The Downside of Weight Loss or 5 Things that Suck about Losing Weight
So, I’ve lost over 40 pounds at this point and I’ve undergone a lot of changes. People like to ask me if I have more energy or if I feel better. Well, yes and no. Here are some of the less desirable effects of my weight loss:
1) I feel fatter now than when I was actually fat.
Back when I was young and svelte, I never noticed my stomach. When I got fat, I tried to ignore it. Now that I’ve lost weight, I can’t seem to stop noticing it. I swear, I feel fatter now than I did when I was 25% heavier. My stomach feels like it is still 40lbs heavier and weighing on me all the time. How can that be? It’s got to be some sort of psychological fixation thing.
2) I’m cold all the damn time.
Honestly, I thought this was a guy versus girl thing. I thought guys were supposed to be hot all the time and women were supposed to come to bed with ice cubes as feet and use our backs to warm them up. Apparently, not so. Since I’ve lost weight, I’ve completely lost my ability to cope with the cold. I’m always grabbing blankets during TV hours, I find that I need to wear sweatshirts all the time, and I’m constantly checking the thermostat to see if the kids adjusted it (not they they could reach it). At this point, I feel like I should put on a dress and call myself Shirley I complain about the cold so much.
3) Don’t kid yourself about the energy thing.
People love to say that they’ve got more energy since they’ve lost weight – what a crock of crap. I can buy that if they are losing weight by working out but honestly, think about it. If you are consuming less calories than you are using, then you are in a state of deficiency. By definition you don’t have enough fuel to run the engine of your body so it is forced to consume the reserves you’ve built up (aka – fat). How does that translate into “having more energy?”
More likely, it is a combination of two things. First, you’re carrying around less weight. When moving around, it’s a bit easier to go longer without getting winded. The most obvious example is stairs. Second, and in my opinion more significantly, people think they should have more energy. That’s all they hear from the people on TV or the personal trainers… “Lose weight and you’ll have all this energy!” It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Well, I don’t buy it. At least not for me. I’ve lost nearly the weight of my oldest son (who I wouldn’t want to carry around for an hour much less all the time) and I’m sleeping better and falling asleep more quickly than ever before. I want to take as many naps, I don’t have any extra spring in my step, and overall, I feel about the same. Just smaller.
4) Keeping it off sucks
They say (by “they” I mean Tanel) that you haven’t actually lost the weight until you kept it off for a year. I can totally buy that. Losing it wasn’t that bad but keeping it off is the pits. When I’m at parties or just out, I’m always doing the caloric math in my head. Invariably, at some point I’ll lose track and then just wander around willy-nilly wondering if I’ve eaten myself back into my 36″ waist jeans. Maybe I’ll get to the point where I’ll just be able to “know” when I’ve had enough but so far I’m not there yet. Right now I’m at the “Oh my GOD! Are those Cool Ranch Doritos?!?!?!?!?!?” stage. Chips. My kryptonite.
5) No one notices
I’ve lost over 40 pounds. I was at my heaviest 205 so that is nearly a quarter of me. Thats a lot. That’s like losing a leg and part of an arm. People should notice that.
They don’t.
Now it doesn’t help that I’ve grown my hair out at the same time so I think they can’t figure out if it is just the hair or if it is more. But damn, people, 40lbs! If growing your locks out a few inches could distract from 40lbs we’d all look like ZZ Top and I’d have a feed bag full of Cool Ranch Doritos strapped to my face.
I’ve run into a few people that have noticed and remarked that I shouldn’t lose any more weight. Excuse me? Is that your idea of encouragement? I’ve got two reasons why I know such people are wrong. First, there isn’t a chart/website/doctor in the world that will tell you that I’ve hit the ideal weight for my size and build. I just haven’t. I may be at the upper end of some of the ranges but that’s about it. I’m about 10-15lbs away from the middle/lower end of the ideal weight range. But second, and more importantly, I know from personal experience my ideal weight. Now I’m not talking about from my high school/college days or anything. I’m talking recently.
Right before we got married, Tanel and I traveled the world. I spent 3.5 months in foreign countries, mostly without a car, getting food poisoning and walking everywhere. I got hours of exercise a day and ate whatever I wanted. By the end, I was fit, trim, and about 150 pounds. That, friends, is my ideal weight. So whatever you are trying to say when you say I don’t need to lose any more, what I’m hearing is “Don’t get anorexic on us.” Um, did you forget I was once fat? Did you think that I just stopped liking food? Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. I love food. Hell, I cook all the food in this house (well, most). I’m one bad bacon binge from gaining all that weight back. So don’t worry, I won’t be wasting away any time soon.
Now, I’m off to see if I can find a bag of Doritos anywhere in this house. Or bacon. Or bacon wrapped Doritios. Or pretty much anything fried, crispy, or has pork fat incorporated into it.
By request – here is a before and after shot.
Before After
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Where are the before and after pictures?