Obesity: Truth About Weight Loss

Seriously. I am convinced that people do not want to hear the truth about weight loss.

Why? Well for one, there would be no such thing as a fad diet – South Beach, Paleo, Atkins, The Zone – I could go on and on. People spend thousands of dollars trying to find the miracle cure for weight loss.

So what is a fad diet? It’s a short term quick fix that promises dramatic results. And that’s what people want. We are a world of impatient people – we want immediate results. But guess what? Studies indicate that these diets don’t work over the long term. Of course you’ll lose weight initially on any of these diets. Why? Because anytime you restrict the amount of food consumed it results in lower caloric intake. Lower caloric intake = weight loss. But how realistic is this? Seriously. How realistic is this? If you told me I could never have pasta or bread again I would not be a happy camper. Live my life without pasta or bread? Nope. Not going happen. Could I do it for a couple months? Probably. But guess what? Couple months go by, I lose weight, I’m happy, I go back to eating pasta and bread, I gain weight. What was the point of all that anyway?

So why am I bringing this up? Last week was Obesity Week 2015. Yup, we’ve got a whole week devoted to obesity. Pretty good reason for that too. Turns out obesity is now the world’s biggest food problem. Yup. Not hunger – obesity. Pretty serious stuff.

Here’s what people don’t want to hear. They don’t want to hear that evidence shows us people who lose weight slowly (about 1-2 pounds per week) are more likely to keep it off. They don’t want to hear that weight loss isn’t about eliminating an entire food group or some magic juice to help the shed the pounds. It’s about ongoing lifestyle changes. It’s about creating healthy habits that will last a lifetime. Not 2 months, not 3 months, not 6 months – a lifetime. A healthy lifestyle should include healthy balanced eating and physical activity. Truth.

I get it – weight loss is hard. It takes patience. It takes motivation. It requires commitment. But remember slow and steady wins the race. And if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.