I Can't Lose Weight

I can’t lose weight!  It seems like I here this statement at least ten times a day.  Over and over, all day long, people tell me they can’t lose weight. They tell me they have tried everything imaginable from diets, to medications, to injections, and nothing has worked. They have been through physician-monitored programs, been hypnotized, completed acupuncture sessions, and nothing has worked.

I have to admit, that part of me is tired of hearing it, because I just don’t think it’s true.  I believe you can lose weight, but if you are constantly telling yourself the opposite, it may be very difficult.  Instead, tell yourself that can lose weight if you choose too.  More importantly you can improve your health and change the composition of your body if you do the work that it takes to accomplish this.

The people that say: “I can’t lose weight” aren’t purposefully lying to themselves.  They believe what they are saying.  They whole-heartedly believe that they can’t lose weight.  The problem is that this belief no matter how strong, doesn’t make the statement any more accurate.  I can believe all day that I’m Brad Pitt but it doesn’t mean its true. 

I think if we were honest with ourselves we would see that the statement “I can’t lose weight” is not what we really mean.  What we really mean is “I can’t lose weight fast” or “I can’t lose weight as fast as I want too.”  That is a much more accurate statement.  The truth is that we can lose weight but if we do it the right way, it takes a longer amount of time and it also takes some work.  On the other hand, if we do it the wrong way it moves along faster but never works out in the long-term.  That’s how it goes and I see people prove this over and over.

Instead of saying “I can’t lose weight,” we ought to say “I can’t lose weight as fast as I want too.”  I see people every day that can’t seem to quite make this distinction.  They tell me how they have tried multiple weight loss plans and nothing has worked.  Again, it isn’t that it didn’t work; it just didn’t work as fast as they wanted.

After further probing, I always discover that my clients have almost always lost some amount of weight with each attempt. Then I ask: “what happened next?”  The response is almost always identical: “it just stopped.”  Well guess what?  It didn’t just stop.  Usually the person quit the program and then the weight loss stopped.  In other words, if they would have kept the same regimen, they might have lost more weight.  However, most of us become impatient when the weight loss hits those temporary, but ever frustrating roadblocks.

Another common scenario is that the person is following the typical diet that is over-restrictive and they can’t continue it.  The reason that they can’t continue is because their body is fighting against them every step of t he way.  It just doesn’t feel good to starve!  Your body will always fight against that feeling.  Eventually, it feels so bad that you quit the diet until the next diet comes along.

The key here is to not starve!  Yes, it is true that you have to eat les calories to lose weight, but you don’t have to starve.  People usually gain weight from eating a few more calories than what they actually need and over time they gradually pick up the weight.  We need to take the same approach to weight loss.

Instead of starving, we have to slightly cut back calories and we will gradually lose weight.  Aim to subtract 300-500 calories/day from your norm and you will gradually lose weight.  Get rid of two 12oz soft drinks and that at least 300 calories alone.  That’s just one example, but those types of changes are things that you can learn to do forever.  We can’t be on a true diet forever.

I say all this just to support my original point, which is that you, me, we all can lose weight if we choose too.  However, it takes work, and if we do it the right way, it will take some time.

Dedicate some time to thinking about where you want to be in a year.  Do you want to have gained and lost the same 20 pounds two to three more times over the next year, or do you want to look up in a year and see that you have achieved meaningful weight loss through hard work.

That weight loss may be 20-50 pounds in a year instead of 100, but that doesn’t matter.  What matters is that you will have done it in such a manner that you will be able to continue the process without feeling like you are starving.  Yes you will be lighter, but you will be stronger, healthier, and you will be able to do things you couldn’t have done a year ago.

You can lose weight, but you have to know what it will take and you have to begin by dumping some of the garbage that is currently in your head.  Erase the negative junk and replace it with new positive junk.  Don’t tell yourself “I can’t lose weight.”  Tell yourself you can lose weight slowly, if you follow the steps to make it happen.  Then, go make it happen! I know you can.