Why Is Losing Weight So Hard?

Why is losing weight so hard?

Losing weight is hard because you’re always looking for the easy way out, which doesn’t exist. And then when you do the bullshit diet or workout program that you fell for and the results leave you discouraged, you quit and move on in search of the next easy way out, which doesn’t exist. And then when you do the bullshit diet or workout program that you fell for and the results leave you discouraged, you quit and move on in search of the next easy way out, which doesn’t exist.

That’s why weight loss is so hard!

But apart from that, losing weight is also hard for some of the following reasons…

GENETICS

As if you don’t already hate your parents for the childhood trauma that you’re still feeling to this day, variants in several of the crummy genes they passed on to you may contribute to weight gain and fat distribution.¹

ENVIRONMENT

Where and how you live also plays a role in weight loss, as you’ll have difficulty in an obesogenic society where chemically altered food that’s made to be hyperpalatable is cheap, constantly marketed, and readily available at every corner while access to healthy foods is limited.

Also not helping is technology, which has reduced daily activity and the associated calorie burn. For example, gone are the days of vacuuming because there are now Roombas that can do that task for you.

PSYCHOLOGY

You’re eating that taco instead of the salad you wanted because memories and emotions associated with past eating experiences from as far back as your traumatized childhood all factor into your relationship with food and can be powerful enough to affect decisions and override preference.

HORMONES

When you lose weight, amylin and leptin levels drop. Because these two hormones are responsible for satiety, the brain interprets their reduced presence as starvation and begins conspiring against you by signaling for the body to release more ghrelin, a hormone that basically makes you want to eat everything in sight.

NEUROLOGY

As the hormonal shit occurs, your brain not only makes you more aware of food but also harder for you to take your mind off it. And just when you thought your body wasn’t already being enough of a dick, food tastes better when you cave and more dopamine than usual is released to reward the behavior so you repeat it.

ADIPOCYTES

When enough adipocytes, or fat cells, lose their fat, sensors go off that the brain picks up on to activate the appetite and cravings to replenish the body’s fat stores.²

MICROBIOME

The gut bacteria consists of two phyla, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. The obese have more of the latter. Researchers believe this helps them metabolize food that would ordinarily be lost as waste, resulting in more nutrients entering their bloodstream and having the potential to get stored as fat if unused.

The items above are not only what make weight loss so hard but keeping it off virtually impossible.

Yes, virtually impossible!

That’s the finding of a nine year review of health records. Of a sample consisting of 129,194 obese men and 149,788 obese women, the annual chance of participants achieving five percent weight loss was 1 in 12 for men and 1 in 10 for women. Fifty-three percent of those who achieved five percent weight loss regained the weight within two years and 78 percent regained the weight within five years.

Only 1,283 men and 2,245 women with a BMI of 30-35 were found to have attained a normal body weight when they were followed up with after the nine years.³ That puts the odds of the obese attaining normal body weight in any year at 1 in 210 for men and 1 in 124 for women. Those with a BMI above 40, the severely obese, saw the odds increase to 1 in 1,290 for men and 1 in 677 for women.

So yeah, sustained weight loss is virtually impossible!!!

You’re not talking your usual crazy talk when you say that losing weight feels impossible. The given factors all support your argument about the difficulty of weight loss, the odds of which many studies have shown are low. However, while weight loss may be virtually impossible, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Just virtually…

But what’s the point of even trying then?, you ask.

Well, let’s see…

The odds of hitting the lotto are pretty long. And yet you still play the lotto every week and come away with nothing instead of putting the money in a high-yield savings account or investing it and getting a much higher return.

Even longer than the odds of winning Powerball, Mega Millions, and any other lottery game are the odds of you striking it rich on the merits of your own hard work. But yet you still vote against your best interests on the off chance that one day you’ll be in the upper tax bracket and be better able to protect your assets.

Even longer are the odds of me wanting to fuck you, but yet you still slide into my DMs shooting your shot because you don’t believe me when I say that I’m all about looks and don’t give much of a shit about personality and other dumb stuff.

The point?

The point?!

The fucking point is that despite the innumerable odds stacked against you in many things, you routinely ignore them on the off chance of success.

Weight loss should be no different, its low probability be damned!!!

Glossary: diet, fat, genetics, hormones, program, results, workout

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Monster Longe

Monster Longe is a personal trainer in San Diego. He has been lifting weights for +25 years and training clients in the gym and online for about half of that time. When not working with clients or making content that's easy to read, understand, and apply to everyday life, he enjoys long walks and leaving buildings crushed and entire city blocks decimated in his wake.