Why do people struggle to lose weight?

[Klingers]

Because our bodies and our brains evolved to chase mastodons, forage berries and sleep when the sun was down.

Now we sit at desks and/or behind steering wheels all day, are up half the night and are surrounded by pervasive advertising and carb-dense foods. We weren't built for the kind of stress a modern lifestyle places on us.

A lot of it comes down to willpower, which recent research is suggesting is kind of like a mental battery. We literally have a finite amount of willpower for the day. You sleep and it recharges. Every single thing we don't want to do during the day from 8 hours in an office to an hour commuting, turning down tempting food, ignoring advertising of tempting food, fitting in a gym visit on top of a full work day... It's all draining that battery. Mr Caveman just had to throw the odd spear and pick some berries. The brain was also wired light up and treat sweet. sugary foods like it does because in nature they're rare. It was a survival mechanism.

That's not even getting into things like lifestyle fucking over your metabolism to a point where even if you lose the weight, you'll have to work 5 times harder at the gym than a traditionally thin person to keep it off.

I lost 60kg a few years ago. That's over 130lbs. 4 days a week I was at the gym over an hour a day. The I tripped and busted my ankle in a gutter, that turned into a chronic pain issue and I literally couldn't walk for 4 years. I didn't suddenly start eating McDonalds every day but still, slowly and surely even my very reasonable diet caused me to pack the weight back on... Because I couldn't do any real exercise A few years later I lost another 40kg. Then I herniated one of my lower discs in my spine. Same thing happened. Weight came back.

Losing weight is bloody hard. I'll also cut people off at the pass: I've been on another weight loss train. 35kg down and still going. Third time. I'll keep it up as long as it bloody takes.

[Azadina]

I'm a big believer in not eating if you're not hungry, especially if you're trying to maintain or lose weight. I don't actually think "starvation mode" exists. There was a study of a guy who ate literally nothing for an entire year and lost a ton of weight...your BMR will drop slightly no matter your caloric intake at a deficit, lifting weights/eating protein helps to offset that.

Just make sure you're getting enough protein to maintain your lean body mass and then focus on whatever macro you like for the calorie difference, and eat slightly more if you're hungrier the next day or later in the week.

I personally think 1000 calories or less a day is pretty terrible (what I'd call starvation mode). I got to like just under 1100 yesterday, which I think still isn't great, but I didn't feel like eating more when I wasn't hungry. I wish I felt that way more often really Usually I feel fine when I'm close to what maintains weight, but that doesn't really help with losing couple kilos. I've always found it to be really difficult to lose weight, when one is already at normal range. It doesn't want to go, or is just abysmally slow.

[Acidbaron]

It's hard, really hard to remove added sugars from your diet. Since it's in everything and that's paired with not enough movement during the day one of the arguably biggest weight gainers.

Generally dropping carbs and sugars helps a lot, the hard part is literally keeping it up.

[Deleted]

Losing weight is bloody hard. I'll also cut people off at the pass: I've been on another weight loss train. 35kg down and still going. Third time. I'll keep it up as long as it bloody takes.

Here's to hoping no injury fucks up your progress this time mate.

[Deleted]

Sugar is love, sugar is life!

I pretty much only drink Diet soda; not because I am worried about the sugar but because I tend to like the taste of Coke Zero etc. better.
That said: When it comes to any other things, sugar is indeed love.

[MatadorMedia]

Probably because losing weight is going against your biology/evolution. Your body wants to retain weight. Losing it means you could die quickly if there's a food scarcity or if you get sick.

[yetgdhfgh]

Ironically iam at the other end of the spectrum iam a 36 year old guy who simply cannot put on weight!

I weigh nearly 130 pounds and no matter how much i eat or how much i drink i never seem to budge over that weight.

[d00mGuArD]

[Shadowferal]

Keep to a diet and work-out regimen.

Those that that have the metabolism that lets them get away with eating anything without gaining weight while being the typical couch potato; that sort of thing goes away for most. Usually the first sign is when we hit 30 the metabolism drops and the gains in weight become very obvious.

Usually those that I see as obese are people that typically have medical issues. (low blood sugar and other stuff)

[zenkai]

100 calories burned each time you fuck. Just need to fuck more.

I doubt I burn 100 calories in 30 seconds.

- - - Updated - - -

It's hard, really hard to remove added sugars from your diet. Since it's in everything and that's paired with not enough movement during the day one of the arguably biggest weight gainers.

Generally dropping carbs and sugars helps a lot, the hard part is literally keeping it up.

When I quite sugar and processed carbs it was hard, but then it got easier, now I am not even tempted by it anymore. People bring in a box of donuts and I think to myself "meh".

The hardest part about quitting sugar and processed carbs is convenience. Like the time I was invited to a lunch meeting at the last second and they ordered pizza. Or when I go visit family, everyone has shitty eating habits.

[Nition]

Excuses in this thread range from thyroid issues, to genetics not being perfect. A medical issue is one thing, but if you're using genetics as an excuse you should probably take a long hard look at whether you're really eating correctly and/or exercising enough.

How to lose weight 101: Eat in a calorie deficit.

Sure you should aim to be eating healthily and getting all your nutrition correct, but ultimately it comes down to putting down the fork. Case and point, there was a thread on reddit a while back where a guy as an experiment ate only pizza. However he still lost weight and maintained moderate muscle mass, because he was eating in a calorie deficit whilst lifting heavy.

This is the one thing people get wrong most often and will continue to be why people find it hard to lose weight.

And guess what, when people talk about a cheat meal, you still want to be in a deficit on your cheat day.

[Deleted]

People struggle because it's difficult and time consuming to lose weight and that in combination with life's struggle(Work, social life, kids, etc) it often takes a backseat on the priority list. Not to mention it's expensive to get gym memberships and eating right. Being fit/healthy is a lifestyle you have to follow near religiously and not something you only do once over a 2 month period.

[Spectral]

I don't disagree with your overall point, but want to touch on a couple things:

A lot of it comes down to willpower, which recent research is suggesting is kind of like a mental battery. We literally have a finite amount of willpower for the day.

This research failed to replicate:

In 2015, a meta analysis of over 100 studies by Carter and McCullough argued that the 2010 meta-analysis failed to take publication bias into account. They showed statistical evidence for publication bias. When they statistically controlled for publication bias, the effect size estimate was small (d = .2) and not significantly different from zero.[33][34] Michael Inzlicht and colleagues praised Carter's meta analysis, but argued that bias-correction techniques are not precise enough to give a precise control size estimate.[5][35] In response, Cunningham and Baumeister argued that Carter and McCullough analysis contained errors in its data collection and in the various analyses used.[5]

In 2016, a major study (2141 participants) carried out at two dozen labs across the world using a single protocol failed to find any evidence for ego depletion.[4][36] In response, Baumeister argued that his original protocol was rejected by the project coordinators, and after discussion was stalled, he only reluctantly agreed to a task that differed to some degree from the original 1998 studies.[37] Replication difficulties have also emerged for 5 additional protocols (operationalizations) of the basic ego depletion effect.[38]

Ulrich Schimmack conducted a meta-analysis of published studies and found that most studies could produce significant results only with the help of random sampling error.

To be clear, this doesn't necessarily mean it's false, just that the evidence for it isn't all that good and it probably isn't something that applies well to everyone. I still think it's probably a useful model for thinking about how people approach the world, at least to some extent, but the science isn't really there to support that.

More to the point, I don't think willpower is as important a factor to weight loss, weight maintenance, or exercise as habit is. While it's pretty pop-sci, the book The Power of Habit explains this pretty well and also lays out the "keystone habit" theory, which I find compelling based on anecdotal evidence (I don't know how well the other data stacks up). For pretty much all fit people I know, doing whatever their workout is doesn't require strain or willpower, it's just something we do as part of our normal routine. Other habits branch off of that - if someone cares about lifting weights, they'll learn to eat high protein diets that help them build lean mass, for example.

So I'll agree that willpower matters and that willpower depletion probably matters, but add that I don't think improving willpower is as effective for weight maintenance as people think - if it takes willpower to resist eating a bag of Doritos, you're eventually going to eat a bag of Doritos. If it takes willpower to go for a run, you're probably not going to run very much. If not eat a bag of Doritos and going for a run instead is a core part of your identity and something you just do every day, you'll probably keep doing it.

[Crispin]

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.

This so much, the worst thing all year is when I stop bulking and begin a 3 month cut, it's worse than smoking cessation was tbh, because I still have to decide what I put in my mouth 3-5 times a day, it's not a matter of eating or not eating.

Also people are different, and so are their lives.

[Spectral]

People struggle because it's difficult and time consuming to lose weight and that in combination with life's struggle(Work, social life, kids, etc) it often takes a backseat on the priority list. Not to mention it's expensive to get gym memberships and eating right. Being fit/healthy is a lifestyle you have to follow near religiously and not something you only do once over a 2 month period.

Most of this is basically a bunch of bullshit excuses though, right? Everyone with a professional life is busy, but not everyone's fat. I fly a couple times most weeks, sometimes travel to places that are a pain in the ass to run at, have an active social life, and still have time to play WoW and post too damned much here. Fitting in a 45 minute run after work and counting calories is just not all that difficult if it's what you habitually do.

In the case of weight-loss, the prioritization part of it isn't even hard - a lot of this comes down to things as simple as getting the chicken bowl instead of the chorizo-cheese burrito at Chipotle. This isn't exactly a massive sacrifice.

[Demona3]

If it's not the drink, it ends up being some other type of sweets, like more icecream or candy. I get off far easier with a drink, than do those, which contributed to some kilos I gained, which I now try to lose pretty much for summer time and less clothing

You're gonna laugh, but I absolutely *hate* ice cream. I'm not a huge fan of sweets, granted, I do indulge in the occasional reeses peanut butter cup, but overall, I don't eat sweets and tend to ignore them. Fair enough on the drinks. I do like a good smoothie though!

[Deleted]

Food tastes good. Especially food that is bad for Weight loss.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[Azadina]

You're gonna laugh, but I absolutely *hate* ice cream. I'm not a huge fan of sweets, granted, I do indulge in the occasional reeses peanut butter cup, but overall, I don't eat sweets and tend to ignore them. Fair enough on the drinks. I do like a good smoothie though!

Not liking sweet stuffs would be like gods gift to me

[Deleted]

I don't understand either, people trying to lose weight is like me trying to put on weight, I have to force myself to eat more and made weightgainer smoothie shakes with whole milk, oats, frozen bananas, peanut butter and protein powder, I'm 6'1 and 185lbs lean.

Before I didn't workout and ate what I want I was 150lbs no matter what I did

[Rooflesstoofless]

I don't struggle to lose weight. I struggle to keep the weight I'm at. As soon as I stop eating all the shitty, processed foods I can't seem to keep the weight on!