You: On a Diet Revised Edition: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management Hardcover - 2009

Summary

Excerpt

Introduction
YOU: On a Diet

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Most diets promise commonsense solutions to tight-pants problems: Eat less, and youâÈçll weigh less. Keep your mouth closed, and youâÈçll keep the pounds off. Sweat like a sauna-dwelling sumo wrestler, and youâÈçll wind up skinnier than a sheet of paper. Straightforward enough. But if it really worked that way, our bodies wouldnâÈçt be large enough to be spotted by Google Earth. If it really worked that way, then most diets wouldnâÈçt fail. If it really worked that way, then we all must be a bunch of rebellious hellions with mayo-covered lips and belt-busting bellies who donâÈçt feel like following a few simple instructions.

Or it could be that most diets have it all wrong.

We believe itâÈçs the latter.

You know why? Because most diets instruct you to take on the corn chips, meatball specials, and dessert trays with brute force. ItâÈçs you versus food in a lifetime heavyweight fight. But in that scenario, the fight is always fixedâÈ'and not in your favor. ThatâÈçs because the battle against extra pounds isnâÈçt won with force, with sweat, with trying to diet. ItâÈçs won with elegance, with smarts, and with healthy choices that become as automatic as a Simon Cowell barb.

When it comes to dieting, trying to whip fat with our weapon of willpower is the food equivalent of holding your breath underwater. You can do it for a while, but no matter how psyched up you get, at some point your bodyâÈ'your biologyâÈ'forces you to the surface gasping for air. And with most diets, your body forces you to gasp (or gulp) for food. No matter how hard you try not to eat, some hidden force deep inside is always prying your mouth back open, making it impossible for willpower to win. Instead of sparring with your waistline, itâÈçs time you made your body an ally in the fight against fat.

Our process is to look at our overweight bodies the way scientists would: Identify the underlying biology of the problem, then find the cures. Why? Because weâÈçre lucky enough to be in the right place at the right timeâÈ'a time when the scientific world has just now started to unlock the biological mysteries that have caused us to store fat and gain weight. For the first time in our history, the scientific community is uncovering the medical evidence about food, appetite, and satiety that will allow you to tackle weight problems with the real weapon against fat: knowledge. By making this knowledge simple and accessible, weâÈçre going to give you tools and actions to crack the code of true and lifelong waist management. In fact, our plan will help you avoid the dangerous yo-yo cycle of weight gain and weight loss. WeâÈçre going to help you reprogram your body so that you can keep off the weight you lose forever.

Through the years, many of us have been led to believe that our weight problem is about two things: calorie counting and mental toughness. While some of us may say that the weight problem is too much of the twelve-cheese lasagna, the real problem is that most of us have as much of a clue about how our bodies work as we have about how our cars do. Sure, we know the major parts and generally what theyâÈçre supposed to do. The real danger of thinking we have most of the answers is that we stop asking the questions. If we look under our hood, do we really understand the systems that make our bodies accelerate to a life of fat and the ones that slam the brakes on the dangerous cookie-and-cake collisions that take place every day? Probably not, and thatâÈçs what weâÈçre here to help you learn.

Above all, weâÈçre going to teach you that when it comes to dieting, you need to work smart, not hard.

Following our plan, you can expect to drop up to two inches from your waist (or a dress size) within two weeks and see results steadily after that. While the end goal is what many of us look for, we believe that the path you choose to get there is what really dictates whether you make it or not. Our path looks like this:

Part 1: What a Waist! Starting here, weâÈçll talk about our major principles for how the body is designed to work and how our program is geared toward those functions. And weâÈçll also give you the biological ideals of the human bodyâÈ'how our bodies originally looked and functioned. WeâÈçll also give you some self-assessment tools for figuring out your own bodyâÈçs ideals. Once you know where youâÈçre going, youâÈçll have a better idea of how to get there.

Part 2: The Biology of Fat. Here youâÈçll follow morsels of food from the pantry to the porcelain bowl and everywhere in between. WeâÈçll start by exploring the physiology of appetite, and then weâÈçll dive into the science of fatâÈ'how we store it, how we burn it, how we fight it. Obesity is really only a twenty-year-old problem (not for you but for society). Since 1990, weâÈçve gone from 1 percent of North Americans with the dangerous disease of inflammation from fat in the liver to 35 percent who have it now. YouâÈçll learn what a truly amazing system your body is when you steer it in the right direction through wise nutritional and activity choices.

Part 3: The Science of the Mind. When it comes to overeating, most of us put more emphasis on what weâÈçre noshing than on what weâÈçre thinking. But you canâÈçt discuss weight issues without exploring the scientific and chemical (and even spiritual) reasons why your brain hormones and your emotions drive you to the eight-enchilada special. YouâÈçll learn why some foods are addictive. More important, weâÈçll show you the strategies for making your emotions and the chemicals that drive them work for, not against, your waistline.

Part 4: The YOU Diet and Activity Plan. After you read and learn about the intricacies of your body, youâÈçll find the eating and activity plan that will teach your body to eat and work smart. Your body will become your gym as you gain sleek strength in your bodyâÈçs foundation musclesâÈ'all without using weights. And youâÈçll learn to make the right decisions in the supermarket aisle and at the fast-food window. The fourteen-day plan outlines recipes, exercises, and actions you can take to live leaner and healthier.

(In our appendices, weâÈçll explore the medical options for dealing with weight issuesâÈ'for times when you may plateau, and for those people whose weight problems have led to major medical problems.)

Now, with all the diet information thatâÈçs circulating today, sometimes itâÈçs hard to know whatâÈçs right, and sometimes itâÈçs hard to remember what to do even if it is. ThatâÈçs why we feel that while the program is important, how you learn itâÈ'how you ingrain it as part of your lifestyleâÈ'is just as vital. As we travel through the four parts of the book, youâÈçll notice various ways youâÈçll learn about your body and how to change it. These are the five main elements weâÈçll use along the way:

YOU-REKA IMP

YOU-reka Moments! Like Einstein suddenly realizing that E = mc2 youâÈçll develop deep insights that challenge your preconceptions about diets, about fat, and about your body. In the margin, youâÈçll see our YOU-reka impâÈ'the signal that weâÈçre about to come upon a moment of enlightenment by busting a myth or explaining something to you about diets that may seem 180 degrees from what you believe is true.

YOUR Body: In Parts 2 and 3, as we explore the biology of your body, weâÈçll start each chapter by giving quick biology lessons about what really happens inside your body. We ask that you put on your metaphorical scrubs and gloves as you whiz through your arteries, travel through your intestines, and hang out in your stomach. WeâÈçll get up close to your fat so we can see how your body handles it and how it manipulates your body. We believe that by learning about how the inside of your body works, youâÈçll develop the smarts you need to change how the outside looks.

YOU Tests. Through interactive quizzes and measurements, youâÈçll establish baselines for such vital statistics as your ideal body size and your eating personality. And youâÈçll also be able to test for the secret things that could be contributing to a weight problem (get a load of our tongue test on page 76). You can start in a few pages by taking the Fat Facts Test on page 18.

YOU Tips: After we explore the biology of your body to show you what bad things can happen if you make the wrong choice or have cross-wired genetics, weâÈçll immediately give you actions that can help turn your body around. At the end of each chapter, weâÈçll outline intelligent strategiesâÈ'big and smallâÈ'for living, eating, and moving in a more healthful way.

The YOU Diet and Activity Plan: In Part 4 (on page 217) weâÈçll detail the specific and simple strategies, recipes, and exercises that will lead you to the body you wantâÈ'for the rest of your life. The fourteen-day YOU Diet (itâÈçs actually so easy that we crafted a seven-day plan that you do twice) and the no-weights-required YOU Workout provide all the tools and instructions youâÈçll need. Best of all, they donâÈçt take a lot of time, and theyâÈçre so easy that you can incorporate them into your life today. YouâÈçll be rewarded for the time you spend planning, exercising, shopping, and cooking with more energy and a better moodâÈ'and youâÈçll enjoy looking in the mirror more!

So where do we start? With our first YOU-reka! moment: Your body naturally wants to take you to your optimum weight, as long as you donâÈçt get in its way.

ThatâÈçs right. For almost everyone, no matter what your genetics, the systems, organs, and processes of your body all want you to function at an ideal weight and size. With the following few principles that weâÈçll develop throughout the book, weâÈçre going to teach you how you can make that happen without having to bludgeon yourself in frustration with a butter knife. These are our major principles for achieving your very best and very healthiest body.
Note
FACTOID

When you lose weight without exercise, you lose both muscle and fat, but when you gain weight without exercise, you gain only fat. ItâÈçs much easier to gain fat weight than it is to gain muscle weight, which is one of the reasons why yo-yo dieting fails so miserably: When you continually gain and lose and gain and lose, you end up gaining proportionally even more fat, because of the muscle loss that takes place every time you lose.

YOU Will Choose Elegance over Force

Most dieters try to defeat their Oreo/Cheeze Doodle/custard pie infatuations with will, with deprivation, with sweat, with a âÈêmy-brain-is-stronger-than-your-crustâÈë attitude. But trying to beat your body with mind power alone may be more painful than passing a melon-size kidney stone. Instead, you have to learn about the systems and actions that influence hunger, satiety, fat storing, and fat burning to fine-tune your corporeal vehicle so it runs on autopilot and takes you to your ultimate destination: a healthy, ideal body. (For those who want to skip ahead, youâÈçve probably already peeked at Part 4; however, getting to know the nuances of your body is what will help you achieve and maintain a truly healthy-size body.)

YOU Will Learn How Your Body Thinks

True body improvement is about science. ItâÈçs about making the leap from witchcraft to hard data, from alchemy to chemistry, from speculation about what works for your body to explanations of how your body actually works. The only way youâÈçll understand the way calories and fat travel from that 2,000-calorie onion loaf to the back of your arm is by bringing alive the physiology of hormones, blood, organs, and musclesâÈ'by explaining the processes of digestion, starvation, fat storage, and muscle movements. When you understand the magic of physiology and the fun of biology, youâÈçll know what actions to takeâÈ'and why youâÈçre taking themâÈ'to reboot your body back to where it wants to be. Just as when youâÈçre trying to help a tantruming toddler or kick-start a frozen computer, you canâÈçt fix it unless you know whatâÈçs wrong. Know the why, and itâÈçs much easier to handle the howâÈ'when you need to. LetâÈçs face it, weâÈçre not going to be sitting next to you at 10:30 p.m. when youâÈçre pilfering a Pop-Tart. So you need to be equipped with knowledge of how your body works and reacts to that Pop-Tart so that you can defend against the little sugar-coated bugger.

YOU Will Challenge Your Beliefs about Diets

Throughout our lives, weâÈçve been conditioned to believe that if one thing is good for us, then more of it must be better. If you eliminate 100 calories from your daily diet, then eliminating 400 must qualify you for size 2. If you walk to lose weight, then running a marathon must nuke the fat right off your body. Well, neither idea is true. Worse, not only arenâÈçt they true, but many of the diet myths perpetuated today actually hurt our bodies. Food deprivation, for example, drops your metabolism and makes your body want to store fat. Many of the rules, ideas, and principles you may believe about dietingâÈ'that you assume work when dietingâÈ'simply arenâÈçt true and can very well contribute to weight issues because they keep the vicious cycle of fat loss and fat gain revolving faster than Lance ArmstrongâÈçs front wheel.

Throughout the book, youâÈçll learn all about this perfect storm of factors that contribute to our ability to gain so much weightâÈ'and our inability to lose it. YouâÈçll see that some of these reasons are biological, some are environmental, and some are psychological, and only when you learn how to navigate these tricky waters will you find true success when it comes to achieving and maintaining a healthy size.
Note
FACTOID

In men, the supplement L-carnitineâÈ'at a dose of 3 grams a dayâÈ'helps muscles use carbohydrates, but it is also good for blood vessel function in both men and women.

One of the reasons why most so-called diets fail is because of a psychological and behavioral flaw that many dieters have. We desperately want to believe the simple, comforting promises that diets makeâÈ'that doing A always gets us B. Because once we see that A (eating wheat germ 24-7) doesnâÈçt always equal B (the cover of Vogue), then we get frustrated and angry, and give in to the gods of cream-filled baked goods.

Unfortunately, your body and your fat do not have a linear, two-step relationship. Instead, think of your body as an orchestra. All of its systems, organs, muscles, cells, fluids, hormones, and chemicals play different instruments, make different sounds (your intestines have dibs on first-chair tuba), and produce different results depending on how you use them. They work independently, but only when theyâÈçre played together can you appreciate the magnificent symphony of your own biology. As the conductor of your biological orchestra, you control how the instruments interact and what the final result will be.

YOU Will Make Dieting Automatic

While we want you to âÈênot thinkâÈë about eating good foods, we also know that âÈênot thinkingâÈë may be how you got into this pants-stretching mess in the first place. When you donâÈçt think about the consequences of ordering football-size calzones, you wind up with such pleasantries as high LDL (lousy) cholesterol, low HDL (healthy type of) cholesterol, a fat-filled liver, inflammation in your arteries, and a higher risk of aging arteries that cause memory loss, heart disease, even wrinkles, as well as a steady stream of coupon offers from the large menâÈçs department. We want your body to guide you to the right choicesâÈ'without thinking about themâÈ'so that theyâÈçll lead to the results you want. It will take some effort at the start to retrain your habits, palate, and muscles, but this program will serve as a lifelong eating, activity, and behavior plan that will become as routine as going to the bathroom before bed.

Unless youâÈçre the rare kind of person who responds to dietary drill sergeants, you wonâÈçt find long-term solutions using traditional weight-loss methods: willpower, deprivation, fads, phases, or dead-bolting the lid of the butter pecan. Instead, using this plan, you will train yourself to never think about how much youâÈçre eating, never think about getting on a diet or worry about coming off one, and never have to figure out formulas, zones, or, for the love of (fill in the deity of your choice), place a chicken breast on a food scale.

YOU Will Focus on Waist Management

Our society seems almost as obsessed with pounds as it is with celebrity breakups, but itâÈçs time to shift your thinking: Studies have shown that waist circumference, not overall weight, is the most important indicator of mortality related to being overweight. Of course youâÈçll lose pounds on this plan, but we want you to switch your focus from a number that measures your weight to one that measures your waist. Because of its proximity to your organs, your belly fat is the most dangerous fat you can carry.

In addition to helping you shrink your waist through diet, weâÈçll also teach you the exercises that will help you achieve and maintain a healthy waist size. Now, we donâÈçt want you to think that exercise must involve sweating like a waterfall and panting like an obscene caller, because it doesnâÈçt. But you do need to start thinking about your body as a dartboard: ItâÈçs all about whatâÈçs in the center. YouâÈçll be focusing on the physical activities that will help control your waist sizeâÈ'specifically walking and foundation-muscle training of your entire body (without growing igloo-size muscles). WeâÈçll teach you simple moves that will develop all of your foundation muscles, and weâÈçll teach you how to tighten your belly, improve your posture, and develop the muscles that will make you fit into your clothes better. That translates into a shapelier waist, which, studies (and pick-up line frequency charts) show, makes you more attractive to others.

But letâÈçs not overlook the management part of the waist management equation. We all know how good managers work: They plan ahead and create systems that play to peopleâÈçs strengths, they set realistic goals, they measure progress, and they donâÈçt force their employees down roads that are designed to give them a pack-your-things meeting with HR. You need to train yourself to be a good waist manager by following a plan thatâÈçs designed to help you become the CEO of your body.
Note
YOU Test

Take Out the Tape

Some people havenâÈçt stepped on a scale since Laverne & Shirley played in prime time. And thatâÈçs a good thing. For our purposes, you donâÈçt need to know how much you weigh (but if you want to check your progress on this program, then go ahead and peek). All you need is a tape measure. Measure the circumference of your waist at the point of your belly button (suck in; you will anyway), and record the score here. (Depending on how your weight is distributed, you may need to make an adjustment to where you place the tape. If youâÈçre overweight, keep the tape measure parallel to the floor during measurement.)

Your Size: _____

For optimum health, the ideal waist size for women is 32Âē2 inches; once you hit 37 inches, the dangers to your health increase. For men, the ideal is 35 inches, and the dangers to your health increase once you hit 40 inches.

While weâÈçre going to emphasize waist over weight in this book, we also know that many of you wonâÈçt be able to resist the siren of the scale. When it comes to actual weight, you do need to stop thinking about one specific number. (âÈêI want to get down to one hundred thirty.âÈë) All of us have an ideal playing weightâÈ'not a weight for running marathons or making All Pro linebacker or posing for an airbrushed-anyway centerfold. This ideal playing weight is a range in which you live lean and healthy, and one in which you significantly reduce the risks of aging diseases associated with being overweight (more on all of this in Part 2).

You Will Focus on YOU, but Not Rely on YOU

It doesnâÈçt matter whether you look at presidents (Lincoln or Taft), musicians (Usher or Heavy D), or tennis players (Sharapova or Serena), itâÈçs clear that we all have different builds, just as we all have different genetics, metabolic rates, and chemical interactions. Still, there are some fundamental biological facts that are true whether youâÈçre built like a branch or a stump. As a species, weâÈçre programmed to gain and preserve the right amount of weight. ThatâÈçs simply what our bodies are designed to do (more on that coming up). The trick is to figure out your factory settings. Then, weâÈçll give you the all-important lock-setting tools that will help you to reboot those factory settings so that your body maintains its ideal size and shape.

While this is a very individual challenge, it doesnâÈçt have to be a lonely one. Life is a team game; youâÈçve got sports teams and surgical teams, restaurant staffs and office staffs, hip-hop clubs and calculator clubs. And of course you have the ultimate team: your family. The most successful teams all work the same way: Everybody plays a different role and contributes in his or her own way. You may have a Shaq, Kobe, or LeBron on your team, but the team canâÈçt win the title unless everybody, not just the stars, works for the team goal.

Somehow, though, when it comes to weight control, you believe that youâÈçre solely responsible for dropping your excess pounds and changing your habits. To make it worse, when youâÈçre gaining weight, even the fans are chipping in on your side; the world around us wants us to gain weight in the form of big portions, drive-throughs, and family dinners that could feed a small municipality. Then when youâÈçre trying to lose weight, itâÈçs as if everyoneâÈçs against you; they bring junk food into the home, suggest that everyone go out for ice cream, and feast on pork fat while youâÈçre trying to gnaw on cauliflower. You can think of this as being green at the same time. WhatâÈçs good for the outside environment (more plant food, less four-legged food) is good for your environment too.

You have to stop thinking that this game is you versus a stadium full of rib-loving opponents. Sure, you need to be the quarterback of your waist control team, but you wonâÈçt achieve success without a team that can block for you, high-five you when youâÈçre doing well, and give you an encouraging smack on the butt when youâÈçre not. Your starting lineup should include your doctor, maybe a nutritionist, maybe a personal trainer, and certainly scads and scads of fans like your family and friends (online or in person) who can push you, support you, and yank the bowl of candy corn away from you. But you shouldnâÈçt be the only one relying on other people; you should use this opportunity to find a support partner who needs you as much as you need her. After all, the best kinds of satisfaction shouldnâÈçt come from the sixth spoonful of cake batter, but from sharing knowledge and support, and helping others lose inches.

YOU Will Stop Blaming Yourself

The classic psychology of fat is this: If youâÈçre thin, then you believe that fat people must be doing something wrong to make them fat. But if youâÈçre fat, then you blame the environment, or your genetics, or anything else. Well, weâÈçre going to try to eliminate that blame and use medical insights to explain the epic saga of weight-related problems. We want to move dieting past a guilt-driven and blame-ridden system, and make it a science-based system.

Of course not everyone can look like a BeyoncÃû or a Brad Pitt. To get an idea of what your healthy weight, waist, and shape should be, youâÈçll need to take into account such things as bone structure, muscle mass, genetics, and risk factors associated with your weight. HereâÈçs a fact that goes virtually unmentioned: There are clinically obese people who live with no risk of health problems, and there are CD-thin people whose risk of dying prematurely is more than a chuteless sky-diverâÈçs. Our goal is to get you to the point where you strip away inches, you strip away the risks of being overweight, and you strip away the guilt associated with the process of always trying to do so.

YOU Will Never Be Hungry

We know exactly how youâÈçve felt when youâÈçve dieted in the past. Hungry. Famished. Three seconds away from steamrolling through a triple-dip cone with sprinkles. That recipe for dieting is one you can tear up. In fact, the only place hunger ever got you was a pair of pants that could double as curtains. To eat and work smart, your goal is never to be hungry and never to be in a state of dietary angst, where your only salvation is the 99Âò menu at the drive-through window. By keeping your hunger (and internal chemicals) in check, youâÈçll avoid the impetuous behaviors that send fat on an express ride to your belly.

YOU Will Make Mistakes

Look, we donâÈçt care how motivated you are, how willing you are, how inspired you are by Eva LongoriaâÈçs body. Someday, and someday soon, a volleyball-size muffin is going to get the best of you and nudge, bribe, or cajole its way into your stomach. ThatâÈçs OK. Hear that? ThatâÈçs OK. YouâÈçre going to have moments when your eyes, body, and curious fingers wonâÈçt be able to turn their radar lock off of the queso dip. You have to get past the concept that diets have side effectsâÈ'that is, unexpected negative consequences. Instead, realize that eating plans have effectsâÈ'offshoot actions, behaviors, and emotions that are simply part of everyday living. One of those effects is that you will occasionally eat things that are nutritional cigarettes; though one may not hurt you forever, it can get you addicted to some bad behaviors. Because of that, waist management is about developing contingency plansâÈ'plans that allow you to make mistakes and then get back on the right road. WeâÈçre going to teach you how to make a YOU-Turn when you do make mistakes with Twinkies or Tootsie Rolls or any bad-for-your-waist foods. That way, your dietary fender benders wonâÈçt turn into hundred-car Autobahn pileups.

YOU Will Be FlexibleâÈ'and Have Fun

Most of us want our diets to be a little like having the remote control; we want the power to make lots of choices, depending on everything from our mood to the time of day. ItâÈçs clear from research that the most successful eating plans are low-maintenance: You can follow them with your family, and you wonâÈçt feel overwhelmed by cravings. If you can do that, youâÈçll get results. But try to stay on a diet where you feel more isolated than a Yankees fan at Fenway Park, then chances are that the result will feel like the box-office numbers of a B-level horror flickâÈ'a miserable failure.

Eating right shouldnâÈçt be about feeling bad. It should be about feeling strong, increasing energy, living better, feeling healthier, and having more fun than a front-row rock fan. It should be about eating without thinking and without obsessing about every forkful. Of course, we all have reasons for overeating or eating the wrong kinds of food (stress, boredom, comfort, five-cent wing specials). But our goal isnâÈçt just for you to make by-the-book food substitutions or come to grips with your Devil Dog demons. You should be grinningâÈ'not grimacing, grunting, and growlingâÈ'as the inches melt away from your waist, and laughing as your lipid profile improves. YouâÈçll understand how, after we show you how the mind-stomach connection works by explaining how brain and belly chemicals control what the mind thinks, how the fork acts in your bodily orchestra, and how this relationship can become a cacophony in the wrong hands.

So now that weâÈçre about to begin, youâÈçre probably asking, What are we going to do, and how are we going to do it? Well, weâÈçre going to give you everything you need to make a body changeâÈ'through a series of elegant and effective changes based on hard scienceâÈ'that will stick with you for your life. Simply, this book will serve as your lifelong waist management, body-changing plan.

Best of all, when you put it all together and integrate automatic actions into your life, youâÈçll live by the principles youâÈçll need to stay fit and healthy, so that you can achieve and maintain exactly what youâÈçre striving for:

Your ideal body.
Note
The Fat Facts Test
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What Do You Really Know about Fat, Diets, and Other Weight-loss Solutions?

To help you determine your level of dietary knowledge, take this Fat Facts Test. In less time than it takes to listen to an American Idol off-key clunker, you may just learn more about your body and belly than youâÈçve ever known before.
1.
What is the first historical event that we can point to as contributing to the rise in excess pounds?

a. The development of agriculture.

b. The development of whipped cream in coffee.

c. The development of more office jobs.

d. The development of fast food.
2.
What is the reason most diets fail?

a. TheyâÈçre designed so that theyâÈçre impossible to stick to long-term.

b. TheyâÈçre so complicated that you need a math degree to follow them.

c. There are only so many carrot sticks and celery stalks a person can take.

d. Mozzarella sticks. Mmm!
3.
Which of the following strategies is most recommended for people trying to lose weight?

a. Weighing yourself once a week.

b. Eating two to three small meals a day.

c. Eating nuts every day.

d. Ex-Lax smoothies for everyone!
4.
WhatâÈçs the most important number for determining whether an increased waist size is putting you at risk for health problems?

a. Bra size.

b. Blood pressure.

c. Cholesterol.

d. Heart rate.
5.
What is ghrelin?

a. The name of a Harry Potter character.

b. A hormone that makes you want to eat more.

c. The name of fat cells in your belly.

d. The chemical in your brain that makes you feel good.
6.
What is leptin?

a. The name of the dude on the Lucky Charms cereal box.

b. The muscle-building protein that helps burn fat.

c. The nutrient in fruit that works in conjunction with fiber.

d. A chemical from fat that tells your brain you are full.
7.
Which spice has been shown to be helpful for controlling weight?

a. Cinnamon.

b. Thyme.

c. Oregano.

d. The one married to David Beckham; Posh, is it?
8.
Which one does not stimulate eating high-calorie food?

a. Too little sleep.

b. Too little sex.

c. Too little water.

d. Too much work.
9.
What does your body most want to do in periods of extreme stress?

a. Stay away from food.

b. Gorge on food.

c. Seek crunchy foods.

d. Crumple up into a pile of jelly and retreat to a warm bath.
10.
An ideal buddy is:

a. Tall, dark, and handsome.

b. Someone who has more fat than you to lose.

c. Someone who loves to celebrate with molten chocolate cake.

d. Someone who is on the same journey as you.
11.
Of the following choices, which is least dangerous to a long-term waist management strategy?

a. A 1,000-calorie-a-day diet.

b. Higher than usual colonics to remove all fat.

c. Training for a marathon.

d. Playing video games.
12.
Which organ is most responsible for metabolism?

a. Heart.

b. Stomach.

c. Liver.

d. Kidneys.
13.
The perfect storm for waist gain means:

a. You eat more because corner stores and fast-food restaurants that serve high-calorie foods are everywhere.

b. That high-fructose corn syrup can overwhelm an already fatty liver, producing a storm of inflammatory compounds and making the liver fatter. And you want to eat more and find a corner store that offers half price on anything with corn syrup in it.

c. You get too much sleep, so your metabolic rate slows; high-calorie food is easy to get, so you make up for oversleeping with overeating.

d. You can float more easily during a storm surge.
14.
Calorie for calorie, what fills you up for the longest amount of time?

a. Fat.

b. Fiber.

c. Fructose.

d. French fries.
15.
At least how much must you walk daily for optimum waist control?

a. Thirty minutes.

b. Two hours.

c. Any time you can spare.

d. Any, as long as itâÈçs not traveling to and from the fridge.
16.
What is the main purpose of liposuction?

a. To help people lose weight.

b. To target problem body parts.

c. To keep some Hollywood docs in business.

d. To ensure another season of successful reality TV.
17.
What is your omentum?

a. A badly misspelled word.

b. The part of your brain thatâÈçs stimulated to store fat.

c. A chemical that controls hunger.

d. A fat-storing tissue that becomes metabolically active.
18.
Health-wise, what is the optimal waist size for a woman?

a. As little as possible.

b. 32Âē inches.

c. Under 35 inches.

d. Whatever slides into that little black dress, honey.
19.
Which part of your body that plays a role in weight gain works most like your brain?

a. Your stomach.

b. Your heart.

c. Your small intestine.

d. Your unmentionables.
20.
What is CCK?

a. The former Soviet Union.

b. A hormone that regulates insulin levels by changing your blood sugar level.

c. Colonic Creations by Katherine.

d. Cholecystokinin, a chemical that tells your brain to stop eating the waffle.
21.
Of the following items, what contributes most to weight gain?

a. Periods of low levels of willpower.

b. Short periods of high-intensity stress.

c. Long periods of low-intensity stress.

d. Periods of high-intensity dessert trays.
22.
The difference between an allergy to and intolerance of gluten is:

a. Five trips to your doc.

b. Whether milk is eaten with gluten.

c. The degree of T-cell involvement in your gut.

d. Whether you have a deficiency of an enzyme or too great an immune response to gluten chemicals.
23.
Which of the following can be an effective medical option for weight loss?

a. Aspirin.

b. Beta-blockers.

c. Statins.

d. Antidepressants.
24.
Which activity is most helpful for waist control?

a. Crunches.

b. Cardiovascular training like running.

c. Resistance training like weight lifting.

d. Naked salsa dancing every other Tuesday.
25.
WhatâÈçs the worst side effect of losing weight?

a. Increased risk of chocolate withdrawal.

b. Increased risk of muscular and joint aches.

c. Increased risk of yo-yo dieting.

d. Increased risk of astronomical tailor bill.

Answers

1. a. The development of agriculture meant that we could now have foods we wanted, not needed. And thatâÈçs what provided the foundation for indulgence.

2. a. Most diets donâÈçt reprogram you to think and eat automatically, so that eventually youâÈçll go off the diet just as surely as you went on it.

3. c. Eating a handful of nuts has been shown to help you stay full, while skipping meals can be detrimental because your body will go into a fat-storing, starvation mode when it doesnâÈçt have enough calories.

4. b. Of these risks, blood pressure is the greatest indicator of health risks associated with being overweight.

5. b. Ghrelin makes you want to eat more.

6. d. Leptin keeps you full.

7. a. Cinnamon increases insulin sensitivity, which helps enhance the satiety center in your brain (and also reduces blood sugar levels as well as cholesterol levels).

8. d. All four satiety centers (for food, sleep, thirst, and sex) are collated in your brain; too little sleep or sex or too much thirst makes you crave sugary foods. Work will increase calorie intake only if you are stressed out and cope through eating.

9. a. Extreme stress (as in the case of a car accident, or even exercise) turns off your hunger. Chronic stress (like a long line of looming deadlines or family problems) can make you crave feel-good carbohydrates.

10. d. You and your buddy adopt each otherâÈçs habits (and looks, to a degree).

11. d. Playing video games works because it keeps your hands busy, so you canâÈçt eat. (Training for a marathon is actually destructive to your body because of the risk to your joints, and for most people, 1,000 calories is a dangerously low daily caloric intake. Do we really need to explain colonics?)

12. c. Your liver is responsible for most metabolic functions.

13. b. Your body has a biochemical perfect storm. Too much fructose presented to a fatty liver makes the liver process it differently from fructose delivered slowly, as it does in whole fruit. The rapid delivery is believed to cause your liver to produce an inflammatory chemical that damages your liver, arteries, and immune system. WeâÈçve gone from consuming 0 pounds per person of high-fructose corn syrup in 1960 to 63 pounds now.

14. b. Fiber fills you. A cup of oatmeal in the morning has been shown to prevent you from afternoon gorging.

15. a. Walk at least thirty minutesâÈ'at once or in intervalsâÈ'every day.

16. b. Liposuction should be used to sculpt problem areas, not to remove a lot of fat.

17. d. Located next to your stomach, your omentum is fat that can cause damage to surrounding organs.

18. b. While 32Âē inches or less is ideal, 37 inches is when women start seeing a greatly increased risk of weight-related disorders.

19. c. Your small intestineâÈ'with 100 million neuronsâÈ'has anatomy similar to your brain.

20. d. CCK is a chemical that directly and indirectly sends a message to your brain from your guts that youâÈçre full.

21. c. Chronic stress makes your body store more fat.

22. d. An intolerance is caused by a deficiency of the enzyme that metabolizes gluten; an allergy provokes a too-great immune response to a gluten antigen or protein.

23. d. Bupropion, an antidepressant, has been shown to help control cravings and lead to about a 7 percent weight loss. Other antidepressants, such as tricyclic antidepressants or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), can often be associated with weight gain.

24. c. Adding a little muscle through resistance training helps your body burn more fat throughout the day.

25. c. Yo-yo dieting not only has physiological effects, because you end up gaining more weight after youâÈçve lost it, but it also has psychological effects.

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Scoring

You get one point for each correct answer.

20 and above: Congratulations, doc. YouâÈçre an anatomical expert.

11âÈ'19: YouâÈçre average, but then again, the average person is overweight, so maybe this isnâÈçt so good. Maybe youâÈçd better read on.

10 and below: DonâÈçt worry, youâÈçre about to enroll in the ultimate course in the biology, history, and anatomy of fatâÈ'which is the best way to change your body.

Âû 2009 Michael F. Roizen, M.D.

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