That is fantastic that that was true for you. I, too, have tried many times to lose weight, and I hadn’t given up. The closest I got was losing 55 lbs, which worked great, until I dislocated my shoulder and had to have surgery, which meant I couldn’t work out for a long time.
For many people, it is simply a lot easier to lose and maintain weight, even if it doesn’t feel that way at the time. If we were to perform the same actions, in the same way, my body may simply have a predilection to maintaining a higher weight. (This is a real phenomenon, bodies have “set weights,” this is how stalls happen, etc.)
Is it impossible? No, of course not. But is it much much harder for some than others? Absolutely.
Yes, if anyone eats fewer calories than they expend they will lose weight. That is how thermodynamics works.
But the level of difficulty with which that can happen varies greatly.
One of the main changes in my habits that was absolutely necessary in order to lose weight, then maintain it at the desired level, was that previously I was eating whenever I felt the need and until I felt completely satiated, while since then I make every day a plan with when to eat, what to eat and how much to eat and then I stick to the plan, I never eat anything more than previously planned and outside the planned meals I do not eat or drink anything else, e.g. snacks or juices, except for drinking water.
Obviously during all the time when I was losing weight and even some time after that I was feeling hungry all the time, so I had to make some efforts to not eat beyond what I had planned. Nevertheless, if you work or do anything else that occupies your attention, the feeling of hunger disappears for some time, even if it reappears after some hours.
So having to cope with hunger is unavoidable for this goal. However, eventually my body became accustomed with a much lower food intake and the hunger disappeared. Now, when I eat food that I cook myself, I may not eat again for an entire day without becoming hungry. I have experimented and I have eaten again some industrially-produced food, like I was eating in the past, and with that I have become hungry just a couple of hours after eating it, exactly like before losing weight, so I believe that switching to self cooking is also a necessary condition for avoiding hunger when eating little.
I don’t disagree with that. When I did keto for about 10 months, I was very similar. The challenge with this was, of course, maintaining it - I’m an extrovert, and being social often meant being around people at dinner, drinking, etc. Even if I abstained (which I did), you still felt a bit “out of place.”
As for hunger - you’re right. I was able to curb hunger simply by eating better. But I was never able to curb the “food noise” that was constantly in my head in a sustainable way.
Moreover, my body does really attempt to retain weight. Unless I’m absolutely perfect, I will gain weight fast and take it off extremely slowly. That is now how everybody’s body works. Many people struggle to put on weight. That is not the case for me.
I do not disagree that lifestyle changes matter, and that Ozempic is not sustainable without them.
For many people, it is simply a lot easier to lose and maintain weight, even if it doesn’t feel that way at the time. If we were to perform the same actions, in the same way, my body may simply have a predilection to maintaining a higher weight. (This is a real phenomenon, bodies have “set weights,” this is how stalls happen, etc.)
Is it impossible? No, of course not. But is it much much harder for some than others? Absolutely.
Yes, if anyone eats fewer calories than they expend they will lose weight. That is how thermodynamics works.
But the level of difficulty with which that can happen varies greatly.