From: caf@omen.UUCP (Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX)
Subject: Re: Adiposity 101
Organization: Omen Technology INC, Portland Rain Forest
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 02:36:01 GMT

In article <86195@ut-emx.uucp> llama@tramp.cc.utexas.edu (sine nomine) writes:
>Chuck Forsberg (caf@omen.UUCP) wrote:
>
>: Sine nomine, you haven't provided nearly enough data to make a
>: serious observation.  Your signature suggests there is more to
>: the story than has been told.  Please use the data in my posting
>: as an example of the necessary completeness if you wish to see
>: some informed speculation.
>
>from this i assume you want a history of lifetime weight gain/loss. i
>don't have numbers, but i wasn't obese as a young child. i first began
>putting on weight a year or so after my mother's death (i was 7 when
>she died). by the time i was 10 i weighed about a hundred pounds. i
>don't know how tall i was then, but i was about average compared to
>others in my grade. my father remarried around this time, and over the
>next six months or so i lost the excess weight. from ages 11 until
>about 15, i was of roughly normal weight. by the time i graduated high
>school, i was 5'8" and weighed about 160-165. at 19 i got married;
>shortly after this the first major depression began. when i was 21, in
>1984, i started being treated for it; at this time i weighed about 240
>pounds. i separated from my husband, lost about 30 pounds, then
>reunited with him in 1987. by 1989, when i divorced him, i weighed
>nearly 300 pounds (i had been weighed at 270 six months earlier and
>had been afraid to weigh since because my dress size had increased
>twice. 300 is just a guess). seven months after the divorce, my weight
>was at 190, where it stayed for nearly two years (i got tired of
>dieting and just ate whatever i felt like. i did a lot of walking
>during this time but nothing special). in early 1992, i had a second
>episode of depression and my weight went up to 215. the day after
>halloween, i started the diet i'm on now and i'm down to 184 or so.
>
>as a side note, i have abnormally high levels of androgens and have
>been told that this might affect my weight (and my fat seems to be
>deposited in a "male" pattern (mostly abdominal) instead of a female
>pattern).
>
>still, if dieting damages your metabolism, i should have gained a
>great deal of weight during 1990 and 1991. the diet i was on in 1989
>was very very low in calories and i went from it to a more or less
>"normal" eating pattern.
>
>for me, at least, weight loss and gain is related to how much i eat
>and how much i exercise. metabolism doesn't seem to be an issue at
>all. and i can't believe that my ideal weight (by setpoint theory) is
>somewhere near 300 pounds.

Your experience of dropping from from 100 pounds to normal
weight in about 6 months seems to parallel the experience of the
subjects in the Dutch study (cited on Adiposity 101) of men who
gained weight after many life events.  Those that did not diet
generally returned to normal weight.  Your situation may have
changed, but it is apparent your set point was "roughly normal
weight" to use your own words.

>i think gordon's right; right now, all we have is diet and exercise,
>and they *can* be effective.

Traditional weight control methods are often effective when used
to return one's body to its set point, a process that also
occurs naturally, as you have demonstrated.

Since fat cells cannot expand beyond about 200% you almost
certainly have adipocyte hyperplasia now.  I suspect that you
are not a counterexample to Gordon's belief that weight loss
diets do not induce adipocyte hyperplasia.

-- 
Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX          ...!tektronix!reed!omen!caf 
Author of YMODEM, ZMODEM, Professional-YAM, ZCOMM, and DSZ
  Omen Technology Inc    "The High Reliability Software"
17505-V NW Sauvie IS RD   Portland OR 97231   503-621-3406