Ep 174 Why Knowing How to Lose Weight Isn't Helping You Lose It After 50

[upbeat music] I wanna talk about something I hear from women all the time, and y- you may have even said some version of this to yourself, and here's what it is.

"I know what I'm supposed to do.

I just need to do it." And when I hear that from women, and I used to say it all the time, that comes out when we're talking about weight.

They might wanna lose, you know, 10 or 20 pounds.

They might even wanna lose a whole lot more than that.

And usually they're also telling me things like their clothes don't fit the way they used to.

They're not feeling good about how their body looks.

Um, and, and a lot of these women have kind of watched their weight slowly creep up over the last, you know, five to 10 years usually.

And they'll tell me, "I know what I'm supposed to do." And I understand why they think that.

I, honestly, I do.

And again, all transparency, I used to think the same thing.

Um, and so I get why you think that because the women I talk to really do know a lot about health.

They know a lot about nutrition.

I mean, they know protein is important, for example.

You know vegetables and eating them, probably a good idea, right? You know drinking water matters.

You know sleep matters.

You know that walking or some type of movement matters, and that strength training is important, especially as we get older.

And you probably know that going to the pantry and eating half of what's in there at 9:30 is not helping you.

And here's the thing.

I work with capable, intelligent, often highly educated women who are in their 40s and 50s who know all of that stuff, and they still can't figure out how to lose weight and keep it off.

So I think we're looking at this the wrong way.

I think we're turning all of that into a question of why can't I make myself do what I know I'm supposed to do, and that sounds reasonable.

That sounds right-headed.

[laughs] Sounds logical, right? But inside that question is an assumption.

It's, like, embedded in there.