Weight Control Overview

There are so many aspects to weight loss and weight control that you really almost need a post-graduate degree to have any chance of success. So if you are one of the masses who has ever struggled or continues to struggle with your weight please give yourself some respite because I’m guessing for most of you this is not your area of expertise.

I have the philosophy of always looking at myself as a work-in-progress. At heart I am a perfectionist and strive for the best outcome in everything I do, but sometimes the sculpture you are creating takes more time, more education and some hiccups along the way. However, you are worth it and the results are worth it.

Two years ago I was 106 kg and back in 2003 I was out to 112 kg with all kinds of fluctuations and diets in between. I woke every morning with a headache, had high cholesterol levels and slightly elevated blood pressure, skin problems, back problems, and so on. Now I weigh 85 kgs, with no headaches, my back is fine and my skin is still improving. I haven’t had my cholesterol checked again yet but I’m betting there is marked improvement.

I believe body weight is affected by the following:
1. Diet (all consumption including food, drinks, medications and supplements;
2. Exercise – You can live without it for a while but the fact is we are designed to move.
3. Current Metabolic Set Point – I call it this, but other terms are regularly used.
4. Hormones – There are more than people realise that affect our weight – insulin, leptin, grehlin to name a few.
5. Mindset.

The critical thing to note is that we need an wholistic approach that ensures we have a strategy across all five of the above areas because in this complex system that is the human body they all interact. There’s no point on working on any less than the whole five points listed otherwise you are literally doomed to fail which is why so many diets and exercise regimes don’t work.

In coming posts I will go into each of these in more detail. For now however, even though I was being honestly supportive with the earlier work-in-progress comments, it’s time to give up certain excuses that may be holding you back. We’ve all heard (and maybe said) things like:
“It’s just the way I’m built”
“It’s genetic, look at my (father, mother…)”
“I’ve simply got big bones” (possibly my all-time favourite)
“I can’t exercise, I’ve got bad (knees, ankles, hip…)”
“I just don’t have time”
“My hormones are all stuffed up, it’s impossible for me”
“I can’t diet, I hate/can’t eat/am allergic to…”

Sound familiar? Let’s go on a journey of discovery and improve our education, motivation, self-esteem, and life a much healthier life. Watch this space!

Beware of Fructose!

It’s scary to consider that Australians consume on average around 31 teaspoons of sugar (both added and natural) each day! (Saxelby, Catherine http://www.ahm.com.au/content/showpagenum.asp?page=9782 June 8, 2013) What’s worse is that about 75% (Ibid) of this sugar intake comes from packaged and pre-prepared foods and drinks. Convenience could well be killing us! Certainly some sugar is fine and most nutritionists recommend we have around 10-12% of our daily energy intake from sugars which equates to around 50 grams or 12 teaspoons. Still sounds quite a bit doesn’t it?

It is quite an amount, but on a positive note it just shows how good our body (especially the liver) is at handling excesses and toxins. Most carbohydrates we consume end up being broken down into the monosaccharides glucose and fructose (galactose is another). Put simply, healthy amounts of glucose are easily absorbed into the bloodstream and if not metabolised quickly end up as stored glycogen in the liver, body fat and muscles for fuel reserves. Nothing untoward here, as long as the glucose intake is not excessive as mentioned.

But what about fructose? This simple sugar is certainly naturally occurring in good stuff we eat like fruit and honey. Unfortunately, much of the excess sugar we eat in the form of soft drinks, energy drinks, and other processed foods, comes in the form of fructose. Firstly, this fructose if not metabolised in the liver, ends up in the small and large intestines. In the large intestine it literally ferments and can cause bloating, diarrhoea, flatulence, and gastrointestinal pain. Worse still for weight control, fructose is starting to loom as a major enemy.

There is now evidence that excess fructose can cause insulin resistance and obesity, plus elevated LDL cholesterol and triglycerides then ultimately a condition known as metabolic syndrome. Essentially, with metabolic syndrome the insulin resistance can cause diabetes and really mess with the body’s ability to properly process glucose as well. What often happens then is it becomes a vicious cycle. People put on weight, exercise less, get depressed, eat more refined sugars, develop cardiovascular disease, put on weight… and on it goes.

So as always my solution is to eat natural, unprocessed foods. Drink plenty of water, and enjoy plenty of fruit but watch your honey intake. Remember that all sugars are acid-forming in the body so they should be kept to a minimum anyway. And please, lay off the soft drinks! They will leach minerals out of your bones and could well be the thing that leads you down the slippery slope towards metabolic syndrome.