How Diets Work - POSTED ON: Oct 01, 2017
Set Point - POSTED ON: Sep 30, 2017
We do not understand how the body resists weight change and why, after weight loss, so many people regain it. The concept of a set point for weight is widely accepted. The set point is like the thermostat in our central heating system. It is switched on when the temperature falls below a critical (set point) temperature and is switched off when that is exceeded.
Using the word “rachet” might help one conceptualize the set point concept. To rachet is to cause to increase or decrease by increments. A rachet is a mechanical device consisting of a toothed wheel or rack engaged with a pawl that permits it to move in only one direction.
A person has an existing set point. That person gains weight, and then gains and sustains even more weight gain. This causes the set point to be racheted up, and once it passes each rachet, there is no going back. The rachet is the biological set point and it can be easily driven upwards, but is very difficult to drive back down.
Using the fat cell theory is helpful to further explain how this works.
For an example, let’s assume an average fat cell contains 0.4 micrograms of fat each. A person gaining weight might see that fat cell load expand to 0.6 micrograms. This is an acceptable load increase, and when the person loses weight, the fat cell level drops back to 0.4 micrograms.
This seesaw can go on forever, but when the weight gain loads the fat cell up to 0.8 micrograms, a tipping point is reached, and the fat cell divides. Now we have two fat cells, each containing 0.4 micrograms. Click! That was the ratchet turning irreversibly.
When we want to return to the previous weight, we must lose half the fat we gained. The problem with this is that each fat cell now has the standard fat load of 0.4 micrograms each, and to halve this to just 0.2 micrograms per cell requires us to get the cells to live a life they do not like. If we let our mind tell us what to eat, we can overcome the disgruntled fat cells which are below their fat quota. But all the time the basic animal biology of our body will be waiting to return to 0.4 micrograms per cell.
Then, along comes an event like a vacation, a holiday, or other eating occasion, and we take our eye off the ball .. lose our mental concentration, but the fat cells in our body didn’t rest, and we’ve regained our w...
Running DOWN the UP Escalator - Weight Loss & Maintenance - POSTED ON: Sep 30, 2017
This article "hits the nail on the head" in the way it accurately describes my own personal experience, as well as what I’ve witnessed for years while watching the experiences of others. It contains one of most accurate analogies for Weight-loss and Maintenance that I’ve ever heard.
Some might find it depressing, but here in my 8th year (now starting my 12th year) of maintaining a very large weight-loss, I find it encouraging and positive to hear a medical professional, who is an expert in obesity, speak the unvarnished Truth.
Despite the fact that this Truth is rather unpleasant, and isn’t something we’re ever going to hear from Marketing Interests… (which includes most doctors and nutritionists) …. Facing it, Understanding it, and Accepting it, can be very helpful.
Running Down the Up Escalator By Dr. Ayra Sharma, M.D. (a Canadian Obesity Specialist) One of the games I used to play as a kid was to run Down the UP escalator. To get to the bottom, I had to run faster than the escalator was moving up. If I ran any slower, the escalator would gradually but steadily take me back to the top. In fact, even to just stay half-way down, I’d have to keep running at about the speed the escalator was moving up. If I stopped running even for a second, I’d be moving up again. As you may guess, I am using this analogy, to illustrate the challenge of losing weight and keeping it off. The escalator represents all the complex neuroendocrine responses to weight loss that will always want to take you back to the top – the only way to reach the bottom or to even maintain your place half-way down is to keep running. Alas, in real life, the weight-loss escalator is even trickier. For one, there is no real bottom – i.e. no matter how fast you run, you will never reach the bottom and be able to simply get off. No matter how far down the escalator you manage to get, you are still running on the escalator and it will keep moving you back up to the top the minute you stop running. But things get even more depressing, because, the further down the escalator you get, the faster it runs. This means that the further down the escalator you manage to get – the harder you have to keep running to just stay where you are. Or, in other words, when you start from the top, the escalator is running relatively slowly and you may easily manage to get down the first 5 steps. But as you go down, the escalator picks up speed and so, if you just keep up running with the speed you started at, you may not even manage to hold your place 5 steps down. And, to get to 10 steps down, you’ll definitely have to speed up – unfortunately, with every additional step you manage to make your way down, the escalator moves up even faster.
Is BMI the same as BMR? - POSTED ON: Sep 29, 2017
Are BMI and BMR interchangeable terms?
In a recent conversation with an M.D., when giving an opinion he incorrectly used the term BMI instead of BMR. I interjected “BMR?”, and he frowned & shook his head sideways indicating “no”. I continued with “BMR, not BMI,.. you know .. Basil Metabolic Rate, … from formulas like Harris-Benedict, or Mifflin? The calories burned without activity, like when you are in a coma.” He responded on a different track, saying people used a lot of energy even in a coma, and never made any correction, or acknowledgment that he even understood his error. So I thought, Is there some basic information about BMI & BMR that I missed? Are they, in some way, interchangeably connected? Further research verified my original understanding, which is spelled-out below. BMI or BMR? First, although the abbreviations BMI and BMR sound similar, they stand for two separate things. Your BMI, or body mass index, is a number calculated from your height and weight which is then used to assess your body composition. Your BMR, or basal metabolic rate, is the number of calories you burn when your body is at rest. These two terms are independent of each other, but your BMI may indirectly affect your BMR. Body Mass Index (BMI) Your BMI is an indirect measure of your body composition -- or how much body fat you have. Although BMI doesn’t measure body fat directly, it uses your weight and height to determine whether you’re classified as underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese. This measurement correlates moderately well with other measurements of body fat such as skinfold measurements and underwater weighing. BMI is based on your height & your weight. There are many online calculators that will easily run BMI equations and provide your individual numbers. Here’s a link to one that I commonly use. The equation looks like this: BMI = (weight / height x height) x 703. A BMI below 18.5 indicates that you’re underweight; a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 classifies you as a normal weight; a BMI between 25 and 29.9 puts you in the overweight category; a BMI of 30 or above classifies you as obese. Limitations of BMI Because it's not a direct measurement, BMI is only used as a screening tool and is not considered a diagnostic te...
Why Diets Fail - The Salt/Water/Waste Issue - POSTED ON: Jul 27, 2017
Whatever method one chooses as a “Diet”… including Diets that are called:
… this Truth always remains. When a body with excess fat consistently takes in LESS food (meaning: calories within one or more of the three macronutrients) THAN IT USES as energy, that body will access stored fat for energy. The process of losing excess fat takes a long time.
Weight-loss diets ultimately fail approximately 95% of the time. This means that most people fail to lose very much weight on any type of diet, and very few manage to maintain any long-term weight loss. Losing weight and losing fat isn’t exactly the same thing. However most doctors, nutritionists, dietitians ... and the people who follow their advice ... don’t clearly distinguish the process of reducing body fat from the process of reducing body weight. Most people sort of KNOW that body weight and body fat are different, and vaguely understand that the scale can register body weight higher due to “water gain”.
To understand the difference between these two things, it is important to understand that there are two principal components of body weight. We can label these two: constant weight and variable weight.
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