Alternative Health and Type 2 Diabetes - Why Do You Gain Weight When You Eat Like a Bird?
Some people can eat like a pig and stay skinny, but far more people report that they eat like a bird and gain weight.
Sometimes the reason why people gain weight when they believe they are eating very little isn't about food, but usually it is.
Here are three common scenarios that apply to people with type 2 diabetes, and non-diabetics: 1.
Calories count but they don't get counted.
Scientists sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture designed an ingenious experiment to see if people really eat as little as they thought.
They gave volunteers a dose of "heavy water" that would be urinated away in proportion to how much the volunteers ate or exercised.
They then compared the heavy water measurements to the records in food diaries, in one experiment, and exercise diaries, in another.
Researchers found that participants underestimated calorie consumption by an average of 42%...
that means they ate nearly twice as much as they wrote down in their food diaries.
Volunteers overestimated physical activity by an average of 62%...
that means they exercised a little less than 2/3 as much as they recorded.
2.
The more you diet to lose weight, the more you need to diet to lose weight.
Weight loss occurs when dieters consume fewer calories than their bodies burn.
The problem with calorie-restriction, however, is that your body slows down its metabolism to conserve energy the less you eat.
It takes about three days of reduced-calorie dieting for the metabolism to slow down.
At that point you need to reduce your intake even more to continue losing the same amount of weight.
A "cheat meal" every three days, however, can trick the metabolism into burning calories at the same rate.
How does that work? Suppose you are physically active and you start a 2,000-calorie a day diet to lose weight.
You could eat exactly 2,000 calories each every day, or you might vary your calorie intake:
3.
It might really have something to do with your glands.
Weight gain is common with low thyroid output, and many diabetics, both type 1 and type 2, suffer hypothyroidism.
Low thyroid function (or more precisely, poor conversion of thyroid hormone into its active forms), causes your metabolism to slow down.
While hypothyroidism reduces appetite, it slows down metabolism even more.
Hypothyroidism, not just type 2 diabetes, may be behind weight gain, when symptoms include:
2 mIU/L.
"Normal" TSH levels of 2.
5 to 4.
2 are often accompanied by weight, however.
The best things you can do for your thyroid health if you fall in this not-quite-hypothyroid range is to eat one or two servings of some iodine-rich vegetable (such as kelp or spinach), every week and to take at least 15 mg of zinc and 100 micrograms of selenium a day to stimulate thyroid activity.
Sometimes the reason why people gain weight when they believe they are eating very little isn't about food, but usually it is.
Here are three common scenarios that apply to people with type 2 diabetes, and non-diabetics: 1.
Calories count but they don't get counted.
Scientists sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture designed an ingenious experiment to see if people really eat as little as they thought.
They gave volunteers a dose of "heavy water" that would be urinated away in proportion to how much the volunteers ate or exercised.
They then compared the heavy water measurements to the records in food diaries, in one experiment, and exercise diaries, in another.
Researchers found that participants underestimated calorie consumption by an average of 42%...
that means they ate nearly twice as much as they wrote down in their food diaries.
Volunteers overestimated physical activity by an average of 62%...
that means they exercised a little less than 2/3 as much as they recorded.
2.
The more you diet to lose weight, the more you need to diet to lose weight.
Weight loss occurs when dieters consume fewer calories than their bodies burn.
The problem with calorie-restriction, however, is that your body slows down its metabolism to conserve energy the less you eat.
It takes about three days of reduced-calorie dieting for the metabolism to slow down.
At that point you need to reduce your intake even more to continue losing the same amount of weight.
A "cheat meal" every three days, however, can trick the metabolism into burning calories at the same rate.
How does that work? Suppose you are physically active and you start a 2,000-calorie a day diet to lose weight.
You could eat exactly 2,000 calories each every day, or you might vary your calorie intake:
- Day 1...
1,500 calories - Day 2...
1,500 calories - Day 3...
3,000 calories
3.
It might really have something to do with your glands.
Weight gain is common with low thyroid output, and many diabetics, both type 1 and type 2, suffer hypothyroidism.
Low thyroid function (or more precisely, poor conversion of thyroid hormone into its active forms), causes your metabolism to slow down.
While hypothyroidism reduces appetite, it slows down metabolism even more.
Hypothyroidism, not just type 2 diabetes, may be behind weight gain, when symptoms include:
- blurred vision
- carpal tunnel syndrome
- constipation
- difficulty concentrating
- dry skin
- fatigue
- hair loss
- joint pain
- loss of appetite
- sleepiness
- weak muscles, especially in the feet and hands
- weight gain
2 mIU/L.
"Normal" TSH levels of 2.
5 to 4.
2 are often accompanied by weight, however.
The best things you can do for your thyroid health if you fall in this not-quite-hypothyroid range is to eat one or two servings of some iodine-rich vegetable (such as kelp or spinach), every week and to take at least 15 mg of zinc and 100 micrograms of selenium a day to stimulate thyroid activity.