Obesity: Chronic Disease & Chronic Dieting Effects
It is still a debate if obesity is a chronic disease or if wellness can be possible at any body size. Because of obesity’s relationship to illness and death from other diseases like hypertension, diabetes and cancer, it meets the criteria of chronic disease of being long term and symptoms that affect the whole body. But others argue that if you consider other signs of health in a large person, wellness is possible when things like physical fitness, normal blood fat levels, and normal blood glucose levels are present. The point has been made that the physical and emotional stress of attempting weight loss in people whose “set point” is higher than the norm is not worth it. Focusing on wellness factors rather than a specific body weight range seems to be more realistic for many overweight people.
Effects of chronic dieting are that when food intake is reduced the Resting Energy Expenditure (REE) is reduced and when we are at a lower body weight, it is reduced even further. This slows the rate of weight loss and regaining weight can also happen.
Studies have shown that when you overeat to the point that you increase your weight by ten percent, your total energy expenditure actually increases. However, when you diet to lose that ten percent weight gain, you total energy expenditure decreases to the lower level again. There is concern that people who are continually dieting or go through a number of weight loss and weight regain cycles actually start to lose this body ability to increase energy expenditure. This makes weight loss and maintenance more and more difficult with each cycle. A food intake that once supported a normal weight now causes weight gain. Chronic dieting can actually contribute more to continued weight gain than a people who eat their usual food intake at a stable, but higher than the norm body weight.