For the majority, permanent weightloss seems impossible.
Short term its easy, as weight loss organisations, personal trainer sites, gyms and so on show, with triumphant people holding out the waistline of their previously snug fitting elephant pants. But long term is quite another matter.
At heart endless weight loss battles may be caused by imbalances in the hormones of hunger and satiety, by not handling stress very well.
After thirteen years of watching many people successfully lose weight,only for it to come boomeranging back, no matter how the weight was lost, here are ten points that I have noticed over these years. These points distinguish my slim clients from my rather fatter ones. Later blogs will go into more details.
Yummy food is cheap and always available.
Yummy foods are a combination of fat and sugar: cake, chips and chocolate.
In times of stress or hunger, only the steely will of the enviably thin can resist their siren call.
Or are the born skinnies actually a bit anorexic?
Comfort Eating.
The naturally thin do not comfort eat. We may comfort drink. We may spend too much money. We may stand on a sunbed or go to bed with a good book, hiding ourselves away from our woes. But we do not crack open a tub of Hagen Daazs.
Guilt or pleasure.
I recently read in the Daily Telegraph that the naturally slim, when they eat something ‘naughty’ just enjoy it. Those who struggle to keep the waistline under control feel guilty.
So if cheating is going to happen, enjoy it thoroughly.
Habits.
I came across a diet in the Independent many years ago that involved changing habits – like driving a different way to work. Most of what we do each day is habitual, including eating. This diet starts by breaking daily habits not to do with food. With the aim of ultimately eating different foods each day for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. This helps gain control over what we eat. We engage our noggin and think about what we are doing rather than just stuffing down the same crayfish salad sandwich everyday from the same sandwich shop – or eating 2 rice crackers with lettuce, a tomato and a bit of fruit for lunch. Or eating porridge every morning for breakfast; a sure way to make the hair fall out, the nails weak – or to disastrously sink testosterone levels and catch every cold going.
Calorie counting.
Nuts and cheese could both be viewed as healthy. But they cop a hell of a calorific punch. One way of losing weight is to completely cut out the most fattening foods in the diet – nuts, cheese, nutella, ice cream. And replace them with snacks of protein and carbs, for example cold meat wrapped in a lettuce leaf.
For long term weight loss, calorie counting does not work. It leads to obsession with food, eating potty foods because they have low calories, eating substitute foods like sweeteners and low calorie spreads which are disastrous for health.
But short term it has some use. One of the difficulties is how much to eat, and a short term blast of calorie counting helps concentrate the mind on how much belly is on that plate.
Shrinking the stomach and feeling hungry.
I well remember post-Christmas stomach shrinking. When younger, at Christmas I’d find I’d slowly eat a little more each day. A couple of mince pies, a piece of Christmas cake, a few more spuds. Then after a week of this my normal clothes felt horribly tight. So I’d get a grip and go back to the amount I used to eat, and suffer a couple of days of feeling hungry. It felt as if I was shrinking my stomach. Then the hunger would go and I’d resume normal amount of food stuffing.
I don’t know if we should feel hungry.
I suspect that the slim do not mind a bit of hunger, but don’t let it get out of hand and start all this skipping meal malarky.
I also wonder if the naturally slim are slightly anorexic.
I do know we should stop eating before we are full, so therefore, I suppose, feel a little bit hungry, or feel a little bit of space in our tummy at the end of a meal.
But should we feel hungry during the day if trying to lose weight? Hunger is stressful. Getting addicted to feeling hungry leads to anorexia. Eating too much makes us fat.
Make friends with food.
One of my main complaint about meal replacement diets, such as Liter Life, is that they feed into fear of food. But side stepping the issue of what to eat, food for the fat can remain the bogey man.
The most body friendly way to lose weight is by high protein, high vegetable, some fat. This stabilises blood sugar, reducing the brain’s desperate need for a quick pick-me-up from sugary foods. Which boils down to feeling less hungry.
And maintaining that iron will to resist Nutella, pints of guinness and lemon cheesecake.
Yes, some skinny people eat crap all day and remain slim.
But are they healthy? No.
Will they be carrying excess body fat around their organs? Almost certainly.
Never buy clothes a size bigger.
Admit to encroaching lardiness. Go home. Do something about it. Return to shop in triumph. Without a shadow of doubt, all the slim that I know keep a careful watch on the wobbly bits.
Compelling need.
Finding a compelling need to lose weight can work wonders.
Actors have to be the right shape for a part or they lose the part and won’t get paid. Brides and grooms can do wonders to shape up for the wedding. Hopefully personal trainers/fitness instructors have a compelling need to remain in good shape.
The majority of people do not have such a compelling need – keep slim or your income will go down; get slim or you’ll look like a right fatty in the photos for the rest of your married life. Mind you, after the wedding…..
But if a life-time compelling need can be found and a personal mantra chanted in times of hardship – mates stuffing down the crisps – then the elusive goal of permanent slimness lies to hand.
