How to not lose weight.

As someone with a weight problem, I had resolved to try and lose some weight this year. However, that hasn’t gone so well. The goal had been to lose 50 lbs. for the whole year. That goal wasn’t met in the slightest. What happened?

My diet was constantly changing, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Many points in the year I only looked at the caloric intake of the food I was eating. This had worked before, however, this time it didn’t. As the year went on, I have focused on adding higher fiber and more nutritious food items. I have tried to eliminate processed foods. While this hasn’t helped my weight loss yet, I do feel healthier. 

The exercise routine that I was on was far from being anything that could be called a routine. In fact, it was a disaster. This is mainly due to an increased workload from college. Some days would see me doing heavy exercise, while other days I wouldn’t have the time to do any at all. 

Ultimately, the biggest bump in the road for me was stress. Family and school provided a constant stream of stressors for me. One thing after the other, I was stressed out from the beginning to the end of the year. While some people might find it to be silly to blame weight trouble on stress, it is true that when under both mental and physical stress, your body releases hormones that will lead to weight loss problems. 

In positive terms though, I learned. I learned a lot about nutrition and the effects of individual food items on your body. Just because processed food fits into your calorie limits, doesn’t mean that you’re going to lose any weight. Another thing is that I have discovered new exercises, and ways to better integrate exercise into my daily routine. With all of the failures of the year in terms of weight loss, I managed to turn it into a learning experience.  Weight loss is not all that easy, depending on various factors in your life. What you have to do is find out what is wrong, why it is wrong, and how can you fix it (or at the least create a work around). This isn’t easy. For example, while the internet is a great research tool, you have to be sure to avoid weight loss myths and scams. 

In all, I lost no weight. I did, however, gain some knowledge.