Shedding pounds and keeping them off isn’t easy. But once you know the facts about how weight loss works, it’s easier to reach your better-body goals.
You don’t need us to tell you that losing weight — and keeping it off — is hard. But it is useful to hear why weight loss is so difficult. That intel can help you stop blaming yourself for every setback and increase your chances of success. Forget the gimmicks: It’s time to face the facts about weight loss and go get the body you want to live in.
1
Your Body Works Against You
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It’s not just your imagination: When you try to lose weight, you’re fighting both your cravings and your own body. Weight loss decreases the hormone leptin, which signals to your brain that you’re full, and increases the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates hunger, according to research.
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According to Everyday Health network site Lose It!, hormone imbalances of leptin, ghrelin, and many others make it even harder for you to keep the pounds off.
Plus, if you cut too many calories too quickly, your metabolism will slow, says Sabrena Jo, PhD, senior director of science and research for the American Council on Exercise in San Diego. “If you cut calories drastically, and as a result you drop a lot of weight fairly quickly, it’s likely that you’re losing some muscle. Muscle is really the engine of metabolism, so that contributes to a lower metabolism,” she explains.
Eating too little also makes you more likely to rebound and go in the opposite direction by overeating because you were restricting yourself for so long. “We recommend doing things more moderately: Increasing physical activity and decreasing calories have been shown to be what works in the long run,” Dr. Jo says.
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There Are No Easy Fixes
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Wishing you were 20 pounds lighter in time for your high school reunion next month will not make that happen, and there are no realistic scenarios that will change that hard truth.
Certain newer prescription weight loss drugs can help with quick weight loss, but they can be expensive and come with unpleasant side effects. Plus, they aren’t right for everyone. Then there are extreme diets, which can wreak havoc on your metabolism and damage your weight loss efforts for the long term.
“When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s hard to be patient,” says Mark Pettus, MD, the chief medical officer of Preventia, an online health technology platform based in Indianapolis, and host of the podcast The Health Edge.
If you’re looking to lose weight through diet and lifestyle choices, healthcare professionals generally recommend a slow and steady pace so that keeping the weight off is more sustainable.
Aim to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, as this pace is easiest to maintain, Dr. Pettus says.
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Exercise Can’t Conquer All
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Yes, exercise helps you lose weight and keep it off: Research discovered more than a decade ago that people who maintain their weight loss exercise for at least 60 minutes most days.
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But it’s also important to know that it’s nearly impossible to lose weight from exercise alone, Pettus says. Just do the math: A 135-pound person biking 60 minutes at a moderate pace will burn around 500 calories.
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You can put all that back on with one post-workout meal. To lose a pound of fat, you have to burn 3,500 calories more than you consume, so you can see how hard it is to exercise your way through a poor diet. Instead, you have to watch what you eat and how much you exercise, Pettus says. If there’s any magic to dieting, it’s in that combination.
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Diet Supplements Don’t Work
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Those pill bottles on the drugstore shelves that claim to supercharge your metabolism are tempting, but there’s little evidence that they work. One review of more than 1,700 articles on various supplements and alternative therapies, including green tea, acupuncture, and caffeine, found there was little to no high-quality evidence to support their value in aiding weight loss.
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Instead of using these fad supplements, try focusing on better-supported weight loss strategies, such as eating less and exercising more.
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Fad Diets Don’t Work for Long
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Grapefruit. Maple syrup. Cabbage. Apple cider vinegar. Juice. All these “miracle” diets are supposed to help you melt pounds and trigger fat-burning. Fad diets work in the short term through calorie restriction, but they fail to deliver long-lasting results, says Jo. “The problem is that people typically lack the desire to eschew entire food groups or severely limit their caloric intake, so eventually a more inclusive, calorically dense way of eating returns,” she explains.
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One Diet Doesn’t Fit All
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Everyone’s body is different, so the diet that works for your friend, coworker, mother, or sister might not be successful for you. When looking at how best to lose weight, consider your health and family history, your metabolism, your activity level, your age, your gender, and your likes and dislikes. When you’re dieting, it’s important to allow yourself some foods that you enjoy, per Lose It!, or else you’ll feel deprived and be less likely to stick with an overall healthy eating plan, Jo says. For weight loss success, you need to drill down on what works for you — not what’s working for the other people in your life.
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Cardio Is Essential (and Strength Training Helps, Too)
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According to the current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults should get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity (or a combination of both), preferably spread throughout the week, plus two or more days of muscle-strengthening activities.
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And every bit counts — the recommendation is to move more throughout the day, even if it’s just a walk around the block.
These guidelines should help most people lose weight, says Jo, but obese people or people with a lot of weight to lose need to be even more active, working up to at least 30 minutes per day over time. Plus, don’t skip the strength training, which supports muscle, bone, and joint health and function, adds Jo. Increased muscle mass also gives your metabolism a slight boost — and makes you look more toned.
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He Can Eat More Than She Can
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It doesn’t seem fair, but men often can eat more than women and still lose weight. That’s because people assigned male at birth tend to naturally burn more calories than those born female, thanks to their larger size, muscle mass, and elevated levels of the hormone testosterone, which promotes muscle growth, Jo explains. Plus, the male body is genetically designed for more muscle and less fat than the female body because it doesn’t need to store the energy required to bear children, she adds. Once you come to terms with this fact, the scale will thank you.
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It’s Not a Diet, It’s a Lifestyle Change
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If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you have to change your behavior until you reach your goal weight — and for the months and years to follow. That’s because as soon as you stop your “diet,” you’re likely to gain back the pounds you worked so hard to shed. To be successful at weight loss, you need to make sustainable lifestyle changes, like making healthy food choices at most meals and getting plenty of exercise every week.
The Takeaway
- If you find losing weight — and keeping it off — to be a challenge, it’s not all in your head. Understanding how your body works can help you find weight loss success.
- Your activity level, metabolism, and even your gender can impact how easy it is to slim down. Understanding your own body is a more effective way to drop pounds than following the dieting playbook of popular trends, friends and family.
- Sticking to a combination of eating less and exercising more is key to creating a lifestyle that will help you lose weight and keep those pounds off for good.
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