Obesity is a Symptom

Have you tried tons of different ways to lose weight and failed? Have you counted calories until you’ve gotten to the point you don’t want to ever see another calorie again? It’s okay to let that go now. Obesity is the symptom of a bigger problem and we need to address that - starting with our food. In the book Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, one of the chapters talks about how obesity occurs. Some of it is way over my head with the scientific/medical jargon used but I've read about this in other books too and by really trying to understand all of this, this is basically what we need to know...

Obesity is a symptom of other issues - it is not caused by overeating. We have been told for decades that people are obese because they eat too much and aren't active enough but there are many scientific studies that show that is simply not true. Just as we don't grow taller by eating more, we don't grow wider by eating more. The way we grow, whether that's our bones, muscle, or fat cells, is determined metabolically and hormonally.

This is why you'll see some people who are always thin no matter what they do and no matter what they eat. Their bodies are metabolically and hormonally able to burn off the excess that they're eating by using it as fuel. People who are carrying extra weight - whether it's a little or a lot - are unable to burn that extra as fuel and instead their bodies store that fuel as fat.

So as I've shared before - it is not your fault. You are not just lazy and eating too much like we've been led to believe. Your body is just not operating like it should in order to have a thin frame.

Honestly, when I first learned this, it was one of the most freeing things I'd experienced and something that lifted this huge burden off of my shoulders. For YEARS I had tried to lose weight. I had cut calories and tried to eat less, I'd worked out daily and done exercise programs trying to burn off as many calories as I could. Yet no matter how hard I tried it didn't work. I didn't lose weight. If I did lose any at all it was very little and it didn't stay off.

Now I know that's because reducing calories isn't the answer. That's not the problem. The problem is a metabolic and hormonal issue that causes my body to store energy as fat rather than use it as fuel.

This is why changing what we eat and not changing how much we eat is what works. When I did that I lost 40 pounds and I haven’t gained it back. We need to eat until we're full. Our bodies have this great mechanism that tells us when we need something and when we've had enough and it's okay to listen to that. We just need to make sure that we are feeding it the proper things. And of course, now we know that carbs, sugar, and highly processed foods are what are causing these issues. So eliminating those and replacing them with healthy foods that will help our bodies work properly is what we need to do.

If you need help with where to start. You can check out my list of foods that are good to eat as well as my list of food you should eliminate when fighting this problem.