Summary: Let me guess. You started off the year brimming with hope that this time would be different. This would be the year that you would meet your weight loss goal and discover that you actually really love to run…but it’s not going as planned. I have some ideas on why your resolutions are harder to stick to than you thought they’d be.<br> [divider]<br> Transcript for Why You’re Not Losing Weight<br> Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking! I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann.<br> <br> New Year Resolutions and Losing Weight<br> This year is already off to a quick start, and people are holding tight to their resolutions for 2012. Well, at least they’re trying too.<br> A poll, recently conducted by Thomson Reuters and NPR, found that 51% of respondents are promising to exercise more and 35% have committed to losing weight. No surprise there, but how many of these survey respondents will be successful? How many are already struggling with their die-hard pledge?<br> Here are some of my ideas on why you’re not losing weight or becoming a gym rat yet.<br> <br> There’s more to this “resolution” business than willpower<br> In a recent New York Times magazine article entitled “The Fat Trap”, author Tara Parker-Pope talked about the different aspects of weight loss, and how there is a biological factor that seems to outweigh any amount of willpower that dieters may have. What’s more, the yo-yo dieting cycle provoked by the incredibly influential diet industry alters our metabolism and levels of hormones affecting appetite and satiation, chiefly lowering our resting metabolic rate so that we require fewer Calories and therefore need to eat less and exercise more to maintain that lower weight let alone lose more. On top of that, the “hunger hormone” Ghrelin gets revved up to try to get the body back to its “set” weight point, concurrent with a drop in hormones (Leptin and Peptide YY) that usually suppress hunger and increase metabolism levels.<br> The brain is largely involved in this whole process as well, specifically the dopamine center of rewards and reinforcement. Too much of what the brain senses as deprivation and you may start feeling less inhibition in your eating, less motivation to do things that cause you pain (i.e. eating foods you don’t enjoy, exercising for hours a day), and more impulses or cravings for foods your brain has associated with positive feelings. Furthermore, there is the role of genetics that cannot be ignored. Variation in the FTO gene can increase the risk of obesity from 30-60% depending on whether you have only one or two copies.<br> So if you’ve been beating yourself up mentally for not having enough willpower, stop it! There’s way more involved in your simple resolution than you think!<br> <br> The stakes are too high. In fact, they’re ridiculous.<br> You have visions, fantasies of what is going to happen when you reach a certain number on the scale, dress size, or level of fitness. You are going to arrive. You will be happy and worthy of all good things in life. You will finally buy the clothes you want, walk with your head held high, and have more self-confidence and self-respect than you ever imagined. That’s what I thought, you’re betting too much on this resolution. You think that life is going to really “begin” once you’ve overcome this so-called vice. I hate to burst your bubble, but that isn’t going to happen. Sure, you will probably feel proud of your accomplishment and giddy that you fit in those pants, but that is not what life is about. Your life has meaning today. You are valuable now. Your feelings shouldn’t fluctuate with the tag hidden inside your clothes. I’m not sure why we have this fear of contentment, of satisfaction with our lives and ourselves. I certainly don’t think that if you chose to be happy right now that you would cease to improve or challenge yourself or achieve great things.
