Today's NY Times in its Science section has an article by Gina Kolata entitled Genes Take Charge, and Diets Fall by the Wayside which is very interesting. It is also very consistent with my own experiences and those of others in the Dimension communities and Naafa communities. The concept of every body having a setpoint or sweet spot or range where the body wants to stay is described in the article. It talks about a series of studies that have been done going back into the 50s which show that the genetic component of weight is actually much higher than almost anyone expects. It also shows that when fat people lose weight their bodies don't become that of thin people, but fat people in starvation mode. Also, how the body's metabolism increases when more food is eaten so as to burn off more and return to the setpoint range and the metabolism slows significantly when one eats less to try and maintain the setpoint range.
All of this is completely consistent with my beliefs which evolved over a long time against what seemed to be the prevailing "wisdom" that weight gain was related to eating too much and weight loss was nothing more than adjusting the amount or type of things you eat.
Of course, the article doesn't touch on a different topic, which is the way that dieting and particularly repeated dieting tends to damage a body's setpoint regulator or at least bump the setting on the setpoint higher each time a diet is attempted or "successful" in the short run.
I've attached a txt version of the article because the pdf version ran afoul of the limitations on size. However, it will be easier to read if you just go to www.nytimes.com and then click on link on the right side of the page for The Genetics of Obesity.
View attachment gina kolata 5807 article.txt
All of this is completely consistent with my beliefs which evolved over a long time against what seemed to be the prevailing "wisdom" that weight gain was related to eating too much and weight loss was nothing more than adjusting the amount or type of things you eat.
Of course, the article doesn't touch on a different topic, which is the way that dieting and particularly repeated dieting tends to damage a body's setpoint regulator or at least bump the setting on the setpoint higher each time a diet is attempted or "successful" in the short run.
I've attached a txt version of the article because the pdf version ran afoul of the limitations on size. However, it will be easier to read if you just go to www.nytimes.com and then click on link on the right side of the page for The Genetics of Obesity.
View attachment gina kolata 5807 article.txt
