Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Profiling your Weight Loss Speed

DAY 12 of my diet - `144.5 pounds - total loss so far - 7.5 pounds

Willpower and metabolism, two issues about weight loss we get half right and half wrong. One of my male Facebook friends commented that us ladies lack willpower, that the reason we are fat is that we make poor choices, not that we have addiction issues or hormone problems. I agree with him halfway. He is very correct that we get fat because we put more food in our mouths that we do not need to eat to maintain a healthy weight. It would help women to accept this fact because that way we can get to the bottom of why we keep doing that.

Simply put, if eating a one egg and a piece of toast and drinking a glass of orange juice for breakfast, having a salad for lunch with lowfat dressing, a couple pieces of fruit for a snack, and one plate of spaghetti and a piece of bread keep our weight at the same place as the day before, this is what we need to maintain our bodies. If we add four pieces of bacon with our breakfast, a piece of danish we found on a table at work, add a half a sandwich to our lunch, eat five pieces of that tasty bread (and change it to garlic bread or lather it with butter), we are going to find ourselves to have gained weight.

The part of the equation men often find hard to understand is that THEY can actually eat that second amount of food and not gain weight because they have to maintain a body that is almost twice as large as ours and has big calorie chomping muscles helping them along. They get to have twice the fun as us and not have to worry nearly as much as we do at the table. The men that are overweight tend to have problems with excessive amount of fast food, great cooks for wives, and a healthy beer habit that adds inches to their guts.

As for metabolism, we move more when we are young (at least we used to which is why we see kids getting fat). We tend to stop exercising when we get older and we get desk jobs or stay home and watch too much television on the couch. Women who stay home end up preparing food all day and living in the kitchen and we drive to the store to buy our food.

Food addiction is another one of those silly labels we give to the fact we use food for a myriad of emotional and social reasons. Food makes us happy, food is instant gratification, food amuses us when we are bored, and food is a habit. We get used to eating and eating and eating and can't figure out what to do when we are not eating and we miss our little calorie laden friends.

We DO make the choice to eat too much, but willpower is difficult when everything is conspiring against you in your society. Food and the reminders of it are everywhere. I spent some time in West Africa once and there simply wasn't that much food around, you had to walk four miles to the market, share what you cooked with everyone, and there were no snacks in sight. I lost ten pounds in three weeks without trying. It was the easiest diet in the world!

How fast will you lose? If you are a guy, much faster than a woman on the same number of calories. If you are very active, much faster than you are inactive. If you are heavier, faster than if you are lighter. How do you know you have cut back enough? You see results.

Now, on Day 12 of my diet, I still have to wrench my wheel away from the 7-11 entrance and try not to reach into my friend's popcorn at the movies (well, I ate a few of those pretzel bites she had...bad girl, bad girl). It is hard work, ladies, and I feel all of your pain!