Balance Is A Big Part of Weight Management

There are no easy answers when dealing with the health issue of managing your weight. It’s a complex problem, and there are a number of factors to consider. Some of the causes of people being overweight and obese include our behavior, the environment we live in, and genetic factors.

Overweight and obesity result from an energy imbalance. This simply means that we eat too many calories and do not get enough physical activity.

Body weight is the result of genes, metabolism, behavior, environment, culture, and social or economic status.

Our behavior and our surroundings play a big part in causing overweight and obesity. These are the greatest areas for prevention and treatment also.

When it comes to maintaining a healthy weight for a lifetime, I think it’s all about balance. The tug of war is between the number of calories you consume verses with the number of calories your body uses or burns off.

Calories are defined as units of energy supplied by food. It doesn’t matter where they come from, they still count. If I eat carbohydrates, fats, sugars, or proteins, all of them contain calories.

Look at caloric balance like a scale. To remain in balance and maintain your body weight, the calories consumed (from foods) must be balanced by the calories used (in normal body functions, daily activities, and exercise).

If you are maintaining your weight, you are in balance. You are eating about the same number of calories that your body is using. Your weight will remain stable.

If you are gaining weight your caloric balance status is in excess. You are eating more calories than your body is using. You will store these extra calories as fat and you’ll gain weight.

If you are losing weight the caloric balance status is in deficit. You are eating fewer calories than you are using. Your body is pulling from its fat storage cells for energy, so your weight is decreasing.

Genetics and the environment may increase the risk of weight gain, but our choices in what we eat and our activity level also contribute to overweight.

Science shows that genetics plays a role in obesity. Genes can directly cause obesity in disorders such as Bardet-Biedl syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome.

However genes do not always predict future health. Genes and behavior may both be needed for a person to be overweight. In some cases multiple genes may increase one’s susceptibility for obesity and require outside factors; such as abundant food supply or little physical activity.

People may make decisions based on their environment or community. I may not walk to the store or to work because of a lack of sidewalks or traffic. The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity 2001noted that it is important to create environments at home, in the school, at work, and in our communities that make it easier to engage in physical activity and to eat a healthy diet.

Some illnesses may lead to obesity or weight gain. These may include Cushing's disease, and polycystic ovary syndrome. Drugs such as steroids and some antidepressants may also cause weight gain.

A doctor is the best source to tell you whether illnesses, medications, or psychological factors are contributing to weight gain or making weight loss hard.

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I Think, Therefore I Eat More?

That is basically what a Canadian research team recently discovered. The results were published in a recent issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

The research team recruited a group of students and measured their spontaneous food intake after completing three tasks: relaxing in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text, and completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer. After 45 minutes at each activity, participants were invited to eat as much as they wanted from a buffet.

They determined that each session of intellectual work required only three more calories than the rest period. Despite the low energy cost of mental work, the students spontaneously consumed 203 more calories after summarizing a text and 253 more calories after the computer tests.

Blood samples taken before, during, and after each session revealed that intellectual work causes much bigger fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels than rest periods. Jean-Philippe Chaput, the study's main author stated "Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, combined with the fact that we are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialized countries,” he further concluded that this is a factor that should not be ignored, considering that more and more people hold jobs of an intellectual nature.

As I sit here and think about it the more I am craving a snack. You may not believe this but I just checked my blood sugar and it is up from what it was earlier and I have not eaten recently. I guess that means that it’s possible that all this increased thinking while sitting is helping make us fatter.

So maybe I won’t get rid of the Treadmill to gain space after all!

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Can You Speak LabelJargon?

My dietition was telling me how to make healthy eating choices. She advised me to read the labels on the food I buy, so I’ll know what I’m getting. It made sense to me, right up until I picked up a package and tried to read the food label. I quickly found out I needed a translator, or a magic decoder ring to decipher the code.

I tried to find out what all the jargon means, and here is what I found about some of the main label claims used on food packages, and what they mean:

Cholesterol

Cholesterol free- Has less than 2 milligrams (mg) cholesterol in a serving; saturated fat content must be 2 grams or less in a serving.

Low cholesterol- Contains 20 mg cholesterol or less in a serving; saturated fat content must be 2 grams or less in a serving. For a meal or main dish- 20 mg cholesterol or less in 100 grams of food, with saturated fat content less than 2 grams in 100 grams of food.

Saturated Fat

Saturated fat free- Means less than 1/2 gram saturated fat in a serving; levels of trans fat acids must be not more than 1 percent of total fat.
Low saturated fat- 1 gram saturated fat or less in a serving and 15 percent or less of calories from saturated fat. For a meal or main dish (like a frozen dinner)- 1 gram saturated fat or less in 100 grams of food and less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat.

Fat

Fat free- Is less than 1/2 gram fat in a serving.
Low fat- has 3 grams total fat or less in a serving.
For a meal or main dish- 3 grams total fat or less in 100 grams of food and not more than 30% of calories from fat.
Percent fat free--A food with this claim must also meet the low fat claim.

Calories

Calorie free- Less than 5 calories in a serving.

Low calorie- 40 calories or less in a serving.

Sodium

Sodium free- Less than 5 mg sodium in a serving.

Low sodium- 140 mg sodium or less in a serving. For a meal or main dish- 140 mg sodium or less in 100 grams of food. Very low sodium- 35 mg sodium or less in a serving.

Words that mean the same thing as free- "no," "zero," "without," "trivial source of," "negligible source of," and "dietary insignificant source of."

Words that mean the same thing as low- "contains a small amount of" and "low source of."

Light

A product has been changed to have half the fat or one-third fewer calories than the regular product; or the sodium in a low calorie, low fat food has been cut by 50 percent; or a meal or main dish is low fat or low calorie.

"Light" also may be used to describe things like the color or texture of a food, as long as the label explains this- for example, "light brown sugar" or "light and fluffy."

Reduced/Less/Lower/Fewer

A food (like a lower-fat hot dog or a lower-sodium cracker) has at least 25 % less of something like calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, or sodium than the regular food or a similar food to which it is compared.

Lean and Extra Lean are used to describe the fat content of meat, poultry, fish, and shellfish.

Lean Less than 10 grams fat, 4.5 grams or less of saturated fat, and less than 95 mg cholesterol in a serving.

Extra lean Less than 5 grams fat, less than 2 grams saturated fat, and less than 95 mg cholesterol in a serving.

So now that the secret code is broken, I am ready to go back into the Grocery Store, somewhat confident in my new knowledge.

But wait a minute … What’s all this about portions and/or serving size?

Uh-Oh, It looks like it’s back to the drawing board for me!