On this Thanksgiving for Americans, I offer my annual public service announcement about disciplined dieting and lifestyles for Holiday seasons.
Fact: An average American adult gains 2 pounds of white fat between Thanksgiving Day and the Twelfth Night of Christmas.
- Do not be a FEASTy boy or girl too often, please!
Fact: Most folks do NOT shed that added 2 pounds of evil white fat after their Holiday eating and drinking merriment. Fast forward…in five years, that can amount to ten (10!) pounds of fat that is packed on or hidden in your viscera. You can do the scary calculation to foresee what can happen IF you let it. What size pants did you wear twenty years ago? Just asking.
As one energy equation benchmark, those two pounds of stored fatty calories are the equivalent of TWO completed Marathon Runs. That’s right – twenty six miles of roadwork are needed to shed a single pound of fat.
Measure Up
A pound of fat prevention or shedding assuredly enables a superior healthspan. There is no doubt that one’s Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR), and/or Waist to Height Ratios (WtHR) relate to healthspan and lifespan.
As hips do not lie, we gladly accept the differences between guideline WHRs of women and men here:
| Health risk | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| Low | 0.80 or lower | 0.95 or lower |
| Moderate | 0.81-0.85 | 0.96-1.0 |
| High | 0.86 or higher | 1.0 or higher |
Citation: Healthline
Americans have sadly become excellent 🙁 storage sheds for visceral and abdominal FAT. And, we are unsuccessful in trimming those storage areas. This fatty impact is documented in countless credible research studies and health proclamations.
Pears beat Apples (in profile)
I heartily endorse this healthline.com quote:
“people who carry more of their weight around their midsection (an apple-shaped body) may be at a higher risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and premature death than people who carry more of their weight in their hips and thighs (a pear-shaped body).
Even if your current WHR is in a moderate range, your risk of disease may be increased.
A moderate WHR is:
- 0.9 or less in men
- 0.85 or less for women
In both men and women, a WHR of 1.0 or higher increases the risk of heart disease and other conditions that are linked to being overweight.”
PLEASE note nother spotcheck of significance from the good Canadians’ Heart and Stroke Association:
Gents – be very concerned if your wiast circumference is 37 inches or more. I mean that!
Ladies – be quite concerned if you waist is creeping to more than 31.5 inches.
(A process note: your true waist is measured around the uppermost point of your hips.)
Rx
What is my 3-step Rx prescription to improve your WHR and WtHR?
- Shed stored fat around your middle, and hidden around your vital organs [this lowers the waist measure in the algorithm’s numerator]
- Build powerful skeletal muscles in your Glutes and thights [this favorably boosts the size of the algorithm’s denominator.]
- Develop functionally strong inner core muscles to lengthen your spine and tighten your Abs.
Losing an inch of waist circumference can LOWER your lifestyle risks for metabolic syndrome, Type II Diabetes, and ASCVD risk. Trust me.
In an “open kimono” case, with a pre-FEAST waist circumerence of 35 1/2 inches :(, and a Glute/Hip circumference of 41 inches, your CPT and aging athlete scribe has a WHR of 0.86.
- That isn’t a young, studmuffin Hollywood actor’s ratio, yet it suggests that my statistical risks associated with higher WHRs aren’t all bad…
If and when I overcome the dietary odds to get down to a 34 1/2 inch wait and a bigger, stronger Glute Hip circumference of 41 1/2 inches – I get a wee bit of wiggle room for health and a possible trip to my tailor shop. My “to be” WHR would be a fair-to-middling 0.83. That 3 percent improvement in my WHR just might add years to my life, and life to my years.
Now, those prescripted ways to improve your and my WHR and WtHR are not easy. They ARE simple yet HARD.
Banishing belly fat, regaining lost height from skeletal muscle slump / spinal disc settling, and boosting your gluteals takes work. Why not start very soon?
That timely imperative is key as shedding dangerous white fat gets harder until one’s twilight years.
You may have read in my published works that is is acceptable, and may even be beneficial, to situationally stray from a strict eating-to-live lifestyle. It is well documented that strict dieting is hard, only marginally successful, and definitely not fun…
Go ahead and celebrate the harvest of your labors – OCCASIONALLY. Then get back to a flexible lifestyle diet that works for you. Don’t stress over a little pumpkin pie slice. Be grateful. Take a walk. Flex your nutrients and your muscles! And, consider how your an my forbears lived. They were hunters and harvesters before they were farmers and TV Dinner/processed food eaters. They situationally had to fast if they didn’t track down their next meal. So, let’s shift to FASTing…
Hunger Games are not bad.
Entire books are written about Fasting and Time-Restricted-Eating, or TRE. There are about as many variations of fasting and TRE as there are flavors of Baskin-Robbins ice cream. One healthline posting shares five (5) techniques of fasting that might be tried on for your size…
So, I’ll summarize key morsels for your to munch on. And, I’ll share with you my own trials with TRE…
This Aussie graphic nicely summarizes key credible benefits of meals versus time of day and night:
In full and open disclosure, I do not skip water and black coffee or tea when I am fasting or foregoing breakfast. That doesn’t work for observing Ramadan, yet it does work for me.
There is a trial and learn way for you to choose your lifestyle Game.
- Please review my article about anabolism and catabolism, that I titled Timing is Almost Everything…
Moi?
I find that a healthy dinner before 6 pm (note: no alcohol after that as a fyi), and breaking my fast with lunch at noon or later the next day works for me – on days that I do not Lift Heavy in the morning. A bonus is that I feel less “brain fog” as I celebrate my hormones at work the way my forebears did.
I strive to get two TRE days of 18 hours duration in weekly.
- I feel energized, I celebrate my improved insulin sensitivity, and that I am avoiding fatty gains. Do I lose a lot of fat? NO. Do I embrace situational TRE? YES.
- I may try more draconian fasting methods – like 2 or 3 day fasts -someday. Then I’ll be able to share those lessons with you. For now – these Feast and Fast takeways are experiential and trusty.
Yes, here is that important caveat for skipping sustenance:
“Before embarking on intermittent fasting or making any other drastic changes to your diet, consult a trusted healthcare professional to help you get started safely.”
As WebMd advises, “Studies have shown a strong link between abdominal obesity and a higher risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. This was true even for people whose body mass index (BMI) was at a level considered healthy.”
Don’t play risky games, please.
