1. Your Other Problems Don't Vanish With Your Weight, And New Ones Will Crop Up
No one starting their "lose weight" resolution in the coming year is going to be dumb enough to tell people, "I want to lose weight because that will solve all my problems!" When you say it out loud, it sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it? Losing weight won't make you funnier, kinder, smarter, or more accomplished. We know this. Or do we? Some of us (yours truly) expect to feel better about ourselves, to like our bodies and ourselves more. Maybe some of us expect to find the girl or guy of our dreams once we're thin enough to attract them. It goes on. But when I lost weight, I learned that there was always something else to hate. My nose is too big, my hair is limp and dull, I still had the curve-less figure of a chubby 12-year-old boy. On and on the list went, even though I had lost something to the order of 40 or 50 pounds. I was also shocked to learn that I hadn't become any funnier, kinder, or more interesting, either. Hate and negativity are powerful forces, and don't think that losing a bit of weight is going to be enough to stop them. You've just managed to divert those feelings towards other aspects of yourself. That rage you feel about those stubborn last 5 pounds won't vanish when you've finally shed them; you'll just be angry at your tone-less abdomen or still-flabby arms. Fortunately, I was in a relationship at the time, so at least I didn't have to face the sobering reality that no, my dream boyfriend would not fall from the sky now that I was thinner. Fortunately for me the relationship did not deteriorate, either, as apparently sometimes happens. One study suggests that one partner's success at a diet (the average weight loss in the study was 30 pounds, achieved over a two-year period) can trigger feelings of resentment and inadequacy in the other. You know what bitter, inadequate-feeling partners don't want to do? Bump uglies. You lost those 30 pounds, but you also lost your sex life. Don't think this affects only your sex life, either. People, unless they've ascended to godlike levels of either Buddhist loving-kindness or douchebag arrogance, tend to get jealous and petty about other people's success, or at least attempts at success, most of which comes back to those feelings of inadequacy mentioned in the above study. You can negate some of the effects of that (for example, by not being a raging douchecanoe), but some of it's inevitable because we're not all always mature, well-adjusted adults. So losing weight won't make you awesome, but it might very well kill your sex life and make your coworkers and loved ones resentful of you. Pass me another slice of cake, thanks. Have you had any unexpected, (un)welcome side effects of dieting? Share in the comments below.
After obtaining a BA in Philosophy and Creative Writing, Katherine spent two years and change teaching English in South Korea. Now she lives in Sweden and edits articles for Turkish science journals. When she isn't writing, editing, or working on her NaNo novel, Katherine enjoys video games, movies, and British television.
