If someone called you fat, how would you react?  Hurt?  Embarrassed?  Angered? Resentful?  What does that say about who you are as a person?  It’s not merely a statement about your physical appearance.  It’s about a physical characteristic that you can do something about but, for whatever reason, choose not to.  The insult is what it says about your habits, your self-control, and your personal accountability.

The blunt and honest truth is that it has become all too common to blame someone, or something, else for our situation instead of pointing the finger in the right direction…at ourselves.  If someone, or something, else is responsible for our weight problems, we can claim victim status.  Sure, there is a weight issue but its not our fault!  It softens that blow to the ego and keeps us from having to be accountable for our situation.

Often times, we don’t even realize we do it.  How many sentences have you heard from yourself or someone else that start with, “I could lose weight if I wanted to but…”?  Here are some of the most common endings to that sentence and a rebuttal for each.  See how many you recognize:

“…eating right takes too much time.”

The rebuttal:  You’re right, it does take a little extra time to prepare a healthy meal when compared to just having a pizza delivered. The easiest way to combat this is through planning your meals a week in advance.  Pick a time where you make yourself sit down and plan your menu and then create your shopping list for the grocery store .  If you don’t have time to cook during the week, cook your meals in advance and freeze them.  One very common way to reign in your lunches is to pack your lunch when you make dinner the night before.  Are you cooking for a family of four? Make and extra helping and put it in the fridge for lunch the next day.

“…I’m always sick and tired.”

The rebuttal:  Seriously?  You’d lose weight if you weren’t always so sick and tired?  Care to take a guess as to why you always feel bad?  Before you start a weight loss program, it is always a good idea to get a physical.  In all likelihood, you’ll find that your current ailments and lethargy are a result of your weight issues.  That is not to say that there can’t be a reason unrelated to your weight issues but the odds are not in your favor on this one.  Carrying those extra pounds around can lead to Metabolic Syndrome.  With Metabolic Syndrome comes a laundry list of problems.  Click here for more information on Metabolic Syndrome.

“…eating right is too expensive.”

The rebuttal:  It doesn’t have to be.  There are some ‘healthy’ products on the market that cost more than their not-so-healthy counterparts but eating to lose weight doesn’t mean you have to break the bank.  How many times do you eat out?  How much do you spend on ‘grazing’ food for the pantry?  Take the money you spend there and use it to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean meat.  You don’t need to buy high dollar diet foods to lose weight.  If you monitor your portion sizes and shop intelligently, you may even find that you save money.

“…my family won’t support me.”

The rebuttal: There are many factors you have to take into account before beginning any weight loss program and one very important factor is your family. Here are some questions you really need to ask yourself if you use this excuse:  Have you talked to them about how they are effecting your efforts?  Have you included them on your plans and asked for their help?  Do you include them when you celebrate your successes?  Here is an article about the different family factors and how you can overcome them.

“…nothing has ever worked before”

The rebuttal: There can be many reasons for this but, most likely, you haven’t properly addressed the real reason for your weight problems.  Weight loss has always been temporary because as soon as you come off of your ‘diet’, it is back to business as usual.  The easy part is losing the weight.  The hard part is keeping it off.  That’s why you always hear the term ‘yo-yo diet’.  It is usually not that people can’t drop the pounds but that they don’t change their habits and lifestyle to match.

“…I like who I am”

The rebuttal: Usually, it isn’t that you like who you are but that you are unwilling to make the sacrifices needed to lose weight.  Dedication to losing weight and becoming healthier means more than just eating a salad every now and then.  It means bad habits must be broken and your unhealthy lifestyle must change.  Going out for pizza and beer has to become a thing of the past.  If you aren’t willing to make the sacrifices then you won’t succeed.  It really is that simple.

There is no set definition for ‘extreme’ weight loss but to determine what technique is best, a starting point should be defined.  The problem with defining the term for everyone is that there are too many factors that would need to be included such as height, age, body type, and more.

For the closest definition, the parameters of what is considered obese should be taken into consideration.  To put this into ‘pound’ terms, someone that is 40%-100% over their ideal weight is considered mildly obese.  Someone over 100% of their ideal weight is considered severely obese.  Someone over 150% of their ideal weight is considered morbidly obese.  If someone in the severely or morbidly obese category were to be able to obtain their ideal body weight, we would most assuredly consider that to be extreme weight loss.

There is another perspective to consider when you hear the term ‘extreme weight loss’.  It could be used when describing the speed at which you lose weight such as dropping 10 pounds in 2 days.  As we all have seen, there are many that use extreme weight loss techniques even if they aren’t considered to be severely or morbidly obese…or even moderately obese!

Some of the extreme weight loss techniques used today try to target speed of weight loss or amount of weight loss.  Most attempt to target both areas. Here a just a few of the well known techniques:

Diet Pills

There are two varieties: pharmaceutical and natural.  Generally, these diet pills do one of two things.  They either suppress your appetite or block something ‘bad’ from getting into your system (like fat or carbs).  There are varying degrees of success with diet pills but the side effects often make this method less than desirable.  With many of the appetite suppressants really just being a form of amphetamine, you can actually run the risk of dependency.  With the ‘blockers’ such as Alli, there can actually be rather embarrassing physical side effects.  A recent study even linked Alli to possible liver damage.

Liposuction

Liposuction is the method of sucking the fat out of your body with a vacuum.  Sounds great, doesn’t it?  Your fat is literally ripped out, blood vessels and all.  Many that turn to liposuction don’t do so because they are severely or morbidly obese.  They do it to remove fat from perceived ’stubborn’ areas.  Because of this, liposuction would mostly be considered extreme weight loss in the speed definition sense of the term.

Gastric Bypass

What list of extreme weight loss techniques would be complete without listing the good old gastric bypass surgery.  While the success rate of gastric bypass surgery is quite high, so are the risks and side effects associated with it.  This surgery, put simply, makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass some of the smaller intestines.  To get a better idea of the risks and what you can expect from gastric bypass surgery, you can click here.  This method addresses both the speed and amounts of weight loss associated with extreme weight loss.

Extreme Dieting

There are too many types of extreme dieting out there to list.  You can easily find someone willing to sell you their latest extreme diet that guarantees you will lose 30 lbs in a week.  The promises are plentiful, the results are short lived, and the only lasting guarantee is that you’ll be looking for another diet that is bigger and better in short order.  Many of these diets have the potential to yield large amounts of weight loss and at an extreme speed.  The question you should be asking of these diets, thought, is this: Are they healthy and sustainable?

So what is the most effective extreme weight loss technique?  It is one that most people know but don’t want to hear.  It is one that disregards the speed aspect of the extreme weight loss definition.  It’s the timeless technique of good nutrition, exercise, and patience.  It’s often said that we are a society that wants everything now and some of the other extreme techniques really prove this.  We are willing to undergo major surgery (gastric bypass), painful minor surgery (liposuction), and the risk of addiction (diet pills) to achieve faster results rather than change our current lifestyle for a longer period of time.

Of course none of these techniques will ultimately be effective if you don’t address the underlying issues of why you are overweight to begin with.  Stay tuned for future articles discussing how to identify those issues and ways you can address them.

When a someone breaks their arm and goes to the hospital, does the doctor give them some pain relievers and send them on their way?  What if the doctor only treated the symptom rather than attack the root cause of the problem?  In the case of the broken arm, the pain would subside somewhat but the break would still be there and it would heal improperly.  If it doesn’t heal properly, it will have to be re-broken and re-set. 

This is a rather simplistic view of root cause analysis but it does get to the point that should the root cause not be addressed, the long term result will most likely be worse than the original problem.  In root cause analysis, there are three actions to be taken: immediate, preventive, and permanent.

Immediate actions address the symptoms (the immediate need).  Preventive action is assuring the same problem doesn’t happen again by addressing the root cause of the problem.  Permanent action consists of using your knowledge of the root cause and applying it so the problem never happens again.

In our example of the broken arm, the immediate action of the doctor would be to address the pain so they may give you a pain killer.  After medication, preventive action would be taken by setting the arm to insure it heals properly.  Permanent action would be to make sure you didn’t perform the action again that caused your arm to break.

This same type of root cause analysis can be directly applied to your weight loss efforts and can be very effective.  The truth of the matter is that most diets truly fail because the root cause of your weight problems are not addressed.  Sure, you may lose 20 lbs. but you gain it right back because you only took immediate action and didn’t take preventive or permanent action.  In this case, the immediate action is changing the type of food you consume.  The preventive action is changing your lifestyle to incorporate healthier foods and exercise.  The permanent action would be addressing the underlying emotional reasons of why you over eat.

One step in the battle of addressing the underlying emotional reasons you eat is to be able to identify the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger.  Physical hunger is the hunger you feel because your body needs nourishment while emotional hunger is the act of eating in response to your feelings.  It is often difficult to differentiate between the two but awareness of the differences may be key in helping you overcome those emotional eating habits. 

The following is a list of ways you can tell if you are eating out of response to a physical hunger or out of response to emotional hunger:

Physical Hunger

• Your hunger builds gradually since your last meal
• You get full and stop eating
• You feel satisfied after eating
• You have physical symptoms such as a rumbling stomach
• You don’t feel the need to eat immediately
• You don’t feel guilty after you eat

Emotional Hunger

• Your suddenly feel hungry
• There is an urgent need to eat
• The time since your last meal makes no difference
• You often have a taste for something specific (cravings)
• You continue to eat after you are full
• Guilt and shame after eating

As GI Joe says, “Knowing is half the battle.”  Arm yourself with the knowledge and you will drastically increase your chances of long term weight loss success.

Whether it be 10 or 100 pounds, the idea of losing weight is always promoted as a positive thing…something you should aspire to accomplish in order to be a better you.  We’ve all heard the benefits of shedding the spare tire…ad nauseum…yet the obesity epidemic still persists.

Why is that?  Well, logic tells us there must be something to this being overweight thing.  After all, it’s not like the knowledge of how to properly lose weight is hard to find.  So why would people intentionally choose to not try to lose weight?  What are the benefits? 

Being the super-sleuth that I am, I decided to delve into this question with reckless abandon.  That may be overstating it a bit but I thought I’d add it anyway for dramatic effect.  These are some possible reasons that I found:

1.) I really don’t feel THAT horrible at my current weight

I get the ‘occasional’ headache about three times per week but that’s because of my allergies and stress.  I am so exhausted everyday after work that I can’t play with my kids but that’s because my job is so taxing.  I used to be exhausted even when I woke up but I was diagnosed with sleep apnea.  Since I got my CPAP machine, I feel a bit better.  I just can’t see how any of these things have to do with my weight so why should I be concerned?

2.) I enjoy being out of breath just walking to my car

When I leave work everyday, I have to walk at least 50 feet to my car from the front door.  Sure, I’m a little winded but I just consider this my exercise for the day.  One time, when we had a fire drill at work, they made us walk down five flights of stairs.  I really thought I just wasn’t going to make it to the bottom.  I got all light headed and dizzy but I made it!  Then, after the drill was over, the elevators didn’t work so they told us we needed to take the stairs back up.  Oh, hell to the no!  Uh uh!  I made it up one flight of stairs and called it quits.  It took about 20 minutes for the elevators to start working again.  Sure, my boss was ticked but hey, at least I didn’t pass out and have to go to the hospital!  Would my boss rather me be a little late coming back from the drill or spend a day in the hospital?

3.) I can keep eating my favorite foods

They will have to pry my twinkies from my cold, dead hands.  With the world as crazy as it is today, the economy in the tank, everything is just so depressing.  I love my family but I have so much responsibility that is just gets overwhelming.  The little time we have together is based around the dinner table and I, along with everyone else, just wants a little peace, quiet, and contentment.  I can always count on getting some happiness from eating.  It makes everything seem like its going to be ok…if only for just a little while.  I can control this happiness and I love food.  If I give up the foods I enjoy eating, then what will I do to lift my spirits? 

4.) My social activities won’t have to change

There is just no way I’m going to go have a night out with my friends and not enjoy myself with food and drink.  If I don’t try to lose weight, then I can still enjoy myself.  Also, I don’t want to make my friends feel bad by ordering a salad when they are ordering pizza or hamburgers.  That would just be rude and I don’t want to make them feel guilty.  It really is best this way.  See?  I’m not being totally selfish.  I’m also thinking about my friends and how it would impact them.  I’m seen as fun and I don’t want that to change.

5.) I don’t need to become more attractive

My spouse likes me just the way I am.  When I ask if I’m fat, they say “no” and they’re obviously telling the truth.  When I look in the mirror, I see that I could stand to lose a few pounds but if I become too attractive to the opposite sex, I could be faced with temptations that I can’t withstand.  It’s just better that I don’t lose weight so I don’t have to find out.  Anyway, it isn’t that bad.  When I see pictures of myself, I know the camera adds 10 lbs…or 20 lbs…maybe even 3o lbs? 

6.) I don’t have to worry about failing

Nobody likes to fail and 95%-98% of all people that attempt to lose weight do just that…fail.  If I don’t try to lose weight then that’s one less thing I can fail at so I don’t even want to attempt it.  I have read all those success stories about people that have dropped a ton of weight but my chances of doing it are about as likely as hitting the lottery. 

7.) Being overweight is part of my personality

My weight is part of who I am.  I’m the fun loving fat guy that knows how to have a good time!  If I take away the weight than I’m just…not me!  My friends like to tease me about my weight but its all in good fun and they know I’m ok with it.  Really, I promise.  I’m ok with it.  It stung a little at first but then it just became a way they relate to me and part of our group dynamics.  Sort of like bonding in a way.  If I take away the weight, then what will I have?  I prefer to keep things the way they are.

8.) Exercising is just too tiring

I just get so tired when I do any sort of exercise that this, in and of itself, is reason enough for me not to want to lose weight.  I tried once but it just wasn’t for me.  I was so sore, I couldn’t walk for a week!  Besides, I already get enough exercise walking to and from my car at work (and the flight of stairs with a fire drill).  Those other things that happen to overweight people only happen to other overweight people, not me.  Diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, gallstones, osteoarthritis, liver disease, cancer…that won’t happen to me. 

How many of these reasons have you heard?  Have you heard others?  Just leave them in the comments below…I’d love to read them!

One important aspect of weight loss that many people fail to take into account is the impact your weight loss efforts will have on your family AND the impact your family will have on your weight loss efforts.  My last blog post, 5 Easy Ways to Sabotage Your Weight Loss Efforts, touched on the fact that you can’t rely on willpower alone.  You will need your family’s support and they will need your support in return.. 

Through my experience and the luxury of 20/20 hindsight,  I am hoping to shine the spotlight on some major areas where your chances of sustained weight loss success can be increased when it comes to your family’s impact on your progress.  Just as with anything else, your weight loss effort isn’t all about you.  You also need to be mindful of the impact your efforts will have on your family’s lifestyle. 

Family Factor 1:  Food Choice

One of your primary objectives of choosing a meal plan that will promote long term weight loss should be to insure that your family will be able to participate with you.  Don’t mistake that statement as meaning they would have to follow your plan exactly as you do but your food choices should be conducive to the overall family lifestyle.

For some, this is quite a challenge.  If your family is used to having junk food in the pantry, it is very likely that you’re going to meet with some resistance should you attempt to immediately banish the “bad stuff”.  After all, it is you that is trying to lose weight and it was your decision to do so…not theirs.  Your stuck in a quandary of sorts.  If you keep the junk food readily available, you are more likely to indulge.  If you get rid of it, you are likely to have to deal with the wrath of your family!  So, what are you to do?

Just as with yourself, shocking your family into submission by a sudden and drastic lifestyle change is, more than likely, not going to be successful.  A meal plan that involves changing everything about your eating habits all at once just isn’t as sustainable as one that works to break bad habits and form good habits over time.  If it isn’t sustainable for you, how sustainable do you think it will be for your family?  Not very.

Here is my suggestion:  have a plan to slowly introduce healthy alternatives to the junk.  The first week, it could be as simple as switching out pretzels for the high-calorie chips.  The next week, switch out the Rocky Road ice cream with a carb-sensitive brand or a sorbet.  Don’t make it all broccoli and Brussels sprouts from the start.

A diet isn’t a sprint…it is a marathon and should be treated as such.  The sooner you realize this, the better your chances of long term success.

Family Factor 2: Physical Activity

Just as with the food factor, the physical activity factor can prove to be a very big hill to climb.  I can’t assume that everyone that is dealing with weight issues has an inactive family but the odds are good that this is the case.  Just as I can’t make the aforementioned assumption, neither can you make the assumption that your family is willing to get off the couch and move.

Is it absolutely essential that your family become active to help you succeed?  Honestly, I’d have to say not really but it can help quite a bit.  What is important, however, is that should they wish to join you in physical activities, they need to be activities everyone is interested in. 

I made the mistake of trying to persuade my wife join me in lifting weights.  She was not at all interested in it.  I thought that the more I shared the benefits of weight lifting with her, she would eventually see the light.  My insistence was detrimental to my cause of promoting a more active family.  The more I pushed, the more she resisted.  In the end, it did more harm than good by causing hurt feelings and frustration.

If you need some ideas on how to get your family active in a fun way, you can read my post, 10 FUN Activities to Promote Family Fitness.

Family Factor 3:  Your Physical Changes

This factor is a bit tougher to approach than the other two factors.  This is primarily and issue between you and your spouse.  As you lose weight, the changes in your physical appearance will become more and more noticeable. 

Obviously these changes won’t only be noticed by your spouse and therein lies the issue.  We would all like to think that our spouses would be supportive of these changes.  After all, through sickness and in health, right?

I really wish it worked this way all of the time.  In reality, there is another possible reaction other than the supportive one.  Unfortunately, it isn’t all roses and rainbows.

There is the possibility that your spouse will see the physical changes and become jealous.  If you are becoming more attractive to the opposite sex, self-preservation can kick in and your spouse’s support for your continued success can wain.  In a worst case scenario, it could lead to your spouse intentionally sabotaging your efforts.  Yes, it sucks…but it does happen.

So the question is how do you combat this?  Unfortunately, I can’t tell you excactly how to do this.  The best advice I can give is in this article…get them involved in your efforts where your success is a family success.   Your spouse will be more likely to continue his or her support of your efforts if they feel they are part of the solution and you aren’t trying to do it without them.

Do you have any examples of the family factors you’d like to share?  Please leave them in the comments below!