Life is Not Fair -Part 3: Adapt or Die

Why is the Vinegar Fly (Drosophila) of Australia dying out, while the Brown Argus butterfly is successfully expanding its distribution northwards in the UK? And what does this have to do with BMR, weight control, and plateaus? Let’s find out.

You will recall that there was a brief discussion of your body’s need for homeostasis, calories in and calories out, etc. Remember that I mentioned that when you reduce your body’s weight, you also reduce your BMR, or the number of calories your body needs to function. So you might get really frustrated that after denying yourself day in and day out of all your favorite things, you must now survive on fewer calories, in general. (I don’t make the rules, I just report them). Many people have gotten caught in the vicious cycle of caloric restriction, weight loss, elation, weight gain, depression, etc., without understanding how to break the cycle. Let’s do a little researching…

Segue: Not long ago, a not-for-profit organization began gathering data documenting how people lost weight and kept it off. It is called the National Weight Control Registry. It contains data from people who have voluntarily submitted stories of their weight loss and weight maintenance history. (read more at www.nwcr.ws/stories.htm). There are common threads as to how weight was lost, and how the participants avoided the yo-yo effects of dieting. In a nutshell:
• Most participants had a major event that spurred them to action.
• Many used only calorie and portion control to lose weight, but a large percentage used a combination of calorie control and regular daily exercise (often vigorous) to maintain the weight loss (94 %!)
• In addition, here are some habits that were consistent with participants:
o 78% eat breakfast every day.
o 75% weigh themselves at least once a week.
o 62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.
o 90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.
Sounds boring, I know, but it seems to work for them.

The point I am trying to make (and yes, I do have a point), is that many of these people had tried and failed many times before finally achieving their goals. They could have chosen to be like the Vinegar Fly, and just die out, without even trying to adjust their metabolic processes. But instead, they chose to take the route of the Brown Argus butterfly, and change their fate. (this is a stretch, I know, but bear with me)

Nature has forced its inhabitants to adapt over and over for eons. So, some species died out, and others survived. If we consider our bodies as self-contained eco-systems, what we are doing is modifying the environmental landscape, if you will, to accommodate the changes that occur when we do things like restrict calories or exercise vigorously. If simply reducing caloric intake results in only temporary metabolic success, then we need to adjust our environmental factors, internally, as well as externally, to adapt to those changes, and by so doing, survive.

That’s it for this segment. When the going gets tough, think of yourself as a Brown Argus Butterfly (and when you do, say things like “Cheerio,” “Pip Pip, Old Chum,” and “Right you are, Guv’na”)