat to slim without any kind of activity to speed up your metabolism or gain muscles might cause more problems than it would solve. You can only go so low before you enter a caloric deficit.

[Louisa Bannon]

The process is actually that easy. You don't need to exercise to lose weight, or eat 'healthy,' you just have to be at a caloric deficit every single day and you will lose weight guaranteed.

Best of luck. If you are experiencing significant hunger on this plan, then I suggest something is amiss with your strategy.

Calories are poorly measured, counts are often off by as much as 25% - which will matter eventually. I pay some attention to calories, but not to much because of that fact. I just use calories to check I am in the zone I want to be in, and I don't expect accuracy.