Thoughts on Dieting
A good friend of mine were having a discussion yesterday about dieting. Another one of our co-workers is wanting to shed a few pounds and was making some good progress until he got injured. I think that sort of sent him into a downward kind of funk, and he started regaining all the weight that he lost. But it got us talking about food and debating how food affects different people in different ways.
My friend was making the argument that certain people really struggle with watching what they eat more than others do. And even now, I’m not sure I can fully comprehend or understand what that means? I’ve certainly heard and read that some people are “emotional” eaters and how their food intake is directly affected by their mood. Sure, I can fully relate to the fact that eating makes me feel good. And sure, I certainly can get very cranky and such when I’m hungry. But is that to say that there was someone else out there that feels hunger more than I do? Perhaps physically, or maybe emotionally? Or is it strictly a difference of will power and dedication of the individual? And that we’re all equal, but that some just find it easier to cave in or give up than others?
I hear folks all the time say, “You’re so lucky that you can lose weight so easily.” Or, “I wish I could watch my diet like you do.” Both statements very much rub me the wrong way. They seem to discard my daily struggle with food and dealing with hunger and completely throw it out the window. If I’m motivated, I can watch my diet and lose weight, but it’s anything but easy. I’m eleven days into my diet. That’s eleven days of 1,500 calories a day plus doing an hour of working out. There hasn’t been anything enjoyable about dieting itself. It sucks and I hate doing it. The only joy that I can hope to get is stepping on the scale from week to week and hopefully seeing decreasing numbers as the weeks go by. Or perhaps the feeling of being able to move down a notch on my belt, or fit into some “skinny pants”. I’ve said many times before that dieting, for me, is the hardest thing that I have to commit to doing as part of my training. Swimming, biking, and running are all temporary workouts throughout the week. Counting calories and teetering on the edge of being hungry vs. satiated is with me all the time, from when I wake up to when I sleep, and even occasionally in the middle of the night when my body needs a snack.
But I digress. I’m wondering if there really is a difference in each individual’s ability to diet? I know that people have different metabolic rates and certainly there are people that have the capacity to train at higher volumes – I get that. But at a mental and emotional level, is dieting any easier or harder from one person to the next? Or is having the will power to diet and forbidding yourself of certain foods no different than having the dedication to go and work out even when you don’t want to? It makes me wonder.