Physiological Reasons for Why People get Fat
Other than eating a poor diet and leading a sedentary lifestyle, there are a number of reasons that people gain unwanted weight. These reasons are more multifaceted than having made a simple decision to be fat or thin. Learning the many complex reasons why people get fat may help you to be more empathetic to those with weight problems as well as possibly help you to identify the cause of your own weight gain.
Yo-Yo Dieting: Everything in your life is going just peachy and then the realization that your 10-year high school reunion is just a couple of weeks away hits you. The fear and dread set in, and then the crazy feeling that you can lose 20 pounds in two weeks takes over. So you stock up on celery and carrot sticks and set out to pretty much starve yourself down to your ideal weight in time for the big event. It’s an all-too-real situation that most of us have faced before, and one that might have produced some amount of weight loss in the past. Maybe you lose 10 pounds in the two weeks and feel like it has been a great success. And then as soon as you start eating normal again you gain back the 10 pounds, and then some. You let the extra weight slide for a while – after all, you lost the weight when you needed to. But then the next event comes along that has you scrambling to drop 15 pounds, and the cycle continues. Each time you give in to yo-yo or “crash” diets, you end up fatter than before.
Why the catch-22? Crash diets actually cause your metabolism to slow down, making your body ultimately inefficient at burning calories. While you may lose weight initially, this will always backfire and you will end up gaining back more weight than you lost in the first place. And since you are blinded by the fact that you lost weight in the first place, you will try it again…and again and again. Each time, you will lose some weight and then gain back even more. Yo-yo diets don’t work. However, with that said, cutting calories on a long-term plan can work wonders, as long as it is a diet that nourishes your body and emphasizes a slow, steady amount of weight loss over an extended period of time, such as three to six months.
Poor Metabolism: There are a number of things you can do during your lifetime to sabotage a healthy metabolism, like subjecting your body to endless yo-yo diets. However, some people have no control over their metabolism because of the presence of untreated metabolic disorders, like hypothyroidism. The thyroid is a gland located just below your Adam’s apple that regulates when, how and where you use calories. A healthy thyroid will support a healthy body weight by making the most of the calories you eat, but an unhealthy thyroid will have you putting on weight faster than you can even think is possible. People with dysfunctional metabolisms put on weight fast and have a long, difficult struggle in front of them if they want to lose the weight. Metabolic disorders need to be treated by a professional and should be taken seriously. One in ten adults, mostly women, will suffer from hypothyroidism in their lifetime, and unfortunately thyroid problems often go undiagnosed, and therefore untreated, for years. A simple blood test at your next visit to the doctor’s can tell you if your thyroid is out of whack.
Genetics: Understanding and accepting the link between genetics and weight is crucial to understanding your body’s weight gain patterns. Your genetic makeup determines how your body stores fat and where it distributes these stores. This is why most women are pear-shaped (carry their weight in their hips and butt) and men are apple-shaped (carry their weight around their midsection). Some people distribute their weight very evenly all over their body, while others have “problem” areas where they just cannot seem to lose the weight. Not only is your basic body shape determined by genetics, your metabolism is, too. Men generally have more lean muscle mass than women, which causes their metabolisms to be higher, making weight loss very efficient and easy to achieve. The more fat you have, the lower your metabolism. You are also at risk of becoming overweight or obese if one or both of your parents struggle with excess weight.
Is your weight out of your control? Are you doomed to be fat forever? Stay tuned for Part II of Why People Get Fat, where we’ll talk about the complex human mind and explore how the way you think (or don’t think) about weight loss can sabotage a healthy body.
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