Weight Gain in Adulthood - Slowing it Down

The biggest problem we face in America today is not terrorism it is obesity. This is according to Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in America. And it seems much of this problem is happening in a slow and creeping way, through gradual young and middle-aged adult weight gain, over very long periods of time.

On the average, a typical American adult gains at least two pounds per year over his or her lifetime. That probably means that approximately 100 extra calories are being consumed each day, according to Dr. James Hill of the University of Colorados nutrition center. If you simply burn off those 100 extra calories, or dont consume them to begin with, you will then not gain that yearly extra weight.

Dr. Gerberding says that fixing the problem will involve changing most Americans daily social norms. This will have to start in our early childhood, she says. People will have to begin performing more physical activity and eating less every day. And Dr. Hill has examined government figures showing that about 40 million adults are currently obese. He has also noted that Americans are steadily gaining more weight than usual in recent years. But what can be done about this socially and personally significant health problem?

The future is not hopeful unless we act now, Dr. Hill says. He estimates that if current trends continue, the obesity rate for American adults in 2008 will be 39%, which compares unfavorably with 31% in the year 2000.

Middle age shows a great increase in the amount of weight gained. There is a doubling of body fat in this time period in both men and women living in the developed countries. Such weight gain is strongly associated with increased morbidity and mortality. But there is ample evidence to conclude that moderate physical activity combined with a steady and healthy diet slows down or stops middle-aged adult weight gain.

Young adults are also at a high risk for weight gain. In America, for adults ages 25-74, the major weight gain was shown to be highest between ages 25-34. This was found by recent US government studies. And in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, even though trends were constant across ten years of follow-up studies, age-related weight gain was larger in the early to mid-20s than it was for older age groups.

It may not be wisest to wait until middle age, even though that may be when obesity becomes a more significant health threat, to lose weight. Irreversible health damage from weight being above optimal levels may occur prior to the beginning of a health-related diet and exercise program. But modest weight loss can reduce cardiovascular risk factors, and in high-risk individuals, it also prevents the development of diabetes and hypertension.

The American College of Preventative Medicine endorses the guidelines of the national Institutes of Health when it comes to advising obese and overweight patients on how to go about both losing excess weight and keeping it off. They encourage moderate physical activity for 30 to 45 minutes for at least 3 to 5 days per week for clinically obese or overweight persons, whenever such a program is not contraindicated by any current health problems. They also advise counseling regarding an energy-reduced or low-calorie diet of 800 to 1500 calories per day for an obese or overweight adult until optimal weight is attained. Then it is suggested that the patient should remain on a healthy, normal diet that is not higher in calories than the amount burned by ordinary activities and exercise each day.

It is felt by many experts that simply avoiding excess weight gain during the early adult years may be very important. It may ensure the prevention of adverse health reactions and establish an early foundation for the maintenance of lifelong healthy habits in later adulthood. It is also felt that interventions such as simple changes in diet and the maintenance of a regular exercise program will help parents establish lifelong role models for their children. This would greatly help to prevent Americas steady increase in obesity over the oncoming decade, and its accompanying morbidity and mortality over the next several generations of aging adult Americans.

Information in this article was obtained from the four sources listed below:

The Cutting 100 Calories/day Might Prevent Weight Gain & Obesity page at Weight Control and Obesity;

The "Symposium: Adult Weight Gain: Causes and Implications" page at Nutrition.org;

The Weight management counseling of overweight adults page at National Guideline Clearinghouse;

The NHLBI Working Group Report Preventing Weight Gain in Young Adults page at National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

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Hypnosis for Weight Loss - My Experience

The subconscious mind is a subject of much debate. Some say that it wields more power over our everyday actions than we know, while others discount it as more or less an additional complexity of the vast human mind to be pondered, but nothing so powerful as to control our every choice. This is where self for weight loss hypnosis enters the picture.

First, let's start off on a little history lesson on hypnosis. Hypnosis as we know it today actually has its roots (arguably) in several different cultures, at around the same time, hundreds of years ago. It's roots go back to early Hindu cultures as well as early European civilizations as a means of healing one's body and treating ailments.

Here's where it gets interesting. It is believed that hypnosis may have crept into modern medicine and common practice inadvertently through what may have been the first failed "placebo" experiment on whether magnet therapy worked or not, performed hundreds of years ago at the request of the medical community.

Magnet therapy was put into practice and was believed to have helped heal many people's ailments until it was put to the test and found that the only effect it had on anyone was what was called a "placebo" effect.

A placebo effect is basically an effect that is physiologically real (you can feel it physically, and your body obeys the suggestion of the mind), but is in fact simply brought on, or conjured up, by the human mind. It is essentially the power of suggestion at work, and that is exactly what hypnosis is - the utilization of the power of subconscious suggestion.

Hypnosis is a deeply relaxed "trance" state where suggestions made verbally by the hypnotizer are grabbed by the subconscious mind of the person being hypnotized, and the power of suggestion is such that the subject's body and mind obey the "orders" of the hypnotizer, without even fully and consciously realizing why or how.

I experienced the power that hypnotism can have when I purchased some weight loss CD's and attempted self hypnosis as a means to help control my ballooning appetite - and waistline, and was shocked at how it actually worked and gave me an unshakable sense of self control and "calm" that I'd never felt before.

My previous attempts at losing extra weight that I had gained were not pleasant experiences. I am not "overweight" by most standards, but I definitely fluctuate in the ten pound bracket up and down all of the time because I really do love food. Just experiencing the different tastes and textures of food is such an experience to me that I sometimes don't realize that what I'm putting in my mouth is polluting my body and adding unnecessary extra weight.

Not only are the foods I choose wrong many times, but I also can tend to eat too much at one sitting, feeling bloated and moody afterwards. So, I wanted to take control of my eating habits again, and had always wanted to try self hypnosis to see if it could help me gain that quiet inner strength and that little voice guiding me to make the right decisions, and quelling my appetite.

And it did. The first time I listened to the it I was, as instructed in a deeply relaxed state which was accomplished by following the hypnotist's instructions to take several deep breaths. The soothing voice was accompanied by what sounded like trance music, and I became so relaxed I actually dozed off (which she said was ok, in fact, expected).

I did it right before bed, and I woke up the next morning pretty much forgetting that I had listened to it. I went through my day without the usual cravings for sugar and high fat, high salt foods that usually litter my day at work due to stress or boredom with mundane tasks (can't we all identify with that).

I tend to have somewhat of an oral fixation, especially when at work, meaning that I like to always be chewing or sipping on something. But I noticed this overwhelming urge did not hit me, and instead I just sipped on my water and some hot tea, and only ate when I was truly hungry. Strangely enough, I didn't even have my usual mid-afternoon craving for chocolate.

Often times I'd be hitting up the candy machine for Peanut M&M's around that time, and the afternoon came and went without the urge to eat chocolate. I thought this was a major accomplishment for me, but I also wondered if it wasn't some of that "placebo effect" entering in.

Since I knew that I had listened to the hypnosis CD, was I actually "talking myself into" believing the hypnosis was cutting my appetite and shaping my food decisions as well as my intentions to work out?

Well, isn't that what hypnosis is - that is, a placebo effect in itself? I suppose it doesn't really matter, because the end result is that I saw a dramatic change in my eating habits, all seemingly without the pain of a constant internal struggle to not eat.

As far as the root cause of it, I really could care less. It accomplished the task of giving me a renewed sense of self control and eating to live, not living to eat, and that is all that matters in the end!

Danna Schneider is the cofounder of Hypnotherapy for Weight Loss, where there's more about the self hypnosis CD's mentioned in this article, and more about people's real experiences with hypnotherapy for losing weight. She also founded a new blog dedicated to fitness and exercise equipment reviews and discussions called Fitness Equipment Reviews : Treadmill Reviews : Elliptical Reviews, a blog about physical fitness and health.

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