I clearly remember a day when I was around 12 years old, and my sister was 13. She was one of those kids that was always thin, no matter what she ate. I, on the other hand, although not fat, always tended toward being just slightly chubby, at least in my own mind. I was definitely not thin, like my sister. Looking back, I was probably normal weight. Even so, on this particular day that is burned into my memory, my father told me that I ate too much and should try to eat less and lose weight. I told him that I eat no differently than my sister, and he said I was lying. He said I was obviously sneaking food when no one was looking.
It’s an argument that we have to this day. He is now 79, and I am 53. When my weight has been out of control, he has accused me of overeating in secret. He says, “If I lock you in a room and give you only what you are supposed to eat, I guarantee that you will lose weight!”
How can I express to him the frustration of eating exactly what this diet or that diet has told me to eat, and yet losing no weight, and, in some cases, gaining weight? I have locked myself in a room, figuratively speaking, and controlled what I have eaten to the 1/100 of a calorie!
Thank goodness that there is now research out there to support what I have suspected all along – everyone’s metabolisms is different, and you can give two people the exact same thing to eat, day after day, and one will lose weight and one will maintain or gain.
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