A 45-year-old fat man trying to find his inner skinny dude.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Evolution

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/health/28zuger.html

If I read the article linked above correctly, one isn't fat due to sloth and overeating.  Rather, the body knows what it should look like and makes you eat and sit and gain (or not, as the case may be).

I'm not sure how I feel about that.  On one hand, I'm like anyone else.  I want to hear, "It's not your fault!  It's the genes!"  Certainly there is a genetic component.  But not everyone in my family is hugely fat (though most are nicely marbled).  If you look at Refuse to Regain (at the right), you'll see that one of the writers believes that hormones encourage overeating.  You only thought it was emotional agitation.

I guess I'd love it if it were not my fault.  I don't think I'll get there.  I'm an American from the midwest.  We pretty much believe in personal responsibility.  This kind of thinking can, I have no doubt, lead to self-loathing.  Which can lead to overeating (of the non-hormonal variety).

As a practical matter, though, I don't think I care if it's chicken-egg or egg-chicken.  Bottom line:  I don't want to be fat.  I'm doing what I think I should be doing.  It's slow going.  Lately, it's been really frustrating.  But I want to do this correctly, intelligently.  Someone asked me the other day, what's the rush?  Only that after forty years, I'm sick of being fat.  That's the rush.  Time is like land.  They're not making any more of it.

This is an addendum about the writer profiled in the article above:
http://refusetoregain.com/refusetoregain/2011/01/more-on-why-we-get-fat.html

Here's a lecture by the guy:
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/ims-lecture-with-slides-and-qa-why-we-get-fat-by-gary-taubes/8971

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