Since I'm on a weight loss kick at the moment, I thought I'd post a few thoughts on the subject. I'm a little hesitant to do it, ultimately it's not something that really matters and in the game of weight loss, women often feel very beaten (when the playing field was never level to begin with...) But anyway, here are a few ideas.
1. Weight loss and stress
Most women fall into one of two categories: stress eaters and stress non-eaters. Me, I'm a stress eater. Put me under a bit of pressure and that block of chocolate, tub of ice-cream, or loaf of bread looks irresistible. My stress non-eater friends assure me that their plight is pretty bad, but I wouldn't mind it occasionally (They tell me that they get anxious and can't eat and later because their stomachs are so empty the thought of food makes them nauseous, so they continue not eating, and just feel sicker and sicker...) Unsurprisingly, stress non-eaters tend towards being underweight, and stress eaters tend towards being overweight. It's not rocket science.
But what this means is that it's very difficult to lose weight if you are stressed. A friend of mine has put on considerable weight in the last few years. She has a very high maintenance family (no, worse than you are thinking) as well as other significant pressures. To label her as greedy or undisciplined because of her current waist circumference would be unfair.
So, unless you're a stress non-eater, you'll lose weight best when you feel some degree of calm and contentment about yourself and life. This will be a considerable hurdle for many of us. (An aside: ever notice how being told that you're chubby doesn't make it easier to lose weight? It causes stress and makes that mud cake all the more appealing!)
2. Weight loss and metabolism
I read up on this last night and am pretty taken with it. Hope it's useful to you.
Our resting metabolism (which is the amount of energy we use when we're doing nothing) is dependent on the amount of lean muscle we have in our bodies. The more muscular we are, the more energy we use, simply because it burns a lot of kilojoules just to maintain muscles. So if you have a slow metabolism (if you put on weight easily), you could increase it by getting a bit more muscular. If you want to lose weight, the most efficient exercise to do is weight training. If you walk you'll burn kilojoules while you're out walking, but if you do weights, you'll burn the energy while you're working out and your metabolism will increase and you'll continue to burn the kilojoules during the day.
Now here's what was new to me. When we lose weight, we lose it from fat AND muscle. If we only diet and don't exercise, we will lose weight at first but pretty soon our weight loss will decrease because our metabolism has slowed because our overall amount of muscle has decreased. So if you diet for a couple of weeks without doing any exercise you could end up with less muscle and a slower metabolism - resulting in weight gain reasonably soon. Interesting, huh?
3. Weight loss and the future
It's not a competition. The person who dies the thinnest doesn't win. (In a hundred years time none of our bodies will have much flesh on them.) The person who averages the lowest BMI over their lifetime doesn't win either. Actually, how much we weigh is something of an irrelevancy in the eternal scheme of things. Most women worry about their weight far too much. And because of point #1, such worry is counterproductive. We need to be more concerned about loving Jesus and serving our neighbours and families than we are about our dress size.
If you're interested in a much more thorough look at dieting - check out these posts on Jean's blog.
Love your third point - that's something that should be etched into our brains from a very early age!
ReplyDeleteI read at Project Weight Loss about stress-free menus, like salmon-vegetable bake: The ingredients include two cups of sliced carrots, half a cup of sliced green onion, ¼ teaspoon of salt, black pepper, two medium sliced oranges, two cups of sliced mushrooms, one pound of fresh skinless salmon, flounder fillets, or code. Frozen fish is also accepted. Two teaspoons of finely shredded orange peel, four gloves of halved garlic, and four teaspoons of olive oil are also required. If you want, you may add four springs of fresh oregano.
ReplyDeleteummm. 'Dorothy'
ReplyDeleteI take it you're not a regular reader...
Hi Simone,
ReplyDeleteI read your post, then went out in my lunch break and bought two handweights for Target!
I go to a dance class and we do 15 minutes of strength-building exercises every session. Lots of people use weights, but I never did because I thought, "I'm here to do cardio and excercise, not gain muscles!" How wrong I was.
Anyway, I found this post realistic and helpful. Thanks. I gained 4 kgs when I got married, and don't think it's vain of me to want to shed the extra kilos to be fitter and fit into my old clothes, but soemtimes the christian attitude can be, "you shouldn't worry about your weight".
But at the same time, it's good to be reminded that it's not everything in the scheme of things - they say women gain weight when they marry because they're happier, and how can that be a bad thing?
Also found your paragraph on stress eating fascinating.
Soph.
ReplyDeleteGlad you found it helpful. I really think it's fascinating how our bodies work!
Alot of women worry that if they do weights they'll look like body builders. It won't happen. The kind of weights you do in classes is lower weights, lots of reps. To look bulky you need to do huge weights, minimal reps. I'd give a body-pump class a go if you have one at your gym. But your dance class sounds good.
I think christian women have a fine line to walk with the weight thing. I don't think we should worry about it - have it haunt us - because it's not that important. But if we can see that we're getting into bad habits that long term will leave us less healthy and looking worse, why not do something about it if we can?
But I so love chocolate slice... If only I was the kind of person who'd be content with one piece!
I look at this issue from the other side: I'm trying to gain weight. I have to be careful to eat enough to cover what my (naturally fast) metabolism uses — and of course, as you say, the more muscle I put on, the harder it is to eat enough just to maintain it, let alone gain more.
ReplyDeleteOne other comment to add to your bit about dieting. If you diet for a short time (e.g. two weeks), your body actually treats it as a temporary deficiency, and tries to catch up the next time you do eat well. That is to say, dieting hard and fast can actually cause you to gain weight afterwards!