Slimming QuestionsQ. Does giving up smoking make you overweight?A. It can do. One of the reasons people smoke is the basic human need to put something into their mouths. This is especially true when they are tensed up or depressed. If you give up cigarettes they are often replaced by eating sweets, chocolates, biscuits or cakes. It is these extra calories that cause a weight gain. Q Why is it that men don’t seem to put on as much weight as women?A. A man of the same height, weight and build as a woman and eating the same diet will put on less weight than her only if he exercises more vigorously or his job involves him in heavier work. Men are rarely of the same height and build as women. While only about half of men have a broad, bony framework (called endomorphic), three quarters of women have this type of build. Endomorphs have a greater tendency to lay down fat easily. Q. What causes excessive waistline fat in drinkers?A. A so-called “beer belly” or “beer gut” is due to the drinker’s excessive intake of calories over the body’s needs. The alcohol in the beer is burnt up as energy by the body in place of the food eaten, which is laid down as fat. Any type of extra calories from any food source can cause the male beer belly, not just alcohol! Q. Would cutting down my fluid intake help?A. Only if the fluid concerned has food value, such as milk, beer, soft drinks etc. Reducing your intake of water may enable you to lose a few pounds, but it will not get rid of fat. It can be harmful to reduce your fluids below the demands of your natural thirst. Q. Once you reach middle age there’s no point in dieting, is there?A. Oh yes there is! Middle age spread is certainly not inevitable. Most people eat the same amount as they get older, but become less active and their weight begins to creep up steadily into middle age and beyond. Simply reducing your calorie intake, so that your energy expenditure is greater than your intake, will result in weight loss at any age! |
