Weight Management: Why It's Not Easy
Helpful weight loss advice is available in abundance like never before. Thanks to the Internet - much of this advice is free. You can count calories, download spreadsheets or planners, or peruse diet reviews.
It's fantastic to have all this information at our fingertips... but is it enough?
Recently, well known Yahoo! employee Jeremy Zawodny chronicled his weight loss efforts - complete with step-by-step instructions, spreadsheets, graphs, and advice on developing new habits.
He sums up by saying
I managed to lose 50 pounds in a year without spending any time on health clubs, dieting programs, coaching, or books... If you're significantly overweight, you cannot imagine how good it feels to shed those pounds. After the first 10 or 20 come off, motivation is simply not a problem--you want it all to go.His advice is genuine and elicited loads of positive feedback. He also gives a nod to the Hacker's Diet (for those task-oriented people who like details).Anyone can do this.
It's a familiar principle: "just eat less and exercise more". He is right by saying "anyone can do this". However - that is not the same as easy. Mention calorie counting and spreadsheets to some people - and their eyes will simply glaze over. That's fine - we are all different - and we need different approaches.
Deprivation
No matter how you repackage it or spin it. No matter how much advice you receive: changing diet is ultimately about deprivation.
Zawodny admits he used to be a Mt. Dew and Coke fan - and he has now replaced it with water. He also consumes less sugar and other baked goods. Whichever way you look at it, this is a new diet.
Pleasure
We don't gulp down Coca-cola or chew on doughnuts because we have a gun held to our head. We eat them because we feel pleasure. We can have the best diet advice and tools in the world - but unless we begin to get a handle on the some of the more basic reasons for our eating habits - nothing will change.
Author Haven Logan puts it this way:
We diet by depriving ourselves, thus abandoning the sensory delights our basic self thrives on. When the basic self finally erupts in protest, then we "cheat" on our diet or abandon it all together.
Somehow we need to respect the fact that we receive pleasure from food - but it need not control us. I intend to delve more deeply into this over the coming weeks.
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There are obviously other factors to the difficulty of losing weight -- lack of nutritional education, poverty, etc... -- but I think your post is spot on. For many, if not most, weight management is about what we receive from food. I've always had a pleasure response from fattening high calorie foods, and I've always struggled with it. In fact, there's a perfect relationship between my stress level and my weight. The more stressed out I am, the more unhealthy food I eat and the fatter I get. For people like me who struggle with their weight and eating, I think you have to get your life somewhat under control before you can successfully manage your weight and experience the "deprivation" necessary to stick to a healthier diet.
ReplyIt is true what Jeremy Zawodny said regarding weight loss – “anyone can do it”, however most people need some help. The important factor he demonstrated, which most people who fail do not, is a systematic organized long term approach. This kind of accurate accounting prevents much of the sporadic cheating that sabotages your weight loss efforts.
ReplyI also needed long term approach. I did the Deprivation thing and in the long run it didn't work.
ReplyI had to find alternatives to some foods and other foods I wait until I get exactly what I want and journal it. I now feel deprived if I don’t get to eat my veggies and oatmeal.
A friend had the following exchange recently
Ex-boss: Zoe, have you lost weight?
Me: Yeah, almost 20 pounds since Christmas.
Ex-boss: HOW?!
Me: ....Ate less, exercised more.
Ex-boss: *throws up hands and walks away, saying:* It's never going to work.
---
ReplyIt just shows what the expections of the general populace.
i think this is why the 'french women don't get fat' approach is so popular - it is about enhancing the experience of food, gaining pleasure and minimising how deprived we feel.
ReplyI eat because I'm just plain HUNGRY. I'm not emotional about food. I have a wonderful, satisfying marriage, great adult kids, very cool cats, a job that I love and a wonderful hobby. Life is sweet. But I get hungry. I feel the pain in my stomach that triggers me to want to eat. I've met thin people that tell me they actually ENJOY this feeling. I don't enjoy it. Fen-phen was marvelous for me because it took away the PAIN of hunger. I'm losing weight, but I have to feel that pain every day. ... and yes, it's about DEPRIVATION. Spot on.
ReplyEating Less and Exercising more.
It's not that simple is ?
I suppose if you want to lose weight (ie. in the short run it is)
But looking at the quality of your diet and exercise yields much more health benefits!
No use being thin, and unhealthy!
ReplyI think that getting to your goal weight is similar to quitting smoking - you have to want it bad enough. You have to have enough willpower and emotional support in place to get where you want to go.
ReplyFor years it was the hardest thing for me to lose weight from going to weight loss program to weight loss program. Now I am glad to say that knowing how to eat right has made all the difference with long lasting weight loss.
ReplyI agree eating less and exercising more has been my key to losing weight (over 50 pounds) I found a free website that motivated and encouraged me and I think was helpful in encouraging me esp when I wanted to give up. They send out a pep talk every week to your inbox. It laid out the ground work and the plan I would follow. Losing weight wasn't as hard or deprived as it would have been for others because I had good help, from the website.
ReplyI forgot to tell you the website, DrWilletteDavis.com
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