Genes Take Charge, and Diets Fall by the Wayside

NY Times ^ | May 8, 2007 | GINA KOLATA

[sauropod]

review

[Muzzle_em]

I hear you!
My mother is very chunky through the hips, thighs and tummy (but not what I would classify as obese).
I see my body slowly looking like hers and it horrifies me!
I used to go to the gym religiously, lifting weights, doing aerobics, and having salads with homemade, lo-cal dressing for dinner. I lost MAYBE 5 lbs. and 1/2 inch in my hips after 6 months of HARD work! My body just would NOT let go of the fat! I decided, “what the heck” after the one-year membership ran out. It is hard to stay motivated when you see NO RESULTS! I’m convinced it is the genes. I’m not obese now, but I’ve got some excess flab.

[mountaineer1997]

It IS strange that those photographs of concentration camps show NO fat prisoners. hmmmmmmmmm

Too many people line up daily at Fast-Fat Dead-Animal feed troughs, lead a sedentary lifestyle (television and recliner), and then look for other people/studies/genes to explain why they are fat.

I personally believe that obesity is unpatriotic, and serves to undermine the vitality of the United States.

[Fairview]

I do watch my diet (lots of vegetables and fruits, reduced meat with lean portions, reduced bread, and no caloric drinks - I only drink water). I am always hungry.

Different diets work effectively for different people. For you, quite clearly, the high-fiber, low-protein diet is not working. So why stick with it? Try cutting out that fruit (pure sugar!), eliminating bread altogether, and go to town on meat, fowl, and fresh fish. South Beach or Atkins, in other words. You'll lose eight pounds of water in the first week and have tons of energy.

When I eat the way you do I blow up like a balloon. I couldn't lose weight on your diet no matter how much I exercised, and would always be angry and hungry, too.

[Fairview]

According to this article, much of our weight is genetically determined. This doesn’t explain why it is that so many Americans are fat when their ancestors back in the Old Country are slender, or why, operating from the same genetic root stock, the percentage of obese people is increasing rapidly.

Genes are very far from being the only explanation.

[Running On Empty]

You beat me to it. I have always wondered about that myself. It does seem to blow this theory.

[WKB]

Don't you just hate those:
"I can eat anything I want and never gain a pound" types.:>)

[KosmicKitty]

Eventually, more than 50 people lived at the hospital and lost weight, and every one had physical and psychological signs of starvation. There were a very few who did not get fat again, but they made staying thin their life’s work, becoming Weight Watchers lecturers, for example, and, always, counting calories and maintaining themselves in a permanent state of starvation.

Oh, do I know that!!

I was a fat kid, a fat teenager, a fat young adult. After having my 3 older boys I went from 175 to 110. Stayed there for 10 years, but everyday was a struggle NOT to EAT.

Got remarried, quit smoking, had another baby, went right back to 175. Four years ago I lost 50 pound, again. Haven't put too much back on, but evrey day I struggle NOT to EAT. If I don't watch every mouthful, the weight jumps right back on!!

[Tribune7]

See! See! I told you! It's my metabolism! Huh, Kyle. Huh. The New York Times! You're feeling pretty stupid now, aren't you Kyle.

[Tribune7]

Something to remember is that there are a greater percentage of obese people today and I doubt that the percent with of this with this type of metabolism has increased.

Once it was not all that uncommon for people to walk a mile getting to and from work, and to be on their feet a good bit of the day on the job.

That of course, has changed.

This type of metabolism is not necessarily a disadvantage. It just means you have to make a point to be active.

[Howard Jarvis Admirer]

Google “Ultrashape” - nonsurgical ultrasound treatment for fat. One 30 minute treatment drops one belt size - but it is not cheap. Apparently there is a clinic now with an Ultrashape machine in Tijuana - hopefully the FDA will approve it soon for the U.S.

[gcruse]

Lab rats have been found to live much longer when restricted to starvation diets.
If an obese person can maintain a hundred pound weight loss which throws the body into a starvation conditon without actually starving, maybe they could live to be 150.

[Hostage]

Here is some information for you but first you should understand what I am about to tell you involves some things that are counterintuitive.

The first is, being overweight as opposed to being obese (a medical genetic condition), being overweight is a sign of malnutrition.

Now I know what you are thinking, that you eat healthy and so you think you can’t be suffering from malnutrition. So here is the second thing, once you may have been eating poorly such as alot of sugary items. This craving for sugar led you at one time to eat poorly but the it was not the poor choices of food that led to your initial malnutrition. Malnutrition is not always caused by junk items in a diet. It is caused by a yeast buildup in the gut. Yeast love sugar and produce alcohol as a byproduct of consuming sugar. But as yeast builds up in the gut it robs you of the nutrition you are trying to feed the rest of your body. So even though you have adpated a more healthy diet now, your yeast is robbing it from you and you are not absorbing the nutrients your body needs. So you are malnourished and that leads to putting on fat.

Putting on fat is the body’s response to a lack of nutrients.

Yeast in the gut robs you of nutrients.

This is why you are always hungry.

You have to get rid of the yeast and allow the good gut flora to get back in control.

But warning! When you find a doctor that will help you to get rid of your gut yeast, beware that what will be prescribed will kill the gut yeast (but not the good gut flora) and when the yeast die they will emit toxins leasving you nauseated for a few days. It’s not a serious side effect but it’s like having a mild flu.

Once your gut yeast is gone your weight should come down naturally. But keep fighting the yeast because it can come back.

One of the reasons Americans are so overweight these days is because of the heavy doses of antibiotics that are given. Antibiotics are often the best treatment for a condition but in most cases they are not vitally necessary, yet people eat them like candy and doctors prescribe them in the course of practicing defensive medicine, most often unnecessarily, like taking a sledge hammer to a tack. Doctors read that they should curtail antibiotic prescriptions but they fear the one case where the patient gets sicker because they did not prescribe it and the lawyer writes the letter requesting medical record release.

Antibiotics allow yeast to get a foothold in our guts. No matter what we eat we seem to gain weight or keep it on. That’s because the yeast are in control.