I remember as a fat person asking myself, time and time again, “Why am I fat?” Of curse, there is not just one answer to this question. It is not a reason, but several. I don’t have the time or the desire to go every possible reason, but I want to cover two basic reasons that I think are fundamental to why many people cannot reach or maintain a healthy weight.

Bad Information

The first of these two reasons is bad information. The worst information out there is that weight loss is a mater of calories in verses calories out.

It is surprising to me that so many people still believe this and try to implement it no matter how many times it has failed them in the past. I guess I cannot be too surprised since I was one of them for many years. That is to say that I believed that if I just reduced my calories and exercised more I would lose weight. But this never worked.

Of course I would often lose weight when I first started a diet, but eventually I would gain it all back and then some. Why did these diets not work? Because I was hungry. And while I could reduce my intake of food for a while, my hunger would eventually catch up to me and I would overeat.

Also, the types of foods I was suppose to eat did nothing to curb my cravings. When I finally did break down and eat, I would eat all the wrong foods.

This all stopped, for the most part, when I learned that weight loss was primarily controlled by hormones. When I started eating toward hormonal balance, I lost weight and I had a major reduction of cravings.

Motivation 

The second reason comes down to what we really want out of life. Please do not misunderstand me on this point. I am not saying that overweight people like being overweight. I know I didn’t. And I wished every day for a new body. But what it took to get a new body was not as motivating as what it takes to get and remain fat.

Let’s face it. It’s pretty easy to do the things that make us overweight. And, for the most part, people like doing those things too.

But the reason why I changed is that the pain of being overweight started to outweigh (no pun intended) the pleasure of what it takes to be overweight. As a result of this shift, I found the discipline it took to lose weight.

And the truth is that it comes down to discipline and not necessarily “motivation.” I was not always motivated to workout. I was not always motivated to restrain my sweet tooth. I did it when I did not want to. That’s discipline and that is what it takes to lose and maintain a healthy weight.

Final Question 

So what do you think might be holding you back? And what will it take for you to make the change? Leave a comment and let me know!