Why is losing weight so effortless for some and so difficult for others?

Machka9 wrote: »

Ashtoretet wrote: »

I'm sure there are things you're absolutely terrible at that others think are easy too.

Yeah ... C# programming, which I'm trying to learn right now leaps to mind.

Losing weight is a piece of cake compared with learning that!!

Which actually reminded me of something.

I am a long distance cyclist, and I have been asked for tips to make riding a century (100 miles in one day) easier. I have various tips, but one is ... "ride a double century" (200 miles in one day). Once you've ridden a double century, all of a sudden the century doesn't seem so bad.

And that applies here for me ... watching what I eat is challenging, but at the same time as I signed on here to do that, I also started the first course toward a Grad Certificate in ICT ... perhaps working toward a Masters if my sanity remains intact. Plus working full-time.

My first semester was slightly more challenging than watching what I eat ... this second semester is WAY more challenging and frustrating and difficult than watching what I eat. Watching what I eat is about as normal as brushing my teeth in the morning. Meanwhile every waking moment (and half the sleeping moments too) are filled with trying to understand the material in this course.

So perhaps one tip to make watching what we eat a little easier is ... get involved in something else. Something challenging. Join a club. Take a class. Volunteer. Do something you've always wanted to do.

rankinsect wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

Yeah ... C# programming, which I'm trying to learn right now leaps to mind.

Losing weight is a piece of cake compared with learning that!!

If you want to lose some of my weight, I'll write all the C# code you would ever need

I actually found C# almost trivial to learn, although I already had a long programming experience by the time that language came out, and it's conceptually very similar to languages I knew well.

Maybe we can do a deal.

I learned VB way back when ... but with this class we've kind of been dropped in at the deep end. Oh no, you don't need any previous programming experience, but here, for your second assignment, program a complicated form thing, containing all these features, in C#.

Conceptually, I get it now (after working with it for a couple months) ... but the syntax escapes me. I just emailed my instructor with the question, you've suggested we use a UserControl. I did, but now how do I link it to the MainWindow? And he emailed back with a line of C# code I've never seen before and which would never have entered my mind. I'm glad I've got that now, but how would I have known to use that?

Unfortunately, the whole course has gone like that.

Soopatt wrote: »

If you read through the forums here you see the trend clearly - Internal locus of control (Its all up to me) = success. External locus of control (It's everyone else fault but mine) = poor me, boo hoo, round and round forever.

I guess I'm bucking that trend, then. I recognize clearly that it's all up to me, but it's still bloody hard. Hard because I sabotage myself because the rules I set for myself are too strict. I don't blame anyone else for that. So for me, it seems to be a question of impatience (leading to failure) rather than not wanting to admit it's all up to me.

rankinsect wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

I guess I was more after the mental aspect, not the physical aspect, of difficulties losing weight. Why some people seem to make things more difficult for themselves - not logging properly, not believing that water weight fluctuations are normal, looking for diet pills and the latest fad, not realising that calories is math, that it's more about (in my opinion) about skillpower than willpower, all the fuddling we do when we can't see the whole picture because the details are in the way.

I think a lot of the mental aspects are still physical in nature.

Everyone's body is attempting to control their weight. We have systems of hormones that drive our appetite, and can influence whether we feel hungry or full, energetic or lethargic, can influence our emotions, etc. In some people, it definitely seems that this hormone regulation isn't working properly. It could be genetic, it could be epigenetic, it could be environmental or dietary, but the result is that some people are going to have these hormone systems working on their behalf (helping them lose weight) and others will have this system working against them.

It's a spectrum, of course, and people fall somewhere along it. Some people have horrible cravings they can barely tolerate, others seem to have a fairly easy time of it, and most are somewhere between the extremes. That's not dissimilar to anything in life - in school I was always the person who could earn top grades without studying; things just make sense to me and if I see it or read it once, I know it, with very little practice or repetition needed (except for learning languages, which is harder for me). People who put in a lot more effort than I regularly did a lot worse.

Some people must have a lot of willpower to stay on a diet, just like some people must study very hard to get good grades. And some people don't.

Eh, I wouldn't be so sure about that.

In an interesting study on satiety, subjects were fed a liquid that they were told would solidify or form a gel in their stomachs, thus anticipating that it would leave them feeling full. Well, the liquid was just a liquid.

Interestingly, they reported feeling full AND had a hormonal response as if they were.

Food for thought about just what's driving hormones.

Russandol wrote: »

Soopatt wrote: »

If you read through the forums here you see the trend clearly - Internal locus of control (Its all up to me) = success. External locus of control (It's everyone else fault but mine) = poor me, boo hoo, round and round forever.

I guess I'm bucking that trend, then. I recognize clearly that it's all up to me, but it's still bloody hard. Hard because I sabotage myself because the rules I set for myself are too strict. I don't blame anyone else for that. So for me, it seems to be a question of impatience (leading to failure) rather than not wanting to admit it's all up to me.

Have you tried relaxing some of your rules a little to help? Yes, you can lose faster or "easier" by sticking to strict rules, but if you can't actually stick to them, then it's not actually going to be harder.

As mentioned over and over in this thread, the biggest problem with losing in mental; getting over the mental roller coaster of setting yourself for failure, failing, and then beating yourself up for failing I think is the largest step in the right direction for weight loss. Clearly (from an objective standpoint) not setting yourself up for failure is the first step to stop the yoyoing. Getting into the mindset of you don't need 39,583,939 rules to succeed is the harder part.

StellaRose227 wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

Ashtoretet wrote: »

I'm sure there are things you're absolutely terrible at that others think are easy too.

Yeah ... C# programming, which I'm trying to learn right now leaps to mind.

Losing weight is a piece of cake compared with learning that!!

Don't worry. C# is a perfectly superfluous language. I personally prefer VB, but have inherited a few C# applications.

Doesn't matter if it's superfluous if current or prospective employers are looking for someone proficient in it.

The smaller and older you are, and if female, and if you have any endocrine disorders, it gets really, really bad. On the other hand young healthy males seem to be eating any bloody thing they please... yeah, the other person had it right when they said "because life is not fair." That's about it. I would kill for 1700. I would have to work out like 3 hours per day to get that many cals for maintenance. blargh.

I think for some people it's actually more of a 'perfectionist' thing. They don't feel they'll ever be 'skinny' or 'beautiful' even if they lose weight... or there will always be someone who's skinnier or prettier than them, so why really give it effort? From there they come up with a million other excuses why it wouldn't even work anyway. 'I have a metabolic disorder', 'I only lose if I limit myself to 900 calories', 'I can't afford to eat cleanly', etc. Give it a half-hearted attempt, see someone doing better than them (even if they really aren't, but to them they are) and just drop it. You'll find many other aspects of their lives follow the same pattern. They never live for themselves and set unrealistic expectations based on their perception of someone/society's opinion.

I too have been finding it *incredibly* easy to lose weight... and even difficult to stop. I'm a lazy bum and love 'junk' food. I don't really exercise at all beyond things I actually enjoy (horseback riding and more recently learning to 'bock' -- run and bounce on jumping stilts, which was the reward I promised myself for losing weight -- but both only happen 1-2 times/week), and make it a point to eat sweet, salty, and fatty treats every day. I *love* figuring out the math and min/maxing my intake so I meet my nutritional goals, stay satiated, and get in as many 'treats' as possible. It's even more fun right now because I seem to be walking a very fine line of maintenance (I decided a while back I was where I wanted to be so upped my intake... and kept dropping, and dropping, and dropping... so upped a bit more and gained, and gained, and gained... so lowered just slightly and stayed where I wanted for a while but now I'm dropping again) and figuring out the mysterious perfect number and what delicious stuff I can add to keep on target. However, I figured out long ago I didn't give a crap what others thought and would never be perfect, so have never made a big deal about it. That's how I ended up fat to begin with. Only my own health made me decide to drop the weight. I even have a metabolic disorder that SHOULD make it difficult to lose weight, especially without going low-carb. I take no meds for it. Following what the math says maintenance should be and not going into extra effort to make sure what I'm eating is low carb, I stay within a reasonable carb limit... even with eating potatoes, chips, ice cream, candy bars, etc every day. No excuses; just math!

It's not even a self-confidence thing. I have NONE. I just assume others see my as fugly - fat or thin - and accept it. Why worry about what you can't help? No big deal. I like being alive though, and it's a lot more fun to be healthy... which I CAN help.

DeguelloTex wrote: »

StellaRose227 wrote: »

DeguelloTex wrote: »

StellaRose227 wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

Ashtoretet wrote: »

I'm sure there are things you're absolutely terrible at that others think are easy too.

Yeah ... C# programming, which I'm trying to learn right now leaps to mind.

Losing weight is a piece of cake compared with learning that!!

Don't worry. C# is a perfectly superfluous language. I personally prefer VB, but have inherited a few C# applications.

Doesn't matter if it's superfluous if current or prospective employers are looking for someone proficient in it.

What I mean by that is that if you can do VB, you can do C#. C# just has a lot of extra syntax.

And different keywords and structure. Even something as fundamental as looping uses a completely different syntax. That doesn't mean it can't be done -- I started with VB and later VB.NET -- but you're not going to be fluent in C# just because you are in VB.NET.

I learned VB a decade ago, and have used it a little bit in recent years ... but am having trouble with the C# syntax and everything.

I need you C# experts here with me right now to help me with this assignment that's throwing me exceptions and all sorts of things!!


(BTW - I lost a little bit of weight this morning, and I've eaten fewer calories than I burned today, so I've got that covered ... )

stealthq wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

rankinsect wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

Yeah ... C# programming, which I'm trying to learn right now leaps to mind.

Losing weight is a piece of cake compared with learning that!!

If you want to lose some of my weight, I'll write all the C# code you would ever need

I actually found C# almost trivial to learn, although I already had a long programming experience by the time that language came out, and it's conceptually very similar to languages I knew well.

Maybe we can do a deal.

I learned VB way back when ... but with this class we've kind of been dropped in at the deep end. Oh no, you don't need any previous programming experience, but here, for your second assignment, program a complicated form thing, containing all these features, in C#.

Conceptually, I get it now (after working with it for a couple months) ... but the syntax escapes me. I just emailed my instructor with the question, you've suggested we use a UserControl. I did, but now how do I link it to the MainWindow? And he emailed back with a line of C# code I've never seen before and which would never have entered my mind. I'm glad I've got that now, but how would I have known to use that?

Unfortunately, the whole course has gone like that.

@Machka9

In all seriousness, practice your Google-fu.

A good portion of my job is working with new technologies, hardware, and/or programing languages with no instruction and a deadline to get whatever-it-is working. I can almost always find a solution to my problem if I search intelligently and diligently enough. Plus, I find all kinds of other cool tips on related subjects.

This.

Any tutorial on user controls will show how to hook it into the parent page or container. Looking at the documentation, or Google, isn't cheating.