"I am Happier Heavier"

sklarbodds

I read the article differently, she wasn't happy before the diet either, at a heavy weight, which is why she dieted. It wasn't the exhaustion wasn't why she was unhappy, although I do agree that it was a symptom of unhealthy dieting.

See, this part really makes me think it WAS the reason she was unhappy:

But as the scale dipped lower and the compliments on my weight-loss wore off, something else emerged: I felt exhausted, disappointed and still unhappy.

"Ugh, I just can't keep this up..." I recall saying to myself after a Weight Watchers meeting, of which was my lowest weigh-in ever. I felt defeated and broken that after all my effort, not much beyond the scale changed.

Wasn't I supposed to feel amazing? Different? Instead I felt burnt out, over-worked, stressed about every meal and workout... and I wasn't even at my "goal" -- that was still another 40 pounds away!

The reason she was unhappy was exhaustion. Now, I will say it sounds like she tried to lose weight to MAKE herself happy which will really never work. But the point of it is, the reason she gave up and why she's happier now is because she was worn out (burnt out, exhausted, etc) and now she's not.

TheGymGypsy

I think she is kidding herself. She gave up and is trying to justify it.

I kind of feel this way. I know I shouldn't, but I do.

SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish

I think that article nicely outlines two issues, which are not what she seems to want people to come away with or what she learned herself:

1) Dieting hard for fast loss will not make you happy, and it is not the way to go about losing weight.

2) If you are losing for praise and to get "noticed" or any other reason than for yourself, you will probably be disappointed.

mahanaibu

Thanks for posting. This was interesting.

I agree with the many posters who say that the author never seemed to find her stride. She overdid it, never learned to love it. My nutritionist has worked with me on the concepts of "learning to love your new foods" and also finding exercise that I really enjoy. Because the truth is, if it feels awful, only the very rare person made of sheer willpower can keep it up.

Beyond this...the author looks quite young. It's easy to feel happy when one's body is still youthful and working pretty well. Then, as the musculoskeletal system goes awry because there's been too much strain on joints and the back, as problems such as diabetes and so forth creep up, it's not so happy. I agree that there is too much societal emphasis on looking a certain way, and I also don't buy that all people who carry some extra pounds can't be healthy and happy for the long term. But being obese is not a happiness thing; it's a health thing. If a 35-year-old smoker were to post, "Hey, I tried quitting but I'm just so much happier and lower-stress with my two packs of Marlboros each day," it would be very clear that a mistake was being made.

mahanaibu

I think that article nicely outlines two issues, which are not what she seems to want people to come away with or what she learned herself:

1) Dieting hard for fast loss will not make you happy, and it is not the way to go about losing weight.

2) If you are losing for praise and to get "noticed" or any other reason than for yourself, you will probably be disappointed.

Actually, the most recent studies have found that dieting for fast weight loss is a very good way to go about losing weight. They've found such people lost more weight and kept it off better. I know it seems counter-intuitive, I was pretty stunned myself. This is just a yahoo story, but No. 3 has been reported in a lot of places.

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/surprising-weight-loss-myths

mahanaibu

QUOTE "In standard english grammar, both 'happier' and 'heavier' are both adverbial clauses, acting on the subject which is 'I'. Heavier does not act on happier, so the conclusion that she is happier because she is heavier isn't grammatically supported, it more accurately says that happier and heavier are both happening to her. She is a professional writer, so my guess is that the sentence was written as she intended to mean it. A connotation may be added separately if you need to read the title a certain way to support the assumptions you make about the article, it is difficult to be fully objective about an issue everyone is so clearly passionate about, but don't assume that the writer had that connotation in mind. although she is obviously corelating them to say that she is happier while heavier, the idea that one causes the other isnt supported grammatically or by the content of the article, which is about not equate happiness with weight. I think it sets it up nicely."
[/quote]

Where on earth to you get your information on grammar? "Happier" and "heavier" are adjectives. They are not clauses at all, and they are not adverbial. Adverbs describe nouns or adjectives. Adjectives describe nouns, and you yourself note that the two words describe the subject of the sentence, "I." They are predicate adjectives.

The author is not a professional writer. A writer would never come up with a grammatically sinful sentence such as "I recall saying to myself after a Weight Watchers meeting, of which was my lowest weigh-in ever....." She is someone who is trying to make a living as a life coach and Huffington Post, which will take all the free content it can get, gave her a free advertising platform. All smart p.r. people are aware of how they can use HuffPo to gain loads of publicity without so much as taking out a classified ad.

littleburgy

Unless she planned on attending Weight Watchers and counting points as a habit, it probably wasn't going to work out. If you want to be a certain weight, certain food choices and habits have to be done permanently. Hopefully she'll find a healthy balance in her life where it's tolerable for her, and she isn't compromising her health.

hararayne

So much truth in what many people have already said.

No, we don't all have to be super-models, but 100 pounds overweight is not healthy for anyone in the long run.

Moderation is the key.

When this girl is 50, has Diabetes, arthritis, HBP, trashed joints, and all of the other side effects than can come along with a lifetime of obesity, she will regret not keeping the weight off.

If your happiness is tied to the scale, or if it is tied to a dozen Krispy Kremes, neither is a good way to go thru life.

Reported for Krispy Kreme shaming :mad:

Nah, j/k. In all seriousness, some people can be "obese" by their BMI but be perfectly healthy, blood-work wise. Some can't. I know I personally can't. I had to lose weight to improve my health. Not everyone has diabetes and arthritis as a result of being heavy, though.

This is very true. Some people are better off at a higher weight. And BMI almost never tells the full-story of someone's health risk factors. I wish BMI would disappear.

mochamom77

The 4 other times I fell off the weight loss wagon, one of the reasons it happened was because I was overwhelmed and yes, somewhat obssessed. I craved being "normal" again, and not have to think about food all the time.

However, my body began "falling apart" in the past year. I feel pains everywhere, am sick often and my asthma is worse than ever. I was scared enough as it was, but since I started on nursing school 4 months ago, my eyes were opened. Now I know exactly how much damage my lifestyle is doing, and continuing like that is NOT an option. I want to stay alive and healthy for my children and future granchildren. So now I am not stressed - I am just in a "embracing a new life" kind of mindset.

Maybe this woman will wake up one day and realize that she is aging faster than her friends, has less energy than everyone else and is a lot sicker than anybody she knows. Maybe she will have a wake up call and decide to lose weight again, but do so as a WHOLE lifestyle change, rather than an obssession. I only hope for her sake, that it happens before it is too late.

SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish

I think that article nicely outlines two issues, which are not what she seems to want people to come away with or what she learned herself:

1) Dieting hard for fast loss will not make you happy, and it is not the way to go about losing weight.

2) If you are losing for praise and to get "noticed" or any other reason than for yourself, you will probably be disappointed.

Actually, the most recent studies have found that dieting for fast weight loss is a very good way to go about losing weight. They've found such people lost more weight and kept it off better. I know it seems counter-intuitive, I was pretty stunned myself. This is just a yahoo story, but No. 3 has been reported in a lot of places.

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/surprising-weight-loss-myths

Erm, I'm not sure if you think referencing a "10 myths about anything" article on Yahoo is a study, or that "Ms. Cool" has any authority, but no, I have certainly not seen studies showing fast loss is better for keeping weight off, only studies showing that fast loss and extreme dieting tends to cause more rebounds. Reporters have a knack of misinterpreting the results of and what scientific studies show also btw. If you find such a study, please post it. You also have to be careful in what a definition of "fast loss" is, and how long people are tracked afterwards.

In any case, whether or not she "should have" kept it off longer goes against the author's experience and is not the point, the point is this woman lost weight quickly and unpleasantly, and didn't like the experience, so therefore decided she likes being heavy. Which is really equating the state of dieting for fast loss to "being normal weight", and this is false. You eat more on maintenance and do not feel the lack of energy, low mood and deprivation you feel while dieting. So, of course you will like the "feel" of the state of "being fat" more in at least that sense.

She also reveals that she had strong expectations of positive responses from others on losing weight and she was disappointed in reality not living up to her expectations. This shows yet another facet is involved that is not weight causing her conclusion, which again shows it is probably erroneous even for her to conclude "being heavier makes me happier", she really doesn't seem to have read her own situation very well. Her own writing reads: she didn't like feelings of lack of energy, low mood, deprivation and lack of outside positive reinforcement while she was dieting, so she declares "I'm happier heavier". I also don't like the feelings she didn't like, and while I'm not the same in needing outside comments, I know that "I'm happier heavier" is completely the wrong conclusion, its "I don't enjoy being at a large caloric deficit".

SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish

You got me curious mahana, so I actually looked for the source, and found it is exactly the case yet again of "reporters" misinterpreting information and reporting something wrong. What it comes from is not even a study, its a statement on the lack of research on weight loss from a doctor, and that is not a statement he made either! It comes from the NY times, which also gets many statements wrong in the first paragraphs that were not said by the doctor, not in quotes: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/myths-of-weight-loss-are-plentiful-researcher-says/?_r=0

In the end of the article, you can see what is assumed to be the conclusions of this doctor as "Here is an overview of the obesity myths looked at by the researchers and what is known to be true:" and what you stated is not even what this doctor stated as his opinion. So we have an opinion of one doctor, that got misinterpreted into a statement that means something else, which was re-phrased by another "journalist" into a "myth shown to be wrong by studies"... yeah this is why you have to be careful with what you read, especially Yahoo and any journalist reporting on another journalists talk with someone!