Why changing your body size is so hard?
And should you change it?
If someone is overweight or obese, chances are they would hear a line like, “You should eat less since you’re overweight”. Although I am not overweight, I could sympathize with them, since personally I face the opposite kind of problem. I have been very lean and underweight since as young as I could remember, and despite occasionally someone would say they wish they could be as thin as me (not sure if they were sincere), more often I could hear something like, “You are so thin! You should eat more.” Or, “Is your mom not giving you enough food?” as a joke. I know Chinese culture and American culture can be very different, but it has been common for many cultures to idolize a perfect type of body and encourage people to shape their body that way. But as you know, changing your body size could be very difficult, even for actors and actresses who do it for work purposes. It’s not as easy as simply eating less or more food.
In a scientific perspective, there are many different factors affecting how much you weigh. This NIH article points out that family history, genes, race or ethnicity, age, gender, eating and exercising habits, living environment, family habits and culture, sleep, illnesses, medications, disorders and stress all play a role in someone’s weight. Especially, genes decided that you are more likely to be at a certain weight, and your metabolic rate is set at a certain speed to deplete the energy you get from food. If you have a higher metabolic rate, you can get away with eating lots of food and still not gain weight; and if you have a lower metabolic rate, it would be easier for you to gain weight. So, if you try to adjust the amount of food you eat to change your body size, it would be like working against your body. There are scientific reasons behind the principal that many dieters often regain the weight lost (or sometimes gain more weight). Your body will take measures to compensate for the change and attempt to stay at its “original” form. That’s simply a survival method.
Staying as you are… is it such a bad thing? One time I was asking a doctor at the on-campus clinic about my concerns of being underweight, and he replied that as long as I’m healthy and don’t have health issues, being underweight should not be a problem. I felt so relieved after hearing that, and I know that being healthy is much more important than being in a certain body size. It’s equally difficult for people who are overweight. However, as long as there is no medical reason, there’s no need to change the way your body is.
When you know the focus turns from being in a certain body size to being healthy, your ways approaching food could change. For some of you, maybe your focus is eating less to lose weight. How about this instead: balance out your meals, eat more fruits and vegetables, eat fibre-rich foods and limit processed food, enjoy the joy brought to you by food, and be conscious about your chewing movement and dining environment? These good eating habits along with adequate exercise and sleep can help you become healthier, and maybe even help you lose some weight in a non-drastic but more sustainable way. If you take good care of your body, your body will work in your favour!
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
