Understanding Excessive Fat
How to reduce fat - in brief
Essential equipment required;
1 weighing scales,
2 a full length mirror placed where you regularly pass or in your bathroom,
3 determination.
The following diet is based on a real life successful case history where overweight had become not only a danger to health but also to life.
Maintain the healthy part of your regular diet which you have developed over the years. This suits you and provides the nutrients that you require. However as you are fat it is clear that the portions are simply too big. Hence the answer is to reduce the portions (by equal amounts for each food type). Do not be drastic about it, give your appetite a chance to adjust to the reduced input.
A sensible initial reduction by 10% (a tenth) of your regular portions for a month is suggested, followed by a reduction by 25% (a quarter) of your regular portions for a further month. Assess your weight loss (or gain) and decide whether you need to reduce further to 50% (a half) of your regular portions. There are three ways of judging the reductions, estimate it, weigh it, or count calories. Once you have reduced your weight to your satisfaction carefully increase your food portions to a regular maintenance level, which will become your regular portions and diet. It is important to be flexible so the reductions can be adjusted to the current need of the body which at times will need more and at others less.
Reducing fat is not a single battle to be won or lost, it is a life long struggle; sometimes your fat prevails, sometimes you will as the struggle sways this way and that, but do not become thin. A chubby person is normally happy, healthy and attractive. (chubby – the bones do not stick out)
Remember your struggle will be watched, sometimes by complete strangers who see you regularly, and noted with either scorn or admiration.
How to reduce fat - in detail
1 Personal Experiences
I remember well the day I caught sight of my fat in the hall mirror. Having just bathed I was naked and the huge swelling of my gut was not covered by my usual loose clothing. Being a man most of the fat had gone to my abdomen resulting in a fat gut that would have looked like a eight month pregnancy in a woman. Yet another example of gross injustice by fate against men as women tend to put on fat all over, resulting in a much more dignified shape - considered very attractive and desirable in some parts of the world.
My reaction was firstly surprise, then amazement, followed by shock, horror, self loathing, a dramatic collapse of confidence and self esteem then finally a deep depression and an attempt to counter this with comfort foods via binge eating that resulted in further fat increases. How had this occurred, and why ?
2 The Regulation of Body Fat
The need for and function of fat has to be considered. It is essential for healthy metabolism and general health. It acts as an energy reserve to provide fuel in the form of sugars and nutrients that the body can use to maintain it’s metabolism rate and a stable temperature of 37 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit). It is also provides an insulation layer to help keep the body warm and padding to protect against mechanical shocks; as in knocks and blows.
Thus a healthy layer of fat is essential for good health, with glowing skin and eyes, attractive curves, and a pleasant happy disposition. In many countries a plump person, particularly a woman, is considered very attractive and highly desirable.
However, the body, through a serious misprogramming of it’s self regulation, will increase the body fat until the sheer bulk becomes lethal; as in morbidly obese. All it requires to do this is a constant supply of food which is in excess of the need for metabolism and work.
The immediate assumption is that a restriction and replacement of the regular food supply will reduce the fat, as in a ‘diet’. But this is only effective in the short term as diets are difficult to adhere to and once the diet is discontinued the body promptly increases the fat again. The diet seems to convince the body that it is in an area and era of famines, hence there is an urgent need to store a reserve of fat ready for the next famine, and it will do this at the expense of the metabolic rate and work ability (energy). Thus to avoid a famine situation, such as a very restrictive diet applied suddenly, a regular food supply is needed with gradual restriction being applied. Do not allow real hunger to develop.
3 Psychology
It seems that the abdominal fat is not passive and if reducing from a diet, can actively produce a hormone that can cause considerable hunger. (source, the Internet and personal observations) Once feeding commences there is a urge generated by this hormone to continue to feed regardless of the need for food until the food supply is removed or finished. The urge seems to cease after approximately 20 minutes after eating finishes. The phrase ‘feeding frenzy’ could be used to describe this urge and is responsible for ‘binge eating’.
If the cause of the considerable hunger is understood then it can be resisted by an attitude that regards food not as a pleasure, entertainment, or relief from boredom but only as fuel that is necessary for metabolism and work. Very suitable substitutes for eating are exercise and sex in all it’s various forms. Whereas eating adds calories, exercise and sex removes them from the body’s fat.
Hunger vs Appetite
Hunger - the feeling you have when you need to eat (Cambridge dictionary)
Appetite - the feeling you have when you want to eat (Cambridge dictionary)
Note the difference of a need and the want. In order to lose fat you must accept some hunger, but once you have done so the regular maintenance diet will reduce the hunger. However there is the danger that it will be replaced by an appetite. It is important to recognize the difference and ignore the appetite; this will take determination which is part of the essential equipment required as describe above.
The appetite can take the form of nagging by your fat; men are conditioned by evolution to resist nagging (by their woman) in order to survive a relationship, but women are not; conditioned by evolution they find it very difficult to resist nagging (by their child) in order to help children survive their childhood. Hence in general women find it far harder to reduce fat than men: how unfair !
Some understanding of the nature of fat does help to resist the hunger.
4 Fat Facts
‘Fat’ consists of specialized fat cells which store water, sugars, and nutrients. The number of fat cells in a body is usually constant, with each cell capable of very considerable expansion, but if all the cells are full then they will reproduce. If that happens, as in the development of a paunch, how are the unwanted fat cells to be eliminated ?
There is a saying - ‘if you don’t use it then you will lose it’. Reduce the body fat level and keep it down and the unused cells will be eliminated. It is best to reduce the fat down to a certain level and then reduce again at a later stage. i.e. reduce the fat in easy stages.
The body’s muscles operate in a similar way. Unused muscles will ‘waste away’, while usage with increased food intake will cause them to build up. Old age reduces the body’s activity and the muscles consequently reduce, with the nutrients being converted (unfortunately) into fat. The only way to reduce the number of fat cells; and fat, is by a regular diet.
5 Dieting
This requires matching the food intake to the body’s requirements. In order to do this it is necessary to regard food as for the body’s metabolism and the work requirement, and not for entertainment, pleasure, the relief of boredom, or comfort.
Adopting regular eating habits enables adjustments to be made to balance the food intake against the body’s requirement. It is usual for four meals to be taken per day - breakfast, lunch, tea, and supper, which makes it possible to monitor the food intake. It is also healthy for the alimentary tract
‘Snacking’ is a real problem and gives your fat a great advantage in your life long struggle.
The meals taken should be bland and basic of non-processed foods with sugar and fat based items avoided. i.e. pies, sweets, and tarts.
Hence meats, vegetables, and fruit should be the main diet with cereals (bread) used sparingly.
This is far less expensive. It should be noted that some foods are easier to digest and require less energy to do so; thus they tend to be more fattening. This includes sugar and fat based products such as pizza and pastries.
Some irritant non bland foods, such as Indian curries, can be non fattening as spicy food will speed the meal through the gut, hence giving less time to digest it, but this is not to be recommended.
6 Body’s Metabolism and Work Rate
A body of normal build, approximately 68 kg and of average metabolic rate of an adult needs approximately 1800 kcals per day. The same body working a normal day requires approximately a further 1000 kcals per day.
Hence the metabolic rate requires 1800 kcals while the work requires 1000 kcals. It can be seen by this that a high metabolic rate will consume a higher rate of kcals than a high rate of work so increasing the metabolic rate will be more slimming than increasing the work rate.
The metabolic rate can be increased by intakes of coffee and alcohol, adrenaline producing activity, stress, and exciting activities such as rows and/or sex.
The work rate can be increased by physical activity but as one slice of buttered toast can provide the energy for a brisk 30 minute walk, or a run of 15 minutes (source, the Internet) it is difficult to lose weight by this. The body is very efficient at converting food into work.
Thus it an be seen from the above that there are three ways to reduce and control fat –
1 Diet – lower the calorie intake, such as reducing meal portions.
2 Metabolism – a high stimulation and energy life style such as night clubs.
3 Work – by physical exercise such as supermarket or farm work.
7 Genetic Tendencies
Climatic adaptation has caused Humanity to diverge in type. It is believed that Humans originated in Africa and then spread out across almost the entire world (source the Internet). As we did so we adapted by natural selection (evolution) to the climate of the locality. Thus in Arabia can be found the light slender build that copes well with heat, while in Norway the build tends to be heavier and chubby that copes better with cold. The genetic factor that controls this is hereditary, so an Arabian type is liable to be less susceptible to a fat problem than a Norway type.
When deciding on what shape you want to be you should take into consideration your genetic type and accept what your genes have programmed you for - slender or chubby.
8 Environment
Some people live in chilly homes and work in chilly places, so in order to maintain their body temperature their metabolism is increased which leads to increased activity. This requires an increased calorie intake. The increase in food consumed can all to easily lead to over compensation and fat formation, especially as fat gives protection against the cold.
Conversely a warm environment has an opposite effect, requiring a reduction in the calorie intake.
The changing seasons from summer to winter should be taken into account when planning the regular diet.
9 Guilt Considerations
Excessive fat is not our fault. The problem lies with our body's flawed self regulation of fat storage. No doubt in the future science and technology will produce a genetic modification to solve this and future generations can stuff themselves while retaining a healthy and lovely weight. We however must struggle with our diets and to remain slim must worship at the gym. How unfair !
Tch !!
