In my own unscientific observations, I have noticed all the people that were skinny, fit, and athletic early on in life have changed noticeably for the worst, and are big, very out of shape, and very unhealthy. Conversely, many of the middle age fit people I know have to work at it..believe me. It does not come easy for them.

Think of it this way, we supposedly lose a pound of muscle per year of aging, so after 30 years, that is 30 pounds of muscle. If a pound of muscle burns 12 calories per day and fat burns 2 calories, that is a net of 10 calories. So, your daily calorie requirements decrease by 300 calories per day. Do people eat less, No! They eat more, and believe it or not, unfit people are hungrier, Unfit people also burn suger, thus desire it, and store fat, fit people burn the fat.

Those big striated muscles in the lower body are the key.. we need to get those moving in a meaningful way to do this. All those people in the gyms that are arm curling those colored weights may be improving their ability do do excersize, but the big improvement will come with aerobic lower body movement.

Andy, I think Bailey addresses many of the points in your post in the fit or fat books, definitely a good read.

FGGC - Sorry to disappoint you. Have you tried walking?? Simple, mindless, easy and fun. I do it on the days I am nto motivated. A friend of mine was on the Baltimore Ravens Men's Stunt Team (the guys that catch the cheerleaders) He lost 40# by walking.

True, it does take a long time, but we have to make a blood pact now that we dont stop and fall back into the old habits..a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

Tom

1.) SET POINT: The point at which controls are set(for example, on a thermostat). The set-point theory that relates to body weight proposes that the body tends to maintain a certain weight by means of its own internal controls.

2.) FAT CELL DEVELOPMENT: The number of fat cells increases most rapidly during the growing years of late childhood and early puberty. After growth ceases, fat cell number may continue to increase whenever energy balance is positive. Obese people have more fat cells than healthy people; their fat cells are also larger. People with the extra fat cells tend to regain lost weight rapidly; with weight gain, their many fat cells readily fill. In contrast, people with an average number of enlarged fat cells may be more successful in maintaining weight losses, when their cells shrink, both cell size and number are normal.

3.) FAT CELL METABOLISM: The enzyme lipoprotein lipase promotes fat storage in both adipose and muscle cells. Obese people generally have much more LPL activity in their fat cells than lean people do. This high LPL activity makes fate storage especially efficient. Consequently, even modest excesses in energy intake have dramatic impact on obese people than on lean people. The activity level of LPL is partially regulated by gender-specific hormones-estrogen in women and testosterone in men. This enzyme activity explains why men tend to develop central obesity around the abdomen whereas women readily develop lower-body fat around the hips and thighs.

4.) GENETICS: Researchers have identified an obesity gene(ob), which is expressed primarily in adipose tissue and codes for the protein leptin. Research suggests that leptin from adipose tissue signals sufficient energy stores and promotes a negative energy balance by suppressing appetite and increasing energy expenditure. Mice with a defective ob gene do not produce leptin and can weigh up to three times as much as normal mice and have five times as much body fat. An error in the gene that codes for leptin has been discovered in a few extremely obese children with barely detectable blood levels of leptin. GHRELIN- Leptin interacts with another protein that also acts as a hormone primarily in the hypothalamus. Ghrelin is secreted primarily by the stomach cells and promotes a positive energy balance by stimulating appetite and promoting efficient energy storage. Ghrelin levels are high in underweight people. Ghrelin levels do not seem to decline as much after a meal in obese people or in people with binge eating disorders as they do for lean people. Ghrelin levels are high whenever the body is in negative energy balance. It declines when the body is in positive energy balance.

5.)UNCOUPLING PROTEINS: Other genes code for proteins involved in energy metabolism. These proteins may influence the storing or expending of energy with different efficiencies or in different types of fat. The body has 2 types of fat: white and brown adipose tissue. White adipose tissue stores fat for other cells to use for energy; brown adipose tissue releases stored energy as heat. In brown adipose tissue, oxidation may be uncoupled from ATP tissue only. By radiating energy away as heat, the body expends, rather than stores, energy. Uncoupling proteins are active not only in brown fat, but also in white fat and many other tissues. Their actions seem to influence the basal metabolic rate and oppose the development of obesity. Animals with abundant amounts of these uncoupling proteins resist weight gain, whereas those with minimal amounts gain weight easily.

6.) ENVIRONMENT: Overeating and Physical Inactivity

my sources are: Understanding Nutrition, 11th edition; Whitney/Rolfes

Love that avatar e-29...

#2 could be used as an argument for liposuction once you've lost weight to prevent it from coming back so easily.