Metabolism Shababolism: Jillian Michaels "No You Didn'!"

After two whole posts, I've realized what motivates my writing--being pissed off! This week I wanted to address some of the misconceptions of fitness and health by focusing on metabolism. I went back to my anatomy and physiology, and sports science books to review the subject. However, I wasn't motivated to regurgitate the scientific facts of metabolism and explain how they relate to health and fitness.
So, I decided to explore what popular fitness and health experts have to say about metabolism and to compare those opinions to the facts.
I only had to find one "expert" to get my sympathetic nervous system revved up and my metabolism firing on all cylinders. Jillian Michaels of the TV show "The Biggest Loser" fame, is a self professed health and fitness guru. which is code for having zero qualifications and an ego to match her Napoleonic stature.
First, I have to confess I have a hate hate relationship with "The Biggest Loser" (BL) for all the following reasons. I started watching BL last season so I'd be current with how popular culture is dealing the obesity problem. I discovered they are dealing with it really badly. The show reminded me of the worst TV Evangelical broadcast where the spider eye-lashed orator with purple haze babooshka hair is trying to convince me my seed money is going to save a million souls, not enrich the coiffures of a transvestite wig and falsies company.
I wasn't having any warm fuzzy feelings towards Michaels, especially after witnessing her use of expletives to spur on her "pounds of flesh", oops contestants, to become dehydrated in the Last Chance Workout in order to lose the maximum weight possible. When I Googled her name looking for her latest book, "Master Your Metabolism: Why Hormones matter--To All of Us", I was not disappointed.
Well, yes Jillian hormones do matter to us all, because they are the messenger system outside of the cell and we'd be dust without them. They are necessary for all processes that happen outside of the cell body, including metabolism, to maintain homeostasis, or balance of the body. Blaming our collective weight problem in the U.S. on hormones is like blaming the current fiscal crisis on the need for people to have housing.
And Jillian in your first chapter (thank God the only one I read) you have worked ardently with health care, endocrine specialists, and the like to come to the staggering conclusion that you personally can eat a whopping 2,000 kcals a day and only have to exercise for 2 1/2 hours a week to maintain your 120lb tight bod. With a nod and a wink Jillian retorts "Sounds Crazy!"
Yes, er no Jillian, if you go to any Government health site, or energy calculator site you too will unearth this groundbreaking discovery. Yes, ones regular metabolism allows a sedentary 120lb female to consume 2,000 kcals a day if she works out for a total of 2 1/2 hours a week; regardless of detoxification and balancing those pesky hormones. However a 200 lb female doing the same amount of exercise can eat 2,465kcals. Where this gets interesting is when the 200 lb female would like to weigh 120 Lbs. In order to lose 1-2 lb's a week she must eat 2,095kcals just 70kcals more than the daily requirements of the 120 lb. female. As she continues to lose weight she either has to reduce her calories, increase her exercise, or both to keep losing weight, because her metabolism decreases the thinner she gets. If she reaches her 120 lb goal, she will never be able to go back to eating 2,465 Kcals a day unless she creates a deficit through exercise, or markedly increases her fat free mass (FFM) bone, muscle, and organs .
Genetics do play a role in our individual rates of metabolism. However, studies show this hereditary component can be manipulated through diet and exercise. Apparently our bodies are fine-tuned to eat a certain number of kcals, to within a couple of pretzels, regardless of energy expenditure. Researchers have shown that the body can reset this natural set point through consistent reduced, or increased, food intake and exercise. It's why short diets rarely work and why slow consistent changes to diet do work. To compound matters our metabolism decreases as we age. Why, because we lose FFM, which increases our fat mass (FM), which does not burn as many kcals as FFM. As we age the type of exercise we engage in is important; fast twitch muscles, which burn energy at a much higher rate than slow twitch (think sprinter and marathoner) are dramatically reduced as we age. Scientists aren't sure why, but think it is a classic case of use it or lose it. So to keep whatever fast twitch muscles we have into old age (slow twitch can't be converted to fast twitch) interval training is recommended. Bone and muscle loss occur through the aging process (5 percent loss per decade after age 40) so resistance training twice a week for older adults, especially post menopausal women, is more important than for younger adults.
Metabolism is not this secret key that has to be unlocked in the body through complicated detoxification processes and hormone balancing, but the natural process of our body staying balanced. This natural set point can be attained through a moderate healthy diet and consistent quality aerobic and resistance exercise.
Anyone who promises you the secret to metabolism, weight loss, or overall health most probably is as fake as those spider lashes on that TV Evangelical's face.