Things You Never Knew About Your Weight

     The New York Daily News published an interesting article, "8 Things You Never Knew About Your Weight." While I would argue that some of the research covered is actually well-known, some of it has not been highly publicized. My favorite 3 points:

3. Sleep More, Lose More

     "When patients see Dr. Louis Aronne, past president of the Obesity Society and author of the forthcoming book "The Skinny," they're as likely to have their sleep assessed as their eating habits. If patients are getting less than seven to eight hours, Aronne may prescribe more shuteye rather than the latest diet drug. With sleep, he says, "they have a greater sense of fullness, and they'll spontaneously lose weight."

     Why? University of Chicago researchers reported that sleep deprivation upsets our hormone balance, triggering both a decrease in leptin (which helps you feel full) and an increase of ghrelin (which triggers hunger). As a result, we think we're hungry even though we aren't - and so we eat. Indeed, sleep may be the cheapest and easiest obesity treatment there is."

     Anytime I have to get up earlier than normal, I wake up ravenous. If I stay up late working on something, the same thing happens. My body needs energy, and if I don't sleep, it craves fuel in the form of food.

4. Your Spouse's Weight Matters

     "... research shows that weight gain and loss can be, well, contagious. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that if one spouse is obese, the other is 37% more likely to become obese, too. The researchers concluded that obesity seems to spread through social networks."

     Doesn't it seem as if your weight seems to go up and down with that of a significant other? And I actually had a former roommate tell me the other day she thinks she's gained weight because she lives with her boyfriend now instead of me.

5. Cookies Really Are Addictive

     "While food is not addictive the way cocaine or alcohol is, scientists in recent years have found some uncanny similarities. When subjects at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia were shown the names of foods they liked, the parts of the brain that got excited were the same parts activated in drug addicts. It may have to do with dopamine, the hormone linked to motivation and pleasure, say researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. If obese people have fewer dopamine receptors, they may need more food to get that pleasurable reaction."

  

     There has also been some research conducted on sugar addiction in rats. Professor Bart Hoebel and other researchers in the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute have demonstrated that rats who consume high levels of sugar can experience withdrawal symptoms when it's removed from their diet. They're then more likely to binge on it when it's reintroduced later.

     Basically, food has similarities with any other substance that causes changes in your brain. We associate it with pleasure. The problem begins when it becomes a primary source of pleasure. And food or drugs shouldn't be the first thing we turn to when feeling low.

How to Prepare for Back to School

     You know what supplies to buy for your courses. You know to find your classrooms before the first day if you don't want to show up late. But do you know how to prepare your body for the shock of college starting up?

Adjust your sleep schedule. Study after study reminds us that lack of sleep is associated with weight gain. If your body is used to sleeping until noon every day, start preparing yourself for the change. Set your alarm for a little earlier each day, and get in bed a little earlier every night. Stop using the computer a couple hours before sleep. Turn the lights down in the evening as you wind down for sleep. The first weeks of school will wreak havoc on your body if you're not well-rested.

Go grocery shopping the weekend before. Purchase cereal and milk for the mornings, healthy snacks to take with you to class and dinners that don't take a lot of time. For snacks, trail mix/mixed nuts are satiating and nutritious. For dinners, stick to fish, chicken, brown rice and lots of vegetables. Buy things you can use for more than one recipe. Purchase lettuce and other ingredients for a salad, chop everything up the weekend before and store in containers in the fridge. Then you can quickly throw a salad together throughout the week. 

Buy good shoes. If you can, I highly recommend walking to class. And if you can't, having comfortable shoes will make you more likely to take extra steps during the day.

Buy some dumbbells. Between studying and other activities in the evening, pick up your weights and do a few reps. It's convenient, and it's good for your body.

If you're out of the dorm, clean your place up. It will be one less thing to worry about during the week and will leave you time to go to the gym.

Finally, when school does begin, enjoy catching up with your friends. Don't worry about skipping a trip to the gym or going out to eat this week if it means a chance to catch up with friends you haven't seen all summer. You're going to want a supportive social network to combat stress, and it's only one week. 

Any other tips, college students?

Photo by H is for Home