Why It’s Tough To Lose Baby Fat

For most people, losing weight is life-long battle. One that can be amazingly fulfilling while at other times utterly depressing.

Having worked with 1000s of individuals whose goals have been centered around weight loss (and specifically fat loss) I've noticed certain predispositions that make losing weight more difficult for some people than others.

Losing Baby Fat

Unfortunately, nowadays childhood obesity is a "big" problem. Kids are, in general, less active due to the amount of time spent watching TV, playing video games, and a decreased level of physical education in most schools.

This problem is furthered by poor eating habits fostered by advertisements that promote high-sugar "addictive foods", lack of proper nutrition education in most households, and several other factors.

All of this predisposes our youth to become fatter and more lethargic. The concern here is that at a young age the body grows more fat cells until the beginning of puberty. This sets up the affected child for a long and tiring struggle with their weight for the rest of their life.

Since our body actually grows more fat cells at a young age (if fed a lot of dietary fats, sugars, and calories), it only follows that this critical period of time must promote proper nutrition education and dietary habits as well as an active lifestyle.

If an individual has more fat cells he/she will have a greater tendency to easily gain weight as they grow older. Similarly, it will also be harder for such a person to lose weight and keep it off.

Once we've passed puberty we are pretty much set with a finite number of fat cells - much as we are with muscle cells.

Therefore, any weight loss/fat loss efforts cannot be directed towards losing actual fat cells but instead "shrinking" their size. It's almost like taking the air out of a balloon. Unfortunately, the more balloons (fat cells) there are in the body, the more work it takes to deflate them.

That's one of the reasons why people who were overweight as children may find it tough to keep a healthy weight as they grow older. Naturally skinny people, on the other hand, have fewer fat cells and thus don't have to work as hard to maintain a leaner body.

I'm sure you know such people! Those who can eat whatever they want and never put on an ounce of body fat.

Here's the Good News

The good news is that if you find it naturally harder to lose weight you will be forced to live a healthy lifestyle with a good focus on healthy nutrition and regular exercise - this is a great thing! Although some people may disagree, I believe you have to work with what you've got and turn your "weaknesses" into your "strengths".

Naturally skinny don't necessarily have the same "need" to worry about their weight and as such tend not to focus too much on what they eat and drink or whether or not they're very active. As such, my experience with such people has shown that they predispose themselves for an unhealthy future.

Even if they're not packing on the pounds, they are definitely not doing their internal body any good by eating "garbage" foods and not exercising.

Now obviously not everyone who is thin is unhealthy but I'm simply highlighting the tendency. Overweight individuals "generally" have a greater motivation to exercise and eat well in order to lose weight, which, in turn fosters better overall health.