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Aswad -> RE: Are Antibiotics Making Us Fat? (1/6/2012 8:59:32 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: kalikshama
Can contribute to weight gain, not the sole cause.
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!
People always try to chalk it up to one thing, in line with the 'easy fix' mentality.
Nobody in their right mind would dispute that a sedentary lifestyle is usually one of the most important factors (though, as a counterpoint, going from four hours a day of exercise to bedrest and back has had only marginal effects on weight in my case). Anyone going from no exercise to a bit of daily exercise will experience some gain of muscle and some loss of fat. Anyone going from lying on a couch to sitting in a chair, or from sitting in a chair to standing upright, or from that to walking around, will also experience the same. The amount of change will vary, but it's a factor, and usually a large one.
Yet there are also other factors.
For instance, swapping the intestinal flora of lab mice from one blend to another caused those mice to gain weight with no change in diet or exercise. Antibiotics, as we all know, are one of the things that will tend to change the intestinal flora substantially. Similarly, the preservatives in certain foods, and in both diet sode and regular soda, cause such changes as well. Whether this effect is significant enough to make a difference, is another matter. What does make a difference, is that spending an extended period of time living together with someone will cause the flora to harmonize between them. Again, though, it's not a 'quick fix'.
In my experience, stress and SSRIs will usually also change someone's weight, and those pounds are much harder to lose than ones gained from inactivity or overconsumption, for whatever reason. That's not to say those experiences, though spanning several people, are actually representative. It could just be an unfortunate selection. But it bears looking into, if one isn't being funded by the companies that make those drugs.
Overall, the best bet is still to maintain a healthy, nutritious diet and an active lifestyle.
It just isn't the only set of factors involved, and for some, the other factors can be substantial enough to make it seem hopeless to change anything about those two. For that matter, lethargy can be a consequence of gain beyond a certain point, as well as a side effect of some of the factors that can tip the scales, which makes it even more difficult for some to make those changes. Particularly maintaining the changes can be difficult if the scales never tip into a range where the results meet the popular ideals.
Health,
al-Aswad.
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