Taking Responsibility of Obesity

This blog is to support people with losing weight, and is not to purposely offend anyone. I want to share some advice and educate you to become a fitter, healthier person.

Here in the UK, Obesity isn't necessarily considered as a disease. However, in the U.S., obesity was declared a disease in June 2013 by the American Medical Association (AMA) [1]. Many people argue whether it should or shouldn't be labeled as a disease, but let me share with you my thoughts.

Firstly, people need to understand that they still have a choice. Calling obesity a disease creates a fixed mindset; "I'm broken, I have this disease, I'm a victim". This is why it's a very challenging conversation around personal responsibility. If you continue to look for an answer outside of yourself, you'll lose having control, rely on someone else, and you will most likely continue to live your current lifestyle. Just know that one way or another, you played a role in getting to where you are now.

If you do accept your obesity as a personal responsibility, you then benefit from acknowledging the fact that every decision you make from now on has an effect on your health. Yes, you are now aware that you contributed to getting yourself into this position, but now you're motivated by knowing that you can get yourself out. Although the way that you have lived your life for the last 10, 20 or 30 years has gotten you to where you are now, it can be reversed in a fraction of that time.

Now, is obesity actually a disease? Technically, yes. That's because excess body fat develops via an abnormal regulation of your energy balance, causing multiple complications. The Dictionary defines disease as a disordered or incorrectly functioning structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, nutritional deficiency or imbalance. Whether obesity is a disease or not, nobody gets obese by accident, and it's not like it happens overnight.

Here's a motivator for you. Studies have shown that obesity can shave up to 14 years off of your life [2]. The main way that obesity kills is by increasing risk of heart disease and stroke [3]. Amongst middle-aged people in the UK, as many as one in four deaths are from heart attack or stroke that are brought on from being overweight or obese. Obesity also increases death rates for some types of cancer. One in 16 cancer deaths are due to being overweight or obese.

I believe that the first step of accepting responsibility is to ask yourself both when and why your journey to obesity began. If it started for you as a child, then it was most likely parental influence. I wrote a previous blog about preventing your child's obesity as a parent. The purpose of that blog was to make parents aware of how their own diet influences their child's wellbeing. Bad habits can also be passed down from parents. Studies suggest that children begin to develop habits from the age of 9 [4].

It's pretty normal for a child's breakfast to be cereal. I remember when I was a child, my grandpa would eat Shreddies every morning. I looked at Shreddies as being something extra 'healthy'. Let's take a look at some other breakfast cereals.

FUEL 10K PROTEIN BOOSTED GRANOLA - KELLOGG'S COCO POPS

So, out of these two, which one would you say is a 'healthier' option? Fuel 10K's "Protein Boosted" Granola, or the classic Kellogg's Coco pops.

Note that these servings are without milk. However, Fuel 10K state that their granola is protein boosted. Mentioning "High in protein" on any food packaging attracts attention, but 7.8g of protein isn't exactly much of a boost. Also, the recommended serving of Fuel's granola has twice as much sugar and pretty much twice as many calories as a recommended serving of the coco pops. Let's be honest though, how many of us actually follow the serving size? I sure don't.

This isn't me telling you to eat loads of coco pops, and I'm not even telling you that one is healthier than the other. My point in telling you this is so that you take more notice of what you're eating. Oh, and you're an adult, so if you are eating cereal every morning then you need a slap.

Here's when we talk about the money side of things. When we become teenagers, we usually start to look after ourselves in the kitchen. We tend to choose what we eat, or at least have a say in what we eat. From then on, it's down to you to keep yourself in good health. I had a minimum wage job as a teenager so definitely had a budget on food. I've literally heard people say that eating healthy is more expensive than eating bad, but I don't think this is true. I think that it's false information that has been passed around by people who are unwilling to look in the right places. It's pretty obvious that eating takeaways or being at restaurants is more expensive than cooking for yourself at home.

When it comes to snacks, Walkers multipack (6x) crisps from Sainsbury's are £2.20, and Sainsbury's bananas (8x) are just £1.25. Bananas and other fruits are loaded with valuable vitamins and minerals.

One of the best ways to save money and stay on track when losing weight is by meal prepping. Whenever I get hungry, I'll find myself walking to the fridge in search for food. I'm much more likely to go for the healthy meals that I have prepared for myself rather than making bad decisions. Whether or not you are trying to lose weight, cooking dinner frequently at home will help you keep a healthier diet [5].

A study found that even just planning a meal before cooking it is associated with lower odds of being overweight in women and lower odds of obesity in men [6]. It also highlighted that those who plan their meals were more likely to have a better dietary quality, including a higher chance of sticking to nutritional guidelines as well as an increased food variety.

If you don't have a budget for food, I'd recommend you check out Fresh Fitness Food. This company delivers their delicious, healthy, personalised, ready to eat meals straight to your door. Best part, use my promo code MATTG for £65 off your first order.

Pointing out a frequent mistake that people make, including myself, is to shop on an empty stomach. That's when we reach for the colourful food packages, something that we can demolish the second we leave the shop. These foods tend to be the less healthier options. When you shop on an empty stomach, your preferences will change from long term to short term due to your hunger [7]. Those short term decisions can be made on potential purchases separate to food as well.

One way to suppress your appetite is to drink more water. In fact, drinking more water has more benefits than you might think. Drinking around 500ml of water increases your metabolic rate by around 30% [8]. This isn't a lot, but every little helps when trying to lose weight. A similar benefit when drinking 500ml before your meals can improve weight loss [9]. Staying hydrated also reduces stress which is a bonus for goals such as losing weight [10].

Another stress reliever and weight loss ingredient is the obvious... Exercise. Exercising is proven to be as effective as an anti-depressant [11]. When it comes to weight loss, start by taking more notice of your steps. Maybe start by introducing a 10 minute walk to your day, then perhaps bump it up to three 10 minute walks a day. Another easy thing to do if you have a sedentary job, is to stand for 5-10 minutes every hour. These are some great small changes for you to start taking more notice of your health.

Stepping up a level with fitness, how about swimming? Every pool has their quiet or private hours. The benefit of swimming is because you weigh less in the water. You could just walk or back stroke. Perhaps back stroke one way and walk the other. The reason for back stroke is because it's easier than being belly down and will keep the air in your lungs.

By the way, if you have made it this far down and are still reading then I'm proud of you.

"You can't outwork a bad diet" - You've probably heard this quote before? It's certainly true. I've written a previous blog about burning calories and where it happens the most. 70% of our calories are burned by doing 'nothing', basically our heart beating, lungs inflating, etc. Then 15% is burned through typing on your laptop, hoovering the house, walking to the shop. 10% is actually burned by eating. Think about how much energy it takes to break down food. The final 5% is burned at the gym. Sure, these percentages aren't the same for everyone, but hopefully this gives you an overall understanding.

Within our 24 hour days, 33% (8 hours) should be spent sleeping. When it comes to exercise, a half an hour workout is just 2% of that 24 hours, so you certainly have the time. Throughout the day, we should be losing our calories by moving more in general and eating less.

Talking of sleep, those of you who know me will know that I am big on sleep. One study that I often share with my clients is about how sleep loss limits fat loss [12] . This 28 day study had people on on a 10% calorie deficit diet. The first 14 days of this study showed that when they had around 7.5 hours of sleep, they lost on average 3lbs of fat and 3lbs of muscle. The last 14 days of the study, they had around 5 hours of sleep and lost an average of 1lbs of fat and 5lbs of muscle.

This study also showed that getting a good sleep helped control their hunger. When having less sleep, they produced higher levels of ghrelin which is the hormone that reduces energy expenditure, stimulates hunger and food intake, and promotes retention of fat.

So far, my advice has been about making small changes that make big differences. Consistency is key, but with that let's talk confidence. Having confidence brings in a positive mindset to help you navigate through any stress, excessive eating or negative social interactions. You are also more likely to set realistic and achievable goals.

Talking of confidence, something that I'd recommend is to head over to Boohoo or BoohooMAN - I'm not in any way affiliated with them, this is just something that I've noticed. Boohoo do sizes of up to 28 for ladies and BoohooMAN do sizes up to 5XL for men. They sell fashionable and affordable clothes for when you're in the gym, in the pool, or out with friends.

Back to consistency, have you ever heard of a yo-yo diet? This is where you keep losing weight and regaining weight time and time again. Yo-yo dieting is mostly due to having a strict, detailed diet that you don't enjoy and therefore can't maintain long term. Sorry to say names but I've seen this a thousand times with things like SlimFast, Weight Watchers, and more. I come from the days when people thought that SlimFast was healthy (yeah I said it), but it's a bunch of tasty protein shakes that replace foods. Guess what... that's you consuming less calories. Then you stop their diet and begin to eat more again. That's why I want to educate you, rather that give you a temporary option.

Next up, a balanced diet. Most people think that a balanced diet means eating half of what you consider healthy and half of whatever crap you want. However, us trainers call that a 'Seafood diet' - See it, eat it.

A balanced diet actually means eating a variety of foods in the right proportions to get the healthy nutrients that your body needs. That's eating plenty of fruits and veg, lean proteins, and healthy fats and carbs. It's about finding the right mix to keep you energised, strong, and healthy.

Putting everything together, I'm not saying that you can't eat a pizza now and then, but we need to know where to draw the line. Saying 'now and then' should become monthly rather than weekly. A pizza isn't something to be had every Friday night, and an Indian takeaway shouldn't be ordered every time there is a football match on. However, there is a very big difference between eating a slice of pizza or a slice of cake at your child's birthday party as opposed to stopping by at a McDonald's drive through on your way to pick up the kids from school at 3:05pm on a Tuesday. These are your choices and you are the one to make the decisions.

If you have ever tried a diet or training plan that didn't work for you, please comment below or send me a private message.

Have you ever considered online coaching to give you a boost?

You'll have access to my online coaching app, where we'll stay connected through weekly video check-ins to see how you're getting on. You will have a personalised workout program and nutritional guidance to video exercise tutorials, a habit change plan, and a private place to keep your progress pictures.

Contact me for more details about online coaching.

Here are some similar blogs that could help you along the way:

• How to Change Your Habits

• £65 off Your Fresh Fitness Food

• Sleep for an Underactive Thyroid

• 7 Reasons to Try Personal Training

• Prevention of Childhood Obesity as Parents

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Disclaimer

This blog is for informational purposes only and does not replace professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor before starting any new medication or weight loss program.