Win the Battle Against Age-Related Weight Gain
Originally posted at The Globe and Mail as “Five steps that can help you win the battle against age-related weight gain.”
By Dr. Jennifer Pearlman
Despite our collective obsession with counting calories, we are now the fattest generation in history. Obesity levels in Canadian adults have increased from 3 per cent in 2003 to 18.5 per cent in 2012, according to Statistics Canada, with the greatest rate of increase seen in women.
These extra pounds aren’t just about calories. A tidal wave of risk factors for obesity and metabolic problems is wreaking havoc on our physiology and contributing to the fat phenomenon.
Our evolving understanding of these risk factors is shedding light on the question of why calorie-restricted diets, regardless of regimen, don’t work, or may seem to work only temporarily but are inevitably followed by rebound weight gain. This vicious cycle of weight loss and gain is hazardous to our health. Recent research suggests that yo-yo dieting redistributes toxins from fat tissue exposing the brain to their harmful effects.
So if calorie counting doesn’t work, what can we do about age-related weight gain? The first step is redefining the problem and moving away from a quantitative approach and toward a qualitative framework. I encourage focusing on food quality (not calories) and body composition (not simply pounds on the scale). There are no cookie-cutter solutions, but by understanding an individual’s metabolic, inflammatory, hormonal and psychological status along with their habits and lifestyle a comprehensive plan may be born.
Preventing age-related weight gain requires an individualized, multifaceted approach as diets alone are doomed to fail. The following five steps target the metabolic, hormonal, psychological, environmental and lifestyle factors contributing to weight gain.