How about you?  How much is progressive weight gain affecting you?

Current age  -  Age when you reached your maximum height   =   Years

Current weight  -  Weight when you reach your maximum height   =   Pounds

Your Pounds divided by Your Years   =   how many pounds you have gained per year.

When I started talking to Roger Snow, Owner and Operator of Rocky Mountain Grain Products, about the benefits of eating hemp hearts he mentioned that the pattern of slow progressive weight gain I noticed in my body is not uncommon.

It Adds Up

“Everyone in our society gradually puts on a few pounds every year, maybe just one, but after 50 years that’s 50 pounds,” said Roger.

I was astonished.  “Think of it this way,” said Roger, “When the body digests fats, it does it very slowly and so it doesn’t get energy out of fats quickly.  But the body gets the energy out of carbohydrates fast, so if you are climbing Mount Everest or something that uses a lot of energy and you were eating carbohydrates, you’d burn them all up and there’d be no problem, but in our society if we eat sugar and carbohydrates, we get more energy than we can use and so the body starts storing it as fat.  You might only gain a fraction of a pound in a day, but the fat accumulates, and like maybe you’ll only gain a pound or two a year.  That’s what happens to everyone who eats carbohydrates and we start doing that from day 1.”

How It Typically Goes

“You can look at it historically from the point of view of a typical individual.  We had lots of physical activity in school, so you could eat huge qualities in school and still be pretty light, but still if you ate lots of sweets and carbohydrates you put on tiny amounts of weight and you wouldn’t really notice it as being fat until 50 years had passed, but really for that whole 50 years you were putting on a few pounds a year.  Then as you put those pounds on you change your lifestyle because you’re getting heavier, and instead of running as much, say you only put 10 pounds on, well then you’re packing 10 pounds around so you’re probably going to be a little less active and maybe eat a little bit more because you have more weight to carry around.  Then people tend to run around and keep going after those quick energy fixes, like coffee, sugar, and pop, so that they have enough energy to make it through the day.  Other times when they eat, they are eating the carbohydrates which are burning quickly so they get a burst of energy, but they are getting more energy than they can burn so it’s converted to fat.”

I wasn’t the only one who had weight gain sneak up on them.  Before he started using hemp hearts in the mornings Roger was very overweight.  Using hemp hearts, Roger lost 90 pounds in 90 days.  (You can read more about Roger in ‘Roger’s Story’ or how Roger dropped 90 pounds in ‘Three Modes of Weight Maintenance’.)

Solutions That Work

Roger’s suggestion for putting an end to progressive weight gain:

• Eat at least 5 tablespoons of hemp hearts in the morning with breakfast. This will satisfy your hunger longer in the mornings and can help you to skip lunch and avoid energy boosters.
• Eliminate carbohydrates and other energy boosters from your diet. Stop fueling yourself with more energy than your body can use!
• Get your weight down to your ideal and then watch and maintain it. You can read how Roger does it in ‘Three Modes of Weight Maintenance.’

My Results

After putting Roger’s suggestions to work for a couple of weeks, I have taken off 6 of my 7 pounds overweight.  I reclaimed my favorite pair of jeans and it feels so good!  Now I’m aiming for fitting back into my tight black leather pants.  If you notice your weight creeping up, just lose enough weight to get back into one thing you’ve out grown.  Some part of your old self will come alive again and it will fuel you to get to your next goal.  Keep celebrating those successes.  I wish you the best of luck.