Title says it, people come up with excuses and doubts to not start bettering themselves even though they know the science behind it but can’t seem to accept that it’s that simple. For example burning more calories than you consume to lose weight.
In: Biology
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Because historically it was much better to eat as much as you can when possible. The problem of having a abundance of food is a very recent phenomenon in the history of our species.
The word diet is now mainly associated to restriction. That’s why nutritionists prefer to talk about therapeutical nutrition, I believe. We need to adapt the way we see diets in order to motivate people. Restriction will never come off attractive, even in serious cases.
I lost a lot of weight through steady, gentle restriction (200-500kcal defecit per day) the first week or so was hell, I was hungry, irritable, considered quitting. Then when I was happy with my weight and tried to eat maintenance calories I felt bloated, unhappy, and irritable.
Humans like habit, human bodies like consistency. Changing up what we do, how we process things is bothersome. A lot of hormones are very involved in the gut so changing foods habits can really affect mood. The trick is to keep with it until it becomes your body’s normal, when it learns to balance it’s homeostasis around the new energy balance, then it’s easy
Because the brain does not see immediate results and only pain, and does not believe the outcome told by science is possible for this body.
For most of our evolutionary history, we had to expend an incredible amount of energy to get more calories. Hunting involved long distance running and foraging would mean long walks. Not to mention setting up shelters, finding water, making tools. Even 100 years ago, most people had limited access to calories, and just lifestyles and jobs required a lot of physical exertion. The rule if thumb would be, eat when you get food, minimize unnecessary expenditures of calories.
So, we are not adapted to having, basically, access to unlimited food and no need to exercise. Not dieting and exercise are necessary, but also unnatural.
However, you might notice some people just do better with dieting. Humans have a lot of variables to them. Some are wired differently (one example: one person might make less of the chemical that tells the body is hungry and therefore naturally eats less) all have different backgrounds (people raised on healthy diets and healthy relationships to food tend to keep those habits, on average, better than those who weren’t). So, the person looking to diet may be predisposed to eat more than they should of things they shouldn’t.
A lot of diets aren’t designed to help you lose weight. Most are either to sell a lifestyle, book or product. This often means a pressure for quick weight is instead of sustainable nutrition. As a result, the majority of people on diets end up gaining more weight in the long run. One theory, going back to studies from WWII, is that if a diet starves you, your body starts to crave caloric rich foods, and also stores more of the calories as fat, to protect against future starvation.
It’s not all bleak news, it just means there isn’t a quick answer. Losing weight means eating healthier and moving more. Logging what you eat is another trick that will help eliminate mindless eating without putting any restrictions on what you eat. Consider cooking more food s and eating out less/eating less pre packaged food. Find exercises you enjoy doing (or pairing exercise with things like watching tv). Lastly, consider focusing on what you can do and how you feel, instead of on an arbitrary number like weight or BMI.
If you look at it from your body’s perspective, what you are doing makes no sense. IF you are restricting what you eat, then your body is like “uh oh – there’s a food supply problem!” and will naturally encourage you to seek out additional food so that the food doesn’t run out.
Your body doesn’t know you’re trying to lose weight, it knows that it’s suddenly expending more energy than it’s bringing in, and it will work to counter this (kind of like how you don’t wait till you go through your savings to fix your budget).
This is a very helpful trait. It keeps humans alive. It EXISTS because it keeps humans alive. We just managed to create a scenario where it’s counterproductive.
Because your brain likes it when you eat and doesn’t like it when you don’t.
Dieting is not fun, sure there is a “reward” after a week or 2 weeks but that is hard work and not guaranteed.
Your brain likes short feedback loops more. Like; eating > happy chemicals in the brain > let’s do that more!
I believe it’s human nature to do what’s easier. When you think of losing weight, you think of how much work that’s going to take. Since the reward of eating isn’t immediate, you would rather eat something that you like which seems more rewarding now.
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