Why Gaining Weight is a Gift And How to Find Balance

We often look at the friend who can eat anything without gaining an ounce and think, “How lucky.” And we look at our own selves, feeling we gain weight just by thinking about food, and sigh.

But what if we’ve been seeing this all wrong? What if the capacity to gain weight is, in fact, a sign of a fundamental and healthy bodily function, much like a lung’s magnificent capacity to expand and contract with each breath?

Your body has an innate, intelligent capacity to integrate and store energy. This is not a flaw; it is a system working precisely as designed. To gain weight means your body can efficiently store fat, and that is a process to be acknowledged, even thanked. The true issue arises not from storage itself, but from imbalance—when the body slips exclusively into what can be called “miser mode.”

This miser mode is governed by a key hormone: insulin. Its primary command is “Store it, store it, store it.” When insulin is consistently elevated, the body becomes a relentless saver, locking away energy into fat cells. The irony is that during this intense storing spree, you can still feel hungry, still crave more. Why? Because while insulin is busy depositing energy into storage, you can be left short of readily available fuel for your daily needs. It’s like having a bank account full of money but no cash in your wallet for the bus fare.

Other factors can contribute, of course—thyroid function, deficiencies in crucial minerals like magnesium, zinc, selenium, or iodine. But often, the central theme is this metabolic one-way street of storing. When insulin signalling is overactive for too long, it can begin to disrupt cellular communication in broader ways, sometimes encouraging unwanted growths, as there is simply so much growth-promoting fuel and signalling present in the system.

So, how do we restore harmony? The goal is not to wage war on the body’s ability to store, but to gently teach it the other, equally vital half of the equation: how to use.

The journey begins with gently shifting the body’s metabolic mindset. This involves a period of mindful reduction—cutting down on simple sugars and easy carbohydrates, later moderating fats, and significantly increasing dietary fibre through sources like flaxseed, psyllium husk, and basil seeds. This is not about harsh deprivation, but about giving the body a rest from constant storage commands. It is a deliberate, gentle push from a storing mode to a using mode.

True health, much like a thriving economy, lies in the balance between storing and using. An economy where everyone only hoards money in banks is still poor; wealth is realized only when money circulates and is utilized. Similarly, a metabolism that only stores is functionally poor, no matter how many fat reserves are locked away. The fat is meant to be a supportive friend, a reservoir of energy for when you need it most. But if the body only practices the art of depositing and never learns the skill of withdrawal, problems emerge.

We must work consciously on the breakdown part, because the assimilation part happens automatically. Think of it like breathing. Your lungs expand and contract. Your weight, too, can have a healthy, natural rhythm—a highest point and a lowest point. If you are at 67 kilograms, the aim is not to crash down, but to descend mindfully to, say, 60. Pause there. Let the body stabilize. It may drift up a kilogram or two; no big deal. Then, from that new point, guide it down again to 57. Pause. Allow it to breathe and adjust.

By moving in these gentle waves over a realistic timeframe—think in terms of years, not months—you achieve something profound. You are not just losing weight; you are teaching your body the complete rhythm of metabolism. You are allowing it to practice both storing and utilizing, just as the lungs practice both inhalation and exhalation. Each cycle makes the body more resilient and adaptable.

This stands in stark contrast to the modern temptation of synthetic shortcuts, like certain injectable medications. These can force the body to dump its stored reserves traumatically and all at once. The body learns nothing from this external imposition. When the medication stops, the weight often returns because the underlying metabolic skill—the practiced art of burning—was never developed. The person becomes dependent on an external agent for a function the body should own. But when you and I, through mindful cycling, learn to manage our weight, our bodies truly learn how to burn. They become practiced, wise, and economically balanced.

Therefore, see your ability to gain weight not as a curse, but as evidence of a capable, storing system. The work is to cultivate its beautiful counterpart: a confident, capable using system. Decide on a healthy lowest weight for yourself, and then journey toward it not in a frantic straight line, but in a series of gentle peaks and valleys. Honour the pauses. Celebrate the body’s ability to store once more when it needs to. In this rhythmic dance between saving and spending, between fullness and lightness, you will find not just a number on a scale, but a profound and sustainable metabolic wealth.