3 Reasons Why People Become Obese

Today, 1 in 3 adults and 1 in 6 child and adolescents are obese where BMI is over 30. Despite all the nutrition, exercise, medical advice and guidelines are out there, we are getting worst and most likely it will not get better by following same advice. It's simply not working.

You may hear comment like, "well, life expectancy is better now than before". Sure, with medical technology improving we may be living longer by being able to treat diseases. We are not in great depression where unemployment was over 20% so we can have better quality of food. And yet it is not surprise to see people in various age group having multiple doctors appointment throughout a week and majority of appointment is due to metabolic issue leading from obesity or to be more accurate, to treat underlying cause of obesity.

When you look at technology advancement, where our phones can do same or more than what our computers can do. Compare that to our health and fitness information or understanding are actually going backwards. Most professionals are ignoring common sense and probably will flunk out of middle school biology.

So what are some reasons that we are gaining fat? In this article, I've picked up 3 habitual trends that are commonly advised but misunderstood by "professionals" and sadly one of the reason is something that I have preached long ago.

1. We are eating way too frequent.

You may have heard from your trainer or nutritionist that you should be consuming food more frequently, usually 5-6 meals per day, with small portion to lose fat. Well, how did it work? Most likely not well. Why? Obesity is not about minimizing calorie but more about how you manage your hormone, mainly, insulin and cortisol.

It doesn't really matter what you eat or how small you eat, your body will still secrete insulin. This is normal because that's how the body store energy for usage. However, when you eat more meals a day, let's say 6 meals a day, your body will be consistently secreting insulin. After awhile you will create something call insulin resistance and also leptin resistance.

Leptin is hormone secreted by adipose or fat tissue and inhibits hunger. So when you eat frequent meal, you are consistently secreting insulin and leptin. Eventually, you body will start resisting, which will lead to fat storing and overeating.

Most people who are having obesity issues are having 6-10 meals a day. Shocking? When you are working in front of the computer, driving, watching TV, playing game, how much of snacking do you do including beverages? You might say, "oh that's not meal, it's only a piece of chocolate". Well you might think ok but your body is still secreting insulin.

2. We focus too much on calorie.

When you discuss about nutrition for fat loss with your trainer, nutritionist, or doctor what do they usually talk about? Macro-nutrients and calories right? Protein, carbohydrates and fat right? I am guilty of this too. I thought by arranging macro nutrients ratio based on how much calorie they should be eating according to their goal weight, people will lose fat. Well I was wrong. Plan above may sound great and worked for while but cannot be sustained.

In your home, you most likely have something call thermostat. Thermostat works like this. Let's say you have set the set point for the thermostat at 70 degrees. When the room temperature rise to 75 degrees, the thermostat activate cooler and brings the temperature down. When the room temperature drops to 65 degrees then the heater turns on to raise the temperature back up.

Metabolism work in the similar way. Let's say with your daily activity level, your body uses 2500 calories. So lets say you over ate for dinner and next morning you may gain about 2-3 pounds but by next day weight is back to normal. I'm sure you have experienced it before. So based on your body size and activity level your metabolism does change but does take effort to change.

Now lets say for example that you want to lose fat and followed 1200 calorie diet for 6 month. Typical diet plan right? You have created the caloric deficit and you may start losing weight. But what happens to your metabolism? Now your set point has dropped down from 2500 calories to 1200 calories. Guess what will happen to your energy level? Yes your weight is down but so is your metabolism.

To keep the hunger suppressed, guess what advice they will receive? Increasing meal frequency with small portion or add low or no calorie claimed snacks to stay within the target calories. Now here comes the scary fact. By doing so, even at 1200 calorie diet, you are consistently secrete insulin and start having fat gain and eventually lead to diabetes.

3. We are over reacting to hunger

Hunger signal is promoted by the hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin is opposite of leptin and promotes appetite and fat storage. Ghrelin secretion comes in waves and you most likely experienced this. Start feeling hunger and after awhile you don't feel them anymore. Another scenario you may have experienced is when you are busy and focused on something, even without the food for long time, you can ignore or not sense hunger signal.

Ghrelin signal is to promote appetite, however, it is not a signal for low energy and can be trained to secrete at certain time in about 14 days. So if you conditioned your body to consume 2 meals, 3 meals or 6 meals a day ghrelin signal will operate accordingly.

So what do you think will happen to your hunger signal where you condition ghrelin to stimulated 6-10 times per day? What do we normally do with hunger signal? We use hunger as emergency signal and start looking for something to eat or create an environment where food is readily available. And what will happen to insulin? You can answer that.

Remember, if you even have 3% body fat at 150 lb, you have over 18,000 calories stored in your body. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat because we do need food. However, it is ok to be hungry for few hours.

What to do to lose fat?

1. Work on eating no more than 3 meals a day including snack. Create a time frame where your body does not need to secrete insulin or leptin. Ideally, start with 2 meals a day.

2. Keep your activity level up by exercising and other form physical activity like yard work, and chores around the house to keep the metabolic set point high.

3. Eat until satisfied for each meals. This may need some practice of eating slow.

4. Worry about the quality and nutrients of food but not calories. Your body will figure out how much you actually need.

5. Know that it is ok to be hungry for a while.

Kota Shimada