It's no secret by now that two in three adults weigh too much.
The question is, why?
As it turns out, there isn't one simple answer. We know that genes are part of the picture, but our genes haven't changed much in the past few generations.
What has changed dramatically is the world we live in.
Today, we're often too pressed for time or too tired to prepare meals at home from scratch. When we dine out or order takeout instead, portions are huge. We're also become a snacking society, and we frequently choose unhealthy snacks and eat them mindlessly. Add in fewer opportunities to be physically active in the normal course of the day, soaring stress levels, and reduced amounts of sleep- all of which can lead to comfort eating, and you have a recipe for weight gain.
Once you put on extra pounds, your body wants to maintain that new weight, making it hard to reverse course. That's why it's time to stop blaming yourself and put that mental energy into taking action instead. Weight loss depends less on will power than "skill power."
Overweight and obesity are complex conditions with many different causes and
treatment options. There is no one size fits all strategy. If simply wanting to lose weight was enough, we'd all be thin.
Maybe the approaches you tried in the past just weren't right for you. Maybe you weren't quite ready to change or confident that you could change.
But now's the time to make a fresh start.
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