Obesity is not your fault

This is true but it is more than likely that you will find a solution. Intermittent fasting and more specifically OMAD (one meal a day) may be that solution. Let me explain: Back when I was losing my weight fast I had a fascination with the show “The biggest loser”(TBL). It was motivating to see obese people like me, lose dozens of pounds in just a few weeks. It boosted my motivation in the exercise part. It was amazing to see people carrying all that weight around exercise for hours a day. Realistically, no one can leave their jobs for weeks to dedicate their lives to exercising 8 hrs a day. So I did not expect to lose 10 lbs or more in a week, but I did exercise 1-2 hrs a day along with OMAD regimen.

Why do we gain it all back?

Unfortunately, most TBL contestants gained the weight back. They felt humiliated because they failed on the easy part: keeping the weight off. They found consolation in a study showing that once they ceased to exercise so aggressively, their metabolic rate slowed down. As their bodies tried to conserve energy, they regain the weight they had lost. Sure it was not their fault. But, do they have any hope of ever being slim or at least healthier? Is it true that we are bound by our genes to be a certain body type? Is there is nothing or little we can do about it? As we grow older and our energy and motivation to keep a fit and healthy body decline? Do these sabotages our previous efforts to lose huge amounts of body weight? in a word, how could we make our new shape “Sustainable”?

“Sustainable” is the key

Even if we workout 8 hrs a day for weeks, we couldn’t do that for the rest of our lives. So is it all in the diet? TBL show contestants reduced their caloric intake as well. Is that the right approach? Body weight is not a simple balance between calories eaten and calories burned. Otherwise, TBL contestants would have no problem keeping the weight off, giving their intake of only 800 calories a day. The key may be in our evolutionary adaptations. If you follow with me, I might convince you that genetics play a role in our usage of nutrients. But we are not bound to obesity because of our family history. Even people that have been obese all their lives. Even TBL contestants who gained it all back after prolonged calorie-restrictive diets and strenuous exercise regimens. We can do something to become slim and fit again.

Feeding evolution

When pre-humans evolved from mostly vegetarians tree duelers like gorillas and chimpanzees today, their digestive system reduced in size because they no longer needed to digest so much cellulose. Pre-humans were able to control fire and thus make foods more easily digestible, there was no need for an oversized large intestine. The energy consumption of this organ decreased and with it freed more energy for our brains. These began to grow larger and more energy consuming as a result. Eventually, we became carnivores and used fire to make the meat more palatable and digestible and more easily masticable. Our smaller jaws gave room for our larger cranium and our smaller abdomen relinquished energy to the brain. The meat brought with it fat that could be used to feed our insatiable brains.

Sugar and carbohydrate addiction

With the advent of agriculture, 5000 years ago, human civilization grew. More abundant food was needed to feed larger populations. We began to consume more carbohydrate-rich foods, bread in particular. In the last 50 years, we were told by the medical community that fat was not good for us. Fat could cause atherosclerosis and heart attacks due to high blood levels of cholesterol. So we substituted fat for sugar to supply for energy. This is when our society became addicted to sugar and carbohydrates. Pasta, potatoes, rice or bread were always a part of a “healthy meal”. Oats and other cereals became part of our breakfast. Finally, the food industry recognized that they could sell more of their product if they added sugar or corn syrup to them. All along we failed to recognize that the disease known as obesity has a distinct etiology: Sugar Addiction.

Exercise and sugar addiction

I was never an athletic young man. In fact, I was a smoker until my daughter’s birth in 1985. However, I was better able to sustain up to 1 hr of exercise early in the morning, before breakfast. Because of my focus on career, rather than fitness, I stopped working out routinely. I limited my workout to a 45 min walk around my neighborhood in the late afternoon, after returning from work. Even that seemed like a big chore, especially if I waited after dinner to do the walking. When I implemented my OMAD routine, I seemed to enjoy my exercise more and more. First, increasing my walking routine to 2 hrs. Then using other forms of more demanding routines such as tennis and even calisthenics (push-ups) and body weight lifting.

The secret all along was in the sugar addiction. But, how did OMAD helped me do away with my sugar addiction? isn’t it just as hard to do 8 hrs of exercise than to go through a sugar-withdrawal treatment? What part does exercise play on our sugar addiction? can we lose weight on diet alone? is a strenuous exercise routine really needed to reduce weight? how do we keep the weight off after months of TBL-type weight loss program? I will continue this discussion in the second part of this series.