I love watching weightloss challenges, so I watch people go through these crazy transformations but often times after I hear that the participants will gain a significant portion, if not all, of the weight back. Why is that? Is it diet? Biology?
In: Biology
I was in treatment for an ED and this is a paraphrased version of how it was explained to me.
Bodies tend to have a set point, and will try to revert back to that point. It’s called weight cycling, and it’s worse for your health and heart than staying fat. Diets fail people because they aren’t sustainable lifestyle habits, and most diets can be considered disordered eating, precursor to a full blown eating disorder.
If you weigh your food, restrict food groups and religiously count calories, you are on track for an eating disorder.
When one diets, they generally keep a calorie deficit, which means they aren’t giving their bodies the calories it needs to function properly. The body treats this situation like a famine, and will try to store fat, which is why it’s difficult to lose weight to begin with. Once the weight comes off and a person reverts to a more sustainable moderately healthy/active lifestyle, the weight comes back on because it doesn’t understand the “famine” is over, and it wants to stockpile for the next starvation period.
So long as you’re eating a variety of foods that make you feel nourished, get enough hydration, rest, and move your body in ways that feel good, your weight really doesn’t matter that much because you’re still reaping the health benefits while not losing your mind and obsessing about food all day.
We’re all going to die anyway, and nobody is going to remember you for being thin or being so strong by resisting cake at celebrations. We’re here for a good time, not a long time.
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