Now I truly know why diets, mostly, fail
When you want to lose weight but your body doesn’t want you to!
“I am a recovering fat man. I will return to being fat one day. It’s inevitable.” So said comedian Paul Cox on the programme Headliners on GB News where they discuss the newspapers. They were talking about a news story where someone who is overweight was calling for seats in cinemas and theatres to be made bigger to accommodate them.
I have Paul’s permission to quote him here and we had a very nice chat about this. About how much easier it is to give up cigarettes (which we’ve both done) than to keep lost weight off. For keeping lost weight off is what so many dieters struggle with. Getting it off is easy by comparison. It’s keeping it off that we find practically impossible.
Paul is fatalistic about putting the weight back on. I’d never before heard someone put it like that. “Yes, I’ve lost weight but I know I’ll put it back on because I always have before.” Does it have to be that way? Can this time be different? We always hope so but it so rarely is. Most of us say, “I’ll never be fat again.” Hell it’s my pinned tweet on Twitter right now! How I gave away my size 20 clothes because I’ll never need them again. Hope over experience.
I wrote last month that I was back on my diet because being off my diet wasn’t doing what I had hoped - ie, keep the weight off. It had started to creep back on as it always does. I hate to be someone who is always on a diet. Or when not dieting always gaining weight. I suspect after a lifetime of dieting/not dieting that my body is completely haywire and of course I know this isn’t healthy. But knowing something and being to do something about it is not even in the same country let alone postcode.
Weekly weigh-ins are, I thought, healthier from a mental point of view if not physical. Stops you being too obsessed and gives you a day off on weigh-in day. That hasn’t worked. I haven’t taken off the weight I’ve gained since about May. So I am going back to daily weigh-ins in the hope this will focus my mind and keep me from hitting the biscuit barrel or the ice-cream van that oh so conveniently stops right outside my door! There’s a huge novelty in buying ice-cream outside your own front door. When I hear Just One Cornetto tingling I’m Pavlova’s dog hearing the bell. Yes yes I know it’s Pavlov but autocorrect thinks I mean pavlova. Hmmmm... pavlova (see pic)
So what have I learned that I didn’t know before. Nothing. You cannot beat science. It beats you. Your brain programmes you to want food because when you restrict your intake your brain panics and thinks you’re starving. So it bombards you with messages EAT EAT EAT!!! These become so overwhelming they are impossible to ignore.
It’s as if our bodies have a set point about two to three stone higher than we want it to be and it’s almost impossible to shift it down. And please don’t say yes but exercise will shift it down. It doesn’t. Been there. Done that. All it does it make me more hungry and convince me it’s okay to eat a bit more because I’ll work it off. My iPhone’s health app tells me I burn up about 187 calories from a very brisk 45-minute walk with lots of hills (I live in the Peak District). 187 calories. I mean what’s the point? May as well cut back on 187 calories and not bother with the walk. Yes I know exercise is good for the head but don’t even think it’ll help you lose weight. It won’t. It doesn’t.
Anyway here we are again. I’ve set myself yet another target. I want to lose a stone by Christmas. Five months away. Bit under three pounds a month, or a pound a week. A safe loss. A sensible loss. I’m trying to be positive. Not saying it’s inevitable I’ll put it back on. The biggest tests in life aren’t falling back on what you’d hoped for but how you deal with it. I’m dealing! I’m dieting. I’m hoping.
Good luck with yours.
I have gained 20 pounds over the last year. I have decided to put real effort into losing it. I gained this weight and I was running 5-6 days a week. You're 100% correct about exercise. It doesn't change the scale.