How To Understand Your Weight

Nutrition With Grace Canada--Bodies come in a variety of sizes. Being thin does not necessarily translate into beautySince the year began, we have been getting letters from teenage girls who want to lose weight. They are desperate. Some are resorting to slimming pills but this is wrong and harmful to your health.If you wish to reduce your body weight, there are some important facts you should be familiar with, before you embark on your weight reduction plan.Medicine has discovered that genetic predisposition, the patterns that our bodies learn early in life, the “fat gene,” emotions, diet, and exercise can greatly influence weight.Developmental stages There are two developmental stages in every persons life, that determine how much a person will weigh as an adult.The first stage occurs when we are still in our mother’s wombs. Here is what happens. When a pregnant woman does not get adequate nourishment, the unborn child’s body will extract as much nourishment as possible from the mother. From that point on throughout adult life, whenever the body is threatened with drastic reduction in calories, it will interpret the reduction as life threatening.In response, it drastically cuts its rate of energy consumption. This is why after you have been dieting for a while, you reach the point at which you are only losing a few grams a week.After you end the diet, your body makes sure it stores enough fat to survive the next “hunger emergency.” After several diets, the body starts anticipating regular famine. Therefore it extracts as much nourishment as possible from everything you eat, and stores it as fat.The end result of a number of diets, is that you usually weigh more than before you started.The second stage occurs at the end of puberty during the teenage years. At this point the body seems to establish another benchmark for future reference. It tends to prefer staying at whatever weight was attained at the end of puberty.Deviating from both developmental stages needs sincere effort on your part.Genetic predispositionIf being either overweight or underweight runs in your father’s or mother’s family, you too stand a chance of becoming either overweight or underweight.The “fat gene”Scientists have isolated the so-called “ fat gene” in humans. If something is wrong with this gene, a chemical (hormone) in the brain that tells the body to stop storing fat cannot develop sufficiently. As a result, the body keeps storing fat. DietEating foods that contain a lot of fat or too much food will result in weight gain. Here is what happens. When you eat a meal containing fat, the fat in the meal will not be burnt today. Instead, it will be stored as body fat until the current fat deposits in the body are gradually burnt up. Also whenever you eat more food than the body needs for its proper functions, the excess food is store as body fat.EmotionsWhen some people feel sad, lonely, bored, anxious or have unfulfilled desires, they may respond by overeating. This has been known to make people overweight.If you have a weight problem, do not despair. Unless there are medical or emotional problems, weight reduction is a lot easier than we are lead to believe. However, it requires discipline, patience and dedication on your part. Here are some guidelines to help you along:l Cut down the amounts of fat you eat. This means: avoid chips, sausages all fried foods, fatty meat, chicken skin, chocolate, biscuits, white bread, and all soft drinks.l Eat smaller amounts of well-balanced meals.l Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables daily.l Avoid eating supper just before going to bed.l Remove all fat from meat before cooking, after cooking, allow the stew to cool, then remove all the fat from the surface.l If you have emotional problems, instead of eating, talk with a trusted friend. Or walk. Walking is an excellent exercise for stress reduction.l Exercise for 30-40 minutes daily, five days a week.Remember: bodies come in a variety of sizes. Being thin does not necessarily translate into being beautiful. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What matters most is that you are in good health.Again, the quickest way to reduce weight and keep it off in the long run is to increase physical activity, reduce fat intake, eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, and avoid junk foods.Write to Grace Canada, C/o Education Vision, P.O. Box 9815, KampalaThe writer holds an MSC in Human Nutrition and dietetics.Ends