OMG...Why Losing Weight Such Hard Work!!!

[WRITE GIRL]

If you kind ladies want to soothe my ranting spirit, please do so! I'm on Neanderthin and walking my butt off every day for several days now. I'm glad I can walk more than 8000 steps a day, but d**m it's HARD WORK! I'm scared that even that won't get the pounds off. For those of you who've shed alot, please offer me some consoling or encouraging words... please, whatever your experience can offer :(

[MaryKay]

I so agree with you. but if you keep it up, it will get easier. I'm not really someone to talk - I can't seem to do it more than 2 days in a row.
It is hard work, like anything new we start. But as we fit it into our lifestyle - it becomes just a part of it.
It will help, adding any activity will help. Some of us have to work harder at it because we have been sedentary for so long (talking about me!). But I am so hoping the nicer weather finally being here will get me out there more, and doing more, and leading to more activity, which leads to more......

[Knowles' Darlin]

OMG I'm so with you on this one!!!! I was walking an hour a day which was very hard the first two days. Then it suddenly became easier...then it became easier to skip. Now I haven't walked in weeks.

Now it's friggin HOT here and walking would probably be a good thing because I'd sweat a river. But that really isn't motivating to me in the least.

So I'm trying to do all I can to go to the pool (sun AND swim)...park further away at all places I go...take stairs if they're an option, etc. I enjoy the feel of my legs now as I feel the muscles vs. the fat rubbing together as I walk...so I have noticed changes.

As for losing weight being such hard work....well, it was work to gain it. We just enjoyed that work at the time. I think we all have to embrace what we're doing now and why we're doing it so it doesn't seem like such hard work. Also remember...it didn't come on overnight so it won't leave overnight. I know for me personally this is the longest I've ever stuck with a WOL/WOE and I don't plan on changing it anytime soon, if ever.

As one of my friends told me last night as I was craving some french fries while we were out.....That food will never taste as good as being healthy and thin will feel!!

[celest24209]

Hmmmm, Write girl, maybe you are working too much. Have you checked out the exercise section on here, it has a series on low carb exercising and how to maximize your workout. It's done wonders for my physical appearance. I think i read somewhere that walking alone wont give you very much long term success. Our bodies were built and designed to walk, maybe you should read up and consider other options if this isnt working for you. Exercise can be very enjoyable, took me 40 yrs to realize this, but im really enjoying my routines.

good luck and happy low carbing.

[huskersfan869]

IT is hard work--no doubt about it. Walking is NOT the most effective way to work weight off your body--it iworks--but as you have found 8,000 steps is a LOT of steps and it will not give you all the definition you may want. Keep working though--add a few minutes of jogging if you can--more than doubles the amount burnt and works our muscles built for walking a little harder. Try climbing steps--if you dan't have a stair climber--walk up and down a flight 3 or four times in a row then go back and do it again in a little while--I do this while cleaning or whatever at home ot get in a few steps--which really work the gluteal muscles--not my latgest part but nearly--and I can really tell in the pants that now fit that didn't a few weeks ago. get a mini-trampoline and start on a rebounding workout--basically bouncing and jogging in place--lots of fun as an alternate workout and easy to do anywhere in the house, works the legs especially the calves and quads (front of the thighs). builds definition and muscle in important places--will help tighten the legs up.

[LisaC]

I've struggled with my weight since I was in 1st grade. My mother said after I'd finally gotten my tonsils out I began to eat, before that I was a very picky eater. I'm told my biological dad was a very huge man, so it seems I've gotten his "genes" that no matter what I try I always end up about the same weight 160. Back in my growing up time though, that was considered too much, but now adays I'm considered to have a big bone structure and 150 would have been my ideal (to which I actually reached). In 1980's I lost to 143 and was comfortabe and very happy, even though my mom said I then looked anerexic. LOL. Anyhow, it took me two years to do it. Was it worth the effort,I say "Heck Yeah" every single bit of it.


I was working as a nurses aid back then in a nursing home, so we hardly ever sat still. I was on the move almost constantly for 8 hours each night. When I switched jobs, I slowly gained all the @#$# weight back. I was on my way to loosing it back when the doc said, push it back up a bit..you're preggy. Well, now I'm working to get the pregnancy weight off and me back to my "happy" 150 (at which I DON'T look anerexic LOL)

Again, if you asked me if it was worth it, Heck Yeah.

Just keep at it.

By the way, what is Neanderthin?

[paladin]

Originally Posted by LisaC

By the way, what is Neanderthin?

Neanderthin is another low carb plan. The idea is that you try to eat like a caveman i.e. no modern foods. If a caveman/woman/person had access to it, then you can eat it. Basically you limit yourself to meats, fruits and veggies. Honey is also allowed, since it is found in nature and presumably cavepeople had access to it.

We have a forum for it under caveman type diets.

[dogface]

So far no one has answered your question.

Losing weight is such hard work because your body fights you every inch of the way.

Our brains evolved in a time when food was scarce. Our hunter/gatherer ancestors spent the better part of their daily lives searching for food, and when a kill was made or a tree with ripe fruit was found, it meant a short-term bonanza and everybody ate until there was nothing left because you didn't know where your next meal was coming from. Our insulin metabolism evolved to store every available calorie as body fat because there were most assuredly lean times ahead when we'd have to live off that stored fat.

Nowadays there are no lean times (at least, not in our fortunate society). Our brains, however, have not yet caught up with that fact, and our deepest instincts tell us to EAT EAT EAT when there is food available because it might not be there tomorrow! Our insulin metabolism continues storing fat because we're going to need it to survive the winter, or the famine, or the drought.

When we "go on a diet" and our caloric intake drops, all the ancient alarm bells go off -- starvation is imminent! Food sources are drying up!! Store every calorie, preserve every ounce of body fat!! DANGER, DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!!

So our bodies, mired as they are in Neanderthal times, are simply trying to save our lives by refusing to let the weight go. And THAT's why losing weight is such hard work!!

[redell]

Write girl, Dogface explained the biology of the struggle of weight loss beautifully. It is a battle every step of the way. I understand your fear that all of the hard work will be for nothing but this wol does work. If you stay as true to your eating plan as possible (minimize cheats) and continue to exercise, you will see results. I had many stalls along the way but I just kept on and now I'm where I want to be. You will see improvements in so many areas because you are making your body stronger.

Keep up the good work and it will happen for you!

[LisaC]

Paladin, thanks. I couldn't have even begun to guess on that one.

Hmm...I remember when I was in highschool, during one summer, I tried eating only protiens, the result...I passed out. Thank goodness mom was in the bathroom with me and eased me down or I would have thunked my head on the scales. After eating some crackers, ie...carbs, I was fine.

Even on this diet I end up feeling weak if I don't eat enough veggies.

[Paleofornow]

Dogface - what a great answer!

Alice

[CarolynInTexas]

I think that in changing your way of life, you are putting pressure on your whole system - brain, body, muscles, etc. to eat different foods, and exercise. It usually take you 3 weeks to change a habit. However, eating is not a habit (tho some of us think of it that way), it is a necessity of life. If you have been eating one way for x number of years and suddenly change your way of eating, you are basically putting your body in shock. It doesn't know what you are doing, how long you are going to do it for and it is taking time to adjust to these changes.

If you are exercising you are adding another shock to your body. It is building muscles, burning not only the food you are giving it, but burning up the fat stores. Remember that muscle weights more than fat.

So, you are totally changing the way you eat and the way you burn up food.
Putting your body thru shock it is going to resist as much as possible. As it adjusts to this new WOE/WOL it says, ok, this isn't bad, and will let go of the fat stores, muscles become stronger and you feel better.

Could this be the answer you are looking for..... No it isn't easy to lose weight, it is a chore to some, an adventure to others, and it is something that we have probably put off as long as we can, probably because we know it is hard.

It does get a little easier the longer you are into your WOE, the cravings get less and less, your want for those "forbidden" foods lessens, and you finally get comfortable with those changes you have made.

Sorry this is so long winded, but it is an important subject, one I debate with myself maybe not daily, but sometimes a lot, .... is it worth it all.... YES!
but boy is it hard - probably one of the hardest things I have ever done. You can give up cigarettes, alchol, drugs, etc. but you can't give up food.