Why do people put on differing amounts of weight?

Why do people put on differing amounts of weight?

This is a really great, if not truly frustrating question.

Why can one person eat, let’s say bread, and not put on weight?  While another person just looks at bread and gains a pound?

Foods that make some of us put on weight can have little effect on others, according to research being carried out in Israel. It might be time to rethink the way we diet, writes Dr Saleyha Ahsan. Read more at bbc.co.uk 

Well, a lot of it has to do with a person’s unique metabolism.  Each of us is genetically wired in a certain way to tolerate certain types of foods.

All foods have different properties, just like all people have different metabolisms, and different body types.  What one person can easily metabolize, may wreak havoc on another person.

I’ll give you a good example.  I HATE beans.  I always have hated beans.  As a kid, my mother would make a very popular Italian dish called “pasta fazool”, Pasta e fagioli — literally “pasta and beans”.  Every other Italian I knew LOVED this dish.

Not me.  I would literally sit with my little arms folded and lips all pouty and refuse to eat it.  Why?  Because I just hated the beans.  I didn’t want to eat them.  For some reason, they did not “resonate” with my five-year-old body, and I just instinctively knew I didn’t want them.

Fast forward to adulthood, and nothing has changed.  I don’t like beans.  And if I do eat them for some reason, I literally feel sick.  My body can’t handle them.

So if my body is going to have such a hard time dealing with beans, then it’s going to have a really hard “metabolizing” them.

Here’s another example for you.  I have a friend who says she literally gains weight if she has more than two pieces of fruit per day.  She gets bloated, sluggish and tired.

Yet, I’m the total opposite.  I live and exist on fruit, and it has no ill side effects for me.

A big part of the equation to this issue about how foods affect people differently and why people put on differing amounts is weight is largely due to the glycemic load that the food puts on each individual body.

When we eat, our blood sugar level rises – and both the speed at which it peaks, and then how quickly our bodies deal with that and get it back to normal, is very important to our health. Constant high spikes can lead to type 2 diabetes, as well as us laying down more fat and increasing our risk of other diseases. Read more…

What Can You Do To Find Out How Foods Affect You?

One thing that you can do to find out more about your own unique metabolism is to do some digging into your own “metabolic type.”  This will help you discover what foods are right for your body type.  You will also be able to explore and find out what foods are actually bad for your body type.  What foods are “congesting” and cause you to feel bad after you eat them.

You can read more here about metabolic typing and finding out your metabolic profile.
To Your Health!