Why do some people struggle with losing weight?

misshoneyz2dab
misshoneyz2dab Posts: 62 Member
edited November 13 in Health and Weight Loss
I've known people, who eat healthy, drink plenty of water and exercise a lot. They always have trouble losing weight. What's gone wrong?
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Replies

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,024 Member
    Lots of people in the South eat home cooked healthy food. They just eat too much of it, hence the high incidence of obesity in that part of the country.


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  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    They are consuming more calories than they burn. Unless there is a medical condition, that is the only reason.
    This. They are most likely not watching their calorie intake.

    Eating clean/healthy and exercise does not necessarily mean someone will lose weight.

    Really, this is something that's often drastically understated by most people. It's MUCH more effective to restrict calories to lose weight, than it is to increase exercise to any appreciable degree. I can create a 1000 calorie deficit, even with my relatively piddly maintenance calories (2100) pretty easily. To burn an extra 1000 calories in a day via exercise? Yeah, I don't have a bunch of spare hours to spend making myself want to die on an elliptical. So what do you expect from the kind of people who think of walking their dog and washing laundry as exercise?

    Walking the dog IS exercise. It might not burn as many calories per hour as running, but it is exercise. So is housework, under the right conditions. It's just hard to quantify compared to a lot of other things. That's why if people do it consistently it winds up under the activity level setting.

    No, that's not exercise, unless you do them wearing full military loadouts of gear. Those are called "life". Just like food prep isn't exercise, unless you're a hibachi chef tossing knives and dodging fireballs all day.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    ...they are eating more than they burn.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    edited November 2016
    jemhh wrote: »
    tomteboda wrote: »
    They are consuming more calories than they burn. Unless there is a medical condition, that is the only reason.
    This. They are most likely not watching their calorie intake.

    Eating clean/healthy and exercise does not necessarily mean someone will lose weight.

    Really, this is something that's often drastically understated by most people. It's MUCH more effective to restrict calories to lose weight, than it is to increase exercise to any appreciable degree. I can create a 1000 calorie deficit, even with my relatively piddly maintenance calories (2100) pretty easily. To burn an extra 1000 calories in a day via exercise? Yeah, I don't have a bunch of spare hours to spend making myself want to die on an elliptical. So what do you expect from the kind of people who think of walking their dog and washing laundry as exercise?

    Walking the dog IS exercise. It might not burn as many calories per hour as running, but it is exercise. So is housework, under the right conditions. It's just hard to quantify compared to a lot of other things. That's why if people do it consistently it winds up under the activity level setting.

    No, that's not exercise, unless you do them wearing full military loadouts of gear. Those are called "life". Just like food prep isn't exercise, unless you're a hibachi chef tossing knives and dodging fireballs all day.

    I walk for exercise frequently. Sometimes it's alone. Sometimes it's with my husband. Sometimes it's with my dogs. It's all physical activity carried out to improve health/fitness, which means it's exercise.

    This kind of thing is another reason why people struggle. They try to make healthy changes, which are pooh-poohed, and then they get frustrated and/or confused.

    This conversation is interesting because it hits on my biggest frustration with the simplistic and often belittling responses that are given to posters. There are many who give thoughtful answers too but it's not always easy for beginners to sort through all the posts and figure out which are useful.

    Don't get it twisted. I'm not saying that these things aren't useful or helpful. My point is more, this is the kind of stuff that should be factored into one's activity level, and not considered deliberate exercise. The disconnect between the two seems to be pretty common around here, and people fail to account for a lot of things during their inital setups.

    When they look at a full exercise log, it seems to do things to their heads, and they start to justify overeating, because they "totally earned" that 1500 kcal trip to Applebees. That might be fine, except for two things: exaggerated calorie burn estimates, and the fact that they are using incredibly low output activities to try and compensate for excessive consumption.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    I think some people struggle because they haven't found their "groove" or "sweet spot" where all of a sudden everything clicks and works. That's what happened to me when I started MFP 3 yrs ago. I had always struggled with that 20 lbs--up and down, over the years. CICO works, but you have to find the way to make it work best for you. For some, it's better to up their exercise, for others, to concentrate on cutting calories, for others a combination. Alot of people spin their wheels following the latest fad--healthy eating, detoxes, paleo,vegan, fasting, etc. These all have their place, but they are not the best choice for everyone. Then there are the people with no patience that want to drop 40 lbs in a month. Is that too much???? they ask.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    They haven't chosen the right detox, bought the right weight loss supplements and aren't eating clean healthy organic vegan food.

    Or they are not eating in a calorie deficit.

    I'll take door #2, Monty.
  • a_candler
    a_candler Posts: 209 Member
    To me if some one is overweight they have skewed idea what "healthy" is or how much they truly eat. I had been my same weight of my life, I Wrongly assumed that I couldn't be skinny. low and behold when I actually weigh my food the melted off. So if it doesnt, I've come to realize they're not being honest/truthful in their diet and log somehow.
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