Understanding Fat (featuring book review – The Secret Life of Fat)
I once heard a very interesting piece of information:
People will make judgement of someone else without talking to them within 9-60 seconds.
A woman will sum up another woman within 9 seconds
A woman will sum up a man within 18 seconds
A man will sum up another man within 32 seconds
A man will sum up a woman within 60 seconds.
This is terrible, how can anyone sum up another person without even talking to them.
So many people make so many judgements of others without any knowledge of their background or of their life situations.
Anyone involved in a fitness community would see this first hand.
Like in all industries there are loads of expectations and stress upon everyone to look and perceive to be better than they actually are – it’s very sad really.
I wanted to learn more about our body shapes, and understand the troubles many people have to deal with.
To really understand FAT, and the human hormones that can fully disrupt our lives.
Judgement:
Yes I know many people look at the obese people in our communities and make an instant judgement, but have you ever stopped to think that they are this way, due NOT because they are gluttons, but maybe
- They are victims of a sexual abuse?
- Some of these obese people might be insulin resistant, leptin resistant, they could have a load of hormone issues.
- Their mother may have had a condition when she was pregnant and that has affected their metabolism, they could have also contracted an infection, which has screwed up their metabolism.
- So let’s not ‘judge’ everyone, let’s find out about that person first before you want to make judgement!
A recent book I have just read “The secret life of fat” – Sylvia Tara PhD, was truly amazing on the research she had done on why people can eat the same as others, but gain weight differently.
A question on everyone’s lips is –
How is it when you lose weight, so often you just gain it back, why does your body do this?
Not only this but it is also harder for you to lose the weight next time. (Similar to what I read in “The calorie myth” – by Jonathan Bailor).
You see we have a ‘set point’ that our body knows and when you go below that it can mess around with your metabolism, so chances are you gain the weight back – plus some!
Most of you would have understood this after yo-yo dieting, you lose, then gain, then try harder to lose that bit more. It’s no wonder we are all in a terrible mindset when it comes to diets!!
I know this from the bodybuilding competition I did 18 months ago, to reduce the amount of weight I did, I knew it would regain, but at the amount it did, blew me away – I have experienced first hand the ‘set point’ scenario – and I tell you, there is no ‘perfect ab’ situation now!
This book explains how your body responds to insulin, if it’s in a poor state, our pancreas can produce more insulin, we then become more insulin resistant, and so no matter what we eat – it could be the healthiest meal on the planet, or how much we eat, if your body is pushing out insulin incorrectly then you are in trouble with gaining weight.
So maybe that obese person you saw walking down the street – could be experiencing just that!.
There are so many other factors that can come into play, but what I am trying to get to here is that yes some people do eat a very unhealthy diet, and are very disconnected with their bodies to fuel it with optimal fuel, but there are some people out there that really try to do the right thing and eat a healthy diet.
Yet they face a very frustrating situation of not losing excess body fat.
(Sumo wrestlers are a prime example – they eat a certain way to maintain their fat, yet they are not unhealthy as in a dangerous obese way – heart – attack material.)
Bitters:
Something else you need to understand is that we have taste receptors and they set off different hormones eg. bitters set off ghrelin -(to send through a message to make you hungry).
However what do most people do now?
They add sugar to everything because they don’t like bitter tastes (eg: adding milk and sugar in coffee).
When you don’t use these receptors they can cause a malfunction, you are not using the systems correctly on why they were made.
This certainly can affect your weight.
As our hormones are controlling our system, they control our fat storage cells, so you need to be aware how to help prevent this from going crazy.
However with all the information out there now, being ‘FAT’ isn’t just about eating too much and not exercising enough, it’s about:
- the toxins in and around you,
- the stress and mental health,
- the vegetable oils and sugar,
- the mislead low fat diets,
- the massive companies marketing their bullshit to you to make you believe you are looking after yourself.
Being fat is frustrating – it’s not as simple as many may think.
“Dichotomous thinking”
The common pitfall where dieters believe they are either completely succeeding or failing, with nothing in between.
This type of thinking leads to successive failures!
This is where so many people are at due to so many bullshit promises and marketing campaigns out there to say they will ‘shred’ you down in so many weeks, that you’ll get the ‘bikini’ body you’ve always wanted etc etc, but what they are not telling you is:
– WHY you gain it back,
– WHY your next attempts of dieting will not be successful,
that’s because they don’t know the Secret life of fat!!!!
Just yesterday I was talking to someone and they are following a certain program, that has them doing a workout 6 days a week – why?
When science is proven that doing two short workouts a week has more benefits than training 6 days a week. (obviously depending on what you are training for, an ironman training schedule is very different to an exercise enthusiast that wants to lose a bit of weight or tone up).
Remember your workout is only as good as the recovery you have had.
Working out that often leaves no room for quality recovery!
Plus if you want to change shape and get rid of body fat – the most effective way is lifting heavy weights with your recovery sessions in between.
Please be educated on how your hormones work with and against you, take the time to read, listen or get a coach to help you physically and mentally through your health journey.
Fat is complicated.
It’s proven that having a coach you do have more success.
Check out some of my programs that can help you learn more about your body, just like it has for others:
Biggest gain: “Education about how foods impact our bodies and why has been valuable. It has helped me make the right choices in foods.” – Shona
Please take care of your health
Kerrie
Professional health, fitness and wellbeing coach.
