Day One Hundred and Five!!!

The problem with obesity.


Despite my earlier blog that obesity was prevalent in the early 1900’s, it has actually been recognized as public health enemy #1 since obesity has been on a steady rise since the 1970’s. Which is actually really surprising because in the 1970’s it was noted that children and adolescents were the age group that was getting the biggest the fastest, even though it was of notable interest of youth and their weight issues by Dr. Hilde Bruch in the mid 1930’s. Currently, obesity has been recognized as a global problem contributing to health issues on the rise in every country in the world. 


The suggestion is that everyone is concerned with weight, yet, the problem is that weight concern is not recognized as diet and calorie management. People in general want to have “their cake and eat it too”. People want to be able to eat what they want to eat, when they want to eat it. They want a quick fix that does not inhibit food intake. A good example of this, is a woman that was cited by Professor Roberta Anding a notable US dietician. She recited how she had a client come into her clinic on the list for gastric bypass surgery who stated, “when is the soonest possible date after the surgery that I can start eating my Doritos again?”
Sad, but true.


When I think about the statement made by this woman in for gastric bypass surgery, I truly believe that was my mentality as well. I want to be able to indulge, I want to be able to eat what I consider to be “normal”, I want to be able to go to the grocery store, pick up everything and anything that I consider to be enjoyable and I want to be able to just sit and eat, and I did just that when I was young. 


When I was growing up I ate what I wanted, when I wanted and it was fun and pleasurable and I never got that there was an equation between eating all of this fun food and the fact that I was developing obesity. I didn’t realize that fat cells actually play a roll in the development in obesity. 


There are three different types of obesity, hyper-cellular obesity, hypertrophic obesity, and hyper -plastic obesity. 


Hyper-cellular obesity is an increased number of fat cells.
Hypertrophic obesity is when existing fat cells enlarge.
Hyper-plastic obesity is excessive weight gain in childhood, characterized by the creation of new fat cells, which I think is my obesity issue.


I ate what I wanted, how I wanted, when I wanted. I had lack of exercise when I was young and I was highly stressed by classmates, lack of friends, and being bullied. The difficulty with being hyper-plastic is that I have difficulty losing weight because the cells in my body are like little balloons waiting to be filled up with fat again, the cells never actually go away. 


It means that I have to be hyper vigilant in regards to my carbohydrate intake because any sugars that I eat will immediately go into these little balloons.


I have experienced this over the years in which I have tried to diet as weight loss does not come easily to me and the littlest amount of carbohydrate intake is reflected immediately in my weight. I can identify with those children that Dr. Bruch saw in New York City, feeling like they have to starve themselves in order to be able to try to come close to looking “normal”. 


As I have undergone the emotionally focussed eating program I have begun to realize the enormity of the task of having to create a new lifestyle, which includes a whole new way of looking at food as well as the realization that my body has a complete intolerance for anything sugared. So, part of the process has been to come to terms with my genetic makeup and my childhood development of hyper-plastic obesity. ​