Dieting Makes People Fat

Dieting Makes People Fat

Introduction

Various sources roughly estimate that over 30 percent of the American population is obese. More importantly, amongst the industrialized nations, United States is at the greatest risk of obesity. It is costing billions of dollars to the national economy in the form of healthcare costs, absenteeism, premature deaths and others (Madsen, et al., 2010). If one were to ask any ten random people on a street (three of which are likely to be obese) for a solution to obesity, the majority would recommend dieting. The cultural assumption within United States is that dieting is the most effective and efficient solution to obesity problems. The dieting industry of United States is worth more than 50 billion US dollars, and it precisely because of the growing dieting industry that the efforts of United States to battle with the problem of obesity have failed miserably.

Discussion

There is a wealth of empirical and theoretical literature, which suggests that the intake of certain foods or a certain dietary plan can help people lose a substantial amount of weight over the course of a few months or years. However, the fact is that, over a longer period, many dieters share the tendency to gain weight or go back to their obese self. The noteworthy fact is that almost 90 percent of the dieters end up going back to their obese self, and in most cases, they gain more weight than their previous self (Madsen, et al., 2010).

At a fundamental level, from a behavioral psychology perspective, when people find themselves in a situation where they have to eat the food that they do not like while others enjoy the liberty to have the food that the dieter prefers; it triggers a behavioral mechanism in the human mind, which leads to compulsive-obsessive overeating (Yang, 2010).

Dieting triggers a fight or flight mechanism within the brain, which subsequently converts cravings for food into an obsession. Moreover, the body begins to hoard the remaining fat within the body, and in order to satisfy the carvings for fatty foods, it increases the release of hormones that stimulate appetite and reduce the release of hormones that assist in suppressing those cravings. This explains why as people spend more time in dieting it becomes troublesome to exercise self control since the body does not appreciate the weight loss witnessed in the recent past (Mann, et al., 2007).

Based on the research conducted with mice, whose brain are similar to the human brain, University of Montreal researchers found out that withdrawal from fatty and sugary foods changes chemicals in the brain in such a way that the same leads towards stress and depression, thus making it different to exert the same level of control over the body as mentioned earlier. Furthermore, the stress, caused due to abstaining from craved meals and struggling with low self worth because of tying the same with body weight, can cause havoc on the metabolism of the body by releasing hormones that further contribute ...