This is the story of one of the my client who struggled to lose weight due to lack of guidance. I am going to give my opinion at last of this blog post.
I’m not extremely overweight, but I weigh in at about 250 lbs/114 kg. I’m tall (about 6′2″ / 187 cm), but my weight still gives me a BMI of 33, putting me into the obese section.
Becoming overweight is a slow process, which makes it hard to detect until it’s “too late”. And when it strikes you, it’s hard to turn around.
Losing weight is an even slower process, and extremely hard. I know, because I’ve done it many times.
A healthy way to lose weight means a deficit of around 500 kcal per day, putting me at 2300 kcal, which is still a fraction more than “normal” people. But this number shrinks for every kg lost, so when I get closer to normal weight, I need to eat even less to continue the weight loss.
So in all, I have to shave down my eating from 2800 kcal to 1700 kcal. And I have to work on this for a looong time, as with a 500 kcal deficit per day it will take me a year and a half to lose my excess 29 kg. That’s a LOT of time to go around hungry!
If you haven’t eaten in a while, your brain tricks you into saying it’s a good idea to eat some chocolate. Or some other sugary product. But your stomach isn’t content with just a bite, so you devour the whole chocolate bar. And even that’s not enough, so you get hungry again a short time after. At this time, you may figure it’s time for dinner, and since you’ve gone so long without a (proper) meal, you figure you can eat a large portion. And your brain again tricks you into craving something fatty and lots of carbs. Repeat until next meal.
Your metabolism slows down when dieting, and it gets worse every time. It doesn’t matter if you can keep your diet, but the minute you break you gain weight even faster than before.
Your blood sugar levels go rampant. This is why your brain thinks it’s a great idea to get some sugar, even without input from your stomach.
The two above points combined make it so that your energy levels drop to extreme lows if you don’t listen to your brain. So if you don’t get some sugar or carbs, your body makes you feel slow and weak and unable to keep up. And you get less concentrated and more cranky, of course.
Being overweight does not necessarily mean being unhealthy or even unfit. I run at least 20 miles every week, I use my bicycle to work as often as possible (about 5 hilly miles each way), I walk whenever I can, and take the stairs when I can. I also go hiking in the mountains every other weekend or so, often up to 1000 height meters. I compete in running competitions regularly.
“It’s not that some people have the willpower and some don’t. It’s that some people are ready to change and others are not.”
James Gordon
Willpower is not something overweight people lack. I have spent a year in the army (with a starting weight of 125 kg and finishing weight of 85 kg), I’ve ran a marathon at 94 kg, I have 3 bachelor’s degrees, have scaled too many mountains to count, and I’ve quit many different addictions. I’ve lost most of my overweight several times, in different ways each time. But will power to do something and will power to avoid something are two very different things. Getting the weight off is (kind of) easy compared to keeping it off. When you think you’ve made it, you tend to drop your guard, and then you again gain weight.
Every comment about our weight is hurtful. Not a single comment about our weight is helpful. The only exception is if it’s a positive comment about our losing weight, but only if we are still in the process of losing it. We are often very emotionally unstable about our weight, so it’s best to leave it be. We beat ourselves up enough. We don’t need others to troll on us.
First of all I want to congratulate him for losing 29 kg. He has learned lots of things from his experience. Even though he is obese, he achieved a lot of achievement.
As he stated "losing weight is slower" it is not like that if you do it with proper guidance and knowledge it's easier to lose weight.
You should aim for losing fat not body weight. Bodyweight consists of fat, water, muscle mass, bone mass, etc. When we try to lose bodyweight we will end up with losing muscles also; therefore our goal should be losing fat.
To lose weight he is counting calories and reducing his daily calorie consumption. Calorie counting is an old way to lose weight with lots of disadvantages. Instead, we should count macronutrients which are essential for our body. As we try to reduce calories we eat less food that gives us weakness.
The Law of thermodynamics, which is "calories in equal to the calories out" is not applicable in our complex biology.
Check out our blog post about macronutrients
When your body uses sugar as primary fuel source, our body suffers from sugar up-downs due to spikes of a hormone called Insulin. When we have low sugar our hunger hormone increases and you end up eating more, That results in high blood sugar and this cycle goes on!
It's good practice that he is keeping his body active throughout the day, that helped to burn some fat.
He has very good will power that helped him to stay consistent with his diet and exercise and it helped to his struggles of weight loss.
As he stated we should not comment or troll any obese or overweight person who is struggling to lose weight. If we can't help them and motivate them, then at least we should keep our mouths shut.
Currently he is working on his further fat loss with us. With our consultation and after motivating him, he started again and getting better results. He told me how he struggled before and how easy it is to lose weight now. Now he can enjoy his social life.
Comment below your opinions.
