And Other Factors.
Written by: Suren Chiu, RDN, LDN
Weight gain has always been a hot topic and will always be. The eye-catching articles are the ones that promise to solve your weight problems. A guaranteed solution to an unclear process. Weight is more nuanced than it seems. We aren’t in control of our weight as much as we would like to think.
Fast weight loss is attractive for a lot of people. I get it. Immediate results is something anyone would want. But at what cost? Let’s go through how the body processes “initial weight loss.” It will make you think twice about fast weight loss.
How the First Phase of Weight Loss Works
Let’s take the keto diet for example. The goal is to limit your carbohydrates (carbs) as much as possible. What happens is our body needs to find a new carb source. Kind of like choosing to stop filling gas in your car. Your brain depends on carbohydrates to operate. To keep up, the body breaks down carbs stored in your muscles (glycogen) to use for your brain. The byproduct of this break-up is water. Notice that fast change on the scale? Sorry to break it to you. It’s loss of muscle and water1.
What happens next is your body adapts to your new changes. Less muscle. Less food. Priority for survival. Your body will want to reserve its fat stores1. Fat is a very efficient way to store energy. Think of keeping one-hundred dollar bills versus one-dollar bills in your wallet.
Now your body is getting choosy about how to spend its currency. Because there was a drastic change in inventory. Your body is smart. It adapts. It wants to keep you alive. In the end, we burn less energy. Then we see a slower rate of weight loss or no weight loss at all.
Other Factors that Impact Weight
If we could dictate how much we weighed, I’m sure most of us would. But it’s not as simple as we think. There are so many factors that affect our weight. Some of them include:
- Genetics
- Environment
- Medications4
- Lifestyle
- Hormones
- Stress
Do you know anyone that can control all these factors? Personally, I don’t. Case in point. Nobody has 100% control of how much they weigh. There is too much involved in our body and around us to control that.
Hunger is Survival
There is a science to being hungry. A hormone called ghrelin operates when our body is hungry4,5. It operates when we don’t eat enough and when we are stressed. When we don’t have enough food our body, ghrelin will tell us to eat more4. This is our body’s way of protecting itself5.
The other thing is stress. When we have too much stress, this can increase your hunger hormone ghrelin, too. Ghrelin operates a lot like anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medications. It gives our brain comfort in stressful situations5. This can be when we are uncomfortable, worrying, or upset. And sleep deprived or anything that is uncomfortable. Our body interprets this as stress. As a response, our body goes for things that are energy dense or higher calorie foods. Things such as the shortbread cookies, sweets, and the creamy things. Basically, the foods higher in fat or carbs. These foods will give our body the greatest amount of energy in the shortest time.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. But it is a great intro to understanding that weight is not a choice. I go for a health-at-every-size approach. I don’t believe weight is the best indicator of how healthy we are. It’s a reflection of where our body’s mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing. Think of weight more as a byproduct to how your body is doing. Not a cause. I would encourage you to use weight more of an indicator than an ultimatum.
Sources:
- Müller, M. J., Enderle, J., & Bosy-Westphal, A. (2016). Changes in Energy Expenditure with Weight Gain and Weight Loss in Humans. Current obesity reports, 5(4), 413–423. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-016-0237-4
- Melby, C. L., Paris, H. L., Foright, R. M., & Peth, J. (2017). Attenuating the Biologic Drive for Weight Regain Following Weight Loss: Must What Goes Down Always Go Back Up?. Nutrients, 9(5), 468. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9050468
- Ness-Abramof, R., & Apovian, C. M. (2005). Drug-induced weight gain. Drugs of today (Barcelona, Spain : 1998), 41(8), 547–555. https://doi.org/10.1358/dot.2005.41.8.893630
- Chao, A. M., Jastreboff, A. M., White, M. A., Grilo, C. M., & Sinha, R. (2017). Stress, cortisol, and other appetite-related hormones: Prospective prediction of 6-month changes in food cravings and weight. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 25(4), 713–720. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.21790
- Mani BK, Zigman JM. Ghrelin as a Survival Hormone. Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2017 Dec;28(12):843-854. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2017.10.001. Epub 2017 Oct 30. PMID: 29097101; PMCID: PMC5777178.