Obsession With Health or Life Is Unfair

I read an article today that shared some cold, hard truth:  Most people (like 99%!) who are obese and who then lose weight, gain it all back.  Only 2 out of 1,000 obese people who lose weight through non-surgical means keep it off.  (Surgery gives you a 60% statistical chance of success, according to the surgeons who perform these surgeries.  I'm sure the data there is clean, right?) *sarcasm font*

Having observed this phenomenon both with surgical and non-surgical methods, I have to ask why.

It boils down to: Life Is Unfair.

Genetics and ingrained habits like emotional eating are something we all know about and accept to a certain extent.  I've said from the beginning of this crazy journey to healthy living that if you don't deal with the issues that got you fat in the first place, you won't be successful long term.

But something else happens in the body chemistry of people who are obese.  After a certain amount of time (and children with obesity issues are VERY prone to this!) your body basically adapts to the extra fat on your body and decides that is the normal, preferred You.  You now have a completely different chemical makeup than a person who had been at that weight throughout adult life.  So even if you heal past the emotional eating, and learn about nutrition and exercise faithfully... the stakes are higher if you stray from the path.

Your body wants to get back to its "normal."  So it is sending cravings, food/sugar addictions, slowing your metabolism, and resisting the very thing you are working so hard for.  You can have the willpower and strength of a Spartan, but everyone has an occasional piece of cake.  That piece of cake sets you back.  That same piece of cake that a person who has never had a weight problem can burn off with a workout is an actual step toward regaining that 150 lbs you worked so hard to shed -especially because that first piece of cake makes your body, more than anyone else's, want a second piece.

I saw that happening this summer.  I gained some of my weight back, effortlessly.  I had counted on all my good habits -like working out and eating kale- to make up for the irregularity of my life, and thus my food intake.  I literally did not have the time and mental energy required to be on top of My Healthy Lifestyle in the midst of chaos.  I gained 10 pounds a MONTH while I was functionally homeless.  The weight I gained did not start coming back off until a few weeks ago -several months into my new, stable life.

So, that <1% that keeps the weight off permanently -how do they do it?

Just like diabetics have to accept their lives include insulin shots and cancer patients have to accept the reality of chemotherapy, formerly obese people have to accept that this is a lifelong struggle that cannot be ignored.  You must accept that Life Is Unfair.

It has to become an obsession with health -not simply fat loss or you will live and die by the scale and become someone no one wants to talk to.  Obsess about your health as an overall objective.  Congrats on your new hobby!

You have to accept that the things you did to get you where you wanted to be the first time are the things you will continue to do the rest of your life.

Plan the food carefully.  (But my sister doesn't have to do that!  Life Is Unfair.)
Follow the food plan faithfully. (But I'm on vacation!  Life Is Unfair.)
Write down the food truthfully.  (That is pain in the neck!  Life Is Unfair.)
Keep challenging your workouts.  (I just want to coast for a while!  Life Is Unfair.)
Stay in therapy.  (I feel like I shouldn't need this after so much time!  Life Is Unfair.)
Commit to your faith life.  (Man, that gets old!  Life Is Unfair.  -and only God can make it unfair in a direction that helps you.)
Commit to the funding it takes to be healthy.  (Healthy groceries are expensive! Life Is Unfair.)
Commit to the time being healthy takes you. (I want to sleep in!  Life Is Unfair.)

Whine and cry if you must (I do, often and with gusto!) and then get going.

See you at the gym.  It's leg day.