Battle of the bulge

Losing weight is one of the most unnatural things you can ask your body to do — that is why it is so difficult. There are three facts you must understand as you attempt to lose weight. First, your body is hardwired to gain weight. Your body thinks of fat the way that you think of money in the bank. It is a source of energy should food become unavailable. Our bodies were designed to survive in a world where calories were not guaranteed. Therefore, the ability to store calories as fat was a great survival advantage. There are more numerous and complex systems to gain and maintain weight than any other metabolic process in the body.

Your body actively fights against efforts to lose weight. ‘As you cut back on calories, your body modifies its metabolism to get by on the lower number of calories. That is why you stop losing weight after several days to weeks. The larger the amount of weight you have to lose, the greater the number of reductions you will have to make over time in order to reach your goal.

I recommend counting your calories and then decrease your intake by 100 to 200 calories on a weekly basis until you reach a level where you are losing weight. When you plateau, then decrease again until you reach the new level that will allow you to resume losing weight.

This system works — but you may not be comfortable with the degree of caloric restriction you must maintain. Many physicians recommend a vegetable-based, whole foods (not processed) diet as the healthiest and most likely to permit weight loss.

Your body works 24-7 to regain any weight you lose. This is perhaps the most frustrating truth of all. When you lose weight your metabolic rate slows in an attempt to direct calories into storage as fat. The enzyme lipoprotein lipase that works to direct calories into fat cells dramatically increases when you lose weight and remains elevated the rest of your life unless you regain the weight you lost. The more weight you lose and the longer you keep it off, the stronger that hunger sensations become in an attempt to get you to regain weight.

The bottom line is that maintaining weight loss will take more effort than the initial efforts to lose it. Ask any woman, which takes more effort? Having a baby or raising a child? The answer of course is raising the child. Weight maintenance requires ongoing caloric restriction and increased physical activity. Weight loss is 90-95% caloric restriction, but weight maintenance becomes more of a 50%-50% combination of healthy eating and physical activity. Physical activity offsets your body’s efforts to slow the metabolism and reduce daily caloric use. In a study pf persons that were able to lose at least 40 ponds and keep it off for over 2 years, the University of Colorado found that regular physical activity was an essential component to success. A permanent change in lifestyle is required to lose and maintain weight loss.

Dr. Samuel Abbate is a physician practicing in Wasilla.