If you are struggling with your weight and you are interested in getting help with it, you should feel comfortable talking to your doctor or getting a referral to an obesity doctor. There are also number of resources available on websites like:

My weight, What to know or Obesity Canada 

Myth #1: Weight loss and maintenance is as simple as calories in vs. calories out

• Obesity is a complex illness caused by several different factors, including your environment, genes, emotional health, lack of sleep, medical problems or even some medications.
• The body is complex. When you try to lose weight, it will begin to fight against this by triggering hormones to prevent you from losing weight. These hormones can cause:
  • Your metabolism to slow
  • Feelings of increased hunger, more enjoyment from and awareness of food
  • Your body to hold onto, or put the weight that you’ve lost back on in order to preserve itself

Myth #2: People who struggle with their weight have a lack of will power

• Excess weight is the result of an evolutionary mismatch. Our brains are designed for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and our brain is still wired to this behaviour. In other words, we are genetically pre-disposed to overeat.
• There is also a genetic component to obesity which makes it considered a chronic condition. In fact, if both parents have excess weight or are obese, you have a 70 per cent risk of also struggling with excess weight.
• Due to these factors, many organizations including the Canadian Medical Association recognize obesity as a chronic disease that warrants proper treatment like other conditions such as heart disease or diabetes.

Myth #3: BMI is the best determinant of your overall health

• New studies are finding that BMI is not the ONLY appropriate indicator of obesity / weight as it doesn’t provide information about distribution of fat / muscle mass.
  • As a result, physicians are looking at other determinants of weight including body fat percentage, waist circumference etc. to establish one’s risk of developing comorbidities of obesity, such as diabetes or heart disease.
• The good news is that a weight reduction of just 5 – 10 per cent can have significant improvements on your overall health.
  • It can reduce the risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke, arthritis and even death.
  • It can also improve your fertility.
  • Finally, your overall quality of life is likely to improve.
• It’s also important to look at non-scale or non-BMI wins as a part of your journey. Other measures of success can include how you feel, both mentally and physically. Are you sleeping better? Do you have more energy? Are you able to do activities that you previously were unable to? These are all great indicators that your overall health is improving!

SUMMARY:

I’m responsible for my weight gain, so it’s on me to lose the weight and keep it off