From what that was discussed in other articles we can have a better insight about obesity now. Obesity is caused by energy imbalance in our body. It means our food intake is more than what body can handle. I explain this in two parts:

1- Food Intake

2- Food burning

Food intake and metabolism

Our body needs food to keep itself up and running. It has this ability to digest food and convert it to its basic elements. Starch is converted to simple sugars, proteins are converted to amino acids and fat is reduced to its basic ingredients. Body uses these basic elements in construction (mainly proteins) and producing energy (fat and sugar). Vitamins and minerals are tools for these complex processes and help them get done smoothly. We call it metabolism. Metabolism is the summation of anabolism (making) and catabolism (destroying).

The rate of metabolism says you will gain weight or not. People with strong metabolism can eat lots of food and gain no weight. People with slow metabolism eat much less and gain weight.

The question is: why is it so? Can we help our body to have a better metabolism?

The reasons for slow metabolism are many. I list the most important ones here:

- Genetics: having the history of obesity in family makes you a good candidate for having a slow metabolism.

- Medical conditions: slow thyroid or hypothyroidism, some genetic disorders, diabetes and hormonal imbalance are good examples of medical conditions causing obesity.

- Low level of body activity: it makes our body lazy and results in slow metabolism over time.

- Stressful life style and lack of sleep: this completely messes with our body physiological balance and is very common.

- Foods: Some types of food are not suitable for body metabolism. Food additives and preservatives worsen the issue. You find this is more common in western countries.

There are many other reasons for slow metabolism, but I want to get to the main issue here and that is how food intake is related to slow metabolism and obesity.

In body calorie is the main energy unit. Normally our body needs around 22 calories per kilogram of body weight to operate normally. For a 70kg person it is around 1400 calories.

Carbs produce 4 calories per gram, proteins 4 calories per gram and fat 9 calories per gram. As you can see body can store more energy as fat compare to carbs and proteins.

In other words 9000 calories is equal to one kilogram of fat. For carbs and proteins it is 4000 calories. Imagine a man who is 70 kilograms and eat 2000 calories of food per day. He is able to burn 2000 calories too. The net is zero and his weight is stable. Now he starts adding 500 calories by eating chips or nachos while watching movie every night. After 18 days he has 9000 excess calories. It is equal to one kilogram of fat. Body has no way of burning it because its capacity was 2000 calories per day.

It is a simple calculation you have to do for proteins and carbs. Excess food is always converted to fat and then stored. There is no way around it. You can’t cheat it and you don’t have a magic wand to reverse it. So for the man in this example problem shows itself with increase in weight and size. he can’t put on his new pants and realized that those chips are the reason. He stops eating them and get back to 2000 calories a day. Net energy balance is zero again. Can he lose weight what he gained? NO! He goes on diet…. 1500 calories a day. He assumes that he can burn the excess 9000 calories in 18 days. Unfortunately body losses fat more slowly than it gains it. why?

Because of the survival mode!

Survival mode

Our body is much the same as human body 10000 years ago. It has different mechanisms of adaptability. In those times it was hard to find enough food to eat. Especially in winter they had to endure long periods of starving. So the body learned to reduce the metabolism rate in starvation and store extra food as fat as soon as it reaches food for the next round of starvation.

Now we are in 21^st century, but our body physiology is exactly the same. Our fictional man turns on his body survival mode when goes on diet. Before gaining weight he could burn 2000 calories a day. Gradually his body reduces the metabolism rate to match his present food intake that is 1500 calories a day. He loses weight very good at first but then it becomes slower and slower. He gained weight in 18 days, but now he can’t get rid of it that easily. Moreover, after he starts eating normally (2000 calories a day) he starts gaining weight very fast. Remember! He can burn 1500 calorie now. Even worse…that extra fat made him heavier, so his physical activity is now less. It complicates the situation.

This scenario is pretty much the same scenario happens to everyone who is susceptible to weight gain. Those conditions I mentioned earlier make our body burning power weaker. So people in those conditions have more problems shedding the extra fat.

Food burning and treatment options

Now that we gained weight and our metabolism is slow for any reason, what are our options to lose again? Can we go on diet again? How can we fight survival mode? How can we diet and keep our metabolism up?

The answer is a little bit complicated. The answer for the first one is YES and a big yes. The others need explanation.

We had two problems:

1- Slow metabolism

2- Increased food intake

For the first one we have multiple choices. In case of medical conditions you need to treat them if possible. You can take medication for slow thyroid or hormonal imbalance. By fixing life style you can have a better sleep and less stress. You can choose better foods and so on. Familial obesity is a hard one. The only choice you have is food intake regulation and exercise. We get to that later. Remember that this familial obesity does not mean you are condemned to be fat all your life. It makes you susceptible to gain weight… by itself it can not cause obesity.

If obesity is caused by excess food then treatment is very straight forward.

1. Stop what is causing obesity. That means extra food intake
   
2. Eat in appropriate time of the day
   
3. Add exercise to your daily activity
   
4. Start a healthy diet
   

First important rule is stop eating excess food. If you don’t do it then you have to forget losing the fat off your body. So eat less!

Eating at night time is horrible. Body can’t burn food at that time. So it converts it to fat while you are asleep and dream about being slim!

Exercise is great, as it is a very good way to stop the survival mode from happening. Even 15 minutes of walking per day or every other day will do the job.

Start a healthy diet! Saying it is much easier than doing it, especially in this confusing weight loss market. Have these in mind as your first rule: Avoid protein free diets. It will destroy your body. Avoid using diuretics and laxatives. Avoid invasive procedures as much as you can. Do not use a diet without a good maintenance plan.

At the end I explain a little about ways of increasing the metabolism rate. The healthiest way is exercise. In different types of exercise aerobic ones are the best. Aerobic means the exercise uses lots of oxygen. Cycling, fast walking, jogging, swimming, running and Pilate are good example of aerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise is like working with weights and is not good for weigh loss programs overall. Different body activities have different calorie usage.

Dancing and skipping rope are in the top of the list and it comes down to very usual ones like driving and even breathing.

I suggest you to look at the other articles and the new ones that I will add. know what you are planning to do with your body and you will help yourself and your practitioner to get the best results.