by Dan Perez, D.C.
There are many factors that conspire to cause weight gain, and eventually obesity. Some are frank and obvious like eating too much junk food, while others are subtle and under the radar, like the food industry’s efforts to market unhealthy food to young people to get them hooked for life. If you are overweight, here are six factors that you are up against. Regain control over these six factors, and you will be in a much better position to lose weight, keep it off effortlessly and achieve optimal health.
1. Habit. A habit is a learned behavior that has taken residence in your subconscious mind. Some habits are good while a lot are bad. Smoking, alcohol and many other vices are the kings of bad habits.
Perhaps you have a habit that drives you to eat a late night meal every day, right before bed. Or, you have a habit to go to an all-you-can-eat buffet on Fridays. When you repeat certain activities, they sort of become “programmed” into your brain and it takes some willpower to break the cycle; willpower that many people unfortunately fail to summon. So, habit is the first conspirator to obesity.
2. Mindset. Mindset refers to your existing set of attitudes and beliefs and is closely related to habits. Your life experience to date made you the person you are today, including your values, priorities, habits, and so on. These factors form the basis of your mindset. Mindset determines your physical appearance and health, because what you think determines what you do.
Mindset is the driver of emotional eating– eating rich, high-calorie comfort foods when you’re sad, happy, lonely, or depressed. A mindset that promotes obesity can also be one where there is little concern or fear of getting sick and dying; or one that thinks that being overweight is perfectly fine. As long as you have a mindset that fosters obesity, it is virtually impossible to maintain a healthy weight.
3. Addiction. Do you know that added sugar is more addictive than cocaine? An experiment using mice that were fed sugar showed that the mice continued to go for the sugar despite being given electrical shocks whenever they went for it. It is that powerful. Most processed and packaged food has some type of added sugar, which can go by sneaky names such as evaporated cane juice, maltodextrin, agave syrup, molasses, turbinado sugar, fructose, corn syrup, and corn starch. So when your diet is comprised of more than 20% or so of processed food, you are likely developing an addiction for it. Most people deny it and convince themselves that they like the taste of, let’s say Doritos, bread, cookies, milk chocolate, Starbucks mocha lattes and so on, but the real reason is that they have acquired an addiction.
Of course, added sugar is also high in calories. Fructose, the sweetest variety, does not metabolize like glucose does; it goes to the liver and muscles and forms fat droplets. A 2009 study from the University of California, Davis shows how a high-fructose diet can cause you to build new fat cells around your heart, liver, and digestive organs in just 10 weeks, plunging you into the early stages of diabetes and heart disease (whereas a high glucose diet did not have the same effects)
4. Time constraints. This really shouldn’t be an excuse for failing to eat healthy, but is mentioned here because time constraint is a real challenge faced by many. People who have long commute times, are raising small children, have high-pressure jobs, and/or simply have lost control over their time claim that there is no time to prepare and eat a healthy meal. However, this is rubbish. This is related to #2 above, mindset. It’s all about your perspective in life. What is more important, your health or answering an email that can wait? There are many ways to eat healthy and also exercise even if you have the tightest schedule. It requires advanced planning and preparing healthy food in advance, and of course, changing your mindset in a way that puts your health at the top.
5. Confusing advice on nutrition. Let’s face it, there is no shortage of dietary advice on the internet. It’s all over the place. Gurus have sprung up left and right to offer their advice. Internet portals like Yahoo, AOL, MSN and so on have dedicated health writers cranking out articles with catchy titles like “The Top Ten Foods for a Flat Stomach.” You can’t escape it. Most have good advice, but sometimes there is conflicting advice. The main controversy is whether or not grains/carbohydrates should be avoided when trying to lose weight, and if red meat, butter and other fat laden foods are good for you. Also, whether or not skipping breakfast or fasting is a good idea. Some say it isn’t; others say no. What is a dieter to do?
6. Primitive genetic tendencies. I don’t like to suggest to those who are trying to lose weight that genes are responsible for their situation, because it creates a “victim” mentality and can make one feel powerless. While there are genetic components to weight gain, they can easily be “inactivated” simply by adopting a healthy lifestyle. But it is good to be aware of genetic tendencies related to eating, because you can recognize them and turn them off.
You see, humans are wired to eat as much as they can when they are faced with food. This harkens from the caveman days when the tribe came onto food only every couple of days. It was either feast or famine. So when the tribe had a successful mastodon kill, they likely tried to eat the whole thing, because it wasn’t certain when the next meal would be. Plus, they had to consume the whole animal because it would later spoil, or predators would take it.
You can sense this genetic tendency at work whenever you go to a party where there is a nice spread of food– you feel anticipation and excitement, your mood goes up, you salivate, and when you come upon all those colors and smells of the bounty of food– roasted chicken, lamb, prime rib, stuffing, potatoes, breads and the dessert section, it’s hard to avoid stacking your plate and going for seconds and thirds. BUT, this genetic tendency is misplaced, because of the overabundance and easy access to food. So when you notice your brain telling you to stuff yourself, remind yourself that this urge is simply your primitive genes in action, and that there is no need to “eat as much as you can,” because you most definitely aren't going to starve.
So that about wraps it up. There are other factor that promote weight gain, like peer pressure and pain that prohibits exercise, but these six are the big ones.
Now that you know what they are, what can you do to deal with them?
There is a new system I created that can help you overcome these six conspirators to weight gain. It’s called the Optimal Body System.
There are many factors that conspire to cause weight gain, and eventually obesity. Some are frank and obvious like eating too much junk food, while others are subtle and under the radar, like the food industry’s efforts to market unhealthy food to young people to get them hooked for life. If you are overweight, here are six factors that you are up against. Regain control over these six factors, and you will be in a much better position to lose weight, keep it off effortlessly and achieve optimal health.
1. Habit. A habit is a learned behavior that has taken residence in your subconscious mind. Some habits are good while a lot are bad. Smoking, alcohol and many other vices are the kings of bad habits.
Perhaps you have a habit that drives you to eat a late night meal every day, right before bed. Or, you have a habit to go to an all-you-can-eat buffet on Fridays. When you repeat certain activities, they sort of become “programmed” into your brain and it takes some willpower to break the cycle; willpower that many people unfortunately fail to summon. So, habit is the first conspirator to obesity.
2. Mindset. Mindset refers to your existing set of attitudes and beliefs and is closely related to habits. Your life experience to date made you the person you are today, including your values, priorities, habits, and so on. These factors form the basis of your mindset. Mindset determines your physical appearance and health, because what you think determines what you do.
Mindset is the driver of emotional eating– eating rich, high-calorie comfort foods when you’re sad, happy, lonely, or depressed. A mindset that promotes obesity can also be one where there is little concern or fear of getting sick and dying; or one that thinks that being overweight is perfectly fine. As long as you have a mindset that fosters obesity, it is virtually impossible to maintain a healthy weight.
3. Addiction. Do you know that added sugar is more addictive than cocaine? An experiment using mice that were fed sugar showed that the mice continued to go for the sugar despite being given electrical shocks whenever they went for it. It is that powerful. Most processed and packaged food has some type of added sugar, which can go by sneaky names such as evaporated cane juice, maltodextrin, agave syrup, molasses, turbinado sugar, fructose, corn syrup, and corn starch. So when your diet is comprised of more than 20% or so of processed food, you are likely developing an addiction for it. Most people deny it and convince themselves that they like the taste of, let’s say Doritos, bread, cookies, milk chocolate, Starbucks mocha lattes and so on, but the real reason is that they have acquired an addiction.
Of course, added sugar is also high in calories. Fructose, the sweetest variety, does not metabolize like glucose does; it goes to the liver and muscles and forms fat droplets. A 2009 study from the University of California, Davis shows how a high-fructose diet can cause you to build new fat cells around your heart, liver, and digestive organs in just 10 weeks, plunging you into the early stages of diabetes and heart disease (whereas a high glucose diet did not have the same effects)
4. Time constraints. This really shouldn’t be an excuse for failing to eat healthy, but is mentioned here because time constraint is a real challenge faced by many. People who have long commute times, are raising small children, have high-pressure jobs, and/or simply have lost control over their time claim that there is no time to prepare and eat a healthy meal. However, this is rubbish. This is related to #2 above, mindset. It’s all about your perspective in life. What is more important, your health or answering an email that can wait? There are many ways to eat healthy and also exercise even if you have the tightest schedule. It requires advanced planning and preparing healthy food in advance, and of course, changing your mindset in a way that puts your health at the top.
5. Confusing advice on nutrition. Let’s face it, there is no shortage of dietary advice on the internet. It’s all over the place. Gurus have sprung up left and right to offer their advice. Internet portals like Yahoo, AOL, MSN and so on have dedicated health writers cranking out articles with catchy titles like “The Top Ten Foods for a Flat Stomach.” You can’t escape it. Most have good advice, but sometimes there is conflicting advice. The main controversy is whether or not grains/carbohydrates should be avoided when trying to lose weight, and if red meat, butter and other fat laden foods are good for you. Also, whether or not skipping breakfast or fasting is a good idea. Some say it isn’t; others say no. What is a dieter to do?
6. Primitive genetic tendencies. I don’t like to suggest to those who are trying to lose weight that genes are responsible for their situation, because it creates a “victim” mentality and can make one feel powerless. While there are genetic components to weight gain, they can easily be “inactivated” simply by adopting a healthy lifestyle. But it is good to be aware of genetic tendencies related to eating, because you can recognize them and turn them off.
You see, humans are wired to eat as much as they can when they are faced with food. This harkens from the caveman days when the tribe came onto food only every couple of days. It was either feast or famine. So when the tribe had a successful mastodon kill, they likely tried to eat the whole thing, because it wasn’t certain when the next meal would be. Plus, they had to consume the whole animal because it would later spoil, or predators would take it.
You can sense this genetic tendency at work whenever you go to a party where there is a nice spread of food– you feel anticipation and excitement, your mood goes up, you salivate, and when you come upon all those colors and smells of the bounty of food– roasted chicken, lamb, prime rib, stuffing, potatoes, breads and the dessert section, it’s hard to avoid stacking your plate and going for seconds and thirds. BUT, this genetic tendency is misplaced, because of the overabundance and easy access to food. So when you notice your brain telling you to stuff yourself, remind yourself that this urge is simply your primitive genes in action, and that there is no need to “eat as much as you can,” because you most definitely aren't going to starve.
So that about wraps it up. There are other factor that promote weight gain, like peer pressure and pain that prohibits exercise, but these six are the big ones.
Now that you know what they are, what can you do to deal with them?
There is a new system I created that can help you overcome these six conspirators to weight gain. It’s called the Optimal Body System.
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