The medical explanations fallacy

Do you, too, regularly read the newest findings on obesity?
I do, and there are things in there that sound like the perfect solace for our little wounded souls. Things like scientists having found out that different people have different metabolisms, or, that there may be hormonal differences that explain why some people get fat while others don´t. Or the so-called fidget factor. Or so-called obesity genes that get turned on or off by some mysterious agency.
There are more explanations out there than I care to count.
And they are dangerous.
The danger is that every explanation may be used as an excuse. I´m fat because ... and I can´t help it.
So, you settle down for a long conversation with a gallon of Ben and Jerry´s because ...you can´t help it anyway and denying yourself would not change a thing.
Or would it?
There is one thing that is conspicuously absent from those medical excuse stories.
It is the fact, that, while we all may be medically different as to our metabolisms, nobody, repeat nobody, can generate fat from thin air.

Only by putting in 3500 extra  calories can you grow a pound of fat.
The one place where the differences in metabolism or whatever matter is the amount of calories one may ingest before the body decides they are extra calories and should be put into storage as fat.
Even if you have a completely messed-up metabolism, if you never eat beyond that point you cannot get fatter.
And if you eat less than that, you will lose. Maybe less than what you hoped for, but in the long run you will lose.
So, what it boils down to is the "p" word.
In a society that is hooked on instant gratification not a very popular word. Perseverance.
Find a plan that works for you and stick with it.
Even if your weight, which includes everything that you have inside your body, seems stuck for ages. Even if after a salty meal you find yourself three pounds heavier the next morning. If you didn´t eat 10000 calories the day before, that´s likely part water and will come off again.

But if you say "this is hopeless" and continue to overeat, that´s when you make certain you won´t lose, but keep on gaining.
And the step from " I am different in this or that way, that´s why my body gains fat faster than somebody else´s" to "I might as well give up completely" is often a too-small one.
Don´t take it.


Julia