Why people gain weight? Part 1 of 10. The answer to the question, Why do we gain weight? splits into two segments: • In-body reactions – something that happens inside of some bodies that cause them to gain weight • Outside-the-body causes – things that we do to ourselves to cause weight gain. In-Body Reactions These reactions are developed in some bodies due to some not fully known biological changes and referred further to as theories: 1. Set-point theory The body may “choose” a weight it wants and defend that weight by regulating behaviors and metabolic activities. It starts working like a home thermostat that sets for a certain temperature and heats up when the house gets cold or cools down when it gets hot. Whenever some people lose or gain weight, their bodies will always try to bring it back to its “chosen” weight. Why the body does this is still unknown, but there are possible theories behind it: a. Brown fat theory Lean people have more brown fat. White fat is more sluggish while brown fat cells actively metabolize fat, releasing its stored energy as heat. A person with more brown fat may stay leaner even if he consumes the same or more calories than the one with more white fat. b. Thermogenesis theory In some people, their body tissues—muscles, spleen,* and bone marrow**—can convert stored energy into heat in response to various factors: cold temperature, physical conditioning, overeating, starvation, trauma, and other stress. Heat can even be produced to “waste” fuel without any useful work—for example, when those people eat a lot. They burn more energy even at rest. Some bodies can decide to conserve energy when people stop eating. Let’s look at this in terms of money. When do we spend more money? When we get them often or sometimes? The answer is obvious. The more often we get the money, the more secure we feel about spending them. If there is a delay, we tend to hold on to money, and this is what our bodies may do too. If we eat often, the body feels secure to release the energy out to burn, and if we don’t supply food for a while, our body shuts down and holds on to that energy as we would hold on to our saving bank accounts when we don’t receive money. When some lean people eat, their metabolism may speed up for a while; while in overweight and obese people, no change in metabolism occur after eating. 2. Fat cell number theory We are all born with a certain number of fat cells in our body. When we overeat, our body has the ability to fill available fat cells with fat from food and then to build more fat cells if needed. When someone is gaining fat, his body keeps generating more fat cells, but when someone is losing fat, his body only “deflates” generated fat cells, allowing the fat to go out, but the new number of fat cells remains unchanged. The more fat cells is being generated, the more that person has a tendency to gain weight in the future because the emptied fat cells “sit and wait” to be filled with fat again. If someone was already obese or overweight before, it is much “easier” for him to gain fat again than for someone who has never built that many fat cells in his body. Part 2 - Tomorrow
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 18:12:03 +0000