Weight loss and dieting - essay #1

"It's not fair"

“It’s not fair”

This is a common sentiment expressed by many of us when we start gaining weight, even though we are certain we are both less and eating healthier than in the past. When we were younger, we could eat almost anything and not gain weight - now the scale goes up just eating salads!

Why is this happening? Some explanations are:

• Although our metabolism may not actually slow down just due to aging during ages 20-60, our body composition shifts to more fat than muscle, which reduces our metabolism.

• We exercise less: we are not walking or biking 1-2 hours per day just to get to class.

• We undergo hormonal changes as we age. This includes incurring more stress. which causes stress related hormones that increases weight gain.

• Not getting enough sleep increases our appetite.

I spent several years focused on “it’s not fair”. Life may, in fact, not be fair. We can talk about it over and over again to our friends and family until they get sick of hearing it. We can think about it over and over again when we step on the scale. We can use it as an excuse to not exercise or to eat more desserts or other high calorie foods. I have done all those things and it didn’t seem to help in any way.

At some point, I heard again this quote, attributed to Einstein (probably incorrectly), and decided it applied to me:

Insanity Is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results

Or, stated differently:

If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten.

So, whether the world is fair or not on this issue, if we want to change our weight, we have to do something differently. This is true even if what we are doing now should work and it’s not fair that it is not working! There are many options about what to do but the main point is that we have to change something.