The Day The Scales Crashed

“You lie”, I screamed as I stood on the scales after two weeks of near starvation, only to find the indicator still at the same figure as last time. In blind fury I jumped with all my might on the scales and that, I'm afraid, was the end of my weighing apparatus.

I was desperate and the problem - what to do about it? After all, the medical profession, weight loss companies and diet pundits trumpet their success mainly with young, nubile women who achieve fantastic weight losses in a record period of time. Not once do you hear about a plodding, older, slower biddy who has achieved any kind of success following the same regimen in any period of time, as in my case.

However, make no mistake about it, the weight loss organizations will assert that if you stick to a diet, preferably their particular diet, you will lose weight.

There is no one, I am certain, absolutely no one living who has had more experience dieting over the past 40 years than myself. Furthermore, I know my body inside out and back to front. Success was always mine when I was younger, even when I thought I was overweight at size 14! Now, nothing moves. Not even exercise in a gym for three months four times per week and a diet of approximately 1400 calories can assist.

I sit and chat with doctors who admit ‘they don’t know’. I see a specialist in obesity who is over the moon with the prospect of having yet another guinea pig for drug controlled diet tests. When he finds out that due to a particular medication I am taking I don’t fit the specifications of the test drug manufacturer, I am dropped immediately.

What can be done? It seems to be a well known fact that as you grow older, so it becomes much more difficult to lose weight. To a person like myself who is in possession of a stubborn body, the weight control organizations, while never admitting defeat, tend to give up on you. The medical profession cannot help so they placate you with the admission that they simply don’t have any answers apart from the old maxim that the less calories you consume the more weight you will lose.

This may be generally true, but we all know that different bodies respond to different diets. An 800 calorie diet for me yielded no success because my body thought it was being attacked and went into shut down mode. The only time I lost weight on few calories, was in a hospital bed for 10 days, drinking three meal replacement drinks a day.

As for your nearest and dearest friends and relatives, they utter silly platitudes like, get comfortable with your overweight image and accept it and stop worrying. Not on your life!The above arguments are not acceptable for me - not when you are clinically obese and biologically time is running out. It is not a healthy situation viewed in any light.

I want to continue life as a fit and healthy woman, enjoying a good quality of life, so shedding weight is a must. Growing old with an obesity problem is not an option.
Many other people must have this problem, and I would love to have your thoughts on the subject – please share them with me.