"Have any of the following ever happened to you... You spend January through November struggling to loose 10 pounds, then gain it all back before Christmas."

Have any of the following ever happened to you?

• You go on a diet, reduce your calories, but continue to gain weight
• You put in grueling hours at the gym, but your weight stays the same
• You spend January through November struggling to loose 10 pounds, then gain it all back before Christmas.
• You and a friend go on a diet together. You eat the same amount of food. She loses weight, but you gain weight.
• After two weeks of hard labor and dietary sacrifice, you lose one pound. You cheat by eating just a little more than usual and gain that pound back in just one day.

If you've experienced any or all of the above weight loss scenarios, many health and weight loss experts today would accuse you of lying about what you really ate or how much exercise you really did. At best, they might say that you're delusional and that you only think you cut calories and increased exercise. They'll tell you that losing weight is really quite simple and prove it by reciting the dreaded lecture on the calories in/calories out equation.

You've heard it before. The pitch goes something like this: A pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. Reduce caloric intake or increase energy output by 500 calories a day and in one week, you'll magically lose a pound of fat.

More like fat chance.

Approximately two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese, and while the formula above may work for some, many millions more have discovered that this is a prescription for failure. After years of repeated and consistent failure and being told that you're fat because you want to be, science is providing yet another tantalizing clue to explain why, for some of us, losing weight is the most challenging task we'll ever face.

An article in the New York Times, Fat Factors, by Robin Henig (August 13, 2006) looks at another possible contributor to weight gain: microbes; specifically, microbiota found in the gut which appear to exert an effect on nutrient absorption, food metabolism and fat storage.

From the article:
"A diet has a certain amount of absolute energy," he [Jeffrey Gordon] said. "But the amount that can be extracted from that diet may vary between individuals - not in a huge way, but if the energy balance is affected by just a few calories a day, over time that can make a big difference in body weight."

So two different people with a slightly different mix of intestinal microbiota might actually exhibit a different response from the food they ate, even though they ate the same amount and type of food. According to the article, the idea behind this theory owes its existence, in part, to research on mice and a serendipitous encounter with a viral infection in chickens.

In the mouse study, it was observed that specially engineered microbe-free mice weighed less (60% less fat) than normal mice, even though they ate more. The normal mice, their guts teeming with microbes, metabolized their food differently and gained more weight. The chicken story cited in the article is even more fascinating.

In India, a young physician autopsied a number of chickens who had been stricken with a virus and discovered that their livers and kidneys were enlarged. He also noted that despite the fact that they had "wasted away," the chickens were inexplicably fat! A follow-up lab study with 20 chickens where half of the chickens were infected with the virus resulted in the infected chickens exhibiting the same postmortem signs of the infection. In addition, these chickens also had lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels! The doctor then examined obese patients in his clinic, looking for signs of the same virus. He found them. Twenty percent of the patients examined showed signs of infection and were heavier than the non-infected obese patients. Further, their levels of triglycerides and cholesterol were lower.

These results fly in the face of conventional wisdom about food metabolism, weight management and reliance upon blood cholesterol levels as the definitive guide for assessing heart disease risk. Of course, this branch of research has a long way to go before the rank and file guardians of our collective health are convinced that there's a new kid on the block---a microbial trigger that drives weight gain.

Now consider what it means if future research continues to support these findings. An individual with a microbial profile that tends toward obesity and burdened with the weight-gaining 'thrifty gene' is doubly cursed. If he also finds himself beset with unhealthy 'health' food and stalked by a multi-billion dollar junk food industry, his odds of overcoming these barriers to health are nearly equal to the likelihood of a plague of flying pigs in pearls.

Finally, if he finds himself saddled with a doctor who doesn't understand how complex obesity really is, you have an individual who has a better chance of being elected emperor of the United States than he has of losing weight. People in this position are at once, at war with their own bodies and a world seemingly designed to make them gain weight. This is what overweight and obese people must contend with every day of their lives. No wonder losing weight is so tough.

Many experts believe that despite your genetic and even microbial disposition, behavior and environment trump physiology. In other words, it is nurture not nature that determines whether you can still fit last years' pants. They argue that making the conscious decision to eat right and exercise can usually overcome one's physiological deficiencies. Perhaps, but it is interesting to note that obesity researchers profiled in numerous articles and stories are rarely described as being obese themselves. This might explain why they may not understand what most obese people do and that is that physiology can drive behavior too. To put it plainly, while the spirit may be willing, when you're 100, 200 or 300 pounds overweight, the flesh is often too weak to modify behavior.

If an individual is relying solely on conventional wisdom for weight loss and health gain, the odds of success are bleak. That's why this research into the science of obesity is so exciting. It breaks out of the conventional mold by revealing to us, another critical clue to the mystery of unwanted weight gain.

This promising work does not invalidate the calories in/calories out equation, which still holds up in the face of these discoveries. What it does do is underscore how incredibly complex and mysterious the human body is. It exposes conventional weight management treatment for the sham solution that it is---a solution that doesn't work for nearly 200 million Americans. Change is possible, but it can only happen when individuals, friends, family and the healthcare industry stop playing the blame game and accept that no one chooses to be fat. When that happens, it will represent an impressive measure of progress indeed. .................................................................................................................................
The information contained herein represents the sole opinion of the author and should not be construed as medical advice. Readers should consult with a knowledgeable medical care provider before beginning any new diet or exercise program.