The "gene" connection to weight.

I recently read this article in the NYT and thought it was well worth posting (especially as my follow up to the recent letter to "O")....


For the Overweight, Bad Advice by the Spoonful
By GINA KOLATA

Weight control is not simply a matter of willpower. Genes help determine the body's "set point," which is defended by the brain.

Dieting alone is rarely successful, and relapse rates are high.

Moderate exercise, too, rarely results in substantive long-term weight loss, which requires intensive exercise.

Americans have been getting fatter for years, and with the increase in waistlines has come a surplus of conventional wisdom. If we could just return to traditional diets, if we just walk for 20 minutes a day, exercise gurus and government officials maintain, America’s excess pounds would slowly but surely melt away.

Scientists are less sanguine. Many of the so-called facts about obesity, they say, amount to speculation or oversimplification of the medical evidence. Diet and exercise do matter, they now know, but these environmental influences alone do not determine an individual’s weight. Body composition also is dictated by DNA and monitored by the brain. Bypassing these physical systems is not just a matter of willpower.

More than 66 percent of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta. Although the number of obese women in the United States appears to be holding steady at 33 percent, for most Americans the risk is growing. The nation’s poor diet has long been the scapegoat. There have been proposals to put warning labels on sodas like those on cigarettes. There are calls to ban junk foods from schools. New York and other cities now require restaurants to disclose calorie information on their menus.

But the notion that Americans ever ate well is suspect. In 1966, when Americans were still comparatively thin, more than two billion hamburgers already had been sold in McDonald’s restaurants, noted Dr. Barry Glassner, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California. The recent rise in obesity may have more to do with our increasingly sedentary lifestyles than with the quality of our diets.

“The meals we romanticize in the past somehow leave out the reality of what people were eating,” he said. “The average meal had whole milk and ended with pie.... The typical meal had plenty of fat and calories.”

“Nostalgia is going to get us nowhere,” he added.

Neither will wishful misconceptions about the efficacy of exercise. First, the federal government told Americans to exercise for half an hour a day. Then, dietary guidelines issued in 2005 changed the advice, recommending 60 to 90 minutes of moderate exercise a day. There was an uproar; many said the goal was unrealistic for Americans. But for many scientists, the more pertinent question was whether such an exercise program would really help people lose weight.

The leisurely after-dinner walk may be pleasant, and it may be better than another night parked in front of the television. But modest exercise of this sort may not do much to reduce weight, evidence suggests.

“People don’t know that a 20-minute walk burns about 100 calories,” said Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom, director of the weight-management center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “People always overestimate the calories consumed in exercise, and underestimate the calories in food they are eating.”

Tweaking the balance is far more difficult than most people imagine, said Dr. Jeffrey Friedman, an obesity researcher at Rockefeller University. The math ought to work this way: There are 3,500 calories in a pound. If you subtract 100 calories per day by walking for 20 minutes, you ought to lose a pound every 35 days. Right?

Wrong. First, it’s difficult for an individual to hold calorie intake to a precise amount from day to day. Meals at home and in restaurants vary in size and composition; the nutrition labels on purchased foods — the best guide to calorie content — are at best rough estimates. Calorie counting is therefore an imprecise art.

Second, scientists recently have come to understand that the brain exerts astonishing control over body composition and how much individuals eat. “There are physiological mechanisms that keep us from losing weight,” said Dr. Matthew W. Gilman, the director of the obesity prevention program at Harvard Medical School/Pilgrim Health Care.

Scientists now believe that each individual has a genetically determined weight range spanning perhaps 30 pounds. Those who force their weight below nature’s preassigned levels become hungrier and eat more; several studies also show that their metabolisms slow in a variety of ways as the body tries to conserve energy and regain weight. People trying to exceed their weight range face the opposite situation: eating becomes unappealing, and their metabolisms shift into high gear.

The body’s determination to maintain its composition is why a person can skip a meal, or even fast for short periods, without losing weight. It’s also why burning an extra 100 calories a day will not alter the verdict on the bathroom scales. Struggling against the brain’s innate calorie counters, even strong-willed dieters make up for calories lost on one day with a few extra bites on the next. And they never realize it. “The system operates with 99.6 percent precision,” Dr. Friedman said.

The temptations of our environment — the sedentary living, the ready supply of rich food — may not be entirely to blame for rising obesity rates. In fact, new research suggests that the environment that most strongly influences body composition may be the very first one anybody experiences: the womb.

According to several animal studies, conditions during pregnancy, including the mother’s diet, may determine how fat the offspring are as adults. Human studies have shown that women who eat little in pregnancy, surprisingly, more often have children who grow into fat adults. More than a dozen studies have found that children are more likely to be fat if their mothers smoke during pregnancy.

The research is just beginning, true, but already it has upended some hoary myths about dieting. The body establishes its optimal weight early on, perhaps even before birth, and defends it vigorously through adulthood. As a result, weight control is difficult for most of us. And obesity, the terrible new epidemic of the developed world, is almost impossible to cure.

My letter to Oprah about an upcoming BIGGEST LOSER show

I was so appalled at Oprah when she had Gwyneth Paltrow on and her emaciated body along with her trainer Tracy Anderson and the complete nonsense workout she had her do - I decided enough was enough.....So noticing on her website that she is having an upcoming show featuring the Biggest Loser show and all that surrounds it I had to speak out..... So I did!


Dear Oprah
September 25, 2008

I noticed on the website you have an upcoming show about “The Biggest Loser” and I wanted to respond, however this is more than 2000 characters so I just had to write and send it in (the old fashion way).

I have wanted to voice my opinion on The Biggest Loser since the inception of this show. I will come right to point and let you know that I feel it is the single worst reality show on TV today (or one of the many single worst shows). I happen to live in Los Angeles (the entertainment capitol of the planet) and have realized that things definitely operate differently here than in other parts of the country. I am a born and bred New England Girl (NY/Connecticut) and moved to LA LA land 3+ years ago when I re-married a native Angeleno. Being in the Health / Fitness profession for the last 27 years I decided to move west after living bi-coastally from my husband for a year and half. I figured it would be easy to re-start my personal training business in LA after having a long established training business in CT. What I learned was the rules are different in LA when it comes to fitness and the fitness business. It’s about who you know and what celeb you are training that lands credibility to your resume as a trainer instead of experience, education and true passion for the profession. I find many so called trainers (who are also out of work actors) are more interested in being on TV rather than really wanting to get the public healthy and fit. It’s sad that the viewing public will buy what these so called fitness experts are selling as the latest greatest fitness product or workout when it is nothing but a bunch of hype to inflate their ego. Which brings me back to the biggest loser infotainment (pull at your heartstrings) for the overweight to get your butt off the couch you big loser. This whole entire show serves one purpose and one purpose only, a high rating which leads to more of the almighty dollar in the true fat cats pockets. It’s appalling that people who clearly are hurting emotionally dealing with obesity in their lives and their family’s lives are subject to being put on public display to only be brow beaten for the sake of entertainment and what will look good for the camera to lose the most weight of all the contestants that week. I realize that contestants bear responsibility here as well; accepting to take this on, feeling that this is their last hope for losing weight and of course winning 250,000 for losing big. And the audience buys this crap hook line and sinker and that’s why the show continues season after season sending the wrong message. People who are overweight and have been battling their weight for years are grasping at anything they feel will help them. The Biggest Loser show I believe is a complete detriment but the producers certainly do know how to pull at the heartstrings - that’s the entertainment industry at its best. They can do this because of editing and designing the show for the public to see what they strategically want them to see to get the largest viewing audience buying this crap. But this is far from the reality of their lives and what they have to deal with on an everyday basis to combat losing the weight and becoming healthier and fit. I would like to see how many of these biggest loser contestants actually keep the weight off (the real percentage) and not just the ones who are paid after the shows aired to keep it off for the reunion show or knowing they will be on camera in the future. I would like to know the real behind the scenes of how these contestants are actually treated and feel about this whole ordeal. I am truly amazed that no one has died after what they are asked to do to so they can win a phone call home. This show does not send a true message as to what it takes for an overweight person to become fit and healthy. NOT EVEN CLOSE. An article written by James O. Hill, Ph.D. in the October 2005 issue of Obesity Management (pg 187) clearly explains my point. In fact, this (show) is the thought process those of us in the (real) healthcare/fitness/wellness industry have been trying to change. This show trivializes the complex genetic and environmental influences on our behavior and weight. It perpetuates the wrong message to those who most need the right message.
To me this show is THE BIGGEST LOSER.
Thank You for listening.
Respectfully,
Laura S. Gideon M.S., CPT
Owner Bamboo Balance LLC Fitness & Aquatics Training, Exercise Physiologist, Cert. Fitness & Pilates Trainer, Nutrition Counselor