Some of you know I porked up over the summer as a result of some meds my doctors put me on. I cracked the scales at 219 in July, which was unbelievably scary to me. Between my day job and my night job teaching commitments, I didn't really have much free time to do much about it until the beginning of November, but since then I've dropped 12 pounds and am on my way back towards being healthy.
The one thing I've found is that I'm unable to lose weight if I can't get plenty of sleep. This past semester I spent two 15 hour days back to back on campus every week due to my part-time teaching commitment, and those two days ruined my sleep enough that no amount of dieting could help me lose weight. However, the weight has been coming off very quickly since the classes ended on November 13th.
The leptin / insulin resistance / cortisol response feedback mechanism in our bodies is interesting. Unfortunately, some people fall into a trap and can't break out of it, then you couple the diet industry trying to serve their own best interests and well....