Random Musings about Weight Loss

I have been missing in action from writing for the last month or so. During this time, I have been suffering from neuropathy from my low back down both legs to my feet. A little over a week ago I had a trial Spinal Cord Stimulator Implant inserted into my spine and I am glad to say that it works just fine. Now I await surgery to have the permanent implant placed into my body. If you are not familiar with these implants for nerve pain, what they are is a high frequency device with a battery implanted into the lower back and two wire leads that are placed between the spinal cord and the vertebrae. Those leads provide a stimulation to the spinal cord that block pain signals from reaching your brain. This is much better alternative for pain relief than relying on long term pain relief through medications.

Random Thoughts

1. You can lose weight, even if you do not believe that you can. It is not a large percentage of overweight people who have medical conditions that hinder weight loss. You can use the excuse that your hormones are out of balance, therefore you cannot lose weight. However, you need to consider this; your hormones are often out of balance simply because of the foods you eat and your obesity. Get your nutrition cleaned up, lose weight, and then watch what happens to those hormones as you begin to get to a healthy weight and body fat percentage.
   • Lifestyle choices, such as a poor diet and lack of exercise lead to hormonal imbalances and your obesity. The standard American diet is a top contributor to early hormone imbalance. Rich in processed foods, fast food, starchy carbohydrates, and sugar, the standard American diet leads to symptoms of hormone imbalance, such as moodiness, weight gain, fatigue, sleeplessness, wrinkles, and increased disease risk. You have the power to turn back the clock and regain control of your health and your hormones with balanced nutrition, routine physical activity, and quality sleep. (1)

2. Weight loss only occurs when we consume fewer calories than we can burn in a day. Simply put, it does not matter how little you feel that you are eating; what matters is the amount of calories you consume each day. No one is immune from the basic thermodynamics of weight management.
   • In the “diet wars” the first law of thermodynamics has been thrown around a lot. Up to now I have been aware of two camps defending their position with thermodynamic arguments. The first (and the one that I find most compelling) is the calorie in vs calorie out camp, that argues that the laws of thermodynamics apply to people too. This means that weight management must be a function of calories in (the total calories consumed by a person) – calories out (the total caloric expenditure, including metabolic processes, waste heat, exercise, and others). Thermodynamics must be obeyed and so if one wishes to lose weight they must burn more calories than they consume.The second camp are the defenders of special weight-loss diets who claim that the type of calories one consumes significantly affects weight loss. They reject the “calorie is a calorie” mantra, and instead preach about the evils of carbs, or fats, or glycemic index. They argue that all calories are not equal because some calories are more efficient than others – they require less energy to metabolize. If you want to lose weight you want to consume inefficient calories (i.e. – more of the energy from these calorie sources is wasted as heat, or they require greater overall metabolic activity, so less is available for muscles and other uses). Therefore, they argue, thermodynamics (when efficiency is considered) favors manipulating macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) for weight loss.While I agree that this is a legitimate thermodynamic argument, what has not been demonstrated (either from a basic science perspective, or in weight loss research) is that efficiency has a significant effect. The bulk of weight loss studies show that total caloric intake does correlate pretty well with weight loss, at least in the short term. (2)

3. The “Fat Acceptance” movement is doing far more harm than good. No one likes a bully, or people who are just plain rude to others, so this is not meant to demean anyone. However, you cannot find many people that are healthy and obese. If you are hurt by this truthful message, consider how hurt your loved ones and friends will feel should you die prematurely as a result of obesity. Someone has to pick up the broken pieces behind you.
   • Excess body fat has serious consequences for health. It’s associated with high levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides and low levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol. It impairs the body’s responsiveness to insulin, raising blood sugar and insulin levels. Excess body fat contributes to major causes of death and disability, including heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis, fatty liver, and depression. (3)

4. Rapid weight loss is not only unhealthy, it is also rarely permanent. Ninety five percent of dieters fail, almost always, as a result of rapid weight loss through fad diets.
   • If you want to lose weight and keep it off, aim to lose it at a slow but steady rate of 1–2 pounds  per week.Research shows that slow, steady weight loss is easier to maintain long-term because it’s better for developing healthy eating behaviors, and is much safer than very fast weight loss.Losing weight too fast may increase your risk of side effects including muscle loss, lower metabolism, nutrient deficiencies, gallstones and many other risks. This is especially true if you try to lose weight quickly without support from a health professional. (4)

1. Losing weight too rapidly can result in unsightly loose skin. You might want a bikini body, but when you lose weight faster than your skin’s elasticity can keep up, you will only look saggy in your bikini.
   • When you hear about someone who lost a lot of weight, it’s usually regarding how amazing they feel or how much healthier their lifestyle is now. But what about the not-so-glamorous parts, like living with loose skin?  Excess skin after extreme weight loss is not uncommon. However, excess skin may become painfully uncomfortable, impacting your quality of life.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  During weight gain, the collagen and elastic fibers in the skin become damaged and unable to retract following weight loss. Therefore, your skin stretches, leading to excess skin There are a few ways to manage excess skin—resistance training, drinking plenty of water, and using moisturizers. You may also opt to undergo body contouring surgery if medically necessary.
2. Fad diets never work in the long term. Sure, you can lose weight on any given diet; but if you cannot sustain the diet for a lifetime, you are doomed to failure. Healthy weight loss requires a change of lifestyle. People approach us all the time wanting to know how to lose weight “rapidly”. The bottom line is that you did not become overweight over-night, therefore it is foolish to believe there is a magic bean plant that will make you thin in a matter of a few days or weeks.
   • We’ve all seen the seemingly too-good-to-be-true advertisements and social media ads that claim extreme or quick weight loss results. If you’ve ever been desperate to lose a few pounds quickly, whether for a big event like a wedding or reunion, you may have even tried one of them.However, many of these trendy fad diets aren’t backed by research and may cause your body more harm than good. The main issue is that most of these diets focus on the wrong way to lose weight and don’t actually delve into the true physiology of obesity, said Christine Lovato, MD, a bariatric surgeon at Banner – University Medicine Obesity and Bariatric Surgery Center in Phoenix.As humans, we always want a quick, easy fix. Although, many people know deep down that it will require a lot more work to lose and sustain the weight loss, we are hopeful that it won’t be that way for us. (5)
3. A good sized percentage of overweight people also have underlying issues which contribute to their weight gain, and their difficulty in losing weight. This is the reason that we address weight loss in a holistic manner where your entire being needs to be taken into consideration during your weight loss journey. If you do not address any of the negative forces in your life, you are not going to be successful even if you are doing everything right for a period of time. You have to look at the wellness of your entire being when you want to lose weight.

   • The disease of obesity is associated with a significant psychosocial burden. Many individuals who have obesity also struggle with issues related to their mood, self-esteem, quality of life, and body image. This emotional distress likely plays a role in treatment seeking but also can impact successful treatment. For these reasons, most multidisciplinary obesity treatment teams include mental health professionals who can assess and treat these issues in patients as needed.

     Encouragingly, weight loss is typically associated with improvements in psychosocial status and functioning. These positive changes are often most profound among those who have lost large percentages of their weight, as is often seen with bariatric surgery. Unfortunately, some individuals who lose weight experience a return of pre-existing psychopathology or the development of new psychosocial issues. Those who experience weight regain, regardless of the approach to weight loss, also remain at risk for the return of unwanted psychological symptoms. The unfortunate, ubiquitous nature of weight regain reminds all treatment providers of the need to assess psychosocial functioning at the onset of treatment, monitor changes during weight loss, and remain alert for worsening of symptoms with weight regain. (6)

4. Obesity will cause your health to suffer at some point in your life. Even if you feel good right now at your level of weight, if you are significantly overweight, this will change at some point. There are multiple problems that are a result of obesity.
   • Obesity is associated with several comorbidities, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, and several forms of cancer. Because of the staggering health care costs associated with these conditions, some authorities predict that these diseases pose a legitimate threat to the health of the American economy over the next several decades. Furthermore, the US Surgeon General has posited that obesity and its associated diseases could decrease the average life expectancy of Americans for the first time in history. (6)
5. Binge eating is a huge problem for most people who suffer from obesity. The bottom line is, you are not likely to become overweight if you are not a binge eater. Therefore, if you are a binge eater, you must get this under control. I have personal experience of being a binge eater. During my military career, I often found myself having to rush through a meal, or a snack while on the go. When we eat too much, too fast for any length of time, we develop this unhealthy habit that is much harder to kick than it is begin.
   • Disordered eating is common among persons with obesity. Many patients presenting for weight loss treatment report that they engage in eating for emotional reasons; others report having difficulty controlling the frequency of their eating, portion sizes, or eating behavior in response to the bombardment of food cues from modern society. Somewhat surprising to some, only a small minority have formally recognized eating disorders. The most common eating disorder among persons with obesity is binge-eating disorder. Binge-eating disorder is characterized by the consumption of a large amount of food in a brief period of time (less than 2 hours), during which the individual experiences a loss of control. As a result, the individual eats much faster than normal, until uncontrollably full, in the absence of hunger, and often eats alone. After eating, the individual often reports disgust. (6)
6. You can lose weight in a healthy manner simply by following us here at David’s Way to Health and Fitness. Here on this website, you will find about 1300 educational articles on how to lose weight, manage your nutrition, and you will find multiple articles that detail the health implications regarding poor nutrition, lack of physical fitness, and obesity. The concept of weight loss is quite simple; eat fewer calories than you burn, quit eating foods with added sugar, and eat only foods that  are actually nutritious. Quitting sugar can be difficult, but it is not impossible. We tell you to quit eating sugar because it is inflammatory throughout your whole body. Inflammation from sugar is the main precursor to just about any metabolic disease you can think of. I.E. Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and many cancers to name a few.