Nancy, your assertion that you can just reduce the amount of food you eat, and move your body without a gym membership and lose weight is true, to some degree. The problem with that thought process is that I think you’re assuming that the weight is going to stay off. But once your body perceives that sufficient fuel is not available when it asks for it (and no, body fat, is not sufficient fuel) your endocrine system is going to change, metabolism, dropping by as much as nearly 20%, hunger hormones, increasing, satiety hormones decreasing, and with in 2 to 5 years you will have a 98% chance of having regained at least the amount of weight you lost in the diet and a more than 60% chance of gaining back more than you lost in the first place. So the important point is not that you can lose weight without paying WW or a gym, it’s that weight loss efforts don’t work in the first place.
The good news is that being in a large body has not been proven to be, in and of itself, unhealthy, and that if you have health problems that are correlated with your higher weight, that does not mean that the higher weight caused the health problem. Sometimes the thing that’s causing the higher weight is also causing the health problem. Being angry at gyms and weight loss programs is almost correct, if only you were angry with them for the right reason.
It’s hard. I’ve been body positive and health at every size for 6 years and I still get triggered, finding myself wishing my body was smaller. We live in a culture that says larger bodied people are irrelevant and so much worse. But I love my body, and I will not again starve it into (temporary) conformity to an ideal created by the avaricious weight cycling industry and a body-bigotry infested medical industry, willing to harm and even kill us for their profits. We are making progress and the adversary is fighting back, hard. Best to all of us in navigating this morass. Rebecca
What I don't understand is why any obese person would go on a WW or similar diet program? They cost a TON of money. If I wanted to lose weight (I don't really), I would simply just eat less and would end up saving a ton of money to boot. Even getting a gym membership is pointless as an obese person, because I'm carrying so much weight that I can just easily move myself around, push myself up against a wall etc. and I can easily get whatever weight load my muscles need just by myself. All dieting programs and gym memberships seem like a fraud, when you can save money and lose weight for free by simply eating less. Again, I have zero desire for this, but it's something medical professionals don't tell you enough. They just always say "lose weight" and then the person in question ends up googling and finding the link to WW or a local gym - it's not how it should be done and it makes me mad!
Nancy, your assertion that you can just reduce the amount of food you eat, and move your body without a gym membership and lose weight is true, to some degree. The problem with that thought process is that I think you’re assuming that the weight is going to stay off. But once your body perceives that sufficient fuel is not available when it asks for it (and no, body fat, is not sufficient fuel) your endocrine system is going to change, metabolism, dropping by as much as nearly 20%, hunger hormones, increasing, satiety hormones decreasing, and with in 2 to 5 years you will have a 98% chance of having regained at least the amount of weight you lost in the diet and a more than 60% chance of gaining back more than you lost in the first place. So the important point is not that you can lose weight without paying WW or a gym, it’s that weight loss efforts don’t work in the first place.
The good news is that being in a large body has not been proven to be, in and of itself, unhealthy, and that if you have health problems that are correlated with your higher weight, that does not mean that the higher weight caused the health problem. Sometimes the thing that’s causing the higher weight is also causing the health problem. Being angry at gyms and weight loss programs is almost correct, if only you were angry with them for the right reason.
It’s hard. I’ve been body positive and health at every size for 6 years and I still get triggered, finding myself wishing my body was smaller. We live in a culture that says larger bodied people are irrelevant and so much worse. But I love my body, and I will not again starve it into (temporary) conformity to an ideal created by the avaricious weight cycling industry and a body-bigotry infested medical industry, willing to harm and even kill us for their profits. We are making progress and the adversary is fighting back, hard. Best to all of us in navigating this morass. Rebecca
What I don't understand is why any obese person would go on a WW or similar diet program? They cost a TON of money. If I wanted to lose weight (I don't really), I would simply just eat less and would end up saving a ton of money to boot. Even getting a gym membership is pointless as an obese person, because I'm carrying so much weight that I can just easily move myself around, push myself up against a wall etc. and I can easily get whatever weight load my muscles need just by myself. All dieting programs and gym memberships seem like a fraud, when you can save money and lose weight for free by simply eating less. Again, I have zero desire for this, but it's something medical professionals don't tell you enough. They just always say "lose weight" and then the person in question ends up googling and finding the link to WW or a local gym - it's not how it should be done and it makes me mad!