Some thoughts on weight control

Our local paper just ran a three-part series on the battle of the bulge. Nothing unusual about that; you can hardly open a paper or magazine without coming across something on weight loss. I must say though that I find much of what has been written on this subject simple-minded or outright nonsensical. What good is advice like 'all you have to do is eat fewer calories than you expend'. If it were so simple, why would so many people be fat?

Do I have all the answers? Of course not — nobody does; there is no concensus among experts on what caused this obesity epidemic and how to solve the problem. There are, however, a few observations that would seem obvious, yet are ignored in much of what is written on the subject.

We have hormones that control how much we eat

All animals, including humans, have elaborate hormonal control systems in place to ensure an adequate energy supply — it′s a matter of survival and can′t be left to willpower. Imagine a lioness wondering 'should I eat the rest of this zebra, or is my ass getting too big'.

This hormonal control system works very accurately

Have you ever seen obese wildlife? The only animals that end up obese are those whose food we control — life stock, pets, lab animals.

One third of the population still keeps their weight in a narrow range throughout their adult lives; fifty years ago that was true of the majority.

This hormonal control system works well in obese people too — it just doesn′t work quite well enough

To show that this is so we need some numbers. Suppose you gained just 5 lb every year. In 10 years you would be 50 lb heavier, in 20 years you′d carry around an extra 100 lb, etc. In other words, gaining just 5 lb per year will make you grossly obese. Most of the overweight and obese gain weight more slowly than that.

How many extra calories would you take in if you gained 5 lb? Since 1 lb of fat gives you about 3,500 Kcal, you would take in an extra 5 × 3,500 = 17,500 Kcal/year. Dividing this by 365 gives you roughly 48 additional Kcal/day. At a daily intake of ≈ 2,000 Kcal, an additional 48 Kcal would exceed your daily energy expenditures by just 48 ÷ 2,000 ≈ 2.5%.

In other words, if your hormonal control is out by just 2 or 3 percent you′ll end up grossly obese. Put differently, even the grossly obese still balance energy intakes and expenditures to within 2 or 3 percent; pretty accurate I′d say.

If you are too heavy and aren′t losing weight then all your fuel must come from food

If you are overweight or obese you have two potential fuel sources — your fat reserves and food. If your weight is stable this means that all the fuel you burn comes from the food you eat; a net use of stored fat would result in weight loss.

If you are still gaining weight then there is obviously no net withdrawal of stored fat; your food provides all your energy needs, and then some.

You cannot improve on this hormonal control system — even if it would let you

Say you want to count the calories you eat. You′d have to weigh and measure the amount of food you eat, and you′d need to know its energy content.

First, kitchen scales aren′t accurate enough to weigh food to within a percent or two. Secondly, different foods have different energy contents; 100 g green beans ≠ 100 g dry beans ≠ 100 g chicken breast. You′d have to consult food composition tables, which only give you averages anyway. How many people would do that? Thirdly, we don′t just eat staple foods of known energy content — we cook with them. Do you really think you can determine the energy contents of 100g of your homemade stew to a couple of percent?

Forget portion control and calorie counting! The idea that your head can do better than your hormones at balancing energy input and output is laughable.

You cannot override this hormonal control system — it won′t let you

So you′ve decided to eat fewer calories than your body needs, in the hope of activating your fat reserves. That′s called dieting.

If deliberately cutting back on your calorie intake, aka dieting, worked there would be no weight loss industry, no obesity research, no medical specialty called bariatrics, and no endless stream of advice on 'how to lose weight and keep it off'; the very term 'dieting' would have no meaning.

So where does all this leave us?

As I see it, this leaves us with two obvious questions:
  1. why is there a slight imbalance between energy intake and expenditure in the overweight and obese, and
  2. why do the overweight and obese not mobilize their fat reserves
We need to understand why energy intake and expenditure aren′t always completely balanced to stop obesity. And we need to understand why the body doesn′t use its fat reserves to reverse it.

Posted by Helmut Beierbeck at 3/15/2010 2:36 PM
Categories: weight loss
 

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