Holistic weight reduction - Part2- Self-esteem, motivation, and weight change

Why should any one attempt weight reduction, if and when there is no obvious impact on physical health?

An inadequate answer to this question is often the underlying reason why most individuals fail to take corrective action before it is too late. My answer to that question is that in the absence of physical illness causing weight gain, gradually increasing adipose tissue content of the body may be an unrecognized indicator of loss of motivation, a sign of gradually deteriorating self-esteem and/or perhaps a sign of latent depression even in the absence of overt health problems induced by obesity. I have no published scientific studies to quote to substantiate my hunch that such is the case other than the close observation of many individuals during my career as a physician and during my retirement years when my interest shifted from a therapeutic approach towards physical illness and disease to a more holistic and preventative view of health and illness as well as to the study of the instinctual human desire for achievement. If mental health can also be considered as a sign of the health of the brain, the physical organ that is the site of our emotions and intellect, then weight gain can be considered to be a very subtle clue of body-mind disharmony. I suspect that the ineffective expenditure of billions of dollars that are being spent in futile attempts to reduce weight, to regain a more youthful body outline and to live more healthy lives must be the result of a failure to recognize this subtle mind-body disharmony.

The body obeys very dutifully the laws of physics, of physiology and of the biochemistry of food intake, of energy production, its utilization and storage. Those laws stood primitive human beings in good stead to surmount the difficulties of unreliable food supply, and the unpredictable demands for bursts of energy during fight or flight. It provided for the widely varied obligations placed on the human body during hunt, pregnancy and lactation as well as during episodic starvation. But in the evolution of the human species, the more rational use of the brain towards tool-making capabilities, improved agricultural methods, communication skills and better means of transportation have negated many of the threats to survival due to the unpredictability of food supplies. In technological societies Homo erectus has become Homo sedentarius and in that process, certain characteristics of human energy metabolism have become a burden because designed as they were to meet the contingencies of primitive life, they have become ill suited for an environment in which there is an oversupply of food articles and the energy necessary to procure them has become minimal. A ten second walk of low energy expenditure to the refrigerator has replaced the energy expensive hunt. The once in a week or less frequent prehistoric indulgence in gorging oneself with food has been replaced by thrice daily or more frequent intemperate intake of energy through abundant meals and multiple high-energy snacks. Energy expenditure necessary to capture food resources that replenish energy stores has given way to passive energy conservation and ballooning of storage facilities within the body! Unfortunately, cosmetic concerns rather than health considerations have become the major force behind the drive to shape and contour the boundaries of the human body. If that were a manifestation of interest in a better self-image rather than an expression of lowered self-esteem, then such motivation could have become the jumping off point for a reorientation of attitudes towards a more holistic approach to weight reduction by methodologies more appropriate than liposuction, tummy tucks and love-handle removals. More appropriate and physiologically sound adaptation to the present day energy conservation and dynamics of the human body alone will result in higher motivation, greater self-esteem and more sustained weight reduction through healthier means.

About the Author : Abe Kurien MD, is a proponent of holistic medicine. He writes profusely on subjects of Weight reduction. His enlightening articles can be found on the smatix weight reduction section : Health and Nutrition Guide