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- People who really eat and don't get fat don't exist!
- The "hunger gene" keeps you shut, and the "quiescent gene" keeps you from moving your legs.
- Obesity does not necessarily have health problems, and slightly obesity may lead to longer life.
Summer is coming soon, and my heart to lose weight is hot again. But when I think of the simple and effective weight loss advice of "keep your mouth shut and open your legs", the heart that wants to lose weight almost collapses: if you can control it, you won't need to lose weight!
Why don't you eat a physique that doesn't even get fat?
1
Is there really anyone who eats and doesn't get fat?
People who really eat and don't get fat don't exist
First of all, to comfort people who are prone to fat physique, there is no one who is not fat no matter how to eat.
Take an experiment conducted by the BBC, in which they found 10 people who claimed to be "not fat" to eat 5,000 kcal of food a day and did not exercise (walking no more than 5,000 steps per day), and after 4 weeks, everyone gained weight by 5.5% to 9.5%.
Therefore, as long as you consume more calories than your body needs and can't be consumed by exercise, you will definitely be fat!
Slide left and right on the results of the experiment to see more
Some people are indeed less likely to be fat
However, the BBC experiment also suggests that some people are indeed less likely to be fat. The same intake of more than the body needs of calories, the degree of weight gain of everyone is nearly 2 times different.
The most amazing thing was an Asian man who gained 8% of his body weight (4.5 kg) during the experiment, but his body shape did not change much, and he only increased his body fat by 2.4%, while his basal metabolic rate increased by 30%.
That is, eating more too much, others hoard excess calories into fat, and he converts them into muscle. What an enviable physique!
Also consider the reality of the situation
Of course, the BBC's programme is not a rigorous scientific experiment, but both the programme and the formal experiment often do not take into account real-world compliance issues. In fact, many people cannot guarantee so much calorie intake under the condition of free feeding, and it is naturally more difficult to gain weight.
2
People who are prone to obesity, losing weight is also hardmode
If you don't have a physique that is not easy to gain weight, then lose weight! Don't you just keep your mouth shut and open your legs?
But the world is really unfair, genes determine that you are prone to fat, but also determines that you may even lose weight in hard mode. (Spit: This internal logic is quite self-consistent... ）
The "hunger gene" keeps you shut
Our brain's dopamine system, according to energy needs, adjust the incentive value of food, when hungry, the incentive value of food is high, eating can bring reward incentives, pleasure, eating, food incentive value is lowered, we no longer want to eat.
People who are not easy to be fat: eat when they are hungry, and stop when they are full
The fat mass and obesity associated (FTO gene) is a susceptibility gene for common obesity, which is found in everyone, but some people will mutate.
For the lucky ones who have no variation in the FTO gene, their eating behavior is a steady-state regulation driven by energy demand, and eating is to replenish the energy needed by the body.
Therefore, they only want to eat when they are hungry, as long as they are full, no matter how delicious the food, the brain will not have a "thirst" response, and it will naturally stop.
The hypothalamus regulates a variety of life activities, including eating, image source literature[2]
Fat you: when you are full, you can eat some more
For people with mutations in the FTO gene, everything becomes difficult. The homeostasis of energy hormones is broken, and eating behavior becomes hedonistic food intake (beyond the energy the body needs to replenish).
The brain's thirst for food, especially high-fat foods, becomes a powerful motivator, even overwhelming the signals of fullness from the gastrointestinal tract, which is why you can eat more even if you are full, and you can also have a small snack at any time between meals.
In addition, the obesity gene may also make you prefer foods that are high in sugar and fat, such as desserts. People carrying one or two risk alleles will weigh an average of 1.2 kg or 3 kg more than people without variants.
The "quiescent gene" keeps you from moving your legs
A 2014 study of obesity and metabolic syndrome found that the lack of exercise in obese people is not that they subjectively do not want to move.
The D6S1009 site on the long arm of human chromosome 6 has long been thought to be closely associated with obesity, in which the SLC35D3 gene is involved in the regulation of the central nervous system by dopamine signaling, which is mainly responsible for motor control, emotional transmission and other neural activities.
The researchers found that the mutated SLC35D3 functioned abnormally, eventually causing the dopamine signaling pathway to be blocked, which in turn reduced exercise and energy consumption, and ultimately obesity and metabolic syndrome.
3
Being fat isn't all bad
Genes only indicate that your risk of gaining weight is higher than ordinary people, but it does not determine that you must be overweight or obese, and even if you are obese or overweight, you do not necessarily have health problems and need to risk the pressure of fighting genes to lose weight.
Obesity does not mean unhealthy
The "three highs" (high blood sugar, high blood lipids, and high blood pressure) that accompany obesity make obese people more susceptible to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
But as many as 45% of obese people have healthy levels of blood sugar, blood lipids, and blood pressure, so their risk of disease is not high.
A new study from 2021 identified 62 gene loci in such healthy obese people that were significantly associated with higher rates of obesity and lower risk of cardiometabolism, that is, these genes benefit the body by helping to maintain healthy adipose tissue.
It seems that obesity genes are not all bad molecules.
Being overweight may lead to longer life
Studies have shown that people with a BMI in the normal range of 18.5-24 have the lowest risk of death, and above or below this range, the risk of dying from cancer, cardiovascular disease and other diseases increases.
First, calculate your own BMI (body mass index, weight [kg]/height [m]2), the international standard BMI≥25 is overweight, the BMI ≥30 is obese, and the Chinese standard adult BMI ≥ 24 is overweight, and the BMI ≥ 28 is obese.
If you're just overweight and don't have obesity-related health problems, you don't actually have to lose weight. Slightly fat people may be healthier yet.
4
Lying flat and fat? No, you can save it again
If obesity or being overweight causes health problems (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc.), or if you can only be happy with a slim body, lifestyle interventions that regulate diet and exercise are indeed the preferred option.
Maybe the following methods can make your weight loss process less difficult.
Loses minimal willpower and less difficult fat
For you who have fat genes, the reason why weight loss is hardmode is because you have to use willpower to fight genes. Therefore, the best way is to turn diet control and exercise habits into things that can be done spontaneously without the need for brain thinking.
The researchers looked at 375 adults who had successfully lost 13 kilograms of weight in a year, surveyed their exercise habits, and found that the more "automated" they were, the more days they exercised.
It's just that automation requires some trigger clues, such as the gym on the way home, the location clue, the fitness when you see it, the fixed time every day, the time clue, and the point to go to the gym.
Their movement rules for your reference:
1. Exercise at least 2 days a week.
2. Fixed exercise periods, 68% of people exercise at the same time period.
3. Morning may be better, 47.8% of people fixed in the morning exercise.
The same is true of diet, fixing weekly recipes, not buying overly high-calorie foods, and preparing or buying only the amount of food needed at each meal may be easier to achieve the purpose of controlling the diet. 【How to make a week's meal at once?】 Click here to check it out. 】
In addition, studies have shown that just recording the food you consume at each meal can help you fight your appetite and lose weight. You can use the My Diet Journal applet.
Medication and surgery
Obese or overweight patients who do not respond to lifestyle interventions may be treated with medication or surgery under the guidance of a physician.
The currently available and safe diet pill is orlistat, which achieves weight loss by inhibiting the absorption of oil in the intestine. But if you don't prefer high-fat foods in your own diet, the effect may not be as good.
People who are severely obese may also consider bariatric surgery. Yang Tianzhen, a well-known agent, underwent stomach incision surgery because it was difficult to control weight through lifestyle and there were more serious diabetic complications.
However, bariatric surgery has strict indications. According to the Chinese Guidelines for the Surgical Treatment of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes (2019 Edition), the BMI ≥ 37.5, which recommends aggressive surgery; 32.5 ≤ BMI < 37.5, recommends surgery; and 27.5 ≤ BMI < 32.5, which is difficult to control by lifestyle changes and medical treatment, and meets at least 2 metabolic syndrome components, or has comorbidities, and can be considered after comprehensive evaluation.
Schematic diagram of two common surgical procedures for bariatric surgery
5
Fat is not "original sin"
Globally, 2.8 million people die each year from obesity or overweight, and obesity has indeed become an important public health problem worldwide. We need to prevent and intervene at the level of public health management, but this does not mean that obese people are saddled with "original sin".
On March 4, 2020, Nature Medicine, a sub-journal of Nature, published a statement of international consensus calling on the world to stop stigmatizing obesity and prohibit weight-based discrimination and inequality.
Obesity is caused by a variety of factors such as genetics, psychology, social culture, economy and environment, and is not determined by the will of the individual, so obesity should never be simply attributed to a person's hunger, laziness, weak will, lack of self-control...
So, if you are obese or overweight, stop blaming yourself! People of normal weight, don't discriminate against others!
Eat not fat vs eat fat, which one are you? What kind of friend are you?
bibliography
[1] Heymsfield SB, Wadden TA (2017) Mechanisms, pathophysiology, and management of obesity. N Engl J Med 376(15):1492.
[2] Agatha A.van der Klaauw, I. Sadaf Farooqi. The hunger genes: pathways to obesity. Cell 2015;161:119-132
[3] Zhang Z, Hao C-J, Li C-G, et al. (2014) Mutation of SLC35D3 Causes Metabolic Syndrome by Impairing Dopamine Signaling in Striatal D1 Neurons. PLoS Genet 10(2): e1004124.
[4] Schumacher, L. M., Thomas, J. G., Raynor, H. A., Rhodes, R. E., O’Leary, K. C., Wing, R. R. and Bond, D. S. (2019), Relationship of Consistency in Timing of Exercise Performance and Exercise Levels Among Successful Weight Loss Maintainers. Obesity. doi:10.1002/oby.22535
[5] Lam O. Huang, Alexander Rauch, et al. (2021) Genome-wide discovery of genetic loci that uncouple excess adiposity from its comorbidities. Nature Metabolism volume 3, pages228–243(2021)