Pasta Queen Avert Your Eyes!

Pasta Queen Jeanette has posted a link to this article, while categorically refusing to read it. I can totally see why - nobody wants to read something that suggests that they are genetically doomed to fail! However I have taken the "Knowledge is power" approach and greedily devoured the article in lieu of a burger. And actually I find it quite uplifting. It's good to be told that it's not all my own fault that I'm fat, that down the years I have self sabotaged all the good work I have ever done in losing weight.

Did you hear that? It's not all my own fault!

I feel really liberated by that. I don't have to blame myself, beat myself up, hate myself if I gain a few pounds. I'm not weak, lazy or greedy. If I'd have known and understood the evolutionary process that leads us to self sabotage, I may have been able to deal with it years ago.

For anyone not bothered about reading the article, the gist is that by losing 10% of our body fat no matter whether we are fat or thin to start with, we experience a drop in leptin levels which causes a series of physiological changes as our bodies to attempt to claw it back ASAP. In fact, in evolutionary terms, I'd be a survivor!

Dr. Leibel also says that people should understand that regaining lost weight "is not free will. It's biologically determined and the species that didn't have this are the ones you see in the Museum of Natural History."

Suck on that, skinny birds who think it's all about less calories, more exercise!

OK I've come back to edit this a bit, by adding that I realise evolution can't explain how I got to over 300lbs, but it certainly helps explain why it's so hard to maintain a weight loss. As I said earlier, knowledge is power and if we know what is likely to happen and why, we can be prepared for it.