Why do people struggle to lose weight?

[Allybeboba]

It is just a matter of having a system. I eat five times a day to regulate my metabolism. When I get up the morning I do a calisthenics routine and then go do a little run before I shave and shower. I work on the 16th floor. I never take the elevator. Every couple hours I walk down to the first and walk back up to my office. I generally do about 130-150 flights/day. My daughter and I usually go for a longer run in the evening.

[Celista]

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.

Yeah understood. I don't think it's a healthy practice to eat very low calorie often, but I think that listening to our bodies and eating when one is hungry and not eating when not hungry is a practice that many people do not adhere to. Admittedly, if one intentionally wants to gain/lose then that often means you're deviating from that practice purposefully.

Not liking sweet stuffs would be like gods gift to me

I promise you, once you try cutting these things out of your diet you will stop craving them. It will take some time, like several months or more, but if you stick with it changes in cravings will occur. Your body will start craving healthy foods, if that is what you feed it.

Give it time and make changes slowly over time, and if you backslide then jump back on the wagon...healthy eating is a marathon, not a race.

It is just a matter of having a system. I eat five times a day to regulate my metabolism. When I get up the morning I do a calisthenics routine and then go do a little run before I shave and shower. I work on the 16th floor. I never take the elevator. Every couple hours I walk down to the first and walk back up to my office. I generally do about 130-150 flights/day. My daughter and I usually go for a longer run in the evening.

Yeah I'm the same and the real key is getting into a routine with diet and exercise. Also, finding things you like doing/eating...much easier to stick to something that way.

[Gratlim]

Because it's not just about training but more about changing your lifestyle. And too many won't accept that. Reducing portions and having a normal physical activity and drinking a lot of water is key for weight loss and staying healthy on the long run. Don't drive if you don't have to etc.

There is no point in going hardcore on training at the gym if you end up jumping on tacos & snacks back home to compensate for the calory burning. I saw so many people actually gaining weight on the long run after they started at the gym because they thought training alone was key to get a slim figure it's not even fun.

[Elaundar]

The following 3 statements are true:

- A large percentage of people who are fat are fat because they over-eat.
- A small percentage of people who are fat are fat because they have slow metabolisms.
- If you eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight.

However that is absolutely not the end of it. Really those statements only represent the surface of being overweight. The deeper questions are :

- Why do people over-eat?
- Why do some people have slower metabolisms?
- Why do you gain back weight much faster than you lose it?

Obviously, the answer to the 1st question is honestly: "will-power". We all know people who just like to eat, or eat when emotional, or just over-eat out of laziness. Nothing I write after this matters for that group - its their own fault, but I really believe they are minority, I know I didn't fall in this category and I was WAY overweight.

Be honest, have you ever met someone who is fat who was really happy being fat? Most fat people REALLY want to be skinny - they are highly motivated because honestly, being overweight sucks the life out of you, and everyone who is fat knows that. You are sick, tired and hungry all the time -- this is not a good way to live.

So there has to be a deeper answer - and I believe that answer is that being overweight is the symptom (not the cause) of early onset Type-2 diabetes.

Most people think about T2 diabetes as pills and shots because they have high blood sugar, take daily shots to control it, have nerve, vision and kidney problems and only happens to those who are fat and genetically predisposed to it. While genetics plays a part, really that is just the end stages of pancreas beta cell death caused by diabetes -- which persists for years or decades before it gets to that horrible stage.

Yes, genetically people are predisposed to becoming diabetic, and yes, fat people develop diabetes, I don't dispute either fact, but neither tell the whole story.

Working backwards, T2 diabetes occurs when you pancreases beta cells die and your body loses the ability to produce enough insulin (which causes your muscles to absorb free glucose(sugar)). Beta cells release insulin in response to sugar in the blood, but excessive sugar causes those cells to die. Thus the disease cascades pretty quickly once you exceed about 125 fasting blood glucose sustained over time. (100-125 = pre-diabetic, >126 diabetic)

But, that leads to the question, shouldn't this be a self-regulating system? Shouldn't high blood sugar cause an increase in insulin leading to absorption by muscles? Yes, it does -- for a very very long time. Eventually your muscles become "full" of glucose and they don't need more (which is why you MUST exercise, it burns glucose in muscles, not fat, at least directly). However, your pancreas beta cells MUST eliminate that excessive sugar, so it pumps out more insulin as to force muscles to absorb the glucose.

When muscles won't, your body has a fail-safe system -- it stores that extra glucose as fat. 1000s of years ago, this was great! - you eat a big meal, got your muscles fully energized and saved the excess for later. However, if all you do is sit around, your muscles never use that now so the excess just keeps being stored up for later.

Sadly, nowadays it is a bit more complex as high insulin makes your muscles RESISTANT (insulin resistance) which makes it harder for muscles to receive the trigger (insulin) to absorb and burn glucose (sugar). Not only does this make exercising painful but it slows down your metabolism (BMR) since your muscles are not consuming/using sugar.

We call this stage "pre-diabetes" or "metabolic syndrome" - and most will say that it is inevitable that you will become diabetic in a few years once you are pre-diabetic. Once diabetic, you beta cells cannot cope as too many are dead. This ends up causing tons of problems - increased appetite (because of all the insulin), high cholesterol (all that fat floating around in your blood looking for a cell to call home), high blood pressure (hardening arteries due to fat sticking and insulin resistance), and eventually full blown diabetes which eventually kills you in a slow and very miserable way, as my father showed me firsthand.

Sucks huh?

Ok, if so ask the next question:

- How the f**k do you prevent/reverse (pre)diabetes?

This is the question you should really ask if you want to lose weight. Like it or not, if you are over-weight it was either caused by you being pre-diabetic or it is causing you to become pre-diabetic (I believe it is the cause, but that is not a wide spread belief). Either way, forget your weight, focus on your health, fix that.

Bottom line, the standard American diet (SAD) outright causes this medical condition with its emphasis on carbs and de-emphasis of fat and lack of omega3/6 balance (fish oil). The carbs (simple and complex) are easily converted to glucose resulting in high insulin, resulting in insulin resistance, resulting in weight gain and diabetes.

Diets like Keto/LCHF can help, since fat makes you feel full but can be difficult when you realize you have to eat almost the complete inverse of everything you used to. (Once adapted, it is quite filling - but transitioning is hard both mentally and physically.)

Don't take my word for it, google "KETO" and "LCHF" with the words "diabetes"; do the same for "omega 3" and "insulin". Keep dong that for every medical term I used, you will start to see a trend - carbs+lazy -> glucose -> insult -> weight gain -> diabetes. Discover it for yourself and you might believe it.

So if you want to lose weight, fix insulin resistance, to fix insulin resistance, lower glucose long term (and balance omega 3 /6) to lower glucose, don't eat the carbs and move your muscles so they learn to absorb glucose again. Better yet, do all of that even if you are perfect weight or the fattest fatty you know - your weight doesn't matter, fix your health first and eventually the scale will reflect your body working right.

Seriously, LCFH and just walk down to a park and back daily. Don't worry about calories, when you cure your insulin resistance then worry about those last few pounds, I suspect you won't have to "eat less" for long.

[MasterHamster]

When tasty food is one of very few 'positive' things in your shitty every day life, it's kind of hard to give up.

[Azadina]

I promise you, once you try cutting these things out of your diet you will stop craving them. It will take some time, like several months or more, but if you stick with it changes in cravings will occur. Your body will start craving healthy foods, if that is what you feed it.

Give it time and make changes slowly over time, and if you backslide then jump back on the wagon...healthy eating is a marathon, not a race.

Tried that when I got rid of soda. After 3 months I wanted something, and it was sweet stuff again. Got rid of the sodas tho ^^

But, that's not my body not craving it anymore, that was it compromising on big reduction in different form. Full zero on sweet stuff has never worked for me, and now I don't really try to, as I've atleast had it reduced enough to not really matter overall.

[Eazy]

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 agree, but fat people can change their diet. They don't need to eat unhealthy/fat food to keep living.

[Endus]

I agree, but fat people can change their diet. They don't need to eat unhealthy/fat food to keep living.

Which, if you follow the analogy, is like saying "but alcoholics can change their drinking patterns, and just have a couple beers a night."

Addictions don't work that way.

[Celista]

Tried that when I got rid of soda. After 3 months I wanted something, and it was sweet stuff again. Got rid of the sodas tho ^^

But, that's not my body not craving it anymore, that was it compromising on big reduction in different form. Full zero on sweet stuff has never worked for me, and now I don't really try to, as I've atleast had it reduced enough to not really matter overall.

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.

[socanyou]

they don't struggle; they just don't care.

food brings satisfaction and if you have very little else to satisfy you, or too much time to seek satisfaction, then you may overeat. it doesn't matter if you eat "healthy" or awful foods, overeating has one result. if someone finds far less satisfaction in feeling fit, looking good, etc, then they won't control their eating habits. it's easy to lose weight, it's difficult to prioritize quality of life over the pleasure of eating all the time. give these people a distraction like a new relationship or extended vacation in the middle of the woods/desert/mountains, and suddenly they'll live like anyone who grew up athletic.

[pionock]

Coming from someone who was overweight, and ended up doing a fitness competition, I can speak from experience that true weight loss, and by that I mean fat loss, is a slow and tedious process.

When most people decide to start losing weight, they may start going to the gym and doing only cardio. They will start to eat less and slightly better.

Simply doing those things will usually yield most overweight to lose 10-20 lbs in about a 2 week period. But after that, it's gonna inevitably slow down to a normal pace. This is where it should be, at about 1-2 lbs per week for proper fat loss. This is also where most people get discouraged, because they got so excited and used to seeing that number drop so quickly that seeing it slow down can be a sign that they're not doing something right.

But that's only the first part. Once you notice your weight loss stagnating, you need to look at what you're doing and see what you need to do. But only make small changes, and give at least a week to see if it's working. Sometimes you may need to up your exercise routine, maybe add a meal somewhere in your day, or just tweak your current meals. It's tough, and it's why proper long term weight loss can be so hard.

Also, the exercise. You cannot just do cardio and expect to get any long term results. You need to add in some type of lifting. It doesn't need to be heavy. You can even do simple body weight and plyometric exercises to help build and (mostly) maintain muscle.

And finally, don't get discouraged. Don't focus too hard on the number you're seeing on the scale. It's a good thing to keep track of, but take a picture of yourself (front and side) every week or two for a better idea. Also keep in mind how you feel. That number should be steadily going down, but also check on how those pants feel, how your energy levels are doing.

I think that's all I can think of for the moment.

[Azadina]

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.

I definitely go too long between meals Today for example I had pizza. I ate the thing while it was warm, so that's one and only meal today. I dunno, I've never really had more than 3 meals a day, and that's the most. Usually two.

[Kujako]

I definitely go too long between meals Today for example I had pizza. I ate the thing while it was warm, so that's one and only meal today. I dunno, I've never really had more than 3 meals a day, and that's the most. Usually two.

I've mostly cut out dinner these days. My digestion is slow since my gall bladder went gangrenous.

[hydrium]

Because:

- Eating healthy is not cheap.
-

I-i-i-i-incorrect!

You can get a bag of rice and beans for 2-3 bucks, will last weeks and picking up carrots/tomatos/apples and whatnot is very cheap.

What you meant to say is eating healthy like you were shopping at Whole foods or eating out at a fine dining restaurant is very expensive....and yes it is.

I feed a family of 3 on 45 bucks a week and there isn't a meal where fruit/vegetables/meat aren't on the menu.

Stop trying to make ridiculous veggie wraps, stop buying pre-prepared foods/sauces. Get in the kitchen and make your stuff from scratch. You're paying more because you're paying for convenience.

[zenkai]

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.

It's more important to eat healthy.

[Allybeboba]

Eat less move around more...

[Jayburner]

I think it takes years to know how much to feed the machine. I've mastered it, it really is a delicate process.

[Louisa Bannon]

If your purpose is to lose weight, cardio is almost pointless. The problem with this thread is people watching something like "Biggest Loser" and believing that cardio is important. It isn't. If your purpose is to get fitter, try building muscle mass with weight training. Muscle burns more fat even when you are just sitting there. But as I have stated before, you won't actually lose weight by exercising. You get fit with exercise, you lose weight with how you eat.

Calories in = calories out is garbage science that wrongly applies the principles of physics to a biological question. What you eat matters because what your body will do with what you eat is critical. Calories are not all equal. You need to eat differently and in a more healthy fashion to lose weight.

Here's the most striking example of something that seem counter-intuitive at first blush. Dietary fat doesn't make you fat, as it is more readily used for immediate energy and doesn't provoke an insulin response. Sugars/carbs *DO* provoke an insulin response and the insulin will immediately try to store carbs as fat. In fact, having all of that insulin floating around in your blood will make it almost impossible to use stored fat as energy and thereby lose fatty weight. Fat is not making you fat, carbs are making you fat.

People aren't eager to overeat naturally. But eating the wrong things creates a vicious cycle of eating all of the time because you are getting fat - being fat makes you hungry, esp if the basis of your diet is loads of carbs. And carbs is exactly what conventional medicine keeps recommending as the bulk of a modern diet.

Just bringing it right down to the level of experience, it's like this:
Ever just sit there gaming and downing glass after glass of Mountain Dew? You may be thirsty, but by drinking Mountain Dew you remain thirsty. You might even get hungry because you are filled with insulin and need more glucose so that the insulin has something to do. It is also true that because sweets are far scarcer in the natural world your brain LOVES glucose, you have a predisposition to seek out sweets as cheap fuel for the body. At the same time, your body isn't prepared for having a constant source of dense carbs available all of the time. You don't need dietary carbs, your body doesn't expect to get dietary carbs very easily, but if a source is made available your brain will light up like a Christmas tree.

There's some new research that suggests that sugar is more addictive than cocaine by several times over.

Just a quick overview of macronutrients:
Fats - required in fairly high amounts
Proteins - required in moderate amounts, to satiety
Carbs - not required at all because of gluconeogenesis, but if you eat healthy amounts of vegetables you get some carbs anyway, and you want those vitamins and minerals AND FIBER from plant sources

[zenkai]

If your purpose is to lose weight, cardio is almost pointless. The problem with this thread is people watching something like "Biggest Loser" and believing that cardio is important. It isn't. If your purpose is to get fitter, try building muscle mass with weight training. Muscle burns more fat even when you are just sitting there. But as I have stated before, you won't actually lose weight by exercising. You get fit with exercise, you lose weight with how you eat.

Calories in = calories out is garbage science that wrongly applies the principles of physics to a biological question. What you eat matters because what your body will do with what you eat is critical. Calories are not all equal. You need to eat differently and in a more healthy fashion to lose weight.

Here's the most striking example of something that seem counter-intuitive at first blush. Dietary fat doesn't make you fat, as it is more readily used for immediate energy and doesn't provoke an insulin response. Sugars/carbs *DO* provoke an insulin response and the insulin will immediately try to store carbs as fat. In fact, having all of that insulin floating around in your blood will make it almost impossible to use stored fat as energy and thereby lose fatty weight. Fat is not making you fat, carbs are making you fat.

People aren't eager to overeat naturally. But eating the wrong things creates a vicious cycle of eating all of the time because you are getting fat - being fat makes you hungry, esp if the basis of your diet is loads of carbs. And carbs is exactly what conventional medicine keeps recommending as the bulk of a modern diet.

Just bringing it right down to the level of experience, it's like this:
Ever just sit there gaming and downing glass after glass of Mountain Dew? You may be thirsty, but by drinking Mountain Dew you remain thirsty. You might even get hungry because you are filled with insulin and need more glucose so that the insulin has something to do. It is also true that because sweets are far scarcer in the natural world your brain LOVES glucose, you have a predisposition to seek out sweets as cheap fuel for the body. At the same time, your body isn't prepared for having a constant source of dense carbs available all of the time. You don't need dietary carbs, your body doesn't expect to get dietary carbs very easily, but if a source is made available your brain will light up like a Christmas tree.

There's some new research that suggests that sugar is more addictive than cocaine by several times over.

Just a quick overview of macronutrients:
Fats - required in fairly high amounts
Proteins - required in moderate amounts, to satiety
Carbs - not required at all because of gluconeogenesis, but if you eat healthy amounts of vegetables you get some carbs anyway, and you want those vitamins and minerals from plant sources

Finally, a post I can 100% agree with.

[Lethim]

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.

Not sure if someone else has addressed this, but...

While there is a bit of a point to your finding out how much you burn normally. 1. The difference between most active metabolisms to passive ones is less than 200 calories a day.

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...

To lose weight most efficiently and reliably, (less chance of failure) you should get baseline information for your body, like BMR, weight, Resting HR, Active HR, Max HR, etc... but it cannot be more complicated than Energy In < Energy Out. Run 5-10mi a day, eat 1400-1600 calories a day, you'll lose weight fast.