We're always talking about those who are overweight, but what about the statistically "abnormal" people among us? You know the ones; the people who seem to eat all they want and never gain weight. What's their story?
Research shows that very few people actually match that "eat-everything-and-never-gain anything" description. Apparently, the conventional wisdom about these people is a bit misguided. Many think that weight-stable people who are slender remain that way because of a souped-up metabolism. In fact, it seems that among those who maintain a healthy weight, it's not a question of metabolism, but rather, a habit of living.
Because obesity is so much easier to prevent than to cure, researchers from State University of New York decided to take a look at what it is about lean, weight-stable people that seems to make them different from the rest of us, and what it is they're doing to prevent becoming like the two-thirds of Americans who are overweight.
In general, research has already shown that, compared to people who gain weight over time or frequently fluctuate in their weight, people who are weight-stable spend less time sitting, consume smaller meals, consume less fast food, diet less often and actually report lower levels of dietary restraint. That doesn't mean they're eating whatever they want; it just means they're eating the way they eat more automatically, without consciously thinking about it. Quite simply, they don't worry about eating as much.
Now, while it's true that people who tend to maintain their weight at a stable level over time are more likely to be of a healthy weight than overweight, those weight-stable characteristics applied to individuals across the range, both those who kept a healthy weight and those who were overweight at a constant level.
Factors To Prevent Weight Gain
Since the point of the study was to identify the factors that seem to consistently prevent weight gain and obesity, the group in New York took another look at weight-stable subjects and focused exclusively on the lean and weight-stable. As part of a larger study, they identified those who were a healthy weight at baseline, and maintained that level over a five-year period. For a comparison group, they used all the other adults in the larger study.
So what else did we find out about the healthy-weight people who stay that way?
The study's statistical look at lifestyles of the lean and healthy shows that those people who seem to never gain weight apparently just eat less as a rule. They eat more often, but they eat smaller amounts. As previous studies showed, the lean and weight-stable don't diet as much as others, and they don't have as many rigid dietary restrictions, like those no-fat, no-sugar rules so many try to live under today.
Among both the men and women, they have less conscious control on what they're eating, but are less likely to get out of control with their eating. These people don't go on self-indulgent binges when they've had a rough week.
Among the women, they also tend to be more active and specifically choose higher levels of sports participation for their leisure time. And, finally, they also tend to have partners who are physically active or involved in sports, too.
But for men, there didn't seem to be any correlation between their weight stability and their partner's physical activity, so maybe guys really are setting the pace when it comes to the family athletic level? And it's interesting to note that, unlike the women, there weren't any significant differences in athletic activity level between the lean/weight-stable group and the comparison group.
This study yields some interesting conclusions, but the most important thing to remember about this is that a healthy diet is essential for any type of healthy weight loss. Like the weight-stable group, BistroMD can provide you with meals that can help you retrain your metabolism for healthy and stable weight loss.
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