The other day I ran into a work colleague (outside of my weight loss practice) who told me they lost weight. I attempted to guess her treatment…
“Let me guess, you’re going low carb?” I asked
“No, I got diagnosed with ADHD and now I’m on treatment.
“That’s amazing!”
“Well, I feel like I cheated” she responded.
—-Time-out!—-
Ok, what my colleague didn’t appreciate is that untreated adult ADHD is a common cause of weight gain. She didn’t actually cheat to lose weight—she just treated the underlying cause of her weight gain—which obviously achieved weight loss.
This is exactly how weight loss treatment works.
Weight loss treatment essentially treats the underlying cause of weight gain because weight gain is biological.
Whether it’s replacing a lower level of functioning satiety (e.g. fullness) hormones, calming down our neurological pathways responsible for stress eating, or returning neurological order to the eating disorders that drives us to overeat, medical weight loss always treats the underlying disorder that is causing weight gain.
But why is it that when we use anything outside of diet and exercise to lose weight, it is considered “cheating” or “taking the easy way out?”
Well, this is one of the weight loss dogmas, or set of beliefs about weight loss accepted by members of the weight loss community without question. Even though it doesn’t carry much truth.
The belief in question being weight loss is only validated if it is accomplished through hard work.
Well, it’s 2022 and we don’t need to make weight loss “hard” for ourselves.
Consider the following.
My grandma used to use this old-fashioned laundry washboard to wash her clothes back in the day. I saw her use that thing with my own eyes in Portugal when I was 8 years old. Now, do you think my grandma is still using cement washboards to wash her clothes here in Canada today?
No. She’s taking advantage of washing machines because it’s 2022. I also don’t consider her a “cheater” for using them either.
Consider the following.
When people used to get ulcers in their stomach, they had to get gastric surgery.
Over the last several decades, however, medicine has developed potent acid suppressing medications, and sometimes short courses of antibiotic treatments to treat peptic ulcers instead. These advancements have essentially eliminated the need for surgery to treat peptic ulcers in 2022.
Do we consider the use acid-reducing medications and antibiotics “cheating”? No, because it’s 2022.
Us humans are truly special. We are constantly advancing our knowledge and using it to create better solutions. Whether it’s a better way to wash clothes or treat ulcers, our solutions have made life easier for us…
This also includes treating weight gain. We now understand more than ever the root causes of weight gain. Easier solutions are available and it’s not cheating—it’s called treatment.
