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I shouldn’t complain about the weather, considering that Charlynn is braving subzero Wyoming temps, but the Arctic freeze — and the fact that it gets pitch black now by 5:30 p.m. — really puts a damper on my fitness routine.  During my eating disorder recovery, I made a personal commitment to only engage in physical activities that I enjoy – biking, rollerblading, hiking, powerwalking, gardening, etc.  So far, it’s worked fabulously for me with only one niggling problem: Most, if not all, happen to be outdoors activities.  For me, the benefits of exercise justify the means, so the past few weeks have seen me back at my company’s on-site gym, scaling the Stairclimber to Nowhere while devouring magazine after magazine in an attempt to keep my mind from exploding from the insanely boring monotony.  I was perusing my latest edition of Time the other day when I read this rather ironically amusing tidbit in the mag’s 10 Questions feature with Al Roker.  Roker, as you might recall, is the formerly rotund Today Show weatherman (and new fiction author) who underwent weight loss surgery years ago and unlike other stars (ahem, Star Jones), has been very public about his weight loss struggles.

Looking back, would you go through [gastric bypass surgery] again or try another method to lose weight?

Yes, I would go through it again, because I tried every other method. But I’m not an advocate for gastric bypass. It’s dangerous surgery; 1 in 200 people dies from complications. It’s a very complex decision that people have to make for themselves, not because somebody on TV made that decision.

I should note that I support a person’s informed decision to have weight loss surgery even though I’m wary of the often underplayed serious health risks of such procedures, so I thought Roker’s response to be an appropriate one given that he is one of the most famous of “success” stories.  Then I read the next question…

Any suggestions for the rest of us on keeping the weight off?
It’s an amazing secret: if you eat less and exercise more, you will either maintain your weight or lose weight. It’s crazy. I’ve just discovered this.

So, Al tried “every other method” to lose weight EXCEPT eating less and exercising more?  He just now discovered this “amazing secret” even though it’s been widely regurgitated now since the late nineteenth century?  Really?   I’m sure reducing his stomach to the size of a thumb and amputating and rerouting parts of his digestive tract so that he can’t absorb calories and nutrients has absolutely nothing to do with him maintaining or losing weight.  Nope, just eating less and exercising more.  That’s it.  *Headsmack*

Look.  I’m not saying that eating less and exercising more won’t result in weight loss.  I lost 175 pounds in a year during my eating disorder by following virtually that same recipe, albeit by taking it to extremes.  What I am saying is that for many people, the simplistic calories in/calories burned equation simply doesn’t always parlay into any significant or lasting weight loss.  I maintain an ever-growing list of more than a dozen peer-reviewed studies from the past two decades that show that virtually every attempt to make fat people thin without risky surgery has failed completely and utterly — very few manage to keep it off.   At most, even WLS makes fat people only less fat and even then the weight regain rates among those who go under the knife are high.   Why doesn’t “eat less, move more” work?  Twin studies and adoptive studies show that the overwhelming determinant of your weight is not your willpower; it’s your genes.  Just as people are now taller than ever, so too are people now fatter.  And as Gina Kolata details in Rethinking Thin, studies show that fat people who lose large amounts of weight often see their normal-functioning metabolisms crawl to the point where they are clinically in starvation mode.  There are other forces at play, too.  For example, new studies coming out are finally confirming what so many people who take antidepressants have suspected for years: that many psychiatric medications carry weight gain as a side effect.

I don’t have many regrets from my eating disorder days.  Sure, I would love to have that time back for more constructive goals and I am sorry for the strain my disorder placed on my family, friends and coworkers, but I realize now that I was suffering from a psychiatric illness and so I try to focus on staying well and moving forward.  I do have a few regrets however, one of which are the false hopes I gave to those who sought me out for weight loss tips and advice.  As I dropped size after size, so many family members and colleagues approached me, imploring and begging me to share with them my “secret” for weight loss.  I wasn’t about to tell them that I exercised for hours on end each day and ate nothing for days and even weeks at a time before exploding into an all-out binge fest that left me cradling the toilet and calling Poison Control because the Ipecac hadn’t come back up.  No, instead I chirped brightly, “Oh, I just eat less and exercise more.”  I hated the lies I told them, but I hated the lie I harbored even more.

I’ve since maintained a weight loss of more than 30 percent healthily in the past five-plus years — without amputating my digestive system — and what I have discovered is this:  Maintaining a weight loss is hard and it’s not so easy as eating less and exercising more.  I eat a healthy diet and workout several times a week and yet the specter of weight regain always hovers at the periphery.  Despite doing everything “right,” I’ve still had an unexplained weight gain of about 25-30 pounds in the past four years.  Does it worry me?  Sure, but only because of my lingering psychological hangups about weight and not for my actual physical health, which is stellar, according to my doctor.  There are still times when I will run into someone from my past who knew me at my highest weight and they’ll ask for weight loss suggestions or for my “secret.” I don’t tell them that I eat a healthy, low-glycemic vegetarian diet, make fitness a priority and indulge in chocolate whenever the craving strikes because while that may work for me, there’s no guarantee that it will work for them. My advice, hard-earned and time-tested, is always the same: “Obsess less, enjoy more.”