Obesity is one factor of metabolic syndrome. Evans and Rosenberg's work at
Tufts 20 years ago investigating muscle wasting or sarcopenia concluded
that the long held view that muscle wasting is a normal condition of aging
is wrong: muscle wasting is a major cause of aging. With it comes metabolic
syndrome, including osteoporosis, hypertension, obesity, adult onset type
II diabetes, arthritis, and other conditions. The muscle that wastes away
is type II strength fiber, not type I endurance muscle. Between 25-50 loss
is about half a pound yearly, doubling between 50 and late 60s, then
doubling again. Hormone production suffers as well. The good news is muscle
wasting/metabolic syndrome is preventable as well as arrestible/reversible.
How? Strength training. Ever notice how as people age their butts
disappear, legs look like pencils? That's muscle wasting.

The key to success is incremental redevelopment of lost muscles. At risk
are sedentary folks and those doing lots of aerobics. Even Kenneth Cooper
now advocates backing off aerobics in favor of strength training the older
you get.

Paleo diet presupposes evolutionary adaptation expressed in our genetic
code; same applies to muscle wasting/metabolic syndrome. My work integrates
both, often with physicians. I've been at strength training for fifty
years, run a consulting and educational gym and service, and am writing
pursuant to publication on the matter.

best regards,

Ken O'Neill
Longlife Fitness
Wimberley, Texas


> [Original Message]
> From: Hilary McClure <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 8/9/2009 5:45:08 PM
> Subject: Obesity
>
> Have any of you come down from major obesity to normal weight or even 
> leanness? I've been reading in a popular political blog--a sub-group 
> there of people struggling with their weight and health and posting on 
> those topics regularly. It's amazing to me how none of them know the 
> first thing about metabolism, carbs, insulin. I thought there was 
> growing awareness of those things among educated people, but I guess I 
> was wrong. Not even any mention of Atkins, let alone Cordain, Eades, 
> Taubes, or Rosedale. They probably think that's all a bunch of 
> dangerous hype, and they either think their genes are cursed, or they 
> are wracked with guilt over their laziness and lack of willpower. They 
> have no idea that it's just ignorance and that it's actually not that 
> hard or painful to lose weight. I could find amusement in it, except 
> that these people are in a lot of pain.
>
> Here's one real question I have:
> If you were trying to come down from a BMI of 50-something (like if I 
> weighed 400lbs at 5'-11"), would you exercise at all, or just go 
> zero-carb? (Well, even meat has carbs, but I mean really low.) These 
> people think they have to not only starve themselves, but exercise as 
> well. I think they are cutting calories but not carbs, so they're 
> shooting themselves in the foot. They're not maximising fat-burning, 
> and are losing precious lean mass as well as fat, if they're losing at 
> all. It seems to me that getting their 400 pounds off the sofa and 
> over to the refrigerator is workout enough. Getting up off the toilet 
> is a major leg-press. Just to be able to move at all at 400 lbs. means 
> they've actually got some muscles under there. Seems like they should 
> go on full Atkins for maybe a year before actually trying to do any 
> formal exercise, and not wreck their joints any further, or whatever 
> other damage they might do. See, with all that fat, not only are they 
> putting tremendous extra loads on all their joints, but the fat also 
> puts their whole body in an inflammatory state, including their 
> joints, I would expect, compounding the damage.
>
> Thanks,
> Hilary