Why Diet and Exercise Not Enough to Beat Obesity?

According to a new study, one is obese or overweight mostly because of the genetic structure. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have reported that over 33% of the United States adults are obese, while obesity among school children has been also increasing during the late years.

The scientists involved in this study found that once a person has been overweight or obese, going back to normal is really difficult and less likely to last. In other words, if an overweight person decides to adopt a lifestyle consisting of a less-calorie diet packed with nutrients, the body will immediately enter a new phase by reducing to minimum the use of calories, and by pumping out hormones that increase hunger at the same time, thus expanding one’s capacity to store fat and leading the brain towards overconsumption.

In other words whenever the food intake to the body cut one of a sudden, the body starts thinking it is starving and burns fewer calories, thus attempting to conserve fat. Dieting also seems to change the structure of the brain, generating cravings for high calorie foods.

The new study appeared in the journal Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology and it confirmed that during the first few months the patients who lose their weight in a weight-loss program eventually regain it back with an 80 to 95% probability.

“Despite the fact that lifestyle adjustments may bring about enduring weight loss in people who are overweight, in those with recurring obesity, body weight appears to become biologically ‘stamped in’ and protected”,

Dr. Christopher Ochner, lead author and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine said.

Researchers from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York underlined the fact that the biological responses to dieting should always be considered and treated, not rely on diet and exercise only.

Lifestyle changes are undoubtedly a necessary condition for enduring weight loss, Ochner explained, but at the same time, doctors should be compelled to prevent their patients from becoming obese and to force them into taking measures as they notice the first signs of being overweight. Under no circumstances should they wait until one has become obese. Once you have fulfilled your body’s predictions of fatness, once will never get rid of them.