It is that simple – or is it?
‘You have simply eaten too much and exercised too little’. It is that simple.
The solution is simple: ‘Eat a little less and exercise more’. That perception is common. Because we see how the overweight eat more and move less.
We build this assumption on simple math. If you take in more calories than you combust – well, then you gain, and the other way around. The logic is so obvious that it is the basis for practically all treatment experiments. The many books about losing weight with tables over calories and advanced fitness programmes all take their starting point in simple math.
Changed dietary habits and failed diets clearly show that it is certainly not that simple.
In spite of good results with weight loss when you take in less calories (diet) and increased combustion (exercise) it is still uncertain whether the beneficial effects lasts in the long run. Everyone knows that overweight people through healthy diet and exercise can lose some kilos over a few months but a year later the weight has gone up again. There must be other influential conditions than intake and combustion of calories.
Maybe the cause of and the solution to overweight are not quite as simple as we think. We have to think in a new way, if we have to get passed the failed diets.
It is not necessarily true that the real cause of development of fat is caused by increased intake or reduced combustion.
It might as well be that the fatty tissue absorbs fat. If the fatty tissue with the overweight absorbs fat, food that contains fat quickly accumulates and is not combusted as with normal weight people. So the energy that was in the fat is not used by the overweight. In that way a deficit arises and therefore also the need for more energy – which means more food. The higher weight, the greater need for calories. An overweight person needs 3000 calories a day while a normal weight can make do with 2000 calories. This might explain why overweight people eat more than normal weight people.
Overweight makes it harder to move. It is more difficult since there is more to carry around. So the overweight are not necessarily more lazy. That the overweight eat more and exercise less can therefore we explained as a result of and not a cause of overweight. It is the old story about what came first – the hen or the egg? Is overweight caused by eating too much and exercising too little or is overweight the cause of exercising too little and eating more?
What could be the cause of the fatty tissue of overweight people absorbing fat?
It is an established fact that inheritance has great significance for the development of overweight. Maybe the overweight are born with genes that gives an increased amount of fatty tissue to begin with. That would mean that the overweight need to eat more because the fat is not combusted into energy but instead is accumulated.
The thin people, however, are equipped with genes that gives less fatty tissue so that the fat is combusted and their need for food is reduced.
The research does not (yet) give conclusive answers to all questions. However, the newest results clearly point in the direction that the overweight people not just have it coming to them. There are other conditions, including hereditary conditions, which play a far more important role than previously thought. The assumption that overweight people are lazy and eat far too much is not true! This is good news.
The bad news is that no new forms of treatment have been developed. The way to a lasting weight loss is still a reduced intake of calories (diet) and an increased combustion of calories (exercise). However, research has shown why this road is so difficult for the overweight to take, which should lead to greater understanding and acceptance of the situation of overweight people.