Post College Diet

No! I'm not talking about a plan to lose weight...I'm talking about diet as in what I eat. My eating habits have changed quite a bit now that I've graduated and moved off to CoMo to start vet school. First of all I'm broke or at least I survive completely off loans. I can no longer afford to go out and eat anymore. Secondly, I don't have time! In college I ate all sorts of unhealthy foods: fast food almost everyday, sugary cereals for breakfast, and more fast food. This time around, I stock my apartment with nuts, fruit, yogurt, and an assortment of whole wheat products. I no longer eat fast food. As a matter of fact, I don't want to fast food...I don't really care for it anymore. 3 months of no fast food will break the habit :) I used to love McDonalds, but I would much rather eat a sandwich than anything good ole Mickey Ds can fry. I haven't eaten any fast food for almost 3 months now, although I may have snuck in a taco from Taco Bell at some point.

You'd think I'd have lost weight by eating healthier....but a las my body has adapted to the new weight and strives to keep it. Generally speaking, your body tries to resist any change in your weight - no loss, no gain. When you do gain weight, your body adapts to this new weight and strives to keep it. However, if you were to loose weight, your body doesn't adjust to the new, lighter weight, but tries to regain weight. For example, if you orinally weigh 135 pounds, but then gain say...the freshman 15 (or in my case the senior 10), your body tries to maintain 150 pounds. If you loose weight, your metabolism actually slows down in order to regain the weight up until 150lbs. How does this happen? Apipocytes (fat cells) secrete leptin. The bigger the fat cells, the more leptin they secrete. This lets your brain know how much fat you have. If the brain notices a reduction in leptin, because you lost weight and the apipocytes shrunk..the brain increases apettite. After being exposed to high leptin levels for a long period of time, the brain actually stops recognizing leptin...which registers as a reduction in leptin. So the brain wants you to gain even more weight and increase appetite accordingly. Although it's not particularly cool nowadays, in the past your next meal was never a sure thing, so it's good to have a mechanism to prevent weight loss and promote heavier weights. So...what's the point of the leptin ramble? Say hello to the new 10 pounds...I can eat as healthy as I want, but chances are it's sticking around now that its here. Moral of the story: it's easier to not gain weight in the first place than to loose unwanted weight after you've gained it. This is roughly based off of one of the lectures I heard in Cell bio. The was pretty much initiated because of the From Our Blog to Yours Challenge at the Sweet Shoppe :) http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/blog/?p=617