Is weight loss just willpower?

Summer is coming to an end but that doesn’t mean that diet culture takes a break. There is always a push to be thinner. 

It’s often assumed that people that can’t lose weight just aren’t trying hard enough. There’s an idea that they lack willpower, discipline and motivation to get the job done. 

But is that really the case?

A reminder - diets don’t work:

The first thing to keep in mind is that dieting doesn’t actually work. When you start a new weight loss diet yes, you’re likely to drop some weight but as soon as you go back to your normal way of eating, the weight comes back on. 

People tend to gain even more weight than they initially lost which makes them feel worse. This can lead to trying another diet in the hopes of more losing weight and the cycle repeats.

A lot of diets are also extremely restrictive which makes them even harder to stick to. It introduces the ‘forbidden fruit’ effect where you want something because you know you can’t have it. For example, if your diet cuts out all types of sugar, you’re going to want something sweet even more than you normally would.

Being preoccupied with food isn’t a good place to be. It can lead to feelings of helplessness and sadness. This can lead to emotional eating and feelings of guilt that you’ve eaten the ‘wrong’ thing.

This perpetuates the diet cycle again.

Your body compensates for weight loss:

Another thing to keep in mind is that when you lose weight, your body tries to counteract it. The weight you’ve been at is where your body is comfortable at. Anything to change that leads to acts of resistance. 

When you’re losing weight, your body will increase your appetite, so you feel hungrier. This is to make you eat more so it can get your weight back to where it was. 

Your body also lowers is resting metabolic rate. This is the energy your body needs to maintain itself. 

For example, if your resting metabolic rate is 2000 calories a day and you lose weight, it’ll then reduce it to 1800 calories a day. This means your body only needs 1800 calories to maintain itself. But if you stop the diet and go back to eating as normal, it’ll be easier to gain weight as your body needs less calories but you’re eating more.

If the diet is impossible to stick to then it’s not the diet for you and no amount of willpower will change this.

Why don’t people just eat healthily?

If you strip back healthy eating to its core, it’s having a diet that is mostly fruit and vegetables, lean protein sources, wholegrain carbohydrates and some healthy fats. This information has not changed for years. 

But again, this isn’t exciting enough so there are new diets that keep popping up with the ‘secret’ to healthy eating. 

One day carbs are ‘bad’ and then the next day fat is ‘bad’ and the day after that fruit is ‘bad’.  With people being constantly bombarded with a trendy new diet there’s no surprises there’s confusion on how to make healthy balanced meals.

The long and short of it is, any dietary change you make for weight loss needs to be one you can stick to long term. 

This is why making small changes and slowly building new habits is the best way for lasting weight loss. But slow and steady doesn’t sell as well as something claiming you can lose weight fast.

If you want some help building habits for weight loss, my e-book How to Lose Weight for Good is available to buy on Amazon. 

I hope you enjoyed this post!

Bye for now 👋

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK572145/ 

https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0522/