by Dr. Eugene Spiritus

Why is it so hard to lose weight and keep it off?

Yes, you can blame fast food, supersized portions, advertising of high-caloric manufactured foods and a more sedentary lifestyle. And it’s true that your genes and biology may conspire against your dieting efforts.

But what’s most important is how much food you eat and and how much exercise you get. The cornerstone of any successful weight-loss program must include a commitment to decrease the calories you take in and increase the calories you burn.

Most people underestimate their caloric intake and overestimate their physical activity. But studies have shown that people who keep accurate records of their diet and exercise are more successful at losing weight and maintaining the loss.

So as you sit at the dinner table tonight, ask yourself these two simple questions:  Are you overweight or obese? Do you have a smart phone?

If the answer to both questions is yes, then you have an effective weight-loss tool at your fingertips. With your smart phone, you can download free apps that take the guesswork out of losing weight.  (There are also apps you can buy, and many free apps can be upgraded for a fee....

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by Professor Gary L. Wenk, Ph. D.

That investigated whether diet or exercise most effectively modified the levels of inflammatory proteins in overweight or obese women.   After twelve months the authors concluded that the greatest weight loss and most significant reduction in the level of inflammatory proteins reductions come only from dieting.  The women who participated in an exercise-only program showed no reduction in inflammatory proteins!  

Why is exercising so inefficient?  The answer lies in understanding how our bodies evolved and the priorities established during this evolution.  Our gastrointestinal system uses nearly 70% of all of the energy you consume just to make the remaining 30% available to the rest of your body.  Your brain uses about 14% of the available consumed energy, and your other organs that allow you to reproduce and move around your environment (including your muscles and bones) utilize only about 15%. As you can see, very little energy is left over for other tasks in the body. These percentages give you some idea of the priorities— sex and mobility—that billions of years of evolution have set for your body to achieve.  Unless you’re a marathon runner or swimmer, the activity of our musculature is not a big player in calorie consumption.  Simply stated, the results of this study confirm that caloric restriction is the only valid, scientifically proven dietary intervention that has been shown to slow the aging process, reduce the risk of cancer and improve health.  It’s also much cheaper – you’ll save money on eating so much food and paying for expensive gym memberships.

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