Our fight with fat: A losing battle?

Today, as you embark on your first diet of 2006, maybe it's crossed your mind:

Why is fat so stubborn?

You would think a process that seems basic --- the body's changing food into fat --- could be easily derailed, or at least altered.

But the reality is, the body can still outmaneuver the best of scientists and the best of diets. And even if you do succeed once, the National Institutes of Health reports that about 90 percent of those who lose weight fail to keep it off.

Depressing news, especially as people vow to not repeat the sins of the past --- many that occurred in the past week or so.

This time, you say, things will be different. No sweets, no breads, no fats, no alcohol. The brain will triumph over the stomach.

Ha.

"It's a vicious cycle," said Frances Suarez, a 38-year-old Marietta lawyer. "Everybody wants to take you to lunch, there's the cookie exchanges and then of course, the actual meals. I just tried to avoid them."

The prevalence of obesity in the United States has soared in the last 25 years, from 13 percent of adults to 31 percent, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity is defined in part as having a body mass index (calculated through height and weight) of more than 30.

But we're trying to win. Surveys consistently find at least half of American adults polled have been on a diet, with one in five reporting they're always on a diet. The weight loss industry took in more than $46.3 billion in 2004, according to Marketdata, a research firm that tracks diet programs and products.

So why can't we lose weight?

"There's this dichotomy that gets set up when someone tries to diet," said Patti Patridge, psychological director of weight loss programs at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. "They try to lose weight and to gain control, which no one can do all the time. So they'll beat up on themselves, comfort with food, and then start the whole cycle again. It's pretty destructive."

For most, it's a daily battle. Cristin Zegers, 32, a Marietta mother of three, figured out about five years ago that she would need to change her eating habits.

"I realized Christmas is a day, Thanksgiving is a day," she said, "you don't have to make it a whole season of eating."

Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution