Q&A with Dr. Pamela Peeke: How & Why

Question: Dr. Peeke, what is the biggest mistake people make towards their health and fitness?Dr. Peeke: Unrealistic expectations. People think they can change overnight, and it doesn't work out that way.

Question: So much has been made in the news lately about stress and belly fat. Can you clarify?Dr. Peeke: The connection between stress and belly fat is something that was a core of my research at the National Institute of Health. If you read my first book, "Fight Fat After Forty," you will see how I define the relationship between stress and fat. Chronic stress stirs up stress hormones, which increases appetite for refined sugar and fat.

Question: You do a ton of work with women and their special challenges in weight loss. What does a women need to know, if she's embarking on a new plan alongside her husband? What special considerations does she need to make?
Dr. Peeke: She needs to keep her own goals and expectations unique to her and her needs. What she should not do is compare herself to her husband. That is lethal. Men will change their nutrition and activity habits in different ways than women. Women tend to caregive everyone except themselves, so women have to watch out not to forget themselves in the caregiving process.

Question: I am almost 59 years old. I exercise daily and try to eat right...emphasis on the try. If I try to increase my level of exertion, I'm exhausted. I seem to be losing ground instead of gaining. How can I increase my fitness without exhausting myself?
Dr. Peeke: Stop trying, and do. I'm hearing a lot of "try," but what I want to hear is "do." You have to build a solid strong foundation of metabolism and endurance and the ability to burn calories. You can't do it with multiple jump starts, and then long periods in between. Consistency is the answer.

Question: How soon after starting do you see results?
Dr. Peeke: Immediately. Your energy increases, sleep improves, memory improves, enjoyment of life improves. And over the course of the first week, you see that you are improving your body composition depending on what you needed, whether it was dropping fat or building muscle. But after just 24 hours, you will feel remarkably improved.

Question: I decided to lose 1 lb./wk on 1-1, I also decided to quit smoking the same day. I am having larger than normal stress in my life because of being a caregiver of my disabled son, so I'm taking Paxil to help me cope. Tuesdays are my weigh in days and to my dismay I gained 1.6 lbs., but lost 15.4% of my body fat. I am constantly snacking, but it is on veggies and low fat foods. Has my body gone into shock and that's why I'm not losing more weight?
Dr. Peeke: Here's the deal: You've got a lot of things going on at once. You stopped smoking, and that affects metabolism and appetite. So you have to be careful not to overeat, which is easy to do if you're not smoking because of the change in appetite. Two, Paxil is associated with weight gain. You might want to have a conversation with your doctor about taking a different drug, or whether you even truly need a medication. Perhaps behavioral therapy might be the way to go. A 15% body fat drop is a very large drop, so it sounds as though you have been removing excess body fat for quite some time. So at this point in time, if you want to increase the ability to drop more weight, what I would do is increase your muscular ability to burn those calories. What's going on with your weight training and your endurance activity? If you've hit a plateau, increase the intensity and you'll increase caloric burn.

Question: Did the people who are now Fit to Live use the diet/exercise program in the National Body Challenge?Dr. Peeke: They used my book, "Fit to Live." In the book, what I did was outline a simple template for including physical, mental, and nutritional assessment that helped them to achieve their goal to be fit to live.

Question: How did you get into this line of work? What were you doing before you joined the fight for fitness?
Dr. Peeke: I'm a physician and a scientist. My laboratory was at the National Institute of Health. I have always been interested in a more integrative approach to health. In all of my books, including "Fit to Live," you'll see that I approach the human being in a holistic manner. My background also includes graduate degrees in public health and public policy. As well, I am an athlete, so I walk the talk.