“So what does a skinny little thing like you know about weight problems?” I hear that a lot from my patients. But don’t let this apparently scrawny body fool you. I know plenty about the struggles that accompany a life long weight problem. And, look closely, those are muscles, not bone, jutting through my clothes.
I’ve worked hard for those. Except for a short time as a very young child, I was never a thin person. I was my heaviest during my medical residency. One day I was normal size, the next I had outgrown every piece of clothing in my closet! Then I couldn’t take it off. I was convinced I had a thyroid disorder because, I was hardly eating at all and I still ran everyday. My husband, after long debating the wisdom of telling his wife she was fat, bravely threw aside all fear of physical pain and said, “You’re heavy because you eat a lot!” Well, that didn’t go so well for him that day but when I honestly evaluated what I was eating, I realized that I was eating far more than I needed to. Most of that eating was taking place unconsciously — snacking and picking at others’ foods. Because the eating wasn’t occurring at a set meal time, I just didn’t account for it.
We are a country rich in information and technology. The NHANES study, easily accessible via the Internet, shows that we are getting fatter despite being bombarded with information about weight loss programs, pills, gyms, books, and articles everywhere we turn. There is so much out there but we are more confused than ever. Many patients come into my office and say, “I don’t know what to eat anymore!”
There is more to weight loss than just eating less and exercising more. Anyone who’s been through it knows it’s true. Years of crash dieting decreases your lean body mass which, subsequently decreases metabolism. Crash diet a few times in your life and you’ll trip over your metabolism that’s plummeted to the floor. Slow and gradual weight loss is the best way to take off weight and to keep it off.
Education is still the best way to combat overweight problems and obesity and a good start is by knowing your BMI (body mass index) and what it means. More on that next time.
For more information, please call the Kayln Center at 661-252-2136.