It is an age old story. Overweigth folks around the globe blaming their body for ‘working against’ them when it comes to weight gain. The discovery of genetics has only reinforced this belief. But now it appears that these preconceived notions of one’s body wishing to gain weight to fulfill some sort of preordained genetic destiny is just another in a long line of potential excuses.
Common perception for years has been that our bodies are designed to store fat to get us through the lean times of life when food might not be so plentiful. So, in times of plenty, of which we Americans have seen a great deal of since the Great Depression of the 1930′s, we can become obese because we have so much easily available food. The emergence of fast food has only mulptiplied this affect with high caloric and fat values and extreme availability and low cost.
The hottest topic in the nutrition science world right now are the discoveries and revelations that our bodies do indeed try to fight fat, and in as much of a third of our population, actually has some succes. Unfortunately for the other 2/3rds of us, genetics is not on our side and we gain weight. Some of us slowly and others of us quite quickly.
There is a great article that came out about this last week and made a lot of headlines. Researchers have uncovered that our bodies do make efforts to keep our system in the status quo, not too heavy and not too thin. But, with our plentiful diets and unbalanced eating habbits, many of us easily break down these somewhat weak evolutionary efforts to keep our waistline in check.
So, what is your body doing to help you from moving up to the next size? Mainly an increase in metabolism to help burn off excess fat, and chemical signals to your brain, triggered by fat itself, in the form of a hormone called leptin, to tell the brain you aren’t hungry anymore. Your body might work a year or more to get you back into status quo.
The problem that many of us have is that we slowly move the status quo, and that our body doesn’t quite recognize that we have added a few pounds in the last couple of months. We quietly but effectively move the baseline up in small enough increments that our bodies do not realize that the status quo has changed. Instead of the status quo being 185 lbs, it is now 190. Six months from now the status quo might be 195, and so on and so fourth. A quick weight gain will trigger our bodies obesity defenses. A subtle gain over time will not.
So, where is the good news from this? Well, scientists are pouring a lot of effort and energy into this subject at this time. It is feasible that at some point in the near future there might be a type of hormonal therapy to help the brain to become more sensitive to leptin again. Sort of like resetting the status quo. Also, if you stuffed yourself silly all last week, your body will naturally want to get back to your status quo weight and do its best to help you get there.
Of course, this is not the end all be all. A diet of cupcakes, steak and two liter Cokes is going to defeat your body every time. But for those of us out there who can’t seem to get over the hump, the leptin therapy that is being researched right now holds certain promise. Especially for folks who can lose weight but just can’t keep it off.