How people get
fat-Informative piece
I have recently taken an interest in the reason why
people get fat. It always seemed to amaze me why some thin people eat to their
heart's desire but do not put on weight, but some overweight people ate hardly
anything yet remained overweight.
Why?
“Less food and more exercise” is apparently the way
to lose weight today, as it was discovered back in 1990 by the Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) when they thought the answer to becoming grossly obese
was “sedentary behaviour and overeating.” Is this the real reason?
People are more determined to lose weight nowadays then
before. In the 1980s a size 10/12 was a healthy size for many women, however,
that has drastically changed over the years and a size 0/6 is considered a lot
more attractive and desirable. So people
try diets, which we see advertised on TV almost all the time, such as Jenny Craig and Weightwatchers. But along with the statistics and positive reviews
about these diet plans, they only work in the short term and many people end up
putting their weight back on after a short period of time.
But another way that many people think helps to
“lose weight” is by under eating, or eating very small portions of food.
However, tests show that this type of diet only works for a few months or so,
and makes you malnourished, which mean it’s not the healthiest of ways to lose
weight. Scientist Gary Taubes also
mentions this in his book “Why we Get Fat and what to do about it”
However, you might be thinking exercise is the key
to losing weight fast and effectively? Exercise, lose weight, prevent disease-is
it all true? Well, research shows that vigorous exercise for ninety minutes a
day-an hour and a half each day-will help you not to put on weight, but is not
guaranteed to help you lose weight, and will probably leave you panting with
exertion all day.
Paul Williams, an author of statistics at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley (California) and Peter Wood,
a Stanford university researcher who has been studying the effect of exercise
on health since the 1970s. Teamed up and collected information on the health,
weight gain, and weight loss, on approximately thirteen thousand habitual
runners. The tests and statistics showed that every year the runners tended to
get fatter and put on more weight, even those who ran more than forty miles a
week-eight miles a day, five days a week! William and Wood came to a
conclusion, that if male runners ran two more miles than their average distance
each week, females three, then perhaps they could stay lean. This is because
you are burning more calories each time you run the extra two miles a week. So
why is it when people exercise they tend to put on more weight? It may be
because people become hungrier when they are active, so need something quick
and efficient to eat...carbohydrates, e.g. bread, pasta e.t.c
Dr Atkins (a controversial American Physician) made
his first appearance in the New York Times. In 1972 Atkins suggested that
eating fat would not make you fat, and 'it was all a big fat lie!' According
to Atkins, saturated fat on the meat and dairy products are not the heart of
the problem. But, eating to your heart’s desire with foods such as meat and
steak, and stuffing your face with eggs and butter, might be a possible
solution. Atkins argued for a view which was against the current orthodoxy.
But in order to learn how we must lose weight,
shouldn't we know how the body regulates fat? Hormones and Enzymes control our
growth and development, so which hormone is responsible for regulating our fat
tissue? It is a hormone called Insulin. However, simple, refined and easily
digestible carbohydrates are responsible for raising the insulin level, to an extent
that is not healthy, and can lead to type 2 diabetes. It is at this point at
which a person is very likely to become obese.
People may believe exercise burns off fat and other
processed foods in your body. But it will only burn off the sugar or food you
have had beforehand. For instance, if you have been devouring carbs all day,
you’ll burn the carbs off instead of the fat. Consequently, if you constantly
do this, your body’s ability to metabolise fat will atrophy.
Dr. Atkins and Gary Taubes (a writer who has
written a number of books on the reason why people get fat) have a very fair
point. Following Atkins, Gary Taubes offers us a more explanatory, seasoned
approach and argues vehemently to get his voice across about the low carb, high
protein diet (that will probably be more very beneficial to us). But, this
matter is still yet to be acknowledged by the modern medical community.
