Diets

 If you're overweight and feeling that it's all your fault, the headline of this article, Scientists Claim that Overeating is not the Primary Cause of Obesity, should remove some of the guilt. The full text is here.

Of course, most people reading this blog already know that overeating is not the main cause of all cases of obesity, but it's nice to have attention called to that fact.

Weight control is complex and depends on numerous factors including genetics, income, access to physical activity, social class, what our friends are eating and a need to fit in (especially among adolescents), what kinds of foods are available in our neighborhood, and many more-subtle factors.

Even without rigorous studies, we all know families in which everyone is skinny, despite having voracious appetites and other families in which everyone is fat despite eating sensibly. Genetics clearly plays a role. However, that doesn't mean weight loss is impossible. It's just harder than it is for people born into thin families.

Income has a big effect on weight control. Rich people can afford to buy meat and fresh vegetables, with fresh fruit for dessert, whereas poor people may be forced to eat mostly cheap starches swimming in oil. I once spent the summer in Paris with a rich classmate who was overweight. They had a chef who prepared delicious low-calorie foods for her, and she also had a masseuse who massaged her every day. I'm not sure how much the massages helped her lose weight, but she was so terrified of the woman that she starved herself and did lose some weight.

Sadly, she kept losing and regaining weight and eventually died from a heart attack at a relatively young age.

People who live in dangerous neighborhoods aren't likely to do a lot of recreational walking or running even if they want to.

Social class dictates what weights are acceptable. You don't see a lot of obese people in the society pages.

So the causes of overweight are myriad, and so are the best ways to avoid or reverse obesity. There is no best diet for everyone, just as there is no best exercise. Losing weight is difficult, very difficult, and we all have to find our own path. What works for someone else (not counting starvation, which works for everyone) may not be the best for you.

Lately, I've started losing weight without trying. I think it's because I'm bored with the foods I've been eating for the last 20 years, so I only eat enough to dull my hunger and then I put the rest in the fridge to eat at the next meal. I hope the lack of appetite isn't a sign of some disease. There are worse things than being overweight.

 I'm also shrinking, and I just hope I don't just shrink into nothingness. I see a 2-inch tall me, but very thin. Is that what I really want?