The influence of the nature and amount of fat on a person’s weight

When analyzing your own indicators, you should take into account the characteristics of a person’s character and the weight of excess deposits. It would seem that personal qualities cannot affect a person’s physique and excess weight, but Hippocrates spoke of such patterns. Excess weight can be a source of various diseases and is a consequence of improper diet and lack of physical activity. In this article, we will analyze whether there is excess weight; what problems from it can be.

Overweight and character

Hippocrates proposed to divide people according to the type of character into sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic. Even at the beginning of the XIV century, in the famous poetic treatise on medicine – the Salerno Code of Health – the connection between body weight and character type was noted.

So, phlegmatic people in the Salerno Codex can read the following:

Phlegm will give only meager strength, width, short stature,

She generates fat and lazy blood movement,

To sleep – a phlegmatic person devotes his leisure time not to occupy himself,

Laziness and drowsiness, dull reason and lethargy of movements.

Every phlegmatic person is sleepy and lazy, and with copious saliva,

He is obese in body and mind, taut, usually white-faced.

Sanguine people, according to the authors of the Salerno Health Code, on the contrary, are “not fat, but meaty”:

Every sanguine person is always a merry fellow and a joker by nature,

Avid to all rumors and heedlessly ready to listen.

Bacchus and Venus – his delight, and food, and fun;

With them, he is full of joy and his speech pours sweetly,

He has a penchant for any sciences and is capable of

Whatever happens – but he is not easily inflamed with anger,

Amorous, generous, cheerful, laughing, ruddy-cheeked,

Loving songs, fleshy, truly brave and kind.

The Salerno Health Code speaks of choleric people as slender and dry people:

Bile exists – it is unbridled in humans.

Such a person strives to surpass everyone and in everything.

He eats a lot, grows superbly and is easily receptive,

Magnanimous and generous, invariably strives for the heights;

Always disheveled, crafty, irritable, brave and unrestrained.

Slim and full of cunning, dry and with a saffron face.

The Salerno Codex describes melancholic people as follows:

Only about black bile, we have not said anything yet:

She gives rise to strange people, silent and gloomy.

They are awake forever in labors, and their minds are not devoted to slumber:

Firm in intentions, oh, only dangers await from everywhere.

Greedy, sad, their envy gnaws, they will not let go of theirs.

Timid, deception is not alien to them, but their face is earthy.

In the description of melancholic people in the Salerno Codex nothing is said about their eating behavior and constitutional features.

According to modern concepts, the type of character is determined by the hormonal background and the characteristics of the nervous system. Body weight is the result of various regulatory mechanisms: neuropsychiatric, hormonal and metabolic. This is where the common causes of excess weight come from.

In the medulla oblongata of a person, in the region of the hypothalamus, there is an accumulation of neurons – the center of saturation. Its damage causes increased appetite. There is also an appetite center in the hypothalamus. Damage to it inhibits feelings of hunger and thirst.

It is known that other brain structures also play a significant role in eating behavior. The amount of food consumed depends on internal stimuli – feelings of hunger or satiety, as well as on external influences – visual, gustatory and mechanical stimuli of the appetite center. Emotional and everyday factors, mental stress, experiences and habits are equally important.

The reason for the deviation of body weight from the ideal can be changes in the secretion of hormones that enhance the formation of fat or inhibit its breakdown, as well as changes in the regulation of metabolism in fat cells.

The type of character is associated with the characteristics of the human nervous system. Eating behavior also depends on the activity of the latter. Apparently, one should agree that the type of the human nervous system can determine both its character and eating behavior.

Weight, belly, fat – how is it related

All ideal weights are indicative only. Body weight is an individual value that depends on many factors. It is necessary to know not only the magnitude of the deviation of body weight from the ideal, but also the reason for such a deviation.

Weight can exceed the norm not only with obesity, but also due to the growth of muscle tissue or body characteristics, which is why the ratio of weight to fat is so important.

At the same time, obesity can remain hidden when, with a slight increase in body weight and even with the maintenance of total weight, the volume of muscle tissue decreases, and adipose tissue increases.

Table. The ratio of the mass of the skeleton, muscle, fat.

Physical health in people with latent obesity worsens compared to those whose proportion of adipose tissue in total body weight does not exceed the norm. In addition to the relative amount of adipose tissue, an important indicator is also its distribution in different parts of the body – first of all, the ratio of waist to hips. In women, the normal ratio of waist to hips should not exceed 0.7. For men, this value should not be higher than one. The relative volume of the waist and hips characterizes the type of human figure – “pear” (female type of distribution of adipose tissue) and “apple” (male type). In the first case, fat is concentrated mainly in the lower abdomen and on the buttocks. In the second case, the fat is concentrated in the upper half of the body – the abdomen hangs over the belt.

The “apple” type often leads to the development of complications in the form of obesity, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, diabetes and other diseases associated with overweight. Therefore, the body weight in people with this type of figure should be at the lower limit of the norm, and in people with a pear-shaped type of figure, it can reach the upper limit.

People prone to obesity need to closely monitor their weight and waist and hips in order to change the calorie content of food, its volume and quality in time. It’s not a secret for anyone that the calorie content of food alone does not mean anything. Excess weight is a problem that should be dealt with from the very first signs of its appearance.

If a person needs 2,180 kcal per day, then he can get them from one kilogram of meat, since 100 g of meat contains 21.8 kcal. Almost the same amount of energy can be obtained from 1 kg of ice cream – 2270 kcal, or 1 kg of 20% sour cream – 2060 kcal. It is not hard to imagine what such nutrition can lead to. Of course, no one will eat only meat or only ice cream, even for one day. But monotonous, qualitatively inadequate nutrition, even corresponding to the caloric content of the age norm and the physiological activity of a person, is the most frequent cause of deviations in body weight from the ideal.

What is the body weight formed from, what determines it? First of all, these are muscle mass, adipose tissue, bone structures and liquid tissues – blood, lymph and extracellular fluid. At the age of 25 in men, adipose tissue accounts for approximately 14% of body weight, in women – 26%. With age, the amount of fat increases and at the age of 40 it is 22% for men and 32% for women. At 55, adipose tissue accounts for 25% of body weight in men, and 38% in women.

Imagine two people with the same weight and height. One of them is involved in sports and has a large muscle mass, the other is inactive and has a small muscle mass and a lot of adipose tissue. They will look different: the first will be fit and slender, and the second will be loose and flabby, but the body mass index will be the same when calculated. This example shows how fat affects weight. Therefore, body mass index as an indicator of ideal weight is used only for people with average development of muscles and adipose tissue.

Health is not affected by body weight itself, but by the proportion of adipose tissue in it. Its content in the body can be determined by the thickness of the skin and fat fold. It is measured using a special compass, which compresses tissue with a strictly defined force. Measurements are carried out at four points: above the triceps muscle of the shoulder, above the biceps of the shoulder, at the angle of the scapula and above the iliac crest (at the navel) – and the average value of the obtained values ​​is calculated. The content of adipose tissue in the body of adults can be determined from table. 1.1.

Table. Determination of the proportion of adipose tissue by the average thickness of the skin and fatty fold (HRF)

the norm at 25 years for men 15% for women 27%, the
norm at 40 years for men 22% for women 32%, the
norm at 55 years for men 25% for women 38%.

There are special devices with the help of which the relative content of fat in it is determined by the magnitude of the electrical resistance of body tissues. In the pharmacy, you can buy household electronic floor scales, which, during weighing, also determine the proportion of adipose tissue in the body. This method is very good for targeted weight loss, as it allows you to track the decrease in fat mass and prevent muscle loss.

A person’s weight is determined not only by the content of muscle and fat in the body, but also by the amount of water. Normally, a woman’s body contains 50-60% water, and a man’s body contains 55-65%. The difference is explained by the fact that men have more muscle in the total body weight than women, and less adipose tissue, which contains little water. Being overweight is being overweight.

Fluctuations in water content in the body are quite significant. Often the swelling that we notice on the hands and feet appears on hot days, as heat leads to changes in water-salt metabolism, and water is retained in the body (mainly due to an increase in the amount of intercellular fluid). In women, an increase in water content in the body is noted on “critical days”. Water is also retained when eating salty and very sweet foods. Fluctuations in the amount of fluid in the body can also depend on biorhythms and atmospheric pressure.

With frequent weighing, and at different times of the day, weight changes can reach 1.5-2 kg, which depends on changes in the water content in the body, and on the amount of recently drunk liquid and food eaten, and on the work of the intestines. To control body weight, one should weigh himself no more than once a week on the same scales, at the same time of the day, preferably in the morning before breakfast, with empty bowels and bladder.