Living in a generation characterized by technological advances, you’d think that there would be some sort of quick and painless solution out there for weight loss. Hey, maybe there is and there’s just way too much money involved in the pizza and ice cream industries, keeping these magic drugs off the market. Whatever the reason, losing weight hasn’t become any easier in the 21st century.
As Millennials, we are constantly bombarded by choice when it comes to food and working out. Most of us choose the former. Having a hard time losing weight is frustrating as a Millennial, since many of us see skinny friends and models portraying an unrealistic version of womanhood via social media. We can’t escape the reality. To make you feel a little better, we’ve compiled a list of some of the reasons it’s not your fault that you can’t lose weight. Millennials actually have it harder than their parents did in the weight loss department.
14 Technology facilitates our laziness (Uber, Lyft etc.)
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Don’t get me wrong, Uber and Lyft absolutely rock. However, I used to be completely fine with walking a few blocks to grab dinner when I knew it was the only option I had. Most Millennials split Uber and therefore don’t mind paying a little in order to not ruin their hair and get to their location fast. It’s hard to remember that skipping out on walking can add a few extra pounds to your behind.
13 We work long hours
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Millennials like to balance work and play, and end up meshing the two together. This means that Millennial workplaces such as WeWork have beer on tap and free snacks. Many Millennials stay at the office until midnight hours. They’ll order pizza to work and play a game of ping-pong with their friends at dinner, but there’s a slim chance that a hard working Millennial has the time for a run or quick trip to the gym.
12 Seamless
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The less effort the better, right? Thanks to Seamless, we don’t even need to verbally communicate with anyone in order to choose out of a plethora of food options. Seamless even gives us discounts if it’s our first time ordering out from a particular place. I’ve ordered $20 of Pink Berry to my apartment via Seamless. Just make sure you’re still awake when the delivery guy comes knocking.
11 Brunch
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After a wild night of drinking and over consumption of various substances, the trend now is for Millennials to wake up and immediately go out on the town for a boozy brunch. Of course we try to squeeze our moneys worth out of these places by piling as much as we can into our mouths and our cups. Most brunch parties are “bottomless” although they are not too friendly to your bottom. It’s up to you, is it worth it for the hair of the dog?
10 We know how to hide and distort our imperfections
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How many filters did you really use on that selfie? That is, after you choose one of the million pictures you took in the car on the way to work (completely dangerous). In person is harder, but with contouring we’ve mastered the art of making our faces look slimmer than they are. We know what type of clothing suits each body type the best. These techniques decreased our motivation to make real changes to our bodies.
9 Diet fads do not work
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Remember all of the worry you had about fat in your food? Now laugh about how it was completely made up. Fat is actually not the problem. The dependency on a sugar high is what gets us crazy about food and dessert. In fact, many studies have shown the addictive power of sugar, including research showing that for rats, Oreos are more addictive than cocaine. Nonetheless, many of us Millennials still decide to go on trending diets that deprive us and leave us binging.
8 Gym membership are really expensive
Millennials are fresh out of college, or a few years into their job. Even if they are older and perhaps making more money, they are more likely than any other generation to spend their money traveling or doing something a bit more creative with their time. They just don’t want to allocate the resources to a gym membership, even if they had the money.
7 The Dad Bod has become acceptable
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This terribly disappointing Dad Bod phase has inspired Millennial men across the board to carb up and step back from the lifting room. What effect does this have on the girls? Millennials create a culture where extra flab from the beer is acceptable, and if one’s partner has a little more junk in the trunk, they are allowed to have it as well.
6 There’s so much competition, that some of us have given up
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“I’ll never look like that” crosses a lot of our minds when surfing the web. Intense fitness and blogger accounts portray a glamorous life of juice cleanses and beach yoga that seem so inaccessible to us normal people working a desk job and living in a city. So we stop trying, admire them and wrongfully accept that it’ll never happen for us.
5 Binge drinking
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Since the drinking age is so late compared to other western countries, we over do it before the bar. Millennials get completely obliterated, beg their taxi drivers to take them to McDonald’s and order five things on the dollar menu. At the time, it’s just so cheap that it seems like a no brainer. Our brain works in this cruel way that we don’t remember many aspects of the night, (i.e. chatting it up with our ex and singing on top of the bar). We shamefully remember guzzling down buckets of fries and refusing to share with our friends. Yet, we do not learn from our drunken indulgences.
4 Food Posts
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Imagine your favorite dessert in the entire world. Now imagine that juicy steak, melting ice cream cone, or rich pasta dish was right in front of your face. Now imagine eating a stick of celery. This is what Instagram and other social media outlets such as Pinterest do to us. How can I possibly look at these pictures and settle for eating a carrot salad alone in my kitchen?
3 We’re constantly bombarded by advertisements
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There used to be a few neighborhood options for eating out. If you were hungry you went to one of a few places and picked what you wanted for lunch. Now, even if we’re not hungry, our news feed fills with recommended restaurants and pubs. We now have access to all the new and hottest restaurants in our areas, sometimes we even travel a little further for food we've seen pop up on our newsfeed.
2 Chemicals
Pesticides, plastic pollutants, artificial hormones, antibiotics, etc. may increase weight by messing with our hormonal processes. Yum. CBS News explains how chemicals in our “diet” foods actually make us fat. Perhaps a better way of tackling weight loss is eating healthy foods in moderation instead of trying to continue with the same large portions and switching to diet foods.
1 Prescription drugs
The over-prescription of drugs is pretty well known to anyone who has popped one to study or one to calm us down for a plane ride. Many of these drugs, however helpful they may be (particularly pain killers for hangovers) they create a debilitating dependency. Most of them have been linked to weight gain. WebMD lists a long list of medications that might be behind your bulging belly.
Sources: webmd.com, forbes.com
