With the holidays coming up, many people are concerned about losing weight. Unfortunately, weight loss is difficult. If I knew an easy, effective, and safe way to lose weight, I would be rich from writing a diet book or running a weight loss clinic. Unfortunately, losing weight is hard, requires long-term effort, and is often unsuccessful. If losing weight were easy, everyone would be thin.
Our bodies and our brains are not designed for a modern world where food is constantly available. Throughout most of human history, there were periodic times of famines and the people who had not built up caloric reserves didn’t survive. Consequently, during times of plenty, we are programmed to build up caloric stores for times when food may be scarce. Any weight loss strategy has to try to overcome our evolutionary programming; usually through a combination of diet, exercise, and a conscious effort to change our eating habits.
Weight loss in theory should be simple. All one has to do is consume fewer calories than your metabolism burns. You can accomplish this by decreasing your caloric intake by dieting or by increasing the calories you burn by exercising. Unfortunately, if you diet and do not exercise, the reduced caloric intake will eventually cause your metabolism to slow and your weight loss will either diminish or cease. Conversely, exercise usually increases your appetite. If you exercise without limiting your caloric intake, you will simply eat more and not lose weight. Consequently, a successful weight-loss program has to include components of both diet and exercise.
Weight loss also involves changing your eating habits. Many people try to accomplish this through weight loss systems such as Weight Watchers, The Atkins Diet, or Nutrisystems. My experience has been that these systems typically accomplish a short term weight loss because they enable you to successfully reduce your caloric intake. However, these systems are typically not successful in the long term because they do not change your underlying eating habits, are difficult to follow, and eventually, most people revert to the same eating habits that cause them to gain weight in the first place.
Therefore, losing weight usually involves a sustained effort at changing your eating habits. This typically involves eating “healthier,” eating smaller portions, and snacking less. The typical American diet contains too much fat, too much salt, and too many calories. Decreasing your intake of junk food will automatically lead to a decrease in your intake of calories.
If you eat healthy but do not limit portion size, you will simply eat more healthy food. Consequently, most people need to reduce portion size. This is made more difficult because the average portion size has gone up over the last several years. As a general rule, most of our portion sizes are too big and people who are trying to control their weight need to cut back their average portion size by one quarter to one third.
Also, if you eat healthy, small meals but still snack constantly your caloric intake will not decrease. Those wishing to lose weight need to develop a habit of not snacking frequently. Many people do not realize that they take in a significant portion of their calories by eating in between meals
Finally, all of these habits are hard to maintain. Most of us will do well over the short term but will eventually “fall off the wagon.” Probably the hardest part of dieting is realizing that you will eventually “fall off the wagon” and that when you do, you have to then get right back on. In fact, I often recommend that people schedule breaks from diets, where they let themselves eat too much or have their favorite “bad” food once or twice a month. That way they feel less deprived, are used to breaking their diet temporarily (not permanently), and are consequently more likely to get back on the wagon after they fall off.
Weight loss is hard. It requires exercise, diet, a change in eating habits, and most importantly, sustained and prolonged discipline. However, with effort, and only with effort, it can be done.
