Struggling with your weight is hard. That’s true whether you’re struggling to lose weight or gain weight.
It’s made harder still when you hear from people in fantastic shape how “easy” it is to be healthy.
I’m sure you’ve seen them as much as I have. Fitness enthusiasts, often with a supplement or apparel to sell, saying how they know the “secret to melting fat.” Or how a “killer new workout secret” can give the physique that looks like it’s been carved from stone with “just 10 minutes a day.”
In truth, they almost certainly spend more time in the gym than they will admit, and some of them will have an unhealthy relationship with food and their physique. Obsessively counting every calorie and chugging garbage-filled supplements created in a lab with questionable ingredients is not a lifestyle to emulate.
Even in everyday life, you probably know someone who has never struggled with their weight and isn’t shy about saying how it’s easy to control it. What they really mean is it’s easy for them to control.
That’s good for them, but it can be very demotivating to hear it. When you’re already finding weight control a challenge, to hear that you shouldn’t be struggling just piles on the pressure. You ask yourself why you’re finding it so difficult and before you know it, you’re developing an unhealthy relationship with food and your emotions.
Keep in mind that they may fit into the clothes they want to, but that doesn’t mean they are healthy. In fact, your motivation to lose weight and improve your health could mean they are less healthy than you are, because they’re mistakenly complacent.
Why can people struggle with their weight but others don’t?
There are various reasons that affect how easy somebody finds it to control their weight.
Some simply eat too much. Processed foods are calorie bombs but nutritionally empty, so it’s remarkably easy to eat in excess of your caloric needs without feeling satisfied. Once people switch to unprocessed whole foods, it’s very common for them to feel like they can’t eat as much. With proper nutrition and macronutrients, the body will alert you that it’s had enough to eat – much like filling a car up with fuel and the pump clicking off when the tank is full.
Conversely, others struggle to eat enough. Very thin people often feel like they’re eating a lot, but when a day’s intake is measured they’re below their requirements.
As I’ve written here before, the number one factor that leads people to my operating table is food. This is the best place to start making a change.
The other big factor is hormones, and these are affected by aspects of your lifestyle. The following can all have a detrimental effect on your hormone levels:
- Lack of sleep
- Lack of sunlight
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Poor diet
You can’t build a house on shaky foundations, and the same is true of your body. Your metabolic health is the foundation to health, upon which you can build your fitness and strength.
I struggled with my weight for my entire life up to my 40th birthday. That’s when I decided to finally take control and improve my metabolic health – and for the first time ever, the weight I lost stayed off.
Unlike the people who tell you it’s easy to be thin and healthy, I have been where you are.
I know that struggle. I also know how to overcome it, and I can help you overcome it too.
Start taking control of your metabolic health right now, with this free quiz.