DietPsyche: Making Life a Healthy Habit » Weight Loss

Does obesity cause cancer?

Anita — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:56:42 +0000

Unfortunately, body fatness does contribute to cancer and for some types of cancer the evidence is extremely strong. The most convincing link between obesity and cancer is for cancers of the following organs:

Oesophagus (adenocarcinoma)
Pancreas
Colorectum
Breast (postmenopausal women only)
Endometrium
Kidney

There is evidence of a probable link between cancer and body fat for:

Gall bladder cancer

If you have a marked increase in your waist measurement you amplify the likelihood of cancer of the colorectum, endometrium, pancreas and breast (postmenopausal).

Weight loss reduces the likelihood of obesity-related cancers remarkably. In fact it more than halves the likelihood. In fact, obesity related cancer is preventable within 7 years of substantial weight reduction according to some studies.

Summary:

There is clear evidence that weight loss can reverse disease processes. It is never too late to improve your health.

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Does your risk of death increase as you get fatter?

Anita — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:29:54 +0000

Sadly yes. Your risk of death does increase as you gain fat weight, and this goes for both men and women.

Many researchers use Body Mass Index (BMI) to assess your degree of overweight. To calculate
your BMI divide your weight in kilograms by your height in meters, squared. The normal weight
range is considered to be in the range 18.5-25. Overweight is 25-30, and anything over a BMI of 30 is
considered obese.

The biggest cause of death is coronary vascular disease, and obesity amplifies this. When you get
fatter your blood pressure and cholesterol levels increase. And, if you smoke as well, then the
situation becomes even worse. If you are a normal weight smoker (>20 cigs daily), your mortality
rate (risk of death) is the same as being an obese non-smoker! Smoking and obesity amplify risk
of death. People must give up smoking, and even if they gain weight it is better than continuing to
smoke.

High cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking are the three big factors contributing to heart
attacks. And, obesity makes all of these worse.

Even gaining a modest amount of weight can precipitate chronic disease, making it even more
important to watch your waists.

The normal weight range is a BMI of 18.5-25, but even at a BMI of 21 there is an astonishing increase
of Type 2 Diabetes. The risk of all the obesity related health conditions begin to increase before you
get out of the normal weight range (eg increased risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease
and colon cancer. So don’t kid yourself that you can escape obesity related conditions because you
are in the normal weight range. A BMI band can be up to 16kgs, making it possible to actually be
fat, in the normal BMI range! Asians and Mexicans tend to get obesity related health conditions at
a lower BMI than Caucasians which is why experts are thinking of reducing the top of the normal
weight range for these populations to a BMI of 23.

So, what’s the moral of the story?

The more fat we have, the more likely it is to contribute to our eventual cause of death. Keeping our BMI in the lower part of the normal range optimizes our health and longevity.

Image Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1199930

The Pros and Cons of Measuring Fat

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8 Key Guidelines for Weight Loss

Anita — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 02:52:07 +0000

1. Accept slow incremental progress to your goal. Rome was not built in a day, and nor will your ideal body be achieved as fast as you would like. Rapid weight loss usually means that you will end up a smaller but flabbier version of your former self because you will lose muscle tissue and tone. A more reasonable short term goal is to aim for a 5-10% weight loss, at the rate of 0.5-1.0 kg or 1-2lbs per week.

2. The goal is maintenance of weight loss. However, if you can maintain 2/3 of your weight by 9 months then you are doing well. Keeping a food, exercise and mood diary is essential. Monitoring makes you more aware of what and how much you eat, your activity levels and how your mood impacts on what you eat and do!

3. Low GI. People who are insulin resistant (e.g. people who have been told they are pre-diabetic or diabetic) should try to follow a low glycemic index (low GI) diet. This will help manage fluctuations in blood sugar and appetite. Go to www.glycemicindex.com for information on the glycemic index of a wide range of foods. Anything under a GI of 55 is considered low GI, anything between 56 – 70 is considered medium GI and anything above 70 is considered high GI.

4. Portion control. Everyone who is trying to lose weight should try to avoid sugar sweetened beverages to almost none, and sweet or sugary foods. Also, AVOID LARGE PORTION SIZES.

5. Do resistance training. Some studies suggest that resistance training may be better than aerobic exercise, so cover both bases by doing both cardiovascular exercise (exercise that gets your heart rate up), as well as weight training.

6. Match your weight loss program to you and your lifestyle. The best “diet” to go “on”, is the one you like best. If you don’t like the “diet” you will not stick to it. Find a weight loss program that fits in with your food preferences and lifestyle. And, never blame the “diet” for your inability to lose weight, always look to yourself!

7. Consider meal replacements to get a head start. Initially, you may want to include meal replacements and combine them with meals. If this works for you, then do what you think works for you. Remember however, that you need to transition back to eating actual meals and if you have been on a high protein low carbohydrate diet you need to manage the phasing in of extra carbohydrate foods very carefully.

8. Using multiple behavioural techniques will usually optimize weight loss. Examples include eating in one place, not eating while watching TV and NEVER eating in your car.

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What else are scientists looking at as causes of obesity?

Anita — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:44:44 +0000

While the most common cause for obesity is eating too much and not exercising enough, a number of other causes and factors associated with obesity are being looked at and these include:

The role of micro-organisms (the bugs that live in your gut change with your weight and scientists are investigating why this occurs and what impact it has on appetite and weight gain)
Epigenetics(the search for genetic factors relating to obesity – not looking too positive)
Increasing maternal age (pears turn into apples as we age!)
Sleep debt (inadequate sleep is associated with weight gain; the brain associates physical tiredness with low energy levels and can respond with an increased appetite to replenish energy)
Endocrine (hormone) disruptors
Medication (e.g. certain medications promote weight gain)

Whatever the cause, nothing happens to the body without the mind’s permission. If it is to be, it is up to me, has to be your mantra. What you eat and how much you exercise is your choice and managing your food intake and physical activity levels is currently the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off.

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It isn’t weight management, it’s fat management

Anita — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:22:34 +0000

The previous blog post discussed BMI and how having a BMI in the normal range does not necessarily mean you don’t carry unhealthy levels of fat. The previous blog also indicated that some people in the obese range (heavily muscled athletes) do not always carry excessive levels of fat that meet the criteria for obesity.

BMI can be further informed by doing simple things like looking at yourself naked in the mirror, or pinching your fat levels above your hip and under your shoulder blade. These simple assessments will soon tell you whether you carry excess fat not indicated by your BMI.

Where your fat is located and knowing what type of fat it is, is extremely important. Visceral fat carries a greater health risk than subcutaneous fat. In general women have more subcutaneous fat and men have more visceral fat, but sophisticated, and usually expensive, assessments are required to determine this.

So, to get an holistic view of your health risks both a measure of body composition (body fat analysis) as well as BMI is important. The simplest and cheapest way to get an idea of body composition is to take a waist circumference measure. Below are the waist circumference measures associated with an increased relative health risk for people with BMIs <35.

Please note: waist circumference is not taken in people with BMIs >35 because they exceed the cut-off anyway, so adding waist circumference to a measure of BMI is redundant.

High Risk:

Men: >102cm or 40 inches

Women: >88cm or 35 inches

To measure your waist use a tape measure. While different experts recommend varying places to measure your waist circumference, as a general guide, your waist is the narrowest part of your trunk, or approximately 1 inch above your belly button. For those of you who don’t appear to have a waist simply measure at the navel level so you have an accurate reference of change as you lose weight.

Regular weighing and regular measurement of waist circumference are recommended ways to stay aware of your weight and fat levels and therefore support both weight loss and weight management endeavours.

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Fightening Facts About Fat

Anita — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:34:19 +0000

We used to think fat cells (also called adipocytes) were passive little things whose sole purpose was to store fat. However, fat had us fooled until about a decade ago when we discovered that fat was an active endocrine organ that influenced important events like vascular tone regulation and appetite, to mention just a few of its functions.

Fat cells can enlarge to three times their size but when they do the profile of chemicals they secrete alters and ends up in places like the liver, muscle, pancreas and endothelial tissue as depicted in the picture of the blood vessel. This causes problems. Take fatty liver for example. In the US an increasingly common reason for liver transplants is not because of cirrhosis caused by alcoholism but by Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Refer to http://www.acg.gi.org/patients/gihealth/fld.asp.

Fat cells on a body are not just aesthetically unattractive when deposits are high it has been linked with the following medical and psycho-social conditions:

Psychosocial complications of obesity include but are not limited to:

Obese children and adults are targets for societal stigmatization – peers, educators, parents, health care professionals
It hinders social emotional and academic development
It effects self-esteem (your self-worth as compared to others)
There is an association between weight and exposure to bullying
Depression

Medical complications of obesity include but are not limited to:

Metabolic conditions: insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes, blood pressure, high blood fats
Heart disease
Nutritional deficiencies such as vitamin D and iron
Orthopaedic complications – knee and other joint pain, higher incidence of fractures, bow legs in children
Osteoarthritis
Endocrine complications e.g. polycystic ovarian syndrome
Some forms of cancer. Research suggests that in both men and women, higher BMI is associated with higher death rates from cancers of the oesophagus, colon and rectum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and kidney. The same trend applies to cancers of the stomach and prostate in men, and cancers of the breast, uterus, cervix, and ovaries in women. Obesity (BMI>30) is also associated with breast cancer in post-menopausal women.
Gallbladder disease
Heartburn and reflux
Sleep apnoea

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The Pros and Cons of Measuring Fat

Anita — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 02:59:10 +0000

Body Mass Index or BMI is probably the most common measure for assessing your weight range. To calculate your BMI your body weight measured in kilograms is divided by the square of your height in meters. For example, if you are 70kgs and measure 170cms (1.7m) in height your BMI would be as follows:

70/1.7 x 1.7 = 70 /2.89 = 24.22 (normal weight range)

The ranges vary according to ethnicity (covered in another blog) but are generally:

Severely underweight	less than 16.0
Underweight	from 16.0 to 18.5
Normal	from 18.5 to 25
Overweight	from 25 to 30
Obese Class I	from 30 to 35
Obese Class II	from 35 to 40
Obese Class III	over 40

Unfortunately, BMI can be misleading. Take the two people above. Both have a BMI of 40 (obese range). However, the man on the left has a BMI of 40 because he is solid muscle and muscle is twice as heavy as fat. He should not technically be in the obese range. However, the man beside him, should be.

So, while there is usually a good correlation between body fat and BMI there are exceptions such as the one depicted above.

BMI ranges span large weight zones. For the example of the person who is 170cms above when they have a BMI of 20 there weight is 57.8kgs, but when your BMI is 25 (the top of the normal range) your weight is 72.25kgs which is a 14kg difference! Now some people who are 170cms and weigh 72kgs look fit, healthy and muscular, while others may look overweight. To help you interpret your BMI look in the mirror and give yourself a pinch test. Allow common sense to prevail in determining whether you need to lose a few kilos or not.

Interestingly, there is a group of low BMI individuals that researchers call thin-fat. Although their BMI indicates they are lean, when their fat percentage is measured it can indicate that they are actually overweight or even obese. Studies suggest that as many as 29% of people in the normal weight range are obese, and up to 80% in the overweight range are obese. Those who already fall in the BMI range for obesity are usually obese (except for weight lifters and elite sports people).

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Does eating six small meals a day produce more weight loss than eating three meals a day?

anita — Mon, 10 May 2010 10:24:54 +0000

So, does eating six small meals a day produce more weight loss than eating three meals a day?

Well, the bottom line is that eating 6 meals a day does not lead to more weight loss than eating 3 meals a day.

While some studies have shown that having a higher meal frequency reduces food intake because you are reportedly less hungry, and that this in turn encourages fat loss, other studies have not been able to confirm this relationship. It appears that fat loss is only higher in situations where ‘dieters’ are also exercising more restraint over what they eat, and are also doing more exercise.

A study released this year by the British Journal of Nutrition, suggested that eating small frequent meals did not impact on appetite factors either.

So, what’s the moral of this little story.

a) eat the meal frequency that suits you and your lifestyle, whether it be 3, 4, 5 or 6 meals. For example, many people eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and a snack at around 3-4pm. As long as you are not going over your required energy intake by eating the snack, the afternoon snack may ultimately help you manage your hunger and prevent you from “pigging out” at your next main meal

b) if you have diabetes type I or II small regular meals are recommended to optimize blood sugar and insulin management

c) maintain your eating routines from day to day because your body and your lifestyle will adjust to it.

d) always eat breakfast

e) don’t eat food because it is there, or because someone offers it. Unless you are hungry say no to unscheduled food opportunities

f) avoid tiredness because the brain misconstrues tiredness as low energy levels and will stimulate a sensation of hunger causing you to eat more when you are tired. People tend to have less self-discipline when they are tired and eat more high sugar, high energy foods or “junk food” when they are feeling tired and fatigued. Eating non-nutritious foods when tired only makes your body feel more tired because it is not getting the nutrients it needs to run optimally. This sets up a cycle of poor eating habits and food cravings

g) regardless of the meal frequency you choose, you will need to exercise restraint over your food choices and to maintain a reasonable activity level, preferably at least 60 minutes of moderate activity a day.

Never forget, weight loss at its most basic is a maths equation. Less in, more out – eat less, exercise more.

Reference: Cameron, J. D., Cyr, M-J, & Doucet, E. (2010). Increased meal frequency does not promote greater weight loss in subjects who were prescribed an 8-week equi-energetic energy-restricted diet. British Journal of Nutrition, 103, 1098 – 1101.

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Post tags: meal frequency, six meals a day, weight loss

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Is Cutting Calories Sufficient for Weight Loss?

Anita — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:42:43 +0000

I just love it when we get compared to primates!

A study was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald suggesting that cutting our calories in order to lose weight would only result in an automatic reduction in our exercise output, meaning that we would maintain weight. And, why did they draw that conclusion? Because that’s what happened in an experiment with 18 female rhesus monkeys!

Basically, we shouldn’t believe everything we read. Because it happens to monkeys does not mean it will happen to us. Monkeys are primates, we are humans. And, before telling humans something completely unhelpful like ‘cutting calories doesn’t result in weight loss’ they should replicate the study on humans before releasing it in the media. Better still, they should read the research literature on humans, which unequivocally proves that cutting calories DOES result in weight loss.

Like it or lump it, weight loss is a maths equation, albeit a very complex one because it is moderated by our minds, and our minds are not always rational. We eat when we are not hungry and don’t stop eating when we are full. We get fat as a result, and even though we don’t like the extra fat, we don’t change our behaviour.

Unlike humans, animals in the wild don’t gain excessive weight and become overweight and obese. When they kill their prey and sit down to dine on the spoils they stop eating when they are full and wander away. They maintain a homeostatic weight, or a perfect weight for their frame. No wonder the monkeys in the experiment automatically reduced their activity output when their calorie intake was dropped. That is what they are designed to do, to maintain weight homeostasis.

Humans unfortunately have the facility to take appetite and weight control into their own hands and make conscious decisions about how much they will eat and exercise. More unfortunately, most humans don’t always make the best food and exercise decisions and put on more weight than they want.

So, what’s the moral of this story:

a) don’t read everything you read

b) manage your mind to get the body and life you want

Photo credit: iStockphoto

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Post tags: emotional eating, losing weight, mokeys, weight loss

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Our Obesogenic World

Anita — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:00:18 +0000

It appears the main issue impacting on health systems globally is the over-consumption of food. In the stone age and some centuries ago the ability to gain weight in times of plenty served us well during famines and wars. However, in our current times the over-consumption of food is aggravated by a sedentary lifestyle in a global environment now referred to as obesogenic, a term coined by Swinburn, Egger & Raza in 1999 to describe “the sum of influences that the surroundings, opportunities, or conditions of life have on promoting obesity in individuals or populations”.

Unfortunately the factors spawning the obesogenic environment are not only complex, they are here to stay and do not support our waist lines. They include:

· a readily available and expanded food supply

· technological and economic advancements which reduce energy expenditure such as cheap transport and outsourcing of tasks like gardening and cleaning

· food advertising

· a decline in physical activity

· increased sedentary behaviour such as TV viewing and computer games

· time constraints and dependence on convenience foods with short preparation times

· having easier access to food with the emergence of a supermarket society and the explosion of fast food outlets

· increased access to and consumption of alcohol

· a socio-cultural food focus as evidenced by the relationship between food and special occasions such as Easter and Christmas, as well the increasing numbers and variety of cooking shows on television and the emphasis we place on the positive relationship between food and socialising.

What makes economic and technological progress worse is the associated impact of living in societies saturated with a persuasive and invasive mass media supported by marketing genius that seduces even the most hard-nosed individual to take the path of instant gratification. We want what we want (and, don’t necessarily need) and we want it now, and are prepared to pay for it later, if at all.

In our obesogenic world, eating has become a leisure pursuit and a sedative. Food is no longer thought of as a substance for sustenance and survival, it has been bestowed a social, psychological and physiological significance that has become a major barrier to treating obesity.

Once we could say that weight loss was a simple maths equation of eating less and exercising more, but with the evolution of this more complex and technological society and the birthing of an obesogenic environment our consumption extends not just to food but to the media and marketing messages, our thoughts, beliefs and emotions, the substances we consume and even the chemicals and energies we are exposed to.

In acknowledgement of the obesogenic environment we now marinate in, some researchers refer to obesity as ‘a disorder of convenience’ and suggest that unless interventions are designed around the environmental issues impacting on individuals presenting for weight treatment, interventions are likely to be unsuccessful. However, the power of the mind in managing obesity should never be overlooked as effectively nothing is consumed by the body without the mind’s permission and it is the mind that determines if someone moves or exercises their body, and whether they comply with or give up on healthy eating plans. Therefore, unless we also address the vagaries of a mind that has maladapted to the obesogenic environment by using food for purposes such as managing emotions like stress and depression, to relieve boredom, or as a reward, then we are not addressing some of the major obstacles to weight management.

Weight loss is no longer simple. We live in an obesogenic environment that is here to stay. We must learn to adapt to the complex obesogenic world we live in if we wish to optimise our health and quality of life.

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Post tags: behavior, fat, global obesity, obesity, weight loss

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