Three and a half years ago, I made one of the best decisions of my life. As my New Year's resolution, I gave up dieting, stopped worrying about my weight, and learned to eat mindfully. Now I eat whenever I'm hungry, and I've lost 10 pounds.
Tre vjet e gjysem me pare, mora nje nga vendimet me te mira te jetes time, Si nje vendim te Vitit te Ri, hoqa dore nga dieta, nisa mos shqeteshohem per peshen time, dhe mesova te ushqehem me kujdes. Tashme ushqehem sa here jam e uritur, dhe kam humbur 4 kg e gjysem.
This was me at age 13, when I started my first diet. I look at that picture now, and I think, you did not need a diet, you needed a fashion consult. (Laughter) But I thought I needed to lose weight, and when I gained it back, of course I blamed myself. And for the next three decades, I was on and off various diets. No matter what I tried, the weight I'd lost always came back. I'm sure many of you know the feeling.
Kjo jam une ne moshen 13 vjecare, kur nisa dieten time te pare. E shoh ate fotografi tani, dhe mendoj nuk me eshte dashur nje diete, me eshte dashur nje konsulent i modes. (Te qeshura) Por mendoja se duhet te humbja peshe, dhe kur i rimerja, sigurisht fajesoja veten time. Dhe per tre dekadat ne vazhdim, kam qene ne dhe jashte dietave te ndryshme. Pavaresisht cfare provoja, pesha qe humba gjithmone rikthehej. Jam e sigurte qe shume nga ju e njihni ndjenjen.
As a neuroscientist, I wondered, why is this so hard? Obviously, how much you weigh depends on how much you eat and how much energy you burn. What most people don't realize is that hunger and energy use are controlled by the brain, mostly without your awareness. Your brain does a lot of its work behind the scenes, and that is a good thing, because your conscious mind -- how do we put this politely? -- it's easily distracted. It's good that you don't have to remember to breathe when you get caught up in a movie. You don't forget how to walk because you're thinking about what to have for dinner.
Si nje neuroshkenctare, Cuditesha, pse eshte kaq e veshtire? Qartesisht, se sa peshon eshte ne varesi te se sa shume ushqehesh dhe sa kalori djeg. Shume njerez nuk e kuptojne se uria dhe perdorimi i energjise kontrollohen nga truri, kryesisht pa dijenine tende. Truri jot e kryen punen pas skenes, dhe kjo eshte nje gje e mire, sepse mendja jote e vetedijshme -- si mund ta themi kete me edukate?-- shperqendrohet lehtesisht. Eshte mire qe nuk te duhet te kujtohesh te maresh fryme ndersa harroheni ne nje film. Nuk harron se si te ecesh sepse je duke menduar se cfare do besh per darke.
Your brain also has its own sense of what you should weigh, no matter what you consciously believe. This is called your set point, but that's a misleading term, because it's actually a range of about 10 or 15 pounds. You can use lifestyle choices to move your weight up and down within that range, but it's much, much harder to stay outside of it. The hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates body weight, there are more than a dozen chemical signals in the brain that tell your body to gain weight, more than another dozen that tell your body to lose it, and the system works like a thermostat, responding to signals from the body by adjusting hunger, activity and metabolism, to keep your weight stable as conditions change. That's what a thermostat does, right? It keeps the temperature in your house the same as the weather changes outside. Now you can try to change the temperature in your house by opening a window in the winter, but that's not going to change the setting on the thermostat, which will respond by kicking on the furnace to warm the place back up. Your brain works exactly the same way, responding to weight loss by using powerful tools to push your body back to what it considers normal. If you lose a lot of weight, your brain reacts as if you were starving, and whether you started out fat or thin, your brain's response is exactly the same. We would love to think that your brain could tell whether you need to lose weight or not, but it can't. If you do lose a lot of weight, you become hungry, and your muscles burn less energy. Dr. Rudy Leibel of Columbia University has found that people who have lost 10 percent of their body weight burn 250 to 400 calories less because their metabolism is suppressed. That's a lot of food. This means that a successful dieter must eat this much less forever than someone of the same weight who has always been thin.
Truri jot gjithashtu ka shqisen e vet te asaj se sa duhet te peshosh ti, pavaresisht te besimit tend ne menyre te ndergjegjshme. Kjo quhet pika nismetare, por ky eshte nje term corientues, sepse eshte aktualisht nje game e rreth 5 ose 7 kg. Ju mund te perdorni zgjedhje ne menyren e jeteses per te levizur peshen tuaj lart e poshte nen ate game, por eshte shume me e veshtire te qendrosh jashte saj. Hipotalamus, pjesa e trurit qe rregullon peshen e trupit, ka me duzina sinjale kimike ne tru qe i thone trupit tend te marin peshe, me shume se sa nje duzine tjeter qe i thone trupit ta humbasi ate, dhe sistemi punon si nje termostat, duke ju pergjigjur sinjaleve te trupit duke pershtatur urine, aktivitetin dhe metabolizmin, ta mbajne trupin ne stabilitet ndekohe qe kushtet ndryshojne. Kete kryen nje termostat apo jo? E mban tempereturen e shtepise tende ne stabilitet nderkohe qe koha jashte ndryshon. Ju mund te ndryshoni temperaturen ne shtepi duke hapur nje dritare ne dimer, por kjo nuk do e ndryshon percaktimin ne termostat, i cili do pergjigjet duke nxitur ngrohtesine per ta ringrohur vendin perseri. Truri jot funksionon ekzaktesisht ne te njejten menyre, duke i ju pergjigur humbjes se peshes me perdorimin e veglave te fuqishme per te shtyre trupin tend te rikthehet ne ate cka konsiderohet normale. Nese ti humbet shume peshe, truri jot reagon sikurse te jesh shume i uritur, edhe nese ti ne nisje je i shendetshem apo i dobet, pergjigja e trurit tend eshte ekzaktesisht e njejte. Do na pelqente te mendonim se truri juaj mund te tregoje nese ty te duhet te humbasesh peshe ose jo, por nuk mundet. Nese ti humbet shume peshe, atehere ti nis te kesh uri, dhe muskujt e tua djegin me pak energji. Dr. Rudy Leibel nga Universiteti Columbia ka zbuluar se njerezit te cilet kane humbur 10 perqind te peshes se trupit tyre djegin 250 deri 400 kalori me pak sepse metabolizmi i tyre eshte i ndrydhur. Ky eshte shume ushqim. Kjo do te thote se nje person i suksesshem ne dieta duhet te ushqehet me me pak se kaq perhere se sa dikush i te njejtes peshe i cili ka qene perhere i dobet.
From an evolutionary perspective, your body's resistance to weight loss makes sense. When food was scarce, our ancestors' survival depended on conserving energy, and regaining the weight when food was available would have protected them against the next shortage. Over the course of human history, starvation has been a much bigger problem than overeating. This may explain a very sad fact: Set points can go up, but they rarely go down. Now, if your mother ever mentioned that life is not fair, this is the kind of thing she was talking about. (Laughter) Successful dieting doesn't lower your set point. Even after you've kept the weight off for as long as seven years, your brain keeps trying to make you gain it back. If that weight loss had been due to a long famine, that would be a sensible response. In our modern world of drive-thru burgers, it's not working out so well for many of us. That difference between our ancestral past and our abundant present is the reason that Dr. Yoni Freedhoff of the University of Ottawa would like to take some of his patients back to a time when food was less available, and it's also the reason that changing the food environment is really going to be the most effective solution to obesity.
Nga nje perspektive ne zhvillim, rezistenca e trupit tuaj ndaj humbjes ne peshe ka kuptim. Kur ushqimi ishte i rralle, mbijetesa e paraardhesve tane varej nga konservimi i energjise, dhe rimarja e peshes kur ushqimi ishte i mundshem do ti mbronte ata gjate mungeses se rradhes. Gjate rrjedhes se historise humane, uria ka qene nje problem shume me i madh se sa mbi ushqyerja. Kjo mund ti jape shpjegim nje fakti shume te trishtuar: Pikat e nisjes mund te ngjiten lart, por rralle zbresin. Nese nena juaj ju ka permendur ndonjehere se jeta nuk eshte e drejte, kjo eshte pak a shume gjeja per ate cka ajo fliste. (Te qeshura) Dietat e suksesshme nuk ju ulin piken e nisjes. Edhe pasi ti e ke ruajtur peshen per me shume se shtate vjet, truri jot vazhdon te perpiqet ti rimaresh. Nese ajo humbja e peshes ka qene per shkak te nje urie te vazhdueshme, kjo do ishte nje pergjigje e ndjeshme. Ne boten tone moderne ku blejme hamburgera pa dale nga makinat, nuk po funksionon mire per shume nga ne. Ajo diferenca midis stergjysheve tane dhe te tashmes ku kemi me tepri eshte arsyeja pse Dr. Yoni Freedhoff nga Universiteti i Ottawa do deshironte te kthente disa nga pacientet e tij pas ne kohen ku ushqimi ka qene me pak i disponueshem, dhe eshte gjithashtu arsyeja se te ndryshosh mjedisin e ushqimit do jete zgjidhja me efektive ndaj obezitetit.
Sadly, a temporary weight gain can become permanent. If you stay at a high weight for too long, probably a matter of years for most of us, your brain may decide that that's the new normal.
Fatkeqesisht, nje rritje e perkohshme ne peshe mund te kthehet ne te perhershme. Nese ti qendron ne nje peshe te larte per shume kohe, ndoshta disa vjet per shumicen nga ne, truri jot mund te vendose se kjo eshte normalja e re.
Psychologists classify eaters into two groups, those who rely on their hunger and those who try to control their eating through willpower, like most dieters. Let's call them intuitive eaters and controlled eaters. The interesting thing is that intuitive eaters are less likely to be overweight, and they spend less time thinking about food. Controlled eaters are more vulnerable to overeating in response to advertising, super-sizing, and the all-you-can-eat buffet. And a small indulgence, like eating one scoop of ice cream, is more likely to lead to a food binge in controlled eaters. Children are especially vulnerable to this cycle of dieting and then binging. Several long-term studies have shown that girls who diet in their early teenage years are three times more likely to become overweight five years later, even if they started at a normal weight, and all of these studies found that the same factors that predicted weight gain also predicted the development of eating disorders. The other factor, by the way, those of you who are parents, was being teased by family members about their weight. So don't do that. (Laughter)
Psikologet i ndajne hamesit ne dy grupe, ata qe mbeshteten ne urine e tyre dhe ata qe perpiqen te kontrollojne te ngrenin e tyre ndermjet vullnetit, si shumica e atyre qe jane ne diete. Le ti quajme ata hames intuitiv dhe hames te kontrolluar. Pjesa interesante eshte se hamesit intuitiv kane me pak gjasa te jene mbipeshe, dhe kalojne shume pak kohe duke menduar per ushqimin. Hamesit e kontrolluar jane me shume te prekshem ndaj mbiushqyerjes ne pergjigje te reklamimit, te masave te medha, dhe te buffese se vetesherbimit. Dhe nje privilegj i vogel, si te maresh nje kupe me akullore, ka shume gjasa te kthehet ne nje ngrenie te tepruar ne hamesit e kontrolluar. Femijet jane vecanerisht te ndjeshem ndaj ketij cikli dietik dhe me pas te kthehen ne hames te tepruar. Disa studime afatgjata kane treguar se vajza te cilat bejne diete ne fillimet e viteve te adoleshences jane trefish te dispozuara te kthehen ne mbipeshe pese vite me pas, edhe nese kane filluar ne nje peshe normale, dhe te gjitha keto studime zbuluan se te njejtet faktore qe parashikuan marrjen e peshes gjithashtu parashikuan zhvillimin e crregullimit te ngrenies. Faktori tjeter, me qe ra fjala, ata te cilet nga ju jane prinder, ishte ngacmimi i pjesetarve te familjes per peshen e tyre. Ndaj mos e beni ate. (Te qeshura)
I left almost all my graphs at home, but I couldn't resist throwing in just this one, because I'm a geek, and that's how I roll. (Laughter) This is a study that looked at the risk of death over a 14-year period based on four healthy habits: eating enough fruits and vegetables, exercise three times a week, not smoking, and drinking in moderation. Let's start by looking at the normal weight people in the study. The height of the bars is the risk of death, and those zero, one, two, three, four numbers on the horizontal axis are the number of those healthy habits that a given person had. And as you'd expect, the healthier the lifestyle, the less likely people were to die during the study. Now let's look at what happens in overweight people. The ones that had no healthy habits had a higher risk of death. Adding just one healthy habit pulls overweight people back into the normal range. For obese people with no healthy habits, the risk is very high, seven times higher than the healthiest groups in the study. But a healthy lifestyle helps obese people too. In fact, if you look only at the group with all four healthy habits, you can see that weight makes very little difference. You can take control of your health by taking control of your lifestyle, even If you can't lose weight and keep it off.
I kam lene pothuajse te gjithe grafiket e mi ne shtepi, por nuk mund te rezistoja pa ju treguar kete, sepse jam e fiksuar, dhe keshtu funksionoj. (Te qeshura) Ky eshte nje studim mbi riskun e vdekjes per nje periudhe 14-vjecare duke u bazuar ne kater zakone te shendetshme: duke ngrene fruta dhe perime te mjaftushme, duke u stervitur tre here ne jave, mos pirja e duhanit, dhe pije alkolike me mase. Le te fillojme duke pare peshen normale te njerezve ne kete studim. Lartesia e bareve tregon riskun e vdekjes, dhe ato zero, nje, dy, tre, kater numrat ne aksin horizontal jane numri i atyre me zakone te shendetshme qe i eshte dhene nje personi. Dhe sikurse mund ta parashikonit, sa me e shendetshme te jete menyra e jeteses aq me pak jane mundesite qe njerezit te vdesin gjate studimit. Tani le te shohim cfare ndodh ne njerezit e mbipeshe. Ata qe nuk kishin zakone te shendetshme kishin risk me te larte ndaj vdekjes. Duke shtuar vetem nje zakon te shendetshem i terheq njerezit e mbipeshe ne gamen normale. Per njerezit obeze pa zakone te shendetshme, risku eshte shume i larte, shtate here me i larte se sa grupet me te shendetshme ne studim. Por menyra e jeteses e shendetshme ndihmon edhe njerezit obeze gjithashtu. Ne fakt, nese do shihni grupin me te kater zakonet e shendetshme, mund te shihni se pesha ben shume pak diference. Ti mund ta maresh kontrollin e shendetin duke marre nen kontroll menyren e jeteses, edhe nese nuk mund te humbesh peshe dhe ta mbash ate larg.
Diets don't have very much reliability. Five years after a diet, most people have regained the weight. Forty percent of them have gained even more. If you think about this, the typical outcome of dieting is that you're more likely to gain weight in the long run than to lose it.
Dietat nuk kane shume siguri. Pese vite pas nje diete, shumica e njerezve e kane rimarre peshen. Dyzet perqind e tyre kane marre edhe me shume. Nese e mendon, rezultati tipik i dietave eshte se, ti ke me shume gjasa te maresh peshe ne rrugen e gjate se sa te humbasesh.
If I've convinced you that dieting might be a problem, the next question is, what do you do about it? And my answer, in a word, is mindfulness. I'm not saying you need to learn to meditate or take up yoga. I'm talking about mindful eating: learning to understand your body's signals so that you eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full, because a lot of weight gain boils down to eating when you're not hungry. How do you do it? Give yourself permission to eat as much as you want, and then work on figuring out what makes your body feel good. Sit down to regular meals without distractions. Think about how your body feels when you start to eat and when you stop, and let your hunger decide when you should be done. It took about a year for me to learn this, but it's really been worth it. I am so much more relaxed around food than I have ever been in my life. I often don't think about it. I forget we have chocolate in the house. It's like aliens have taken over my brain. It's just completely different. I should say that this approach to eating probably won't make you lose weight unless you often eat when you're not hungry, but doctors don't know of any approach that makes significant weight loss in a lot of people, and that is why a lot of people are now focusing on preventing weight gain instead of promoting weight loss. Let's face it: If diets worked, we'd all be thin already. (Laughter) Why do we keep doing the same thing and expecting different results? Diets may seem harmless, but they actually do a lot of collateral damage. At worst, they ruin lives: Weight obsession leads to eating disorders, especially in young kids. In the U.S., we have 80 percent of 10-year-old girls say they've been on a diet. Our daughters have learned to measure their worth by the wrong scale. Even at its best, dieting is a waste of time and energy. It takes willpower which you could be using to help your kids with their homework or to finish that important work project, and because willpower is limited, any strategy that relies on its consistent application is pretty much guaranteed to eventually fail you when your attention moves on to something else.
Nese ju kam bindur se dietat mund te jene nje problem, pyetja e rradhes eshte, cfare do beni per ate? Dhe pergjigja ime eshte, ne nje fjale, ndergjegjesimi. Nuk po ju them se duhet te mesoni te meditoni ose te beni yoga. Por ju them per ngrenien e ndergjegjshme: te mesosh te kuptosh sinjalet e trupit tend ne menyre qe te ushqeheni kur te keni uri dhe te ndaleni kur jeni plot, sepse shume marje ne peshe vjen nga e ngrena kur nuk keni uri. Si e beni? Jepini vetes leje te ushqehet aq sa doni, dhe me pas te punoni per te zbuluar se cfare e ben trupin tuaj te ndjehet mire. Uluni ne vakte normale pa hutime. Mendoni se si ndihet trupi juaj kur nisni te ushqeheni dhe kur ndaloni, dhe lereni urine tuaj te vendosi se kur duhet te perfundoni. Mua me mori rreth nje vit per ta mesuar kete, por vertet ka qene i vlefshem. Jam me shume e relaksuar rreth ushqimit se sa kam qene ndonjehere ne jeten time. Shpesh nuk e mendoj ate. Harroj qe kemi cokollate ne shtepi. Eshte sikur jashtetokesoret kane hyre ne trurin tim. Eshte dicka totalisht ndryshe, Me duhet te them se ky trajtim ndaj ngrenies ndoshta nuk do ju bej te humbisni peshe pervec se nese hani shpesh kur nuk jeni te uritur, por doktoret nuk njohin ndonje trajtim qe kryen humbje peshe te rendesishme tek shume njerez, dhe kjo eshte arsyeja pse shume njerez tani jane te fokusuar ne parandalimin e marrjes ne peshe ne vend qe te promovojne humbjen e peshes. Le te perballemi me te: Nese dietat do funksiononin do ishim tashme te gjithe te dobet. (Te qeshura) Pse vazhdojme te bejme te njejten gje dhe te presim rezultate ndryshe? Dietat mund te duken te pademshme, por realisht ato bejne nje dem indirekt. Ne me te keqen, ato rrenojne jete: Mania e peshes te drejton ndaj crregullimit te ngrenies, vecanerisht tek te rinjte. Ne Sh.B.A, kemi 80 perqind te vajzave 10-vjecare qe thone se kane qene ne diet. Vajzat tona kane mesuatr te masin vlerat e tyre ne shkallen e gabuar. Madje dhe ne me te mirat e saja, dieta eshte nje humbje kohe dhe energjie. Te merr vullnet te cilin mund ta perdoresh per te ndihmuar femijet ne detyrat e shtepise ose per te perfunduar nje projekt pune, dhe duke qene se vullneti eshte i limituar, cdo strategji e cila varet ne zbatimin e tij te qendrueshem eshte pak a shume e garantuar qe tju deshtoje perfundimisht kur vemendja jote leviz ne dicka tjeter.
Let me leave you with one last thought. What if we told all those dieting girls that it's okay to eat when they're hungry? What if we taught them to work with their appetite instead of fearing it? I think most of them would be happier and healthier, and as adults, many of them would probably be thinner. I wish someone had told me that back when I was 13.
Me lejoni tju le me nje mendim te fundit. Po sikur ti themi te gjithave ketyre vajzave ne diete qe eshte ok qe ato te ushqehen kur kane uri? Po sikur ti mesonim te punonin me oreksin e tyre ne vend qe ta kene frike ate? Mendoj se shumica e atyre do ishin me te lumtura dhe te shendetshme dhe si te rritur, shume nga ato do ishin me te dobta. Do doja qe dikush te ma kish thene ate kur isha 13.
Thanks.
Faleminderit.
(Applause)
(Duartrokitje)