subject: Mind Vs Biology – Can We Succeed at Diets? [print this page] Mind Vs Biology Can We Succeed at Diets?
For the previous ten million years our bodies have been adapting and evolving to get fat. That may sound like an outrageous statement, but it's true: only within the last 10,000 years have we had agriculture and a constant source of food, and before that we had to hunt and gather and live on the precarious edge of starvation. As a result, human physical systems developed so that it was easier to gain weight than to lose it, making the lives of dieters everywhere a living hell. So if our physical systems are determined to make us gain weight, is there any hope for a dieter? Are we doomed by evolution and our bodies to be fat?
Of course not. While there is much evidence that the decks are stacked against us, it is not true that we are doomed to gain weight and be fat. Sure, fighitng to lose weight triggers a whole host of reactions in our bodies that resist that process. Our hypothalamus receives messages from hormones that we are receiving less food, and consequently our metabolism becomes depressed, we become increasingly hungry, our fat becomes increasingly hard to reach and our energy levels drop. But that doesn't make it impossible to lose weight, because our genetics are only part of the equation.
The other part is our environment. Take an overweight person from the United States and place them in a developing third world country where food is scarce and everybody has to work incredibly hard to survive for years on end. Do you think that person's genetics will ensure that they continue to gain weight? Of course not. They will rapidly begin to lose it as they consume less calories and work hard, and over the years they may remain hungry and with a slow metabolism, but they will end up looking lean.
Take that person and put them back in the States where there is so much easily available junk food, and sure they'll put the weight back on, but the point is nothing is determined.
We have mental control over our habits. Some of us are better than others at resisiting chocolate cookies and the like, but the fact remains that while our biology is stacked against us we can still prevail against our regulatory systems and lose weight and keep it off if we are able to develop good, wholesome habits.
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