Weight loss: slow gainers category
Slow Gainers began their lives, and most likely the early part of their adulthood, with positive impressions of their bodies. They were probably very close to their ideal body weight for their height and age. These people frequently use expressions such as "I never had to watch what I ate," "I never had a weight problem," "I used to really like my body and how I looked." Slowly, and somewhat subtly, a change began.
Ask a College Student
This weight gain might have occurred as early as college. A Tufts University research study says that "thirty-two percent of all college students reported a 'decline' in their body image during their freshman year: forty percent of college women at an appropriate weight perceive that they are overweight." Think about that: Close to half of the women at an appropriate weight think of themselves as being overweight. Attitudes such as these could trigger the Slow-Gainer pattern to form as they start a vicious dieting cycle while the weight creeps up. So that I am clear, these women didn't initially have a weight problem but created one as they began to diet, then regain the weight, diet, then regain even more weight until ultimately they had a significant weight problem.
Postpartum Pounds
For women, a weight gain frequently happens after having children. They gained weight, as they should have with the pregnancy, but after the birth, they are unable to shed those last few pounds. Then, with each subsequent pregnancy, the process repeats itself until the cumulative effect is that they are permanently twenty, thirty or more pounds over their pre-pregnancy weight.
The Slow Creep Up
Another scenario that many of us are familiar with goes like this: As men and women proceed through their twenties and thirties they become more sedentary and begin to lose lean muscle tissue (which slows their basal metabolism, or daily caloric burning), but continue to consume the same number of calories they consumed when they were younger. Long hours at the office, the juggling of a family and children, business or social dinners, or the aforementioned lack of physical activity led them to slowly, each year, put on additional pounds. By gaining slowly but steadily year after year, many Americans will find themselves thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, or more pounds overweight within a relatively brief period of time.
Many people, furthermore, don't understand why they have gained this weight. I can't tell you the number of times I've asked clients, How did this weight gain happen?" only to have them reply, "I don't know." The process was often so subtle, and since the same thing was happening to their friends or spouses, they didn't notice it until one day they couldn't keep up with their kids at the playground or didn't fit into their favorite outfit or were shocked by their reflection in the mirror.