NPR's Had Some Pretty Interesting Shows Lately on Diet and Weighloss

Thought I'd share them here.  Really the bottom line is as it's always been--restricting calories and increasing exercise such that you burn more than you take in to lose weight, or find an equilibrium to maintain.  There is no silver bullet (yet...more on that in the shows), and it *is* hard work that you can't do for a while, quit and expect to maintain the results.  In other words, for most people losing weight from some point and keeping it off requires a life-style change...or...simply---it is a life-style.  The good news is that this affects pretty much anyone and everyone, and if you think of it, your life is much, much more than any particular life-style you employ at any given time---we all change our life-styles throughout our lives (growing up, going off to college, getting the first job, getting married, moving houses/neighborhoods/cities/states, changing jobs, having kids, empty-nesting, growing older, etc. etc.) and you just incorporate a series of 'new normals' into your Self.  If that includes less sweet tea, then, really--is that such a big deal in the larger scheme of things? 

• This show, entitled "In 'The Fat Trap,' Our Bodies Work Against Us," is available at the link both as a transcript as as an audio file ("Talk of the Nation" podcasts are also available on i-Tunes).  The title is somewhat overly negative-sounding, as the people interviewed hasten to note.  Several callers said that this information, while sobering, is helpful and positive in that they now know what they are dealing with.  The main point is that our bodies both evolutionarily tend to want to store fat and to crave things that in the past helped us survive by  giving us the maximum short-term boost (calories) and long-term storage (fat) of energy.  Moreover, our bodies tend to get used to higher weights and want to keep them (this seems to be a someone new concept above and beyond the notion that people tend to have certain set-point weights, and this is the result of metabolic changes that come about with a higher percentage of fat), requiring more work and a longer time-frame to re-jigger the system.  Therefore, "diet" should not be thought of in the sense of a short-term fix, which it often connotes, but rather, as I said above, a "life-style"; otherwise--thanks to a complex dance of metabolic systems and hormones that have been with us over evolutionary history, we will just tend to yo-yo.

• This one discusses how protein helps with metabolism and body composition, but it's the calories overall and of whatever kind that determine weight loss or gain--or more to the point "fatness" loss or gain, since lean body mass can weigh more than fat, and what you really want is less fat and more lean body mass.  Many people get into a rut at a certain point in their diet and exercise plan when they aren't dropping so many "pounds" even though they may have a really good work-out plan, and in many cases, the "pounds" are actually increased muscle.  This is one reason why the BMI charts are inaccurate in some cases in which athletes and body-builders supposedly weigh too much for their frames.  I also think that most doctor's advice to boost protein in relation to carbs for some people with certain metabolic conditions like insulin-resistance and diabetes still holds true b/c simple carbs boost blood sugars.  This study goes to show, however, that if you take in more calories than you burn, whether you are on a high-protein diet or a vegetarian, you are still not going to lose excess weight.

• This one just came up on NPR's "The Salt" blog today--it's about a new FDA database called "The SuperTracker," which "offers three main features: a database of nutritional information for food; a diary for tracking daily consumption; and a physical activity tracker."  It's apparently easy to use, has lots of info, and unlike similar trackers offered by WW and Jenny Craig is free.  There's to be a mobile app available soon. Mebbe we'd like to try using this?

Anyhoo, I dragged myself off to the gym yesterday for the first time in a coupla weeks--it felt good, both physically and mentally.  I've been in a 'blue-zone' for a while now, and I need all the help I can get to force myself out of the house, out of my head, and get some good juices flowing. And it takes a LOT of effort, b/c of course the deeper you go, the less you want to do anything but hibernate, which is already a tendency in the winter months anyway.  In the end, I think the ultimate goal really, is as Emma has said--working to improve our lives.  Will this make me stronger? healthier? more fit, flexible, and less injury-prone as I get older?  emotionally happier and more relaxed?  better able to cope with the shit which will always hit the fan sooner or later?  a better role-model?  etc. etc.