Thursday, June 02, 2005

Inertia support

At the seminar I attended last night, the speaker talked about clinical research in obesity and metabolism. Very interesting. He suggested a model in which once an obese patient loses weight, the body adjusts and adopts a "starvation state" to try to channel all new incoming calories to fat in order to regain what was lost. Cool idea. It just made me think of the inertia thing again and how hard it is to change and how important it is to make small changes and be consistent and give yourself a routine to follow. Once you're used to the new routine, you adapt. We're all like pendulums swinging from one extreme to the other and trying to seek a balance somewhere in the center. However, change is always occurring, and change is importanat for the development and evolution of our beings. I just think this emphasizes why it's important to try to incorporate small steps and changes in order to reach a big goal. I also read this paper on the connection of the circadian rhythm and eating patterns. Our metabolism is connected to our sleep cycle. Everything is cyclical. This may explain why people who don't get enough sleep tend to gain weight. I guess your body thanks you for putting it into a routine. We'll see...

5 comments:

Kevin Yates said...

First, i must say, you are a blog posting machine right now :).

That is an interesting thing about the obesity and metabolism. i have often pondered/researched how the body handles weight loss over a long period of time as well as how my metabolism works. i assumed, but i was never certain, that our metabolism was fairly effected by sleep. I just didnt know how connected.

great advice on reaching the larger goal. it is so true. i am very much living proof that small changes can get you there.

Rachel said...

I guess I'm in a blogging mood. It's bad when you have a computer at your desk. Distraction.

So little is known about obesity but there are several connections. i think when you sleep, you heal and destress. when you miss sleep, you may get higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormones that makes you cling to fat.

Small changes--small steps--that's my motto!

Kevin Yates said...

that makes sense about the stress levels...

here is a kind of random question that i have wondered about for a long time now (along the lines of the body's response and weight loss) that you may know the answer to...

how does skin elasticity (sp?) and weight loss coincide? i have finaly gotten my fat percentage close to my ultimate goal (12%), but i am having issues around my abs and obliques...i think that is partly due to my skin not "firming up" (for lack of any sort of technical terminology) at the same rate that i am losing weight.

do you know anything about this?

Rachel said...

is it your skin, or the fat under your skin? The abs are the hardest to tone up b/c it is the easiest to store fat here and the most is stored in this region, so it is the last to go. It took me a long time to get my abs flat and now that I've been slacking, I'm already getting a pooch.

Kevin Yates said...

whatever it is, it is frustrating nonetheless :).

thanks for your insight.

btw...all of the work that i do is on the computer, and it is very much a distraction. it is so easy to want to "blog" or check email throughout my day.