“I Don’t Lose Weight As Fast As Others”

The Thought Model

When I think, “I don’t lose weight as fast as other people,” my feeling is concerned. I feel like there must be something wrong with me, which also makes me concerned. It turns into a negative thought spiral, all of which creates the same feeling, making our concern get more and more intense. 

When we feel concerned, we analyze everything we’ve ever done, all the times we’ve failed at losing weight. We go on social media and look at all the other “successful” people and compare ourselves. We feel hopeless. As a result, we feel like it’s way too hard to do anything to get us closer to our goals and give up.

Of course it will feel hard if we have self-defeating thoughts. When you feel defeated, you’re not going to keep doing things that you think are hard. You think, “Well, it’s not working anyway, so why should I waste my time?”

The Individual You

The reality is that there can be truth in the comment “I don’t lose weight as fast as other people.” That can be a scientific fact.

You can draw some light conclusions on how you’ll respond to losing weight based on your body type. I’m mostly a mesomorph, which means I put on muscle easily. I know when I move my body, eat toward my hunger scale, and make good, balanced decisions, I’m not necessarily going to lose weight on the scale. But maybe my ectomorph friend who has the same habits would drop weight. Or an endomorph may gain a couple of pounds. There are so many different scenarios here. It’s all about understanding how your body works and what it responds to.

So maybe you do lose weight slower than some. And maybe you lose weight faster than others. But at the end of the day, the actions you’re taking and your lifestyle have more of an impact on your ability to lose weight than the make-up of your body.

Sure, we all have different tolerance to carbohydrates and different insulin and hunger hormone sensitivities. Nonetheless, most of us can work around these things. 

The first thing to do is to stop the comparison. Stop the over-generalization. Ultimately, what does it matter how fast this process of weight loss goes if you’re having fun doing it? What if losing weight was so fun? Would you want it to go fast? Probably not. We’re too concerned with the speed at which we’re achieving our goal. We think if we get there faster, we’ll be happier. So we forget to start off with being happy with who we are as a unique person. 

If we can consider releasing the expectation that we would ever have to compare our bodies to anybody else, what’s the next step? If there’s nobody to compare ourselves to, we may be a little bored. We feel restless when there’s nothing to complain about. But maybe we can put this energy into understanding ourselves - our body type, how foods sit in our body, how we feel when we exercise - a bit more. 

Commitment and Sustainability

The most important question is, “Do you like what you’re doing?” Consistency is always going to be the answer for us to achieve sustainable results. 

What matters more than how quickly you lose (or gain) weight and how that compares to others is where you are right now, if you love where you are right now, what you know about your body type and lifestyle, and what you want. 

Fueling your body well and moving will improve your long-term health. It will allow you to carry your groceries when you’re 80 and prevent common diseases. If you can make a plan based on improving your health and enjoying what you’re doing, you’ll want to keep at it. It’ll become part of your life. You’ll exercise, eat healthy, and be accountable to yourself and others because you want to and you enjoy it.

If you’re thinking there’s nothing that sounds good long term, you’re probably setting too big of an expectation on yourself. If you have the thought, ”I can’t work out every day so it’s not worth it,” you’ll feel defeated and you won’t work out at all. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What if instead, you believe, “Ten minutes is better than nothing?” You’ll feel curious. You’ll experiment with exercising more. It’ll feel good so you’ll do it again the next day and the next. This is how you develop a lifestyle, by focusing on how exercise feels in your body but not setting the expectation too high. 

We want to create confidence and build our relationship with ourselves. It’s all about understanding who we are and pursuing being the best versions of ourselves.

Maybe you don’t even want to lose weight. Maybe the problem isn’t the food, the exercise, or the weight. Maybe there’s something else you haven’t worked through yet. It’s all a discovery process. Maybe you can start noticing your limiting beliefs and see what happens when you don’t believe them. 

If you are trying to lose weight for your health, stay in your own lane. Don’t worry about anyone else around you. This is your time to find out exactly what will work for you and what you love doing. The secret to weight loss maintenance is to do things your way so you can be consistent.

The bottom line is that you are perfect just as you are today. I don’t care if you have a little tummy or if your thighs rub together. I don’t care if you keep the same skinny jeans hoping that one day they’ll fit just a little differently. You’re worthy. All I’m asking you to do is decide what you want. What makes sense for your life? With self-love and compassion, I want you to find the next first step you can take to make your dreams a reality.