5. Weight Loss Doesn't Look Like It Does In Photos
Even if approached sensibly and accomplished gradually, the results of weight loss aren't always going to be pretty. You don't deflate like a balloon, maintaining a more or less regular and consistent form. Some places lose more weight (fat and muscle alike) than others; still other bits start to droop, wrinkle, or sag. The most dramatic cases even result in painful sacks of loose skin that need surgical attention. Yes, even if you've made sure to build muscle under all that flab. But of course skin flab and sagging breasts aren't the "after" pictures celebrity magazines and fitness websites constantly inundate us with. After a year of watching what you eat, exercising regularly, and cutting back on soda and booze only to be "rewarded" with a body somewhat lacking in tone and proportion is horrible. We all know those pictures are edited, but it can be difficult to see just how edited they are. (The answer to that is: more than you can possibly imagine.) If the vast majority of successful dieters you see aren't in real life, but in magazines or TV shows, all of a sudden you have no accurate gauge for what weight loss normally looks like. It's like trying to paint a reproduction of the Mona Lisa, but the only thing you have to go by is an interpretation of the original picture by Pablo Picasso.
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.
