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Yahoo has a slideshow of past winners and I'm a little surprised at how many of them have put the weight back on. In fact, the farther out from the show, the more weight they show in the pics. It really is hard to keep weight off long term! (I know this first hand, after losing 40 lbs with WW, I kept it off for 3+ years and have now regained it all.)
Slide Show Photos - Yahoo! TV
The thing about losing weight AND keeping it off is that the changes you make HAVE to be forever. Diets don't work. Period.
If chips, sugar and processed food got you fat, then you can NEVER eat it again. Or it will do it all over again.
But the vast majority of people want to have their cake and eat it too. And thus it all creeps back on again and sometimes more.
I know, I know. It's not fair. But hey, if you're obese, there is something wrong. Either with what you eat, how much you eat, your activity levels, and rarely and I emphasize RARELY, a medical condition contributes to your troubles.
But really, it's very simple. Eat fresh whole foods, don't eat ANY processed food. Eat in moderate amounts, Get lots of exercise. Don't self soothe with food.
But don't confuse simple with easy. It's usually the hardest change you will ever make. Hence the reason why so many gain it back.
Originally Posted by shanny;3246477;
shanny! The issues people face with weight go deeper than the food, of course. I know that I have problems with snacking at night. Even healthy foods need to be eaten at the right time. It takes lots of discipline and time to get enough exercise to stay in the shape the Biggest Loser participants are in when they leave the show. When they add in working at a job, taking care of their families, etc, the diet and exercise become a great challenge.
I was a skinny kid who gained weight in college due to poor diet, then lost it and got thin again, but starting in my 40's it became increasingly difficult to keep weight off. My metabolism is much less efficient than it used to be. So little by little I have gained 25 pounds over about 20 years. It is very frustrating to deal with, but I won't give up.
I used to think that it was completely within each person's power to lose weight, but after watching my daughter grow up, I know that it is not as simple as eating good food. She had problems with her weight from birth. While never obese, she was always very tall and big in comparison to the other kids. As a teenager she would watch her classmates eat junk food and be thin while she avoided most all of it every day and worked out in sports and could still gain weight! She is now in her twenties and has a shape much like Michelle Obama - curvy and tall. She is aware that she will always need to work out and watch what she eats.
They all still look better than they did originally---just compare the faces of the ones that are kind of hiding their bodies. But if the solution to gain in the face of no change in eating patterns is a still higher level of exercise that's a bit daunting--surely there's a ceiling on what the body can do...and the hours in the day one can spend exercising.
I agree it's way harder to keep it off than take it off, and taking it off isn't fun. I also lost a pile of weight (protein diet), along with a lot my hair, and have since gained it all back and and a lot more, but, regretably not the hair, which is still much thinner than it used to be. Kind of discouraged me.
PS Cootie, if your daughter has a figure like Michelle's she's in a good place!
Yes, she is! She has been getting fashion tips by watching what Mrs. Obama wears. The fact that my daughter has a nice curvy shape has to do with a lifetime of good eating habits and constant exercise. If she lets up at all, she gains weight quickly - and this was true even when she was a young child. It was difficult for her, but I think in the long run it means she has developed good lifetime habits. And she is very secure about the body she has and knows she will never be thin.
I am thinking that her type of metabolism is what some of the BL participants must have. And once they gain the weight it becomes so difficult to get it off that there are many layers of psychological complications that cause more weight gain. I hope these contestants never give up completely despite the fact that they have gained weight back.
I agree with these 3 points. I'm not in the best of shape, but there are a few things that are clear to me. Some people are born to be thin, and maintaining a low weight is not at all a chore.
Others are born to struggle and it is a life-long battle.
Others are somewhere in the middle. They gain weight because of stress or sadness or lack of time to prepare healthy meals.
For the latter two groups, esp. the people born into it, going against the grain that nature dealt them has got to be the hardest thing in the world.
Not that people are dogs, but given that dogs are living breathing creatures, I think my dogs tell this story. I have a border collie. He has energy galore. He'd rather do most anything other than eat, e.g. chase after squirrels, bark at dogs walking by, etc.
Our other dog is a Samoyed and keeping her at a healthy weight is very near impossible. She eats her food, the cats food, food she can swipe off the kitchen counter, AND the border collie's food when he gets distracted and looks away just for a minute! And, other than doing her morning business and eating/swiping food, she doesn't move the entire day. Side note: I know two others with Samoyeds, and their dogs are the same way).
We treat the dogs the same and feed the dogs the same. For one, its plenty for the other its never enough, and they've been this way since they were born. I see this same difference in humans.
For all humans who like to eat the way my Samoyed likes to eat, dieting is contrary to how they were born.
Experts can say this, that, or the other thing, but I will always believe some people are born to eat more than others and hence struggle a bit more.
Jexter, you have a way with words. I think that people who fall into that high energy category may not be able to understand how difficult it is for some people. I know someone who used to think that parents who had children who were picky eaters were the cause. Until she had a child who was a picky eater! I was fortunate that my daughter with the slow metabolism was not a picky eater. She would eat salad and vegetables at an early age.
If you are one of the body types that is born into being larger than "average" plus a picky eater with an aversion to those healthy foods, the problem with weight gain(or loss) would be even more difficult.
Jexter--your Samoyed was bred to survive in really cold weather, where just sitting around burns a lot of calories to keep warm, so it makes sense that dog conserves energy whenever possible. And we see similar things with humans who traditionally lived in very tough environments where food was very uncertain--e.g., the Pima Indians--their bodies conserve and store food on their bodies whenever possible. Of course it doesn't work well when you take the Samoyed to Virginia, for example, or provide a regular source of food to the Pima... not that I'm suggesting you give up your dog or that the Pima should go back to starving!
I see the high energy thing with my sig. other---absolutely can't sit still...even "sitting" reading the paper a foot is always moving, etc. We completely disagree on our ideal vacation... mine is lying on a beach reading and vegging, S. O.'s is hiking up a mountain. Guess which of us is thin!
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