4 Reasons Why Weight Loss Isn’t Easy This Time Around
By admin
“I’ve gained weight in the past, and lost it in no time at all. This time around should be just as easy. I’ve done it before, I can do it again.”
I have heard this time and time again from clients coming to me to lose weight.
And to be honest, I’ve said these same sentences myself!
Here is a fun fact… the average woman spends 31 years of her life dieting.
31 years! I’m not even 31 years old yet! This blows my mind.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend the next 3 decades counting calories every few months to lose weight that I gained after getting off a diet.
And this is where my tough love comes into play…
Just because losing weight was easy the first time around, doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy this time around (or the next).
4 Reasons Why Weight Loss Isn’t Easy This Time Around
For one, you have it stuck in your head how easy it was when you were 21 years old and trying to lose weight. Let’s face it… being in your 20s and being in your 30s (or 40s or 50s) is a lot different.
Your body is different, your mentality is different, and losing weight is going to be different as well.
A Piece Of Cake Syndrome
I have found that when we think it’s going to be a piece of cake is when people have the hardest time getting started. They have this idea of “oh it’s going to be so fast and simple once I start that I can just put it off one more day.”
The next day rolls around and surprise, surprise, it gets pushed once more.
Hey, I can’t argue… this is my problem. I know I am not far off from my goals when it comes to my body composition and it’s because I am almost there, that I haven’t made it a real priority. I need to bite the bullet and just get there.
If you’re suffering from the piece of cake syndrome, recognize it and get started. Stop putting things off!
A Case Of The Dead Metabolism
Every time you gain weight and then drop it with a low calorie diet of some sort, you do harm to your metabolism, you slow that baby down.
Let’s break it down real fast…
If you are used to eating 2200 calories a day, then suddenly you decide to go on a crash diet and start to eat just 1,000 calories a day your body goes into metabolic shock. It thinks your starving and tries to bring your body back to homeostasis. It does this by cutting muscle mass (not fat) to bring down your metabolism so your body doesn’t require as many calories.
Basically, it adjust so that it needs just 1,000 calories. But what happens when you drop the weight and start eating “normal” again? Your metabolism is close do dead, so you pack on weight all over again.
Then you have to diet again… this time down to 900 calories a day.
See the trend? It’s bad! We all love food, right? We don’t want to survive off 900 calories a day! So don’t do it. Stop the yo-yo dieting.
A ‘Woman’ Thing
As much as I would love to say that aging doesn’t have an affect on weight loss, it does. When we were younger, we had raging hormones which helped keep our metabolism running strong.
Remember, I used to be able to eat an entire pizza!
With age, hormones change, and if you’re not prepared for it already with a good diet and exercise program, it will take it’s toll on your body. Suddenly hair is sprouting out of unwanted places, and fat is accumulating in places you never thought possible.
Back in the day, you may have been able to run a few miles each day to see the weight just melt away, but with age this most often isn’t the case. You see, as you age muscle mass is lost at a some what rapid rate… and that brings down your metabolism. Running doesn’t help.
This is why strength training is so important for women of all ages. it’s going to help keep your muscle mass and help to keep your metabolism revved up!
A Case Of Life
And finally… when you lost weight successfully the first time, how was your life? How busy were you? Were you married? Did you have kids?
There are other factors that go into successful weight loss. Perhaps last time you were able to devote all of your attention on you. Now, you have a husband that wants to eat out all the time, kids that refuse to eat anything but mac-n-cheese and pizza, and you find yourself sitting at an office for 8 hours a day.
This isn’t to make you think you can’t do it, you can. But it’s to stress the idea that you shouldn’t compare this go around with previous ones.
Life changes and you have to change with it. You have to acknowledge the issues that you’ll face and come up with a plan of attack!
- Get a workout in first thing in the morning or during lunch.
- Tell your husband you need his support.
- Talk to the kids and let them know that mommy will not be eating mac n cheese any more! Start on a more whole food diet with the entire family.
What about you…
Tell me about your experience with weight loss… was it easy? Hard? Still fighting?