Why Weight Is a Puzzle, Not a Problem

Let’s talk about something we hear all the time, if you’re overweight; it’s just a simple overeating problem that needs a simple dieting solution. But here’s where I want to flip things: from the idea that diets are the answer for everyone. And if they didn’t work for you, it means you’re at fault. That you weren’t trying hard enough, or you didn’t have enough willpower.

Losing weight is hard

The truth is, even for someone who isn’t trying to lose weight, body weight is a set of complex interacting systems. In western thinking, we’re taught to fix problems fast, name it, solve it, move on. So, when there’s a visible problem, like excess weight, the solution, get on a diet, is so obvious, it’s hard to see it any other way. And with diet culture always present, there’s no shortage of quick habits and hacks around like, don’t eat before 10am, walk 10,000 steps, drink eight glasses of water a day, to choose from.

Why habits won't help

These simple actions appeal because they seem like the shortcut we’re hoping for. The promise is, if you just repeat something enough, it’ll stick, it’ll happen automatically. So the idea of drinking water before a meal? Sounds manageable, sounds logical. Drink, feel fuller, eat less, done.

But here’s the thing: habits like these only work for a while. You need another habit for those rebound urges that always sneak up later. Building habits can help on the surface, but if you’re stacking forty little habits to deal with forty little problems, you’re heading for a pile that collapses as soon as life gets busy.

That effort is exhausting. Most of those habits never really get automatic, because the system that created your weight in the first place hasn’t changed. These quick fixes can only ever scratch the surface, they deal with the individual parts, not the system as a whole.

There is an answer.

So let’s swap it around. Weight is a puzzle to be assembled rather than a problem to be solved . Jigsaws demand you look at the whole, and when it’s finished, you see that very few pieces are about food and calories, willpower might not even show up at all. The trap with the “weight is simple” mindset is that it narrows your focus and hides the full picture.

If you can change your questions, you’ll find more pieces of your story. From how you learned to eat, to the rules and influences you absorbed when growing up. Lasting weight change is complex, and will never be achieved through habits, hacks or quick fixes.

Weight is a puzzle you can solve

When you can reframe your weight story as a puzzle, you open up space to explore, rearrange, and finally spot those missing pieces that were keeping you stuck.

To explore how to uncover you story download my free e-book

Regards

Bronwyn