Why Lasting Weight Loss Is So Hard

Losing weight is hard work, but keeping the weight off is even harder.

Take Claudia Hallblom of the Los Angeles area. By her own estimation, she has lost and regained about 1,000 pounds in her 39 years.

While many of us may not go up and down by 1,000 pounds, the gain/loss cycle one that is all-too-common.

But why?

Like many of us, Claudia's success at weight loss was generally motivated by a specific goal - a wedding, a graduation or other event.

To lose the weight, Claudia would get focused and go on a strict diet - counting calories and closely watching what she ate. Her dieting usually met with success, but after reaching her goal and passing the event, the weight would just come back on.

According to Claudia. "I didn't know how to lose weight and keep it off."

TWO REASONS WHY WEIGHT LOSS REBOUND OCCURS

In this article, we will fill you in on the two best tools to help keep the weight off, but first, let's have a look at why this is so hard.

When you lose weight, two changes take place that work against your new, thinner self. First, your lighter body needs fewer calories to maintain itself. Second, your cravings for food become more intense.

Research shows that when you lose weight, you need about eight fewer calories per day for each pound of weight that was lost. That means someone who loses 40 pounds will require about 320 calories fewer each day than they did before the weight loss.

A change like that is significant and requires a corresponding permanent change in what you eat. Not just while you are losing the weight, but for the rest of your life.

Also working against you after losing weight is your appetite. Weight loss brings about a change in hormones that leave you feeling hungrier.

Studies also show that, after a weight loss, levels of the appetite-regulating hormone leptin are lower than what they used to be. Similarly, the levels of ghrelin, another hormone which stimulates food intake, rise after weight loss.

Keeping the weight off is therefore a battle of the mind against your hormones and metabolism - both of which want to put the weight back on.

According to Paul MacLean, associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, Denver, "The big problem is keeping it off. The recent estimates are that only 5% to 10% of people are successful at keeping weight off on a long-term basis."

Dr. Ken Fujioka, director of nutrition and metabolic research at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego adds: "You lose 10% of your body weight. All of a sudden all these systems kick in to try to keep you from losing weight. People are mad at themselves or depressed after they regain the weight. But I explain: It's not you. Biology has kicked in now.... You are hungry all the time. You think about food all the time."

Discouraging, to say the least!

TWO WAYS TO BEAT THE 95% FAILURE RATE

However, the good news is that there are two tools which can help you overcome the problem of weight re-gain.

First - and no surprise to most of you - is exercise. Exercise buffers the body against regaining weight, in ways that researchers of the physical body are just starting to comprehend. "Everyone thinks exercise is about burning calories," Dr. Fujioka says. "But you are actually returning the system to more like what it should be."

Second - and a much easier way - is the re-training of old habits through therapies developed by decades of research of the mind and its influence on the physical body. Leading research psychologist Dr. Patrick Porter says "The most powerful force within our bodies resides in our minds. This has been the source of all great achievement throughout mankind and is the single most effective tool to support lasting weight loss."

So, the next time you work on losing your way up to 1,000 pounds, remember that it doesn't have to be so.

JOIN THE WINNER'S CIRCLE!

In fact, you may want to set your goal to join the National Weight Control Registry - an honor roll of those who lose 30+ pounds and keep it off for at least one year.

The doctors at WeightWorks have helped many people overcome their prior weight loss failures to get back to their naturally-thin selves. For a limited time, they are offering free consultations to help you as well. To hear how the doctors at WeightWorks can help you, fill out this no-obligation application online and take the first step to your weight loss success! Read additional detail about the WeightWorks weight loss program here.

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Is Lack of Sleep Behind Your Weight Gain?

If you've ever tossed and turned at night because you can't sleep, you might end up being more than just tired in the morning.

A recent report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition provides evidence that a lack of sleep can promote weight gain.

Apparently, there are two factors that tie lack of sleep to increased weight - increased hunger and a slower metabolism.

When we don't sleep right or sleep enough, our bodies spend more time in an "awake" state, meaning that we don't really relax or shut down for the night like we should. In this state, the hormone balance in our bodies leaves us feeling more hungry during the day after.

On the other hand, we also feel more sluggish when we do finally rise out of bed, reflecting less energy and a lower metabolism rate. This means that we will be less effective in burning calories in the day ahead.

Increased hunger and lower metabolism are bad news for anyone trying to lose weight. In fact, for losing weight we want just the opposite - less hunger and a higher metabolism!

The latest study, led by Christian Benedict of Uppsala University in Sweden, put the study subjects through a series of sleep "conditions" -- curtailed sleep, no sleep, and normal sleep. During the study, food intake was tracked while changes in blood sugars, hormone levels and other indicators of their metabolic rate were recorded.

What they found was astonishing. Even a single night of missed sleep slowed metabolism in the next day, reducing energy expenditure for basic tasks like breathing and digestion by up to 20 percent, compared with the morning after a good night's sleep.

Exactly how a lack of sleep affects our ability to lose weight has a lot to do with our nightly hormones.

The key hormones is ghrelin. With a lack of sleep, our bodies end up with more ghrelin, the hunger-stimulating hormone that tells you when to eat.

Couple the increased ghrelin and a reduced metabolism, we eat more with a slower metabolism - a great setup for weight gain and bad news for those wanting to lose weight.

Unfortunately, in this country, not getting enough sleep is almost a badge of honor - we even boast about pulling an all-nighter, or working late.

Oftentimes, our lack of sleep may be due to higher levels of stress (the all-time #2 weight loss killer - see prior article), but in all cases, getting less than 7-9 hours of sleep is not helping us live vibrant and healthy lives - at the normal weight we should easily be able to maintain.

Maintaining our weight without enough sleep is hard work. On those days, we're likely to skip breakfast, grab an extra coffee (with an extra donut?) at work, skip the gym and generally follow the leadings by the "hormone upset" in our bodies - all things that help us gain weight.

The good news is this - you are likely to lose weight if you shift from a 5-hour-per-night sleep pattern to one of 7 or 8 hours per night.

Getting enough sleep is not a weight loss solution - but not getting enough sleep is often a first step to unnecessary weight gain.

The doctors at WeightWorks have helped many people overcome their prior weight loss failures to get back to their naturally-thin selves. For a limited time, they are offering free consultations to help you as well. To hear how the doctors at WeightWorks can help you, fill out this no-obligation application online and take the first step to your weight loss success! Read additional detail about the WeightWorks weight loss program here.

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The Doctor's Top 7 Insights Why You May Be Overweight

Based on our years of dealing with weight loss patients, we have compiled a list of our top 7 insights as to why people actually are overweight.

Here's my list - eliminate any one of these from your life and watch the pounds start to fall away...

#7 - We Don't Read Labels

"Low-fat" is not enough. Many low-fat foods are high in sugars and additives which affect the insulin balance and digestive effectiveness.

Better than low-fat are foods with lower sugar content and natural ingredients. Even healthy fats are better than much of what is in the "low-fat" diet food.

#6 - We Eat Out Too Often

Let's face it - eating out is fast & easy, and not that expensive either.

But eating out generally involves less healthy food than if we prepared something at home. Pizza, burgers & fried foods may come from different restaurants but are common enemies when it comes to weight gain.

Many of us claim not to have the time or skills to cook at home, but there are many websites out there that can make it easy for any beginner to succeed.

#5 - Over-sized Portions

Whether we're at a restaurant, grandma's house or just at home, it's super-easy to eat more than we need.

We start with large portions and then even treat ourselves to second helpings and eat much more than we need.

The trick to get past this one is to start with a smaller portion and then avoid second helpings, or include only a small dessert.

#4 - Too Much Sugar

As Americans, we consume more sugary soda drinks than any other country in the world.

A super-size fountain drink tastes so good going down, but it brings in as many calories as an entire meal! Not only that, but sugars are easier to store as fat than protein or other foods.

Try drinking diet soda to avoid the extra sugars, or even better, switch to non-fizzy drinks - unsweetened green tea and water are especially good for weight management!

#3 - Not Enough Sleep

Most of us get 5-6 hours of sleep per night. We may stay up late with the TV or get up early for work, but in either case, we're getting less than the 7-8 hours our bodies need.

When we sleep too little, our bodies don't have the chance to recover and set our hormones back in balance.

Too little sleep leaves us more lethargic with a slower metabolism, plus the out-of-balance hormones leave us hungrier too.

#2 - Too Much Stress

This is the only one of my 7 insights that was also included on the list of reasons (excuses) for excess weight given by those we have met.

As it turns out, excess stress is actually worse than eating chocolate when it comes to weight gain.

Excess stress messes with our hormones (just like too little sleep), but it also exaggerates our eating and inability to correctly process those foods. Bad news, indeed.

#1 - Bad Habits

Even worse than all the insights provided so far, is Weight Gain Enemy #1 - - our own bad habits.

While our good habits promote good health (like brushing our teeth), our bad habits promote and accelerate our weight gain.

Eating ice cream and cake or having a few drinks may feel good at the time of stress, but are killers when it comes to weight management.

Changing out our bad habits is the single most effective way to lose those extra pounds - - and lose them for life!

Although the words may be hard, the message of this article is simple - - eliminate the impact of one or more of these insights from your life and watch your weight drop.

Just pick one and do it.

The doctors at WeightWorks have helped many people overcome their prior weight loss failures to get back to their naturally-thin selves. For a limited time, they are offering $75 off a personal weight loss consultation to help you as well. To hear how the doctors at WeightWorks can help you, fill out this no-obligation application online using discount code "EZINE75" and take the first step to your weight loss success! Read additional detail about the WeightWorks weight loss program here.

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