The truth about losing weight may not apply to you

My previous blog was a strong suggestion that Khloe Kardashian’s new reality show was poorly named Revenge Body. I opined that losing weight to get revenge on an ex, fat shamers, or whomever, or as Khloe incoherently says, “…you’re going to have this revenge on this life that you once had that you won’t even want anymore,” for whatever reason was a bad reason to lose weight.

shutterstock_180891284

I repeated the research and generally accepted as truth that motivation for weight loss can be either good or bad. Good kinds of motivation come from “inside” and a desire to take care of yourself and become a better version the wonderful person you already are. Bad motivation is external. It’s wanting to lose weight for a high school reunion or to get a revenge body.

Take Karla. The truth is she wanted revenge and her way of getting it was to lose weight. Karla tried and failed to lose weight multiple times for the right reasons. She wanted better health and to improve her eating and exercising habits.  She recognized she took care of everybody’s needs ahead of her own. She was determined, “it’s time to take care of me.”

These are all sources of internal motivation and we are told that’s the best kind of motivation, but they didn’t sustain Karla’s motivation. Karla succeeded with the bad kind of motivation.

 

She decided she wanted revenge, and finally found the motivation to get to goal. She’s maintaining her goal because she found out that the behaviors she changed to get to goal actually enhanced her life. At some point her external motivation – revenge – became an internal motivation. She liked eating and moving differently and she liked the results so she kept them up. You might be like Karla.

Here are a few other weight loss truths that may not apply to you.

  • Start your day with breakfast. Eating before noon may nauseate you but “the research says you need to start every day with a healthy breakfast,” and you want to be successful so you eat breakfast. Maybe the reason why you always quit your diets is because you hate eating breakfast. The breakfast truth may not apply to you.

shutterstock_552861853

  • Crash diets don’t last. 

It’s been proven over and over that people who lose weight quickly on a crash diet will regain their weight just as rapidly. Often the rapid gain surpasses their original starting weight. They can even present dangers to the dieter’s health.  There’s plenty of evidence that this is true, but there are people who’ve lost weight with crash diets and they didn’t experience a rapid weight gain.

The crash diet and faster weight loss progress got them off to a good start that enabled them to stick with their goals following a moderated, nutritionally balanced diet. The crash diet truth may not apply to you.

Screen Shot 2017-01-15 at 7.01.32 AM

  • Late-night snacking prevents weight loss. 

A study showed laboratory mice get fat when they are able to eat around the clock. The mice that are restricted to feeding during an 8-hour window stay fit even though both groups are fed the identical calorie, high fat diets. The conclusion is metabolism slows and while that may be so, many people have lost weight while snacking late at night.

Perhaps the mice that could only eat during an 8-hour window spent more time scurrying about in search of food. The mice who had food available around the clock didn’t waste energy searching for food.

I don’t know, but I do know if you watch the amount of fat you eat and ensure the calories you’re eating are moderately fewer than those your body burns you can snack late at night and lose weight. The late night snacking truth may not apply to you.

shutterstock_223036288

I’m not encouraging you to ignore what’s generally accepted as weight loss and diet truths. I think for the most part, these truths are valid and apply to a large segment of the population. I am just questioning these truths for everybody because you need the right key to open a new door.

shutterstock_478898485

Jackie Conn

About Jackie Conn

Jackie Conn is married and has four grown daughters and four grandchildren. She is a Weight Watchers success story. She's a weight loss expert with 25 years of experience guiding women and men to their weight-related goals. Her articles on weight management have been published in health, family and women's magazines. She has been a regular guest on Channel 5 WABI news, FOX network morning program Good Day Maine and 207 on WCSH.