A study conducted in the United States by some researchers was aimed towards finding the answer to the eternal question that grinds a good part of the world’s population: why do we put on weight? How to explain that two people who manage their diet to the exact number of calories for a month develop differently in muscle mass, body fat, as well as putting on a different numbers of pounds? Why is it that some are more greedy than others when it comes to sweets and food in general? Are we talking about hereditary or genetic factors, about the contribution of daily stress or is there something else that allows some to eat until they “crack” without putting on weight while others gain weight from thin air?
The survey consisted of two distinct stages: the first they tried to determine whether so-called children’s eating behavior is determined by the herd effect , meaning that young children imitate (eat) what they see every day (why / how others eat) – this having repercussions throughout their entire life. The second part of the study wanted to establish whether multiplying the number of calories and the lack of exercise did indeed lead to proportional weight gain for all the studied subjects. Initially, the researchers visited a kindergarten and studied a group of children over several days. At first, they simply studied children’s behaviour regarding food habits: at mealtimes, all children ate the served food, there were no registered cases of children who refuse to eat or who asked for extras. The following days, after the usual meal, every hour, while the children had a drawing program, they were given plates with party food: chocolate, candy, cookies. Here responses were surprising: although they had just eaten and were tired, some children put aside their sheets and coloring pencils and began to eat everything of the plate, others were happy to taste a little of what was on the plate and then to continue to draw, others on the other hand completely ignored the new food, pushing the plates away and focusing fully on drawing.
Some of those who emptied the bowls of sweets invited those who were at the same table with them to eat from their plate, but the latter reacted very firmly, turning their head and refusing categorically.They seemed to say: I’m sick, I just ate and now I want to draw! What explains the childrens very different behaviour? Researchers say that in most cases an obese adult was certainly a child predisposed to weight gain from a very early age, his body fat mass developing faster than others. Performing additional tests on rodents and correlating the results with the latter, researchers said that when a mother eats food rich in fat during pregnancy, this produces changes in the brain that stimulate the future child’s appetite and which lead to over-feeding and obesity since childhood. This could be one possible explanation for those children who ate more than they actually needed , while others did not touche sweets – one can extende this explanation to the behavior of overweight or obese adults. The second part of the study was performed on a sample of 20 people aged between 18 and 35 years, both women and men of different races. All had different lifestyle, education, different jobs, different food preferences and habits. They studied their eating habits and the way they exercised for a month.
Conclusion? You are one of those lucky few if your mother took care not to eat very oily before giving birth,if you’ve developed healthy eating habits – such as not eating more than you need – and if you have a good metabolism, with a lot of burning processes in your body. It’s very likely you gain weight harder and you lose weight easier. Unless you are one (of the increasingly few) so lucky, make sure you do more exercise, you eat at regular intervals, you eat healthy and also make sure you fit into the number of daily calories allowed. The key to success is disciplining your diet!