Day 67 - "Why We Get Fat" Pt. 2

Today is a continuation of Gary Taubes' "Why We Get Fat". I will be focusing my discussion on chapters 4 through 9.

Gary Taubes

The Significance of Twenty Calories a Day

One pound contains 3500 calories. So when we want to lose weight, we have to create an average deficit of about 500 calories a day for seven days in order to lose a pound of weight. However, what happens when you change the perspective and ask how much you have to overeat by in order to gain two pounds of fat per year? The answer: twenty calories a day. When you truly think about it, twenty calories can add up to be about one extra bite too many. If we are just to overeat by  one or two bites of food each day, then we are doomed to gain tons of weight (Taubes, 59).

Many people, however, overeat by this and so much more, yet remain lean. How can this be? Taubes suggests that something more is going on that can't be simply explained by the notion of calories consumed (60)

Why Me? Why There? Why Then?

It is important to not only talk about fat in terms of its existence or lack of, but also in terms of where on our bodies fat accumulates and when it does. According to Taubes, prior to World War 2, physicians who studied obesity believed that much could be explained by observing how fat was distributed on their patients (62). Taubes brings up a lot of this research as some of the basis for his beliefs on fat accumulation and distribution.

Since the 1930's, obesity has been known to have a large genetic component; if your parents are fat, it is far more likely that you will be fat than someone whose parents are lean. When looking at some of the twins studies, there is a very notable similarity between one set that are both lean and the other that are both overweight: their body's look exactly the same. So if you go by the calories-in, calories-out theory, the overweight set of twins must have overeaten by exactly the same amount of calories in order to become exactly alike when participating in the study (Taubes, 66). This idea is just ridiculous.

In another study looking at the difference in fat accumulation on cows based on the climate they live in ant the type of work they do, Taubes explains that "a likely explanation is that the genes that determine the relative adiposity of these two breeds have little or nothing to do with their appetite or physical activity but, rather, with how they partition energy - whether they turn it into protein and fat in the muscles or into milk." (67)

Another piece of evidence that Taubes gives as to why the calories-in calories-out paradigm is false is the difference in fat accumulation based on gender. Men typically store fat above the waist (beer belly) and women below the waist. Women put on more fat during puberty (particularly in the breast, hips, butt, and thighs), while men lose fat during puberty and gain muscle (Taubes, 68).

Thermodynamics for Dummies, Part 1

According to Taubes, proponents of the calories-in calories-out paradigm often use the laws of thermodynamics to back up their theories; and especially the first law that energy is neither created nor destroyed but can only change from one form to another (the law of conservation) (73).Taubes argues, however, that "all the first law says is that if something gets more or less massive, then more energy or less energy has to enter it than leave it. It says nothing about why this happens. It says nothing about cause and effect." (74) Taubes believes we need to look elsewhere for answers as to why this happens ; such as the answer given by the National Institutes of Health which states that "obesity is a complex, multifactorial chronic disease that develops from an interaction of genotype and the environment. Our understanding of how and why obesity develops is incomplete, but involves the integration of social, behavioral, cultural, physiological, metabolic, and genetic factors." (Taubes, 76)

Thermodynamics for Dummies, Part 2

Taubes furthers his discussion on the theories of thermodynamics explaining obesity being incomplete and incomprehensive by telling us that the laws assume "the energy we consume and the energy we expend have little influence on each other, that we can consciously change one and it will have no consequence on the other, and vice versa." (77) However, we know this is absolutely not true. If you recall one of his earlier examples, when we want to make ourselves hungrier, we eat less and exercise more. If more energy is going out, the energy we consume will naturally go up as well to compensate. Therefore, the energy we consume and the energy we expend are dependent on one another (Taubes, 78).

Head Cases

Not only has the current way of thinking about how we gain weight possibly inhibited us from eating the right way but has also served to reinforce the perception that those who are fat have nobody to blame but themselves (Taubes, 80). This thinking goes further to suggest that the problems of weight lie not in the body but in the brain. "More precisely, in behavior, which makes it an issue of character." (Taubes, 81) So if a person fails on a diet, it is a failure of will power and the strength of a person to eat in moderation (Taubes, 81).

One University of Michigan professor of medicine argued for this type of theory as well, insisting that people who get fat have a "perverted appetite". They have an urge to eat that most lean individuals do not (Taubes, 82). His perverted appetite theory then divides obese individuals into two different groups: those who are trained from childhood to take in more food than is needed and those who have a weak will and a pleasure seeking outlook on life (Taubes, 83). Today, because of these ways of thinking, obesity is treated with more behavioral medicine than with nutrition; and none of these behavioral methods have been proven to work with obese patients.

Taubes says that as "long as we believe that people get fat because they overeat, because they take in more calories than they expend, we're putting the ultimate blame on a mental state, a weakness of character, and we're leaving human biology out of the equation entirely." (85) Taubes believes that it is a huge mistake to have this type of thinking.

The Laws of Adiposity

In this first chapter of Taubes second book within "Why We Get Fat", Taubes takes a bit of time to explain some different studies that have been conducted to better understand fat regulation. In one experiment where researchers removed the ovaries of rats and controlled for overeating, they found that the rats got fat very quickly regardless of food intake and became more sedentary (Taubes, 90). Taubes explains that removing the rat's ovaries literally made the fat tissue absorb calories from circulation and expand with fat. The animal then had to eat more to compensate for the calories that were now being stashed away as fat by eating more or by expending less energy (Taubes, 90).

Interestingly, removing the rats' ovaries serves the same function as removing estrogen, a female sex hormone. Estrogen is in charge of influencing an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase (LPL). This enzyme then pulls fat from the bloodstream into whatever happens to "express" this LPL. It can either be attached to a fat cell, which will pull the fat from circulation into the fat cell; or it can be attached to a muscle cell and will pull fat into the muscle to burn as fuel. Estrogen, in particular, suppresses or "inhibits" the activity of LPL on fat cells (Taubes, 91). So if you screw up the regulation of these hormones and enzymes, fat gain can occur more frequently and in more excess than is normal. If more of the calories are going into the fat cells and less into muscle than is required, then the animal or the person will have an urge to eat more in order to get the calories to run their body, to make up for the deficit, as well as to move less in order to prevent using up the minimal amount of calories that are now going into muscle cells for energy (Taubes, 93).

Since the argumentation for calories-in calories-out uses a set of laws to back it up, Taubes came up with a set of laws to back up the laws of adiposity. The first law is that "body fat is carefully regulated, if not exquisitely so" (Taubes, 94). This can be proven by the fact that men and women gain weight differently showing that sex hormones play a role in regulating body fat, some parts of the body are completely fat free (back of the hands, foreheads, etc) showing that local factors play a role in regulation, obesity runs in families showing that genetics have a role in regulation, and some animals gain fat during different times to use as insulation showing that environment has a role in regulation (Taubes, 94). So, "when regulation breaks down, as it does in cancer and heart disease, the result is often fatally obvious. When people accumulate excess fat, this tells us something has gone awry in the careful regulation of their fat tissue. What we need to know is what that defect is and what to do about it." (Taubes, 96)

His second law is that "obesity can be caused by a regulatory defect so small that it would be undetectable by any technique yet invented." (96) Taubes tells us that "if by some unlucky combination of genes and environment, a regulatory error causes our fat cells to store an excess of just 1% of the calories that it would otherwise be used for fuel, then we are destined to become obese." (97)

Taubes final law is that "whatever makes us both fatter and heavier will also make us overeat." (97) Anything that increases in growth, whether in height or width, will cause an increase in appetite and intake. Take for example a growing child. We would never consider that a child grows taller because they are eating more or exercising too little. So why do we have this assumption with those that are increasing in size width wise? (Taubes, 99)

Taubes argues further that a deregulation of hormones and enzymes in the body cause the body to stockpile calories as fat, and then the body has to compensate for the lost energy by either eating more, exercising less, or both (101). The problem of the body stockpiling calories as fat and being insufficient in calories for fuel is called "hidden semi-cellular starvation" by Stephen Ranson of Northwestern University (Taubes, 101). Furthermore, as shown in some rat experiments, if an individual decides to decrease calories consumed in order to follow the calories-in calories-out system of beliefs, the body will still maintain, if not gain more weight and will instead compromise their muscles and organs, including the brain and kidneys (Taubes, 103).

If you fully understand the regulation of fat accumulation in the body and further understand the effects of deregulation, then you will be able to see why there can exist a population of people who are both significantly overweight who are also malnourished and who have children that are thin and stunted (Taubes, 104).

Join me next week in the continuation of Gary Taubes' book (Chapters 10-15) where we will uncover and learn more about dieting.

Exercise: Today is another yoga day. Enjoy another hour of yoga practice. If you feel like the workout is not quite enough for you, couple it with a twenty to thirty minute run before you go into your class.

Eat: "Choose Healthy Fats". According to Cooking Light, "research has shown that it's the type of fat you eat, and not so much the amount, that has the biggest effect on health." We must consume some fats in our diet because they give us essential fatty acids that the body cannot make on its own, such as omega-3s. Additionally, some vitamins that we need are fat soluble; so the must be digested and absorbed, or transported in the body with fat. However, fats are high in calories and thus must be consumed in moderation.

 It is also best to stick to the healthy kinds of fats; monounsaturated (plant-based and liquid at room temperature - found in canola, olive, and peanut oil, peanuts, pecans, and avocados) and polyunsaturated (plant and fish derived fats - found in vegetable oils, sunflower seeds and soybeans, fatty fish like tuna, mackerel, and salmon, and in most nuts). Both of these kinds of fats can help to lower cholesterol when consumed in place of saturated fats.

The kinds of fats to really steer clear of are trans fats (produced when liquid oils are processed into solid shortenings; the American Heart Association recommends only consuming 2 grams per day - these can be found in foods containing partially hydrogenated oils like french fries, biscuits, margarines, and shortenings) and saturated fats (concentrated in animal products and solid at room temperature - found in meats, cheese, and butter). Trans fats should be avoided because they raise "bad" LDL cholesterol and lower "good" HDL cholesterol. Saturated fats also raids harmful LDL cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease.

Relax: When I got home from work today, I was finally able to get into The Glam Finale studio to get some work done. Even though I was doing more work, it was so relaxing to be able to talk with my mom and get some of my much needed stuff done. Plus, I just love being creative and I've had enough TV for a few days.