Understanding Your Body’s Defended Fat Mass

Jastreboff’s research focuses on novel anti-obesity medications, specifically nutrient stimulated hormone therapeutics. She believes that a critical need in the field is to better understand obesity pathophysiology, especially how the body signals to the brain how much fat an individual should carry to store sufficient energy to function optimally; this is called the defended fat mass… Jastreboff cites the environment as a cause of obesity, specifically what she and other scientists call the obesogenic environment. “It’s not just the food, it’s not just the fact that we lead fairly sedentary lives,” Jastreboff explained. “It’s the stress, it’s the lack of sleep, it’s the circadian rhythm disruption, it’s things in our obesogenic environment that have led to this elevated defended fat mass on a population level.”

Yale Endocrinology Obesity Medicine: Approaching Obesity as a Complex, Chronic Disease — https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/yale-endocrinology-obesity-medicine-approaching-obesity-as-a-complex-chronic-disease/

You can now add your body’s defended fat mass to your personal list of reasons why you just can’t lose weight.

I must to go now. Super Bowl pig out starts soon and I have to adjust my defended fat mass set point.

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More on the Obesogenic Environment

In an editorial in Obesity, Corkey discusses the many different theories explaining why obesity continues to increase despite best efforts at controlling weight gain in this environment, including increased availability and marketing of high-calorie and high-glycemic-index foods and drinks, larger food portions, leisure time physical activities being replaced with sedentary activities such as watching television and use of electronic devices, inadequate sleep, and the use of medications that increase weight.

According to Corkey, all of these purported explanations assume an environmental cause that is detrimental to the organism involved, (humans).

Boston University School of Medicine. “Finding the solution to obesity: Culinary medicine, emerging evidence-based field, ID’d as early intervention.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221102115527.htm (accessed November 3, 2022)

Diseases related to obesity correlate with both the extent and duration of obesity. This suggests that diseases related to obesity will also increase more rapidly owing to the younger onset and more severe forms of the disease.

Barbara E. Corkey, Caroline M. Apovian. “En attendant Godot”: Waiting for the answer to obesity and longevity. Obesity, 2022; 30 (11): 2105 DOI: 10.1002/oby.23462

I have a growing sense of urgency to finish writing my future best seller.

I just have to figure out how to describe what I know in language simple enough for everyone to understand.

Sugar disrupts microbiome, eliminates protection against obesity and diabetes (in mice)

Photo by Nishant Aneja on Pexels.com

After four weeks on the diet, the animals showed characteristics of metabolic syndrome, such as weight gain, insulin resistance, and glucose intolerance. And their microbiomes had changed dramatically, with the amount of segmented filamentous bacteria — common in the gut microbiota of rodents, fish, and chickens — falling sharply and other bacteria increasing in abundance.

Sugar disrupts microbiome, eliminates protection against obesity and diabetes — Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “Sugar disrupts microbiome, eliminates protection against obesity and diabetes.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220829194721.htm (accessed September 7, 2022)

Here’s the link to the original study – https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)00992-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867422009928%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

I’m cleaning up my saved drafts for this blog and apologize up front if I’ve already posted this. But since this post was in my draft folder I’m pretty sure I haven’t already posted this. I need to delete some drafts I’ve kept around since 2018.

2018!!!

The Challenge to Stay Active During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Certain COVID-19 measures, including the closure of sport and exercise facilities, as well as remote working practices can lead to sedentary behaviors for both young and old. With less outdoor activity and more indoor time, people reported turning to comfort foods and “pandemic baking.” In fact, grocery stores struggled to keep up with the demand for flour. Dr. John Morton, Medical Director of Bariatric Surgery at Yale New Haven Health Systems, says that during telehealth appointments, he has seen patients who have gained 5-30 pounds [5].

Physical Health, Obesity, and the Challenge to Stay Active During the COVID-19 Pandemic — https://www.rgare.com/knowledge-center/media/covid-19/physical-health-obesity-and-the-challenge-to-stay-active-during-the-covid-19-pandemic

Author Disclaimer – The quote and article link above have been sourced from my employer and is not a shameless act of self-promotion. The paragraphs following this disclaimer are indeed a shameless act of self-promotion to generate interest in purchasing my future best seller which is currently a work in progress.

I have lost over 20 pounds during The Great Pandemic Year One.

Boom.

Convenience Stores and Obesity

One of the few prospective longitudinal studies examining the influence of key elements of a comprehensive set of food outlets, both large and small, the study followed two groups of 3 to 15 year-old children in four New Jersey cities — Camden, New Brunswick, Newark, and Trenton. These cities were known to be initiating policy and environmental changes aimed at childhood obesity prevention. The first group was studied from 2009-10 to 2014-15, the second from 2014 to 2016-17.

Less healthy changes were found in children when their exposure to convenience stores increased over time. For example, exposure to an additional convenience store within a mile of a child’s home over 24 months resulted in 11.7 percent greater likelihood of a child being in a higher body mass index range compared to other children of the same sex and age at the end of the study. In contrast, exposure to an additional small grocery store within a mile over 24 months resulted in 37.3 percent lower odds of being in a higher body mass index category. No consistent patterns were found for changes in exposure to supermarkets, restaurants, or pharmacies.

Elsevier. “Kids gain weight when new convenience stores open nearby.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201210074725.htm (accessed December 12, 2020).

Journal Reference

  1. Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, Francesco Acciai, Kristen Lloyd, David Tulloch, Robin S. DeWeese, Derek DeLia, Michael Todd, Michael J. Yedidia. Evidence That Changes in Community Food Environments Lead to Changes in Children’s Weight: Results from a Longitudinal Prospective Cohort Study. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.jand.2020.10.016

The only thing I buy at the 7-11 is gas.