Although genetic factors may limit the amount of weight we can comfortably lose, overweight people can still lose weight by following a weight-control program. The treatment of obesity, it must require something other than just extreme dieting.
To control obesity and lose weight first of all we should understand why many times dieting failed. Many of us already tried the weight loss program but after a certain time, we again come to zero point. For a better weight loss program let’s understand why drug and dieting sometimes failed and what psychological studies say about it.
Why dieting failed to control weight?
Unfortunately, most dieters are not successful, and those who succeed in shedding pounds often gain weight again after ceasing dieting. This state of affairs seems to be partly due to two deep-seated reactions to a temporary deprivation of food (which is what a diet is). The first reaction, as we’ve seen, is that deprivation per se can lead to subsequent overeating.
The second reaction of interest is that deprivation decreases metabolic rate, and, as, the lower one’s metabolic rate, the fewer calories expended, and the higher one’s weight. Consequently, the calorie reduction during dieting is partly offset by the lowered metabolic rate, making it difficult for dieters to meet their goals.
The reduced metabolic rate caused by dieting may also explain why many people find it harder and harder to lose weight with each successive diet: the body responds to each bout of dieting with a reduction in metabolic rate. Both reactions to dieting binge-eating and lowered metabolic rate are understandable in evolutionary terms.
Until very recently in human history, whenever people experienced deprivation it was because of a scarcity of food in the environment. One adaptive response to such scarcity is to overeat and store in our bodies as much food as possible whenever it is available.
Natural selection may have favored the ability to overeat following deprivation, which explains the overeating reaction, a second adaptive response to a scarcity of food in the environment is for organisms to decrease the rate at which they expend their limited calories, so natural selection may have favored the ability to lower one’s metabolic rate during deprivation.
Weight control programs – Research
To lose weight overweight individuals need to establish a new set of permanent eating habits and engage in a program of exercise. A study conducted by psychologists to find out which method is effective to control obesity. In this study, various methods of controlling obesity are compared.
For a period of 6 months, obese individuals followed one program out of three treatment programs.
(1) Lifestyle change through behavior modification of eating and exercise habits
(2) Drug therapy using an appetite suppressant
(3) A combination of behavior modification and drug therapy
Participants in all three treatment groups were given information about exercise and extensive nutritional counseling, including a diet of no more than 1200 calories per day. Participants in the behavior modification groups were taught to become aware of situations that prompted them to overeat, to change the conditions associated with their overeating, to reward themselves for appropriate eating behavior, and for following an exercise program.
In addition to the three treatment groups, there were two control groups: one consisted of participants waiting to take part in the study, and the other participants who saw a physician for traditional treatment of weight problems.
The participants in all three treatment groups lost more weight then the participants in the two control groups, with the group combining behavior modification and drug therapy losing the most weight and the behavior-modification-only group losing the least.
However, after one year same participants observed and measured. The behavior-modification-only group regained far less weight than the two other treatment groups; these participants maintained an average weight loss of nearly 20 pounds by the end of the year, whereas the weight losses for the drug-therapy-only group and the combined treatment group regained roughly two-thirds of the weight they had initially lost.
What caused this reversal?
An increased sense of self-efficacy or self-control may have been a factor. Participants who made lifestyle changes as a result of the behavior modification-only treatment could attribute their weight loss to their own efforts, thereby strengthening their resolve to continue controlling their weight after the treatment ended.
Participants who received an appetite suppressant, on the other hands, probably attributed their weight loss to the medication and did not develop a sense of self-control.
Another possible factor stems from the fact that the medication had decreased the participants’ feelings of hunger, or temporarily lowered their set point, and consequently participants in the drug-therapy-only group and the combined treatment group may not have been sufficiently prepared to cope with the increase in hunger they felt when the medication was stopped. Obesity is starting to appear.
Obesity what is the role of drug?
When people take diet drugs, a variety of things can happen. The drug might suppress appetite directly, which would reduce the feeling of hunger another drug might suppress the set point at which bodyweight is set and that the body strives to maintain rather than suppress appetite directly.
For example, it has been suggested that some diet drugs have this effect. Such an effect would be equivalent to direct appetite suppression as long as body weight was higher than the lowered set point. Once bodyweight fell to the lower level, appetite would return to just the degree needed to remain at that weight.
When a person stopped taking the drug the setpoint would return to its higher level, and the person would regain the weight and victimofobesity. Finally, some drugs, such as nicotine, may help people lose weight by elevating the metabolic rate of cells, causing them to burn more calories than they ordinarily would.
What should we do to lose weight?
1. Exercise and Exercise
There is only shortcut to reduce weight is to do regular exercise. Exercise benefits the human body in numerous ways but we all have some doubts regarding how it benefits the body, why we fail to follow the routine, sometimes it is not effective. Obesity can be beat by exercise.
2. Dieting with motivation
In the above-mentioned research, it was found that the behavior-modification group regained far less weight than the two other treatment groups. When we follow a diet plan inspired by others it would not last long but if we plan and motivate ourselves with behavior modification it can behold for a longer period.
Conclusion
Gaining weight or obesity is very easy but cutting acquired fat is quite difficult but not impossible. With full dedication, anyone can shed fat.