If or metabolism clings on to pounds for dear life, it means 1 hour of exercise (no matter how intense) isn’t enough. I learned that from taking boot camp classes at 6am. I didn’t loose weight, but I became crazy strong and full of energy. By jump starting a day with a trainer (I weight train in private, but NO ONE, especially the overweight know how far to push themselves without years of practice) I have the energy for the rest of the day to eat small smart portions. To think of food as fuel, not as a reward, or an addiction. And then after work, I have hd energy to go for a run and to yoga.

I work with kids, so I make every single moment of our day active, good for them, good for me. So if you work a desk job and come home to kids, make the kids time as active as yours. Good for you, good for them. In short, if you’re too tired at the end of the day to work out, you’re not eating as smart as you say, or aren’t exercising enough.

Being clean, healthy and very active will always drop weight. You just have to be honest about how hard you’re actually working, and most people aren’t.

(And for the record, I DEFINITELY don’t have healthy practices, and in fact guess that genes are the only reason I’m not heavier. Of course I’m working to change that – that’s why I’m here! – but this is just the disclaimer saying I’m not talking about me. )

Working in healthcare I see thin to normal weight people all the time who are absolutely shocked to find they have major life threatening diseases that are nearly always associated with being overweight. Yes, thin/normal weight people can have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardio/vascular disease, metabolic syndrome which is basically pre-diabetes, and type 2 diabetes and even gall badder disease. A person can also be morbidly obese and not have any such diseases and generally be in good health.

The point is a person’s size is not the best indicator for health. The danger is thin/normal weight persons in this society like the woman in the video can be very easily deceived into believing that just because their weight is normal they are healthy. Such deceptions can cost a person their life.

On the other hand a person who is overweight must be demanding of the healthcare system when they do have health issues because people working in healthcare like everybody else in this society have been conditioned to believe that everything is related to their weight and not take them seriously, which again can cost a person their life.

A friend who is also a medical doctor almost died because at 4’10″ and weighing maybe 100 lbs she is absolutely tiny. She had very severe gall bladder disease which is considered a “fat persons” disease. She suffered greatly and had many complications following her surgery because of the state of her health, not her size. It was her assumption as well as that of other physicians that she her size meant she was generally healthy which she wasn’t and that she was too thin to have this disease.

Another friend also in the healthcare profession spent years trying to get a correct diagnosis and treatment for a life threating disease hypoparathyroidism w/tumors and hypothyroidism but was not taken seriously because at around 215 lbs she is morbidly obese. Every doctor assumed that if she just lost weight all her other symptoms would resolve. By the time she got a correct diagnosis she had suffered tremendously. She recovered well from surgery with zero complication because despite being fat she had a good diet and exercised regularly and was generally in good health.

The point is size should never be the measure for the state of a persons health regardless of if the person is thin or fat. There are too many other factors and too much at stake to make assumptions.

I believe we should all be healthy, but when things like this are said, then it’s really about aesthetics. The problem with the aesthetic focus is that it gives others the ability to presume to set priorities for you. If a fat person with a clean bill of health chooses not to go the extra mile and lose weight, it’s really up to her and not anyone else.

But short of going to extreme lengths (and yes, I do think exercising more than 60-90min every day on top of having little kids and a FT job is extreme), sometimes those last 30lbs just aren’t going to come off. I think what you call a hormonal imbalance/issue can also simply be a natural hormonal shift due to aging, which I would argue is closer to the rule, not the exception.

Just ask my 45yr old fat runner friend. This woman runs about 10mi/day. She’s 100% vegan, mostly raw. And she is fat. Chunky, thick, solid, fat. To see her in shorts you can tell she’s solid, but she’s got some serious padding and it’s not all muscle. Metabolic anomaly? I guess…but maybe her body’s healthy place is truly a slightly soft but truly fit 170lbs. *shrug*

I’ve already written about aging here, but if a 40yr old woman is still holding onto 30-40lbs, its because she is creating an environment that allows for that 30-40lbs to be maintain. 1400 calories and active EVERY day? 30-40lbs? I’m sorry, I’d require more details regarding “1400 calories from fresh whole foods” because “fresh whole foods” can be abused just like processed foods. Add to that the fact that most people more often than not underreport their caloric intake? No, I’m sorry… there’s not enough detail for me to change my stance on that. I can understand the struggle, but 30-40 is a little much to be claiming to do everything right.

If a woman is still having trouble losing weight after “doing everything right,” then outside of a hormonal imbalance (which, at 40, if you’re enduring a hormonal issue – as, unfortunately, a lot of us do – you should feel like an exception to what I’m saying here, anyway) it means you simply need to change your environment/intake/activity.

I don’t want you to think I’m chiding you or chastizing you, but since you offered your situation up as a reason for me to not think the way I do, I did take a look at it honestly. I hope you don’t feel offended, because I know that kind of scrutiny can put people off.

The weight doesn’t fall off as easily as we women get older. Sure, if a person is making a lifestyle change and suddenly becoming a better eater, starting to work out, etc., yes, those lifestyle corrections will bring positive changes. But if someone is already a healthy eater, already getting adequate vigorous exercise, already doing everything right, she could be very healthy by all metrics and still be overweight.

I think you’re touching on a bigger issue within mixed signals, here. Additional weight isn’t usually the problem, it’s a visible symptom of the larger problem… which IS an unhealthy lifestyle. You’re generally told to “lose weight” because there’s a market for thing to HELP you lose weight. The woman in the video didn’t need to lose weight, and she was all jacked up on the insides – hence the problem with the focus being on LOSING WEIGHT and not being HEALTHY.

Combine that with the fact that the image of the “tiny woman” is constantly being put in our faces, and the message quickly becomes “lose weight, be healthy.” It then mutates into “lose weight to be healthy.” All wrong. You feel me?

If you are completely healthy and living a healthy and active lifestyle, you couldn’t possibly keep on the excess weight. It’s not physically possible. Because of that, I question the definition of “healthy” we are using here. I don’t know you or your stats to pass judgment, so I hope you don’t think that’s what I’m doing. But this is why I always say the focus should be on living a healthier lifestyle.. because once you fix that, the weight literally FALLS off. You dig?

Having said allllll that… at the end of the day, we just need to be honest with ourselves. Honest about what “fit” and “healthy” really mean, whether we are “close to” or “far away from” the definition of those… and what we really want out of life. After that.. just go after it. That’s all.

I do wish the disclaimer was a little more thorough. “Healthy” can come in all sizes but there are a lot of us that think being “thick” without weight/diet consideration is okay.

Great post!