Why Women Lose Weight—or Don’t

God warrior you have it right! life is about living and being a good person, not how cut you maybe and how it affects your thinking. To those who think otherwise go visit an old folks home or hospital!

Mery Christmass to all and good day!

I know everyone says "It's not whats on the outside that counts, it's what on the inside". Although I agree that just because your fat/obese doesn't mean you're a mean, horrible, heartless person, I do think that what's on the outside is a direct reflection of who you are on the inside. For example, when you see a fit/healthy woman or man walking down the street that you've never met, you already know so much about them without even talking to them.... You know they're strong individuals with self control, determintation, will power and a decent self esteem. They're in control of themselves. On the other hand, you see a fat person, to me it screams lack of self control, maybe addiction, low self esteem, little will power, and possibly a physiological problem such as thyroid issues. I think, for the most part though,not saying it doesn't exist, the phrase "It's in my genes" is just a lame excuse to eat what ever you want and not get proper nutrition and exercise. I know, every woman in my family is obese except me and they all use that excuse!To each fat person out there, "You're not a victim of your life. There's so much you really do have control of. If what you're doing isn't working try something else....Educate yourselves! See a doctor, a nutritionist, a psychologist, whatever it takes to get healthy! Take small baby steps. Don't change everything all at once". The question is not "Will it work"? It's "Do you have the will power to make it work"?

Jester, on the one hand, you recognize all the things that are holding you back from getting in better shape (most of which, btw, are pretty lame - you hate veggies, you want to believe you have to spend a fortune eating better food and exercising - nope, sorry) you then ask for some empathy from someone who's been there. Well, how's this - I weighed 180 lbs after having been on Prednisone for a year. When I had finished tapering off it, I made a checklist of things to do/eat every day. Three servings of fresh fruit (which is cheap if you buy what's in season): Check. Go outside and walk for a half hour: Check. Eat two to three pieces of real, whole grain bread - one with each meal: Check. Get on the floor on a rug and do ten to fifteen crunches (which increased gradually over months): Check. Little by little, without my really having to turn my life upside down, I rediscovered how good it feels to feel good. I'm 5'6" and weight 118 lbs now. I'm not rail thin but I know that if I decide to have a rich dessert, I'll need to plan on walking a little longer. I don't consider my eating habits anything other than "normal;" but I do understand that self-discipline begins with setting a standard for myself and being willing to go the distance to achieve it. And that feels really good.

quit being slothful!!!!!!!!!eat less of whatever you like!!!be happy!!!!!!!

To all the people making excuses for themselves on how they don't have the time lose weight, and they can't spend even 10 minutes to exercise, really need to take a look in the mirror. You are lying to yourself. I know this from experience. At my heaviest weight, I needed to lose 100 pounds to be a "normal" size. Now that is disgusting. I hated what I looked like when I looked into the mirror. I hated what I thought other people saw when they looked at me, but I just "didn't have the time." But when one day, out of the blue, I was having trouble breathing, and my leg was swelling to twice the size of my other one, I knew something was wrong. I went to the hospital, and it turns out that I had a severe blood clot in my leg, and some of it broke off and went to my lungs. I almost died that day. And did I mention that I was only 19 years old? Yeah, that showed me that I needed to lose weight and that I could not put it off any longer. so I joined Weight Watchers, and it is working. I have only just begun, but I know what I need to do,, and I am going to do it. So take my advice and stop waiting for that near death experience to get healthy. Your life really does depend on your health.

quit being slothful beings

\Unfortuneately we are focosed on being skinny. Skinnies/Scrawnies are in vogue. They dont understand the rush I had sacking a quarterback as a D! lineman. We need to focus on quality of the person, who they are, what they think like, They think living to 102 is what it is all about. I would much rather enjoy a steak once a week or a bottle of wine with a nice lady than live to 99 and wheel down the nursing home in my wheel chair looking at other incontinence! Its about QUALITY OF LIFE BABY. Yes i want and need to lose, but too many are focused on size. a size 2 may be fat for some and a xxx maynot be for a large man. Its about muscle mass, what you do with it, and how you handle it, but if your obsessize and let it ruin your head then its just as much a SNOBBISH problem as it is a size problem!

There is something equally unhealthy about being obsessed with weight to the point of being malnourished and having a panic attack over every pound, and not caring at all about what you eat to the point of putting your health at risk. MODERATION is the key. You can enjoy exercise (any enjoyable activity that gets you moving, not necessarily in a gym), sweet/salty/whatever foods in moderate amounts, etc. without being obsessed about any of it. Life is meant to be enjoyed; just be smart about it.

~from an athletic size 10 female who is happy to keep everything balanced!

There is something equally unhealthy about being obsessed with weight to the point of being malnourished and having a panic attack over every pound, and not caring at all about what you eat to the point of putting your health at risk. MODERATION is the key. You can enjoy exercise (any enjoyable activity that gets you moving, not necessarily in a gym), sweet/salty/whatever foods in moderate amounts, etc. without being obsessed about any of it. Life is meant to be enjoyed; just be smart about it.

~from an athletic size 10 female who is happy to keep everything balanced!

Gee, happyhappy - don't hold back - tell us what you really think. I hope you realize that when your comments get that foul, you basically negate any amount of regard people might have for your opinion.

When I was young I really hated my body. It was not just like the models' bodies in the magazines. Plus my mother got after me a lot about my weight. She was a former runway model herself, very fashion conscious, very chic. Looking back at photos taken at the time, I was never very fat as a youngster, but going into my 20's I put on a lot of weight, mostly out of self loathing, overeating, lack of exercise. I reached 185 in my senior year of college. By then I had stopped visiting my mom except on rare occasions because she was always so mean. It took me a lot of time to get my groove back so to speak. Today I am 55 years old, weigh 142, and have a BMI of 21. I take much better care of myself and love myself a lot more than when I was young. My life has never been better.

I fully agree with jenart. If you are heavy you cannot keep excusing yourself and putting it off to another day.being okay with mediocrity and fat is not a good way to live your life! if you are okay with the fat and you accept yourself then you will never change. This article is full of bologna! They mention how if you are dissatisfied with yourself you are more likely to sink into a sedentary state and gain more weight but that is not fully true. Sometimes self loathing is the only way you can force yourself to change. Take it from me, last year I was testing for my black belt and i realized that because of my weight I was not only hurting myself but i was also pulling people down around me. For my test i had to run 40 miles, something that seemed impossible, but because of the disgust i felt for myself I forced myself to start running. I now have been running for about a year and i have lost 45 pounds but am still working on it, i have 35 left before i am a a good healthy weight. I know the despair that comes along with the weight and i know how hopeless it may seem at times but the more you realize how bad you really are the more motivated you can become to change yourself. The only difference between me and you is that i got sick to death of how gross i looked so i changed, and you are okay with your life threatening disgusting fat rolls. Quit with the pity and get over it and do something to change yourself! So for all of you people out there feeling sorry for yourself i have no pity, if you feel so bad about yourself go and change yourself! So go and look at yourself in a mirror and fill yourself up with disgust and then go for a brisk walk and even try to run for like 30 seconds and build up from there.