There has never been a time in human history where there was more diet books, personal trainers, dieticians, and access to information and resources about how to get in great shape yet the vast majority of the population in the western world is overweight or obese! This trend has been increasing steadily for decades as global obesity rates have almost tripled since 1990, while overweight has increased by almost 50%! When you consider the costs and the links to chronic disease with being overweight or obese you would think that there would be a stronger focus to address this problem. Unfortunately, there is very little focus given to treating the underlying causes of this problem as the medical world is obsessed with finding cures and magic pills. There are obviously a lot of factors to consider as this is a problem much more prevalent in high income countries and something that has been established in the community lifestyle which is one reason why it is hard to break the cycle. I also believe a serious discussion must be had relating to several interesting questions relating to recording statistics of being overweight such as the use of BMI and lastly the value of being overweight and fit, versus being overweight and unfit. In this article, I will discuss these interesting questions and more in great detail and give you something to ponder about your own health.
How Prevalent Is Obesity?
According to the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare, in 2017–18, 2 in 3 (67%) of Australians aged 18 and over were overweight or obese. Put another way, approximately 12.5 million adults were overweight or obese. About 1 in 3 (36%) adults were overweight but not obese, and about 1 in 3 (31%) were obese. About 1 in 9 (12%) adults were severely obese, which is defined in this report as having a BMI of 35 or more.
The statistics of people either overweight or obese show that men had higher rates than women did:
•75% of men and 60% of women were overweight or obese
•33% of men and 30% of women were obese
•42% of men and 30% of women were overweight but not obese
Across age groups for both men and women the proportion who were overweight or obese increased with age. From 52% at 18–24 to 83% at 45–54 for men, and from 40% at 18–24 to 73% at 65–74 for women.
Reference:
•ABS 2018b. Table 16: Children’s Body Mass Index, waist circumference, height and weight – Australia [Data cube]. National Health Survey: First results, 2017–18. Canberra: ABS. Viewed 8 October 2020.
•ABS 2018a. Table 8: Body Mass Index, waist circumference, height and weight – Australia [Data cube]. National Health Survey: First results, 2017–18. Canberra: ABS. Viewed 8 October 2020.
Many other countries report similar statistics and shows that this is a problem that is getting worse and not better. Considering all the modern technology, the amount of professions specializing in weight loss, and amazing improvements in the standard of living this area of health has only got worse every decade.
This tells me that our approach to this condition is flawed and we need a new way of dealing with this problem. Blaming it on genetics is taking the easy way out and removing any responsibility people have for their own health.
In my opinion, I believe this is a real problem with the current health system where they think they can cure everything with a pill or surgery. We must remember that the health care system is more concerned with “fixing you” AFTER it you get sick. Not with preventing it before it has happened.
There needs to be a stronger focus on PREVENTING weight gain, obesity, and all the illnesses and diseases that are related to them. I don’t know how we are ever going to change this mindset while governments and media get so excited about cures. While modern technology provides incredible diagnostic tools and treatments for trauma related injuries. However, I believe science fails miserably when it comes to treatments for lifestyle created problems like obesity and chronic pain.
A great discussion about this is the book “Surgery the Ultimate Placebo” by Dr Ian Harris and he explains how the media overly exaggerates modern science with medicine.
Dr Harris says this best in his book on page 56,
“The over representation of good news from medicine is a problem in the scientific literature, but that bias is magnified manifold in the media. I have seen media reports of supposed cures for things as cancer, dementia, and paraplegia. And the more advanced the science seems to be, the more the media love it.”
A great book and I highly suggest reading this as it will open your mind to the problems we see today and why our science is making us worse not better.
Anyway, before I discuss my solution I want to address the problem with using the Body Mass Index (BMI) to measure people’s weight and risk factors.
The Problem With Using BMI To Measure Obesity
Body Mass Index (BMI) is an internationally recognized standard for classifying overweight and obesity in adults. BMI is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres. You will find a BMI calculator on the AIHW website by clicking here.
This measurement tool has several problems. Firstly it does not necessarily reflect body fat distribution or describe the same degree of fatness in different people.
Nor does it reflect the different levels of fitness or muscle mass in people!
This is an extremely important fact to consider, as often the lack of muscle mass combined with poor cardiovascular fitness is the critical factor in preventing the onset of illnesses and diseases associated with being overweight. More on this later.
But one of the biggest problems with this measurement is it can lead to serious eating disorders like anorexia nervosa. This is especially in younger females who been labelled as “fat” by a flawed test when they are really a healthy weight.
Bone is denser than muscle and twice as dense as fat, so a person with good muscle mass and strong bones with a stocky stature might rate as being overweight, when in fact they are most likely perfectly healthy. Many elite athletes are often recorded as being overweight according to the BMI chart due to their high degree of muscle mass.
A much more reliable measurement tool would be to use the hip to waist measurement test.
Waist circumference is an alternative way to assess the risk of developing obesity-related chronic diseases. A higher waist measurement is associated with an increased risk of chronic disease. The risk levels presented below are for Caucasian men, and both Caucasian and Asian women.
For information on how to correctly measure your waist, visit the National Heart Foundation website.
Why is this test better than BMI?
This is a more accurate test of defining WHERE the fat is located as this is more important than total body fat %.
Body fat is divided into two categories.
1.Essential body fat – This is fat that is stored within bones, internal organs, muscles, and the nervous system. In males this represents approximately 3% of their body-weight and with females approximately 12%. It is larger in females for reproductive purposes as they store more fat on breasts and the hips, thighs and pelvic region.
2.Storage body fat – This is fat that is a result of excess eating and inactivity and is often seen as belly fat. This type of fat is the “bad fat” that leads to higher cholesterol, high blood sugars and high blood pressure that are linked with serious diseases. It is associated with high levels of inflammation and hormonal imbalance.
The hip to waist measurement can help to identify the storage fat which is of more importance than the misleading total recorded with BMI.
Belly fat release fatty acids into the bloodstream and pour straight into the liver. Once these fatty acids circulate in your blood it is easy form them to end up in your pancreas, heart, and other organs. This is why it is more important to know the type of fat as to how much.
Linking Obesity To Chronic Disease
Excess belly fat is often referred to as metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a name that is given to describe a range of risk factors that raises your risk for heart disease and other health problems, such as diabetes and stroke. This is a bit like the warning light before you are diagnosed with one of those diseases.
The fat that accumulates around women’s hips, thighs and glutes on the other hand is much different to belly fat. This type of fat retains its metabolic products, as opposed to dumping it into the bloodstream preventing it from doing any damage to the body. The type of fat that sits on this part of the body is known for retaining and storing its energy really well. This also explains why it is so hard to get rid of fat in this area.
Now before you think you are out of trouble this excessive weight can cause problems to your joints. In particular the knee and the hip.
An extra 5kg of body-weight can increase the force on the knee by as much as 15-30kg with every step you take.
Fat tissues can create substances and hormones that affect joint cartilage and exacerbate the inflammatory process and leave you in chronic pain. This in turn prevents you from exercising and creates a domino effect of more weight gain, and out of control hormones, and eventually osteoarthritis. While a female with fat on the thighs is as not of less danger with metabolic syndrome, they are at increased risk with knee osteoarthritis and pain.
There is no doubting the link between obesity and chronic disease is extremely high.
Obesity is responsible for the threefold greater risk of pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs). Obesity-related dysregulation of lipid synthesis can also aggravate lung inflammation, thereby contributing to increased disease severity in viral respiratory infections specifically. In addition to that, excess body weight and fat deposition around the internal organs put pressure on your diaphragm, which makes it more difficult to breathe when you have a respiratory infection.
We Still Need Some Fat To Be Healthy
This is something that might surprise many people, but we actually need some degree of fat. No one can have a fat-free body and be healthy. We need fat for warmth and insulation, to protect internal organs, and even joints, and it makes up approximately 66% of the brain. To rid our body of it completely would not be a good idea so we need to understand its role in providing good health to our body.
We even need to eat fat to maintain great health. And yes, I am talking about saturated fat too. And no, eating fat will not make you fat. Eating too much sugar and carbohydrates is more likely to make you fat than eating fat itself. Each gram of dietary fat provides nine calories of energy for the body versus four calories for carbohydrates and proteins. Your body needs fats to build cells and manufacture key hormones.
Fat assists in the health of the brain and nervous system, as well as regulating immune responses, liver function, and proper thyroid and adrenal activity. Just as with all foods, however, you must consume high-quality fats and oils for your body to effectively use them.
In addition to helping provide structure and function to the body, one of the main reasons we need to eat fat is to absorb and use fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K. These vitamins do not dissolve in water and can only be absorbed from your small intestine in combination with fat. Without enough Vitamin K you would lack the ability to form blood clots and could suffer from instant bleeding! Deficiency in vitamin A can lead to blindness and infections.
Fats fall into two groups; omega-3 and omega-6 EFAs.
1.Omega-6 EFAs are readily available in grain products, meats and many commonly used cooking oils such as corn, safflower and sunflower.
2.Omega-3 EFAs are found in leafy green vegetables, oily fish and free-range eggs and comparatively small quantities are available in walnuts and animal meats. The ideal ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids in your diet is 1:4.
Eating good fats is also a great way to prevent food cravings that can easily sabotage your health and fitness efforts. When you eat too many carbohydrates your body gets a surge of glucose (sugar) and what goes up fast also comes down fast. When the glucose begins to suddenly crash your body wants to balance out the insulin and blood sugars by sending you a craving to eat more food. The food that is balances out this crash is what? You guessed it, SUGAR.
Fat helps to keep you satisfied for longer as it is a fuel source that burns slow. This is what the Keto diet is based upon and why it works so well for many people looking to get on top of their diet and eliminate the sugar addiction.
To see more about the various benefits I only briefly discussed here make sure you check out the books “Nutrition & Physical Degeneration” by Weston A Price, “Big Fat Lies” and “Eat Real Food” by David Gillespie will provide stacks of scientific proof that fat is actually good for you!
Fit & Fat Is Better Than Skinny & Unfit
Now while it is clear that being overweight leads to some severe health risks it is not everything! In the book “The Obesity Paradox” by Carl J Lavie M.D. he provides great detail about the value of being strong and fit than simply being skinny. His book provides fascinating research and insights into how loss of fitness appears to be a stronger predictor of mortality than weight gain.
Our obsession with losing weight and using statistics like BMI to assume that if you are lean and slender you have nothing to worry about is a dangerous mistake. There are many skinny people with Type 2 diabetes and serious health problems walking around today and their health is at risk, not from being overweight, but from being inactive and unfit.
The person who is lean but does not exercise could be controlling their weight using extreme dieting measures, therefor leaving their body at risk of malnutrition and vitamin deficiency. While their body fat might appear low, on the inside they can easily develop visceral fat putting them at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. But because they are skinny they see no need to change anything.
These people are often referred to as a “TOFI”, which stands for, “thin on the outside, but fat on the inside”.
This is where the person who is slightly overweight but is fit is actually a healthier person than the skinny person who does nothing! I know it sounds crazy but the research proves this to be the case.
In the book “The Obesity Paradox“ they looked at this phenomenon closely and one of the studies completed by UCLA researchers observed the impact muscle mass had on preventing diabetes in 13,600 adults.
The study established that for every 10% increase in muscle mass to total body weight is associated with an 11% decrease in insulin resistance and 12% drop in the risk of developing diabetes.
The more muscle you have the better.
Now before you rush out and start crushing the weights make sure you learn to move well first and earn the right to train hard. If you ignore this you risk developing an injury which is the last thing you want.
This is where it gets really interesting for they also found muscle strength can be a factor in how long it takes for a person to recover from serious illness. The less muscle mass you have the longer it takes to get back to normal life. And it can even determine the rate of decline towards death!
Critical illness occurs when the body doesn’t have enough muscle protein to break down and provide life sustaining glucose and those with more muscle mass to begin with will last longer.
Anytime the body is fighting illness or disease it requires more energy and higher caloric reserves than usual, meaning an overweight person has a distinct advantage. Don’t get me wrong I am not encouraging people to go and put on weight, as a fit, strong, lean person is still much better than an overweight and fit person.
My point is that the strength and fitness of an overweight person is something we must consider in the role of health and muscle mass in particular appears to be of much more importance.
This is something I have covered in great detail before with articles relating to cancer treatment and there is a ton of information supporting this.
For example, a 2005 Harvard study found that breast cancer patients who exercised moderately for three to five hours a week lowered their odds of dying from cancer by about half, compared to sedentary patients. In fact, any amount of weekly exercise increased a patient’s odds of surviving breast cancer to some degree, and this benefit remained constant regardless of whether women were diagnosed early on or after their cancer had spread.
A team of experts tracked the lifestyles of over 8,500 men for more than two decades. Each volunteer had regular medical check-ups that included tests of their muscular strength. The men who regularly worked out with weights and had the highest muscle strength were between 30 percent and 40 percent less likely to lose their life to a deadly tumour.
Even among volunteers who were overweight, regular weight training seemed to have a protective effect, although the researchers stressed that keeping a healthy weight was still crucial for avoiding premature death. But they added, “In the light of these results, it is equally important to maintain healthy muscular strength levels.” Researchers said it’s possible to reduce cancer mortality rates in men by promoting resistance training involving the major muscle groups at least two days a week.”
Reference: The Telegraph May 26, 2009 & Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention 18, 1468, May 1, 2009
This means that your fitness level and muscle mass may be of much more importance than measuring your body fat.
Also be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that because you have worked out for the day your job is done.
The Danger Of Being Active But Sedentary
Most recommendations are to do 30-45 minutes or physical activity per day which is a great start for preventing obesity. But, if that is all you do for the entire day you are still exposing your body to a host of problems.
If you worked out for 30 minutes per day and the rest of your day you sat down, your total activity percentage of available time to move might be only 4% at best! In this example, the 30 minute workout while it is great to do and has some amazingly positive aspects, is pretty much cancelled out by the negative impact on the metabolism by the 96% of sedentary activity the rest of the day.
You would have got more benefit from 3 x 20 minute workouts spread out across the day. But even better than that you would be have much greater rewards by finding ways to incorporate many short walks and accumulating incidental movement as much as possible.
Use of stand-up desks, taking the stairs instead of the lift, parking your car in the furthest car space instead of the closest one are other great examples of maintaining more movement. Using Fit-bits or smartwatches with pedometer tracking are great tools to help motivate you to move.
Small amounts of regular activity, even just standing and moving around throughout the day is enough to bring the increased levels back down. And those small amounts of activity add up – scientists have suggested that 30 minutes of light activity in two or three-minute bursts could be just as effective as a half-hour block of exercise.
What Causes Weight Gain?
There is no simple answer to this as many might think and is quite controversial in many ways as many experts argue about what is truly to blame. Most people believe it is all to do with eating too much and not exercising enough. The energy in versus energy out equation that relies on counting calories is the most discussed theory and if this was successful then I would not be writing this article right now.
While in theory it makes great sense there are many problems with this equation and I have found this to be very problematic with many people over the long term.
I have always blamed weight gain on our diet of poor quality food comprised of processed foods loaded with excessive calories. I have also thought weight gain was more to do with diet than a lack of exercise. I have seen so many people exercise all the time but never lose any weight or change in appearance at all as their diet was terrible. This is why I regularly say, you cannot out-exercise a bad diet. However, I do recognize that exercise is an essential component in losing weight quickly and as we have discussed several times in this article it is vital if you want to move well for life.
Once again in the book “The Obesity Paradox” the author claims it may have more to do with physical inactivity than excessive eating.
A study by Dr Timothy Church from Pennington Biomedical Research Centre in Baton Rouge showed in a 2011 paper that the dramatic drop in energy expenditure in work related activities over the past 50 years explains the increasing prevalence of obesity in the same time period.
On the other side of this is the pro-dieter camp who believe that diet is key and no reasonable amount of exercise can beat eating processed foods of today. Eliminating processed foods is great, however the reduction in food quantity that helps lose weight in the beginning brings about some other changes that many are unaware of.
It has been scientifically proven that when you lose weight, your metabolism slows. This is called metabolic adaptation, and it’s perfectly normal. Metabolic adaptation is a natural defence mechanism against starvation.
When you’re dieting, at a certain point, your body will send out signals of:
•Starvation alert!
•There’s not enough food to go around!
•Hold onto the fat reserves!
At that point, your Resting Metabolic Rate slows down. Metabolic adaptation can make things more complicated (and frustrating) for dieters who hope to continue or maintain their weight loss.
Once these signals are released the calorie restriction no longer has the same effect it did at the beginning of their diet. Next thing you see is that, they need to cut more calories just to maintain the same weight. This is your body’s way attempt of maintaining homeostasis to keep the system running well. If they do not cut the calories further, weight begins to creep back on even though they are eating the same as they were when everything worked the first time.
How Much Influence Do Hormones Have?
Another factor that can really mess things up is the hormone imbalance. This is often where people blame their genetics for creating weight gain and in some cases they may in fact have some argument here. But to assume the majority are due to genetics is not true at all. This is something that is often argued with cancer and that is the genetics that led to the development of the disease.
In the book “An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure” by Richard Believe & Denis Gingras they compiled research to explore this question. They found that the cancer risk of children adopted early in their life whose adopted parent dies of cancer before age 50 had a whopping 500% increase in cancer risk than if they stayed with their biological parent. This showed that the children inherited the cancer genes from lifestyle factors and not genetic factors.
Our modern way of life is conducive to the development of cancer, a bad diet with too much sugar and processed foods, being overweight, and a sedentary lifestyle creating the perfect breeding ground for precancerous cells to go rampant. These destructive modern lifestyle habits create inflammation, and this increases the production of nitrogen and oxygen free radicals that damage DNA and destabilize its structure.
It is no wonder obese people are exposed to cancer and other chronic disease.
There is no denying in some people hormonal imbalance may be the underlying cause of their problems. I have seen many people who work out consistently and eat incredibly healthy food never change weight at all. No matter what they do they remain the same. This is where STRESS can be a real problem as it will wreak havoc on the entire body, physically and mentally.
An unchecked stress response can cause repeated spikes in blood pressure increasing the chances of a stroke. You will begin to stockpile fat around the abdomen due to the high levels of the stress hormone cortisol being activated lowering IGF-1 and maintaining high levels of glucose in the bloodstream. This endless supply of cortisol greatly weakens the immune system and exposes the body to deadly diseases like diabetes and cancer.
Worse than that is its ability to disrupt your entire hormonal system and for females who already have a complex system this is a disaster. Hormones control much of what you feel, hungry, thirsty, tired, sick, energetic, hot or cold. On a basic level your hormones are like your body’s messengers, they are produced in one area of the body such as the thyroid, pass into your bloodstream where they can be sent to organs and tissues to modify structures and functions.
They act like traffic signals telling your body what to do and when to do it so it can run effectively. They are as much a part of your respiratory, cardiovascular, skeletal, immune and digestive system as they are a part of your reproductive system. Can you see now how if there is an imbalance left unchecked how much damage this can cause to your health and why weight loss seems so insignificant to your body in terms of what is more important.
There is no good or bad hormones, there is only good balance or bad imbalances of them. Too little or too much of certain hormones can lead to obesity, and obesity can create changes to hormones and their levels.
Females have a much harder time than males especially around the time of menopause which is why women suffer with migraines more than men and the massive physical changes the body is going through creates a lot of stress. And it is the stress that in turn disrupts sleep, the ability to workout effectively, to have the energy and desire to eat the right foods. This does not give females a free card but it does shed some light on why the simple eat less and move more statement is not going to cut it.
Read the article about strength training for women to see more on this.
Males should have no excuse as their hormonal situation is much easier yet they gain more weight than women around middle age and again this is the same time that levels of testosterone are dramatically declining if they are doing nothing to stop the loss. Testosterone is the single most important ingredient for building muscle and the more muscle you have the faster your metabolic rate making it easier to stay in great shape. While males have a much more simplistic hormonal system it does create the same problems as females which is why it is so important to use strength training at this time in your life.
You can read more about how to overcome these complex problems in the article – Stress, mental health and exercise
What Can You Do To Prevent Obesity?
The obvious answer is to eat better and move more.
For some people it may be that easy, but as you can see from this article there may be a lot more to it than that for many other people. For starters, we have to accept that many people have a sedentary job these days that exposes them to long periods of inactivity and there is no way we can change that. Combined with stress, and the easy availability of poor food choices it can be very challenging to overcome putting on weight.
The longer answer is to dig deep into the reasons why you are unable to sustain eating better and moving more and this will have a lot to do with habits, stress, and your current lifestyle.
The need to have a plan in place to accommodate the modern way of living is critical, and something we have failed to keep up with the more that technology has interfered with our lives. The more gadgets and devices invented to make life easier, the more important exercise becomes. You cannot keep cutting back on calories for you will end up malnourished, and to be honest eating is one of life’s pleasures, so you would be leading a miserable life.
Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all plan I can give to you to follow. Building a healthy body is similar to building a house, in that you need a strong foundation. Each one is as important as the next as they are all bound to each other to create the perfect environment for the body to thrive. You cannot skip steps or leave out a foundation or the house will fall down.
These are the 8 foundation elements you require to build a strong body.
Some of these things will be easier than others to obtain and some you may already be doing. It is the areas you are lacking in that will provide the greatest benefit to your health but will also be the hardest to change. Often bad habits will be the roadblock preventing you from success.
By far the biggest mistake many make is trying to change too many things all at once. They try to change their entire diet overnight, join a gym, run 3 times per week, and many other various other dramatic lifestyle changes. While these all sound good this guarantees failure for there is too many things to learn and the stress of changing things overwhelms the brain which does not like change.
Be patient, consistent, and never give up. Eventually you will find your solution and be able to sustain a new lifestyle for the rest of your life.
In part two of this article I will discuss each of these 8 pillars in great detail and not just how to lose weight but how to keep it off for good.
Additional Resources to Help You with Exercise & Nutrition
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Summary
This article will challenge your current way of thinking when it comes to weight loss and obesity. There is no doubting that obesity is the pandemic that has been brewing for years and left unchecked by Government and health officials more concerned with finding cures than preventing the problem. As a community we must take responsibility for our own bodies and acknowledge the various factors concerned with health. Exercise alone is not enough, and neither is dieting. A combination of the two combined strategies to reduce stress and increase our time moving is vital if we want to avoid the crippling diseases associated with weight gain.
The one thing I would like to leave with you is this. It is important to be fit and strong. Even if you happen to carry some extra weight, this is not as bad as being overweight and unfit.