Why is Weight Loss so Difficult?
Do you believe losing weight should be a simple matter of limiting food and increasing exercise? Or has someone said the problem is your lack of motivation or self-control?
If so, it’s time to learn the real reason why it’s so hard to lose weight.
For decades (and still today), people have heard that weight loss required nothing more than consuming fewer calories than they burn.
While that is the foundation for reaching and maintaining a healthy weight, we now know that weight loss is more complex.
Your body is driven to maintain its weight, even if you’re overweight. When you start dropping pounds, your brain slows your metabolism, and changes occur in the hormones that control hunger and fat-burning.
Dr. D understands the many facets influencing weight loss. He creates customized weight-loss programs that overcome the issues that sabotage each person's efforts to lose weight.
Here, they discuss the top five roadblocks to successful weight loss.
1. Dealing with hormonal changes
Hormones are potent chemicals that control virtually every function in your body, including hunger, satiety (the feeling of fullness after you eat), fat burning, and fat storage.
These hormones change in response to gaining and losing weight, and in ways that block weight loss.
Here are three examples of hormones we may need to evaluate and manage to support your weight loss success:
Leptin
Leptin decreases your appetite by telling your brain you’re full. Gaining weight makes your body less responsive to leptin, so your brain doesn’t get the message. Then, you feel hungry even after eating enough.
Ghrelin
Ghrelin increases your appetite by telling your brain that you need to eat. Unfortunately, your ghrelin levels rise after losing weight, making it hard to keep the weight off.
Cortisol
Cortisol levels rise when you’re under stress, then return to normal when you feel calm. But if you’re frequently or constantly stressed out, high cortisol levels make you gain weight.
2. Depending on fad diets
Fad diets make great promises about dropping a lot of weight quickly. But nothing is worse for successful long-term weight loss.
These diets severely restrict your calories and/or the type of food you eat. While fad diets usually produce fast results, the weight returns as soon as you stop following the diet. And most people regain more weight than they lost.
Fad diets are not sustainable, and worse, they’re not safe. They leave you feeling constantly hungry and damage your health because you don’t get all the essential nutrients.
Our weight-loss program focuses on teaching about nutrition, sustainable calorie intake, and how to fill your diet with natural, whole foods — the only healthy way to reach and maintain your weight-loss goal for the rest of your life.
3. Struggling with emotional and behavioral challenges
One of the most challenging aspects of weight loss is recognizing and changing emotional and behavioral triggers that make you overeat.
Behavioral issues have nothing to do with self-control. Overeating is often a learned behavior that becomes so ingrained you don’t even know you do it.
Subconscious behaviors could begin with a parent insisting you clean your plate or when you start eating a snack because you can’t sleep at night. You could get in the habit of getting meals from fast food restaurants because you don’t have enough time to cook.
Many people turn to food when they have strong emotions. The type of emotion doesn’t matter. You may overeat when you feel sad, happy, depressed, elated, angry, or stressed.
It’s hard to identify subconscious emotional and behavioral triggers on your own. Our team helps you explore and overcome your triggers.
4. Battling daily habits
Here we’re talking about the purposeful choices you make every day, not the subconscious behaviors mentioned above.
Let’s face it, it’s hard to change daily habits. Whether you need to choose different foods, eat smaller portions, or start exercising, you must stick with it long enough to replace your old habits with new ones that support weight loss.
Our team helps you change habits by holding you accountable and offering encouragement when you hit a plateau or feel you can’t keep up with your weight-loss plan.
5. Lacking a support system
A support system goes a long way toward your weight loss success. That’s why we offer health coaching and work closely with you throughout your weight loss journey.
Beyond the support we provide, it’s also crucial to build a personal support system. For example, you may have a friend you can meet (on a regular basis) to walk with or team up with someone else working to lose weight.
You’re not alone
Our team is here to provide emotional support, motivation, and medical care for overcoming hormonal and health obstacles to weight loss. Call the nearest office today to learn more about our medically supervised weight-loss program.
