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!

I’ve seen blog posts around the Internet about the best and worst ways to lose weight.  They are a dime a dozen and there are very few that actually add anything new to the age-old weight loss struggle.  Unless you’ve been living in a cave in Afghanistan, few of them tell you anything you don’t already know.  That is not to say these bloggers don’t have good intentions but there are only so many ways you can repackage the same information.

We all know that fad diets, diet pills, fat loss surgery, and the others are not the “suggested” way you should lose weight for a variety of reasons.  I have detailed the 7 Reasons Why Most Diets Fail which mainly dealt with my ‘worst ways to lose weight’.  And, if you are a regular reader of Dave’s Press, then you know I’m a huge advocate of finding a diet that is sustainable in the long run.

So what can sabotage your weight loss efforts once you do find a sustainable meal plan?  What are some of the things to look out for that may help increases your chances of success if you know what they are?  I’m glad you asked!  Here are some ways I’ve identified:

1.  Relying solely on willpower

Some level of willpower is a must during any weight loss process.  Obviously, if you are going to lose weight, you’re going to have to give up some of the foods you currently love to eat and you’re going to have to display willpower at some point in time.  However, you need to give yourself a break!  Get that bad stuff out of your fridge and cabinets.  Avoid you’re favorite eating places if you don’t know that you can withstand the urge to splurge. 

If you have a spouse and kids, this can be extremely challenging.  When you go on a diet, they basically go on a diet as well.  This was tough for me since one of my kids was very young at the time and has always been extremely picky about what he eats.  Also, I didn’t want to deny them the foods they liked.  My advice is to communicate and compromise.  Dealing with this situation is actually going to be my next post on Dave’s Press so stay tuned!

2.  Thinking you are the expert

Thinking you are an expert and that you don’t have to look to anyone for advice is a mistake made by many.  Much like creating your own fitness routine if you are new to weight lifting, you should also avoid trying to create your own ‘eating routine’ if you are ‘new’ to dieting.  If it has been years since you’ve attempted to eat healthy, it is entirely possible that what was ‘healthy’ and ‘promoted weight loss’ years ago may have actually changed or it could have been a myth to begin with!  Remember, at one time cigarettes were thought to be good for you.  Do your research and be willing to listen to others that know more than you do. 

I’ve heard people say, “I know my body best and I know what works for me.”   I guess it is possible you are right but most likely you just don’t want to listen to anyone because this is a way to limit the amount of change you need to make in order to lose weight.  If you know your body best and what works for you, how did you end up in a situation where you needed to lose weight?  I would actually bet money that those that feel this way try to “do what works for them” and then wonder why they aren’t making progress.  Any takers?

3.  Being consistently inconsistent

This one is fairly obvious.  The key to creating good habits is consistency.  If you don’t do something long enough, it won’t become a habit.  If you don’t consistently work to break bad habits, they won’t be broken. 

Here is an example:  I highly encourage anyone that is beginning a weight loss program to keep a journal of their food intake.  As I’ve said before, my favorite tool for this is FitDay.  If you aren’t consistent in logging your food after every meal then it won’t become second nature and you won’t be able to adequately track your calorie intake.

4.  Assuming “healthy” foods are low in calories

Advertisers are masters at marketing “healthy” foods.  They use phrases like ”whole grains”, “low fat”, “low cholesterol”, “low sodium”, “heart healthy”, and many others.  We have been groomed to see these phrases and think, “hey, I can eat that and not feel guilty!”  Whoooooaaaaaa!  Slow down a moment and read the labels.  While these foods may or may not have health benefits, they aren’t all meant to be consumed on a low calorie diet.  In fact, some may actually be higher in calories than it’s “not as good for you” counterpart.

For instance, the other night I noticed my wife bought some whole grain bread with all the nuts and seeds that make it “healthy”.  Yes, nuts and seeds are healthy in moderation but they add calories.  When I looked at the nutritional information, I found the bread actually contained 160 calories PER SLICE!  When I brought that to my wife’s attention, her response was, “But it has so much ‘healthy’ stuff in it!”  I then point out that the plain Jane, Kroger brand whole wheat bread had only 60 calories per slice.  What I was trying to drive home was the fact that ‘eating healthy’ and eating to lose weight are NOT always the same thing.

5.  Depriving yourself of the occasional cheat

The operative word is “occasional”.   Some have a very difficult time with treating it as a cheat. If you are someone that cannot control the urge to over indulge, your best option is to abstain.  However, you’re body does become accustomed to your diet and adjusts.  You could find that you hit a weight loss brick wall because your metabolism has accounted for the lack of calories and actually slows to preserve itself by burning fewer calories.  Having the occasional cheat may be just the thing that keeps your body guessing to the point where you can bust through that brick wall.

There are those that say you are not predisposed to being overweight and then there are those that are right.  Now, this is not to say that you HAVE to be overweight if you are of a certain body type, or underweight if of another, but the forces of nature are not working in your favor.  I am a firm believer that your pre-disposition to having man boobs or a skinny butt are etched in your DNA in the form of your God-given body type.

The three different body types are mesomorph, ectomorph and endomorph.  We’ll get into the definition of these in a moment but I want to impress upon you the importance of identifying which you are.  It probably won’t be hard to do but this is another exercise in honesty because your success depends on determining which fight you are fighting.  To determine you’re body type, you can take the self test at Bodybuilding.com.

In the rest of this post, I’m going to use the body type definitions from Bodybuilding.com since there is no real need to invent the wheel here.  However, me being the aforementioned ‘endomorph’ (in the title), I will give my commentary on each to try to give you and idea of an endomorph’s perspective.  First, here’s a nifty little diagram that gives you a visual of the explanations:

The Endomorph

From Bodybuilding.com

An Endomorph’s biggest concern should be the losing of fat and adopting a lifestyle that keeps it off. Strength training should be done to get a better muscle to fat ratio and therefore improve metabolism. Use moderate weights at a fast training pace (very little rest between sets and exercises). You should lower your calorie intake (but not try to starve yourself) and should eat frequent but small meals. Sugars, sweets and junk food should be eliminated from your diet. Engage daily in some activity like brisk walking, biking, etc., and try to increase the amount of time you spend each week.

Dave’s Commentary:

Yep, that’s me but I swear I didn’t pose for that diagram!  I gave up the whitey tighties years ago.  Since I’m writing this post, I am going to take the liberty of stating, as fact, that endomorphs drew the short straw when it comes to the gene pool.  You can blame your parents, your grandparents, Obama…whoever.  It still won’t change the fact that your stuck with a body type that is pre-disposed to struggling with excess fat.  The sooner you come to this realization, the sooner you can get on with maintaining a healthy lifestyle and defying the odds. 

Another fact is that those with the other two body types just flat out suck.  Being as this is written from an endomorph’s (me) point of view, you’re going to find out just why the other two body types suck (read: why we endomorphs consider you lucky).

The Mesomorph

From Bodybuilding.com

A Mesomorph has a naturally fit body but to maintain it or improve it they should exercise and diet correctly for their type. Strength training can be done more often and for longer sessions then would be good for an Ectomorph, but you must still be careful not to overdo it. You should train with moderate to heavy weighs and at a moderate pace, not resting too long between sets. You will find you gain muscle quite easy (some women and even men might not want to get too bulky, but this won’t happen suddenly. When you are happy with your muscle size simply train to maintain it). Stick to a good healthy diet to keep you lean and muscular, and watch for any slow creeping fat gains. Engage in and enjoy aerobic activities, sports, etc. but do not overdo.

Dave’s Commentary:

Congratualtions, Mesomorph, you won the DNA lottery!  However, you get the dubious honor of both endomorphs and ectomorphs thinking you suck because of it.  Everyone knows this person.  He’s the one that looks like he’s weight trained his entire life but really on hit the weight room in high school twenty years ago.  What makes you really suck though is the fact that you like to share how little you have to do to keep your athletic physique.  It’s ok, though.  Having a naturally fit body is great and all but you won’t get the satisfaction of achieving the same body would you have been an ectomorph or an endomorph!  Yeah!  Ok, so that’s not much to hang my hat on but I’m struggling to find a down side here.

Wait, there is one more thing.  It isn’t unheard of for a mesomorph to gain some fat!  So, in the end, they should still be careful.  “Luckily” for them, though, it is easy for them to drop the fat (argh!).

The Ectomorph

From Bodybuilding.com

Ectomorphs should concentrate on gaining weight in the form of good lean muscle tissue (some women that are too thin may also want to put on a little fat to look more feminine). Weight training should be done but not too often or for too long each session. Weight should be fairly heavy and workout pace slower (longer rest periods between sets). Diet should be high in calories (good quality food not junk) and you should eat more then you’re used to and often. Aerobic and other activities (sports, dancing, etc.) should be kept to a minimum, at least until you are happy with your weight and looks.

Dave’s Commentary:

Ok, ectomorphs, you don’t suck quite as much as the mesomorphs but you do come in a close second.  Ectomorphs are the guys that are always complaining that they just can’t gain weight.  “I just eat and eat and eat and I can’t gain a single pound!” … SMACK!  I’m not advocating violence and I’m generally non-confrontational but hearing this really makes me rethink my ways.  Please, ectomorphs, if you feel the need to whine about your struggles and your self image, an endomorph is NOT the person to turn to. 

Most of the endomorphs I know would pay money to spend time as an ectomorph just to experience the freedom of eating food like pizza and wings while feeling no guilt.  I’m sure you have your own cute little struggles and I wish you the best.

Some Final Words

I’ve written some pretty serious posts lately and I just wanted to loosen things up a bit.  Obviously, my commentary above was meant to get a chuckle or two but I hope you were able to take something away from this.  All of us fall somewhere on the line between ectomorph and endomorph and it is important to figure out just where on that line we are in order to determine how best to achieve our goals.  To quote old school Saturday morning cartoons: Knowledge is Power!

I’m always interested in hearing what anyone has to say on any of my posts so feel free to post your thoughts in the comments below.

In February of 2006, I spent three hours in my Doctor’s office undergoing a blood glucose tolerance test.   I had previously been in for a routine visit and my blood sugar level had been over 300 mg/dl.  Just for clarification sake, a normal reading should be between 80 mg/dl and 120 mg/dl (some say 120 is actually a bit high).  So, you can see mine was incredibly high and this meant that, in all likelihood, I had Type 2 Diabetes. 

The blood glucose test was really only a formality to prove what we already knew.  I was a shade over 300 lbs, ate like crap and didn’t exercise.   It was really a no-brainer.  Still, they sent off my blood to the lab…all 8 vials of it.  One drawn from each arm every hour after I drank the closest thing to pure sugar I’d ever had.  It didn’t take long to get the results.  My blood was, as suspected, only a shade away from being a syrup you could put on pancakes.  Ok, sorry for the visual but there was a lot of sugar in my blood.