How do fat cells think? Losing weight is hard

Are you discouraged about losing weight? Too many failures to count? Consider the following

As we get older we tend to add weight. You may be thinking, “No **** Sherlock.” Since I have taken up the walking with the fat man blog, I have lost weight 60 lbs. and have regained the weight and have added 10 lbs. to boot. I have found weight-gain happens after weight-loss. After repeated failure, not just by me but by most people I know, drive me back to ask Why?  

My experience and observations have only underscored how difficult it is to lose weight. In the articles below, looking at the research behind them I have found some interesting facts:

• The odds are against you if you are obese to lose weight for healthy BMI
• If you lose your weight by dieting and even exercise the odds are against you to keep the weight off once you have reached a goal. You are more likely to put the weight back on.
• Fat cells basically send messages to feed them and keep them healthy. It is stressful to lose weight in our body always fight stress.
• Fat cells send chemicals that lower the metabolism (How do fat cells think?) 
• Most of our strategies lose weight don't work. Dr. Leibel said, that losing weight “is not a neutral event,” and that it is no accident that more than 90 percent of people who lose a lot of weight gain it back. “You are putting your body into a circumstance it will resist,” NYT 2011
• It is harder today to lose weight then if you were the same age you are today than 30 years ago. If someone was 65 years old 30 years ago and weighed 290 lbs. would have an easier time losing weight then someone today all things being equal. WP 2015

Having a hard time losing weight? Of course you are! These
little buggers are always sending out singles - more!

Take a minute to think about what you observed. You have seen people lose weight by surgeries to shrink the stomach and liposuction only to put the weight back on. I eat less than I used to, but my metabolism is slower. I am not alone in this experience as it turns out. The bottom line is, “It is hard to lose weight.” All of the numbers are stacked against us. 

Is this just looking for reasons to enable failure? I think that is a fair question. The reality I see the failed efforts by well intentioned people. I am one of them and it bugs the **** out me. That motivated me to look at science and reality to begin to build a more successful outcome. 

It would be easy to give up and say the hell with it. But the truth is our efforts actually to be healthcare better then not doing nothing at all. An overweight person eating the right food and exercising is less likely to die from being overweight almost as a person who has and healthy BMI and exercise habits.

Exercise helps fat to send the right messages to our brain for better metabolism and weight control. While 10% of our fat cells die every year our bodies replace them and if we follow a heart healthy diet and exercise the cells replaced will be thinner. Those thin fat cells want to become fatter. This will be never easy. Our strategies have to include what fat cells are telling us. 

Two things I know will help:

Eat a heart healthy diet.

Get 150 minutes of exercise a week.

Getting fat cells thinner may be a real pain in the butt. Keep walking

Do you know someone struggling to lose weight? Share this blog with them, it may help them understand why it is so hard. There is a lot more to it than "will power." 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/01/its-gotten-harder-to-lose-weight-and-not-for-the-reasons-you-think/?utm_term=.d81cd62a27f4

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/health/biological-changes-thwart-weight-loss-efforts-study-finds.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/well/move/how-exercise-can-make-for-healthier-fat.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fwell&action=click&contentCollection=well&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/well/move/to-maintain-muscle-and-lose-fat-as-you-age-add-weights.html?action=click&contentCollection=Well&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/are-fat-cells-forever/?action=click&contentCollection=Well&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

Challenge my walking

Today I walked 20 minutes by walking two 8 minute walks and one 4 minutes walk. Last night I rode my recumbent bike at a good pace at a top speed for the bike for 20 minutes. I felt pretty good moving intensity in the first 3 levels. I am for the moment without my foot brace so the bike is a cool way to move. 

Moving around the country today checking out the heath sections I learned a new movement I can do sitting at my desk, Leg raises from a desk chair challenged the tightness in my CP. Having CP gives me a preview of challenges we will all face as we get older. Muscle strength, flexibility and range of motion. Having muscle strength gives us a better chance to keep doing things for our selves. Flexibility and range of motion expands our ability to move with a side benefit of decreased pain in the joints. 

Walking right now I am challenged with. It is easy to give up on it, but that is not me. I read

From LA near the city are great walks

an article four 15 minute walks are just as good for the body as a one hour walk. If you are walking at a 20 minute pace that is 6,000 steps. If you walk at a 15 minute pace per mile that is 8,000 steps. If you walk two miles an hour that is 4000 steps. We are close to this when we go to the zoo, store, museum, a romantic walk on the beach. When I did day field trips I walked anywhere from 5,000 to 8,000 steps. I did a field trip with Dee Moore in Chicago with the kids and did 9600 steps. If you know Dee she is a fast and active walker, hard to keep up.

Taking frequent breaks for exercise make me feel better.  Keep walking

Learning to be cool in the skin we are in

Is there a need to develop healthy Caucasian self-image? Is there a need to develop a pride in the role that Caucasians have given to American culture? Where in school or media is it shared that it is OK to be white; there are good white guys and girls? Or does that affirmation only given in a racist or fascist ideology? Am I for raising these questions, to be branded a racist?

In my 30 plus years in education I cannot recall one direct affirmation that it's okay to be white. In an important subtopic it is rarely heard that it is okay to be male. What is heard a lot, is how white guys in history are the bad guys in regard to racism and feminism? This message is repeated over and over again. 

Has there been a bullying of the male self image where we can see the results of lower achievement, ambition and actualization? What is offered in our culture to develop healthy view of self as a white male? 

What is heard a lot in schools are the ideologies of white supremacists from the culture of slavery and racism? Because World War I and World War II being so big we hear a lot about the fascist pure race and extermination of impurities (non German) especially Jews. 

Are we surprised young whites given little positive support to develop healthy self racial identity to look at the elements that have been repeated over and over again; negative role models which are high-profile racist and “neo-Nazi” ideology.

In our inner-city we have seen gangster movies where the bad guy gets it in the end, but enjoyed the pleasures being a gangster rewarded. How many young people offered only a fast foods careers are lured into the gang life. We need better options than gangs, drugs, racism, and terrorists ideology. Nazism was first and foremost a terrorist group.  

Schools need to focus strategies and curriculum that put more balance between affirmation pride of all races and sexes and the deep seeded problems we still deal with. Schools like parenting, have a goal to produce healthy people ready to take their place in the adult world. We cannot alienate our boys in the process of growing. They need positive cultural experiences where they are valued for who they are. There is no way any generation can pay for the sins of their fathers.

Each child should be proud they are part of the human race made up of so many variations. We should feel cool in the skin we are in even white skin.

Neo-Nazi, KKK, hatred is to be condemned. When we choose violence to spread ideology our very actions are one of the terrorists. The acts are a threat to our national security. They are actually playing into the hands of our foes who are planning their next moves. These small-minded supremacists are making it harder to develop strong personal and collective identity for people of all colors. Keep walking 

Do the elderly or police need to trained about their encounters?

Today I think we have a heck of a topic to think about. I think we should think about it and read good interventions before they happen in our lives. They will happen if we live old enough.
Do the elderly need to be trained in their encounters with the police?
Looking for picture of older people attacking others only revealed the younger abusing the elder. But older people do strike out. Police are summoned and encounter older people being harmed or harming others. Maybe they are doing something that breaks the law. Abuse of the elderly is a problem, but it is not at all one sided.
With my cerebral palsy I find it more challenging to put on shoes and joint mobility. To get on the ground is a major effort. If I was arrested having my hands tied behind the back getting in and out of a car would be difficult. What I am describing will be a challenge to those you live into their 70’s to 90’s and beyond. When we are older we may get to frail to be handled like we could when we are younger.
A few years back I had a discussion with teens on how they should respond to police. Most teens never really are given information about this. A teen, cop encounter can quickly progress to an ugly, dangerous situation.
Paula Span writes an article, Another Possible Indignity of Age: Arrest for the New York Times where she shares several encounters the elderly have had with police. The link for the article is below.
Older people can be very difficult to deal with. They can be easily injured, frail, fall and be combative as well. These issues are not just for police but family and care takers as well. Old people can strike out and hurt others.

This is not going to end well, but what can we learn?

Fourteen years ago in the baseball playoffs a classic baseball fight occurs. Pictures tell us the problem of engaging the elderly the wrong way. Don Zimmer coach for the Yankees charges out like he always would of done. He is angry at Pedro Martinez. The difference now is he is 72 years old in far less shape to boot. Pedro throws him down and Zimmer is cut and pulled a groin muscle and is taken to the hospital after the game. Nothing can be undone. There is not a redo. But we can learn from the incident. Nobody is ejected in the fight, but everybody knew you don't win throwing down an old man. But what would you do if Zimmer came after you? At my age and condition I am in Zimmer's situation. Tables do turn.
It is fair to let you know what I did. Right or wrong I learned from it. When I was in my early 20’s I

There are consequences if we choose to fight when we are
older.  Sometimes we have no choice. I still have the fire
to do silly things like Zimmer did here. What can I learn? 

was caring for a farmer who was 85. The man was suffering from depression. I knelt down to communicate with him in a gentle way. I was asking what I could do for the old gent when out of the blue with the speed of Ali facing Patterson, the old farmer hits me with a straight right jab sitting in a wheel chair. He hit me square on the nose and soon my nose is gushing with blood everywhere.  I told my mates to continue the intervention and I walked way stunned and unsure if I could continue without blowing my stack.
The farmer was unharmed which I was glad for. His depression was deep and later it was decided he would have to undergo electro shock treatments. For many of them I was assigned to assist in them and help him through it. He took a series of treatments over the next few weeks. His resolve about suicide was broken and mood improved. Shock treatments are not used as often today, but they are still an option when other treatments have failed.
I was determined to work with him because of the hitting incident and He was a nice enough guy. I never approached him from the side again. In talking to him he gave me a line I have used for years. I have asked him, “How you doing Mike?” and he would answer right on cue, “Fair to midland”.

Even though she is smaller and maybe weaker she wins with
a gentle affirmative response.

The old farmer assaulted me, he was frustrated and angry for being in the hospital against his wishes. He just wanted to commit suicide. I was part of a team of medical people who were trying to stop him. I had to step away for practical and emotional issues. We were all laughing about it later. If I hauled off and hit him that would have indicated the worse on my part. No, I learned from the incident and became more aware. I learned to help people on their worse days and had the confidence that we will get through this and we will be all right.
Generally speaking, people with dementia will pick up on anger around them, a lauder voice of care giver that is frustrated and the sufferer of dementia will strike out in anger. Never more truer a line of Scripture, “A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath.” Prov. 15:1
With dementia and mental illness it is probable the police are the ones who will need to be trained with older people. They have parents, grandparents, they would want care for them. I believe the people in blue want to feel better about how they intervene with older people. Police often meet people on their worse day.
Still many older people still have awareness. Following police instructions and not escalating the situation is good. Communication of current disabilities and problems may also help police handle with care. But if the elderly are a danger to themselves or others, than police need tactics that would be more helpful and safer for the elderly and themselves. Training, reviewing past incidents would probably yield much helpful information.
It is just another factor that aging isn’t easy. Keep walking
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/health/older-americans-arrests.html?_r=0