Constant Gain Theory

devrinator

I have a theory that may be quite simple, but it evolved from an observation at my 10th high school reunion several years ago. A friend of mine and I were at the party, and both of us were a good 30 lbs overweight. He turned to me and said, "Everyone looks the same, just fluffier."

It doesn't seem natural for a bunch of 28 year olds to be 30 or more pounds overweight. Even guys that were once the very thin surfer-types were kind of plump. I don't think it was that way in my mom's day.

Anyway, I wish I could find the study, but there was a study that said people who chronically overeat, even slightly, are more at risk for entering obesity as they age. It seems rather common sense, but I don't think it is.

When normally thin people see obese people, the assumption seems to be that the obese person started out eating the way he or she eats now to maintain his weight, but I think unless he or she had issues from childhood or infancy, the weight gain is generally gradual.

So, if you chronically overeat 100 calories a day for a year on average, why doesn't your body just maintain that extra 10 lbs? Well, chronic overeating changes your body chemistry to motivate you to continually overeat above what you need to maintain. So, after a year, you've gained 10 lbs, and now your total daily energy expenditure has changed because you have an extra 10 lbs, plus your body resets gradually as you gain to require a surplus of calories.

What are the implications?

Firstly, if you are obese or overweight, there is a good chance that just before you start dieting, you're eating, on average, more than you need to maintain that weight. If you're 300 lbs, your body is trying to become 301 lbs. That's why it is super difficult to diet. For you to reach a deficit below your current body weight is a fight to not only resist eating enough calories to maintain your weight, but a fight to resist eating calories to maintain it PLUS some.

It is this constant gaining cycle that, I think anyway, leads to yo-yo dieting. You're 200 lbs, but once you let it sink in that you are 200 lbs and need to diet, you believe that you are 200 lbs, not that you are on your way to being 210 by the end of the year. Your body chemistry is all set to have you overshooting what you need to maintain that 200 lbs, so you try to lose 2 lbs a week, and you may have some success, but your body needs time to re-adjust to NOT overshooting calories. You diet, lose 20 to 30 lbs, stop logging or counting calories, and six months later you weigh 190 or even 205 lbs. You might go on a diet again, but have a difficult time reaching and maintaining your goal, because your body is in overdrive and hasn't had enough time to put the hormones into order so that you aren't compelled to overeat.

I think the unfortunate truth that the best way to curtail it is to slowly decrease caloric intake for a long time without regard for how much weight we lose. It takes years sometimes to get where we are (unless a change in lifestyle created a more rapid weight gain, but even in that instance, the body goes into overdrive, I think), so we need to change our body chemistry as a first priority over losing a certain amount of pounds a week.

The people most successful in weight loss took two years.

Just a thought.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11375440

sanguinia

Didn't we see those stats in Weight of the Nation?
You are such a beautiful writer and an even more beautiful person. Loves!!!!

weird_me2

I completely agree. A lot of people get to be obese over the course of years or even decades. If a person gains just 2-3 lbs a year, then in 10 years they are overweight and obese or very close to obese. It really can sneak up on people and when it's only 2 or 3 lbs a year, most people really do not notice the changes. I've been successfully taking the "I'll eat what I am satisfied with and lose slowly" approach for almost a year now and have had great success. The best thing is that I know that I will be eating this way forever, even if it means it takes me 5 more years to take the weight off. There is no "finish line" anyway, so what's the hurry?

devrinator

That's probably the best approach. When we hurry, we can easily become frustrated. Good luck!