Why It's So Hard To Lose Weight

By Catherine Cleveland Feb 21, 2013

As you know that waist lines are getting bigger and bigger in this country every year and now it is happening around the world making obesity a pandemic.

But why is it that we can just cut back on calories and move more? It's calories in/calories out right?

Here is a way to look at why it's so hard to loose weight in todays culture:
environmental - biochemistry - behavior.

Environmental
We live in a mass media culture where the food industries are ruling. We are constantly bombarded with false information on what is considered healthy. As a result we are misinformed about our healthy food choices.
Most of our so called "healthy" foods are genetically modified (not in the chemical form that nature intended) and grown in chemically infused soils and finished off with a coat of pesticides. This creates illnesses, food resistances and allergies that are new and more popular every year.
Our restaurants are profiting on high fat, sodium and sugar which enhances flavor and keeps you wanting and eating more. 
Our grocery stores are filled with chemically produced food like substances that our bodies cannot possibly process on a daily basis and they eventual result is metabolic syndrome including cancers, diabetes, heart disease, behavioral disorders, skin problems and Alzheimer's (to name a few). Most food retailers don't stock healthy alternatives especially in the inner cities and rural areas. And the are few and far between any restaurants that aren't loading everything even there vegetarian choices with fat.
Families that eat unhealthy teach their kids to eat unhealthy so our kids are now suffering from adult age onset nutritional diseases.

Biochemistry
As a result of our environmentally limiting food choices. Our biochemistry changes which can alter our eating behaviors.
This is the insulin - leptin - dopamine effect.
Insulin is a peptide hormone that increases when you blood sugar rises. 
Leptin is a protein hormone that signals the body that it is satiated and it's time to stop eating and move.
Dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter that is responsible for reward-driven learning. It is the good feeling sensations we get from eating yummy unhealthy foods.
When your insulin increases, it shuts off the leptin's ability to say "I'm full, stop eating" and as a result your body thinks that it is starving even after consuming a significant amount of calories. Dopamine also makes you eat more because it gives you that satisfying reward that we seek. Unfortunately, dopamine is what drives addiction because each time we eat (or take drugs) we continually need more to reach the same reward.

Behavior
Because of our unhealthy food choices, it changes our biochemistry which modifies our behavior. The more we eat unhealthy food the more we eat unhealthy food. When we restrict calories (Weight Watchers) but are still eating unhealthy foods it can't last (or make us healthy) because our biochemical reactions kick in and tells us that we are starving so we eventually lose the weight loss battle. 
Addiction to sugar and unhealthy foods can be overcome understanding the consequences are so extreme (obesity pandemic) and expensive (high cost of health care), but not everyone is able to kick the bad eating habit no matter what the consequences are just like not all drug addicts and alcoholics will kick their habits even with help.

This is the cycle that we are getting trapped in and why our waist lines and health issues are growing at an alarming rate.

Understanding how to get off the high fat and sugar and increasing real fiber (not the crap in your processed GMO breakfast cereal) is the place to start to get your health and weight and where it should be. 

For more information contact me at www.nundanutrition.com