Saturday 12 March 2016

Hedonic and Metabolic Obesity Cont'd

Just a reminder: I do not conflate hyperphagia/hyperhunger with being fat. Most fat people eat within an average range. I don't always repeat this fact in part because the target of those who do behave as if all fat people are hyperphagic, is the same. Whether your hunger is normal or excessive, the target weight loss dieting/ weight management/lifestyle is that hunger.

There should be no separation between "losing weight" and "keeping it off". You don't take a sleeping pill then "keep insomnia off," you just keep taking the drugs (if you want to continue their effect) because you recognize they do not permanently shift the underlying rest/activity cycle to normal. They induce /trigger temporary soporific feelings.

The existence of "keeping off" is evidence of the failure of calorie restriction induced weight loss (CRIWL), not a flub to be conquered nor more importantly, it is not failure of the person. What you are doing is attempting a sort of false homeostasis of repeated dieting. There is no 'keeping off' there is just repetition, a groundhog day, dieting everyday. Eventually your mind and/or your body will weary of this.

Do it the right way in the first place, and you'll not have to bother playing keepy-offy. 
What is it that drives us to obesity, and what can we do about it? 
Answer, the same thing that "drives" thinness, slimness or pleasingly plumpness, the performance of our varying metabolic function. It's like asking what "drives" the length of our limbs.

What keeps your weight the same/similar [thin to fat] seems to be the body's regulation of its own cells and tissues, or homoeostasis, rather than a set point as such. Our bodies have a systemic direction that comes from the constant replacing/replication of our body's cells. You can't just buck that with an ill-conceived notion stuck in your head!

Any alteration needs to happen closer to that point. It's daunting on its face. Tissue replaces itself at differing rates. Something however must contain some direction/s at to the end game as we are restored to recognisably to a version of our self. Despite changes that come with age and other developments.

It could be specific a question of altering the target of adipose tissue metabolism. This would lead restoration/ homoeostasis of fatty tissue would be recruited to regulate the amount and therefore to keep that change stable.

Pleasure is a measure of successful eating, not an end in itself. It's part of how we know our needs are being met and satisfied. It is involved in feeling satiety and is a consequence of the the uplift that comes from giving your body the energy it needs. It is hard to see how that can be usefully abstracted from that process to any meaninful degree. Unless there's something unusual going on.

I certainly didn't enjoy eating, until my hunger/appetite normalized. Even then, that pleasure isn't that much, its more like the level pleasure you get from tidying up. It's not euphoria. Maybe other people feel that, but I see little evidence of that in people who's hunger/appetite is too high.

I see it more from people who's hunger has always functioned well. 

It also ignores that for me and others, the trigger/genesis of hyperphagia was hormonal, in my case, the run up to puberty. For others who have no trouble with hunger/appetite, pregnancy messes that up. For others its PCOS, not to mention the biggest secret, a primary pre-cusor of diabetes.

You may have noticed this is all metabolic.

There is no need or purpose for a "hedonic" trigger for hunger, as it is itself a metabolic function. Hunger exists only as part of metabolic function. It has no other reason to exist.

Eating tens of thousands of calories for pleasure, doesn't make sense. If you needed pleasure that bad, you'd chose something that delivered it more efficiently, booze comes to mind. It's like trying to get a drink from the well by using a sieve. If you're thirsty, you'd be better off getting something that can contain water.

Pleasure from eating is not abstract. That is, it is not separate from your body's need for or signalling for food. Nor is it convincing as a side effect. That is, I'll make myself eat, for the pleasure. Eating is effectively digestion. You are not going to digest food to get the low levels of pleasure on offer.

Why do you think humans bothered to take plants and ferment them into alcohol? Efficiency!

And perhaps this is more of a moot point, but, if others and myself wanted pleasure that badly, why would any of us have had anything to do with playing an 'obese'? The best way of feeling better is to refrain from making yourself feel bad.

Yet, we plunged right in with a complete disregard for our own unhappiness, shame, embarrassment. Never at any point during that time did I think, "This is too much."  Never occurred to me, I was so focused on getting the slim. 

Someone this on the hunt for pleasure would instinctively, if not intellectual flinch from this pretty early on. Unless this is an allusion to saying that 'hedonistic eating' enabled us to continue to inflict this abuse ourselves. I wouldn't put that past the 'obesity' industry to set us on that course.

Fat people's stamina in the face of an onslaught of displeasure even surprises me. The people who most altered me to this was slim/mer people. Once out of the 'obese' stupor especially, its hard not to notice such profound care for even the most minute of their own discomfort and displeasure.

I'm not hating, its consistency and dedication is impressive. After all, what else is this hypothesising about, but to keep going the idea that wilful 'overeating' is why people are over their designated weight? That's all about the avoidance of the displeasure of being found wholly and viciously wrong, isn't it?

And for that, you are prepared to sacrifice those people who actually need investigation into their metabolic troubles  along with the increasing numbers falling prey to eating disorders I mean, how much has this 'obesity' bullshit waylaid potentially better treatments for diabetes -the saintly and devilish kind?

Not even that could be described as hedonism per se, it's the avoidance of a loss of face. Self inflicted of course. No one told you to set yourselves up as all knowing of fatness and you've had a long time and a heck of a lot of good will to withdraw from it. You just can't can you?

Take it from someone experienced in facing a repeated avalanche of displeasure and discomfort, you are delaying the inevitable in your dedication to salvaging the unsalvageable.

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