There is an unwritten medical dictum, that says “anybody that is obese or overweight, is greedy, selfish or a compulsive eater”. In my more than 40 years of medical practice, I am yet to see a single obese patient, who is not both greedy and selfish in terms of food consumption. Majority of them are also compulsive eaters. Let me explain.
It has been scientifically proven that you cannot get fat on water. So if you are overweight or obese there must be something you are consuming excessively. It is not easy to say, what any one person should weigh. Typical weight has been defined medically as “if you are a female your average weight should be 60kg, but if you are up to 6ft tall, then you should weigh 70kg.” The corollary “if you are a man, your average weight should be 70kg, but if you are 6ft tall, then you should weigh 80kg”. Please read again the bold /italics, and use it as a guide to your appropriate weight.
The best way to evaluate your weight, is for you to look at yourself honestly. Fat soon shows up as: an increased skin fold thickness : a stomach bulge; or as a waistline that justs beyond a straight line between hips and ribs. The waist should measure at least 2 inches less than the deflated chest.
Another way is to compare your present weight with your weight at age 20 years, when most people are near their ideal weight.
Weight problems are on the increase in the modern industrial society. Perhaps more than 50 million Nigerians ie 10% are overweight and 25 million ie 20% are obese. Some estimates put these at twice the stated values. Obesity is more common in older people, sedentary workers, the poor and women. Among the well off obesity is more common in men.
Overweight people are not just, more tired, short of breath, and physically and mentally lethargic, with aching joints and poor digestion. They are also more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, kidney disorders, cirrhosis of the liver, pneumonia, inflammation of the gall bladder, arthritis, hernia and varicose veins.
Overweight and obese people have more accidents and are more likely to die during operations, and have higher rates of mortality in general, including 3 times the mortality from heart and circulatory disease. Someone who weighs 130kg when he should weigh 80kg has his life expectancy shortened by 4 years.
Some of these effects arise from mechanical causes : the burden of extra weight and its particular location as fat deposits. Others arise chemically, from the need to supply more body tissue than normal.
The typical infertility of the obese is an example : the spread of hormones over increased body tissue creates problems of conception, in women pregnancy, including miscarriage and still birth.
In many cases, reduction to a desirable weight, removes all the symptoms of disorder, while mortality also sinks back towards normal. Overweight always – without exception occurs because a person takes in more food than he uses up. The bulk of food energy is taken in the form of carbohydrates or fat. Both of these supply Calories(the measure of energy) : and both are converted into fat deposits, if the Calories they supply are more than the body uses, it then means that energy input, greater than output equals fat. But several factors are involved, in each side of the equation.
Energy output vary-with age, sex, body size and activity. Output refers to the burning of unneeded output “thermogenesis”. It does seem that some people get rid of surplus input, because their bodies automatically speed up their metabolism, and burn up the surplus, rather than store – these people are called “fast acetylators”, even if they consume a whole horse daily, metaphorically speaking, they still remain as slim as a razor blade.
Among body types “ectomorphs(fast acetylators)” have this characteristics, of excessive consumption without showing, compared with “endormophs”. In famine condition, the endomorphs survive better, doing more on little energy, but from the point of view of staying slim, it is the ectomorphs that are lucky.
A special category of output wastage is the rise in the body metabolism after every meal. So two individuals may eat exactly the same food, but one may waste more than the other, because he eats it in several small meals, rather than, two or three large ones.
The main determinant of obesity is also the appetite control sometimes dubbed the “appestat”. This is usually remarkable for its precision – people will always come out to deny eating too much, because the extra food they consume, is usually termed junk food, so they do not consider it real food. It is the junk food that results in overweight and obesity. For example eating an extra half slice of bread a day ie 30 calories would bring a weight gain of 50 kg over 20 -year-period. These weights are gained through the following means and the people will swear with every thing that is holy, that they not over eat.
Unreckoned weight gain comes through the following means ;
Social habits or customs such as business lunches.
Excessive love of food in general or certain food in particular.
Habits of over eating certain foods acquired during upbringing example cakes, doughnuts etc.
Eating for psychological support whether as a general addiction or as a response to shock or stress. Here food is an immediate source of pleasure, where emotional security is lacking.
As daily physical activity rises, from moderate levels upwards, the appetite reflects well the increased needs of the body. But when physical activity falls below moderate levels, appetite also rises, without reflecting any genuine body need. This principle is similar to the traditional techniques used by the Igbos, Efiks, Ibibios etc to fatten their maidens, by restricting their movements.
In fact , studies have shown that the most sedentary people often have food intake almost as high as the most hard – worked-manual laborer. This is why exercise can be useful for combating obesity. Exercise gets rid of some calories. But it will take 12 hours of tennis, for example to lose 1 kg of fat, and if activity is already moderate, appetite rises to compensate.
We only get slimmer, if we ignore our stomach. But when exercise raises the general level of activity from sedentary towards moderate, energy output goes up, while appetite usually decreases. The body of an inactive person cannot burn much surplus energy even as waste. So sedentary living and working, may well be the single main reason for rising obesity in the Nigerian population. A sedentary person can neither reduce his appetite nor burn off the excess. Always be medically guided.
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