Freedom From Obesity

Why Am I Fat?

How Did I Get This Way?

As I examined my own life, I came to see that I did not know very much about how I got fat in the first place.  Well, OK, I knew I probably ate too much and exercised too little.  However, I felt that I needed more information than that if I was ever going to get slim and stay slim again.  I looked at many of the diet and exercise programs but found that almost no one was losing weight and keeping it off.  I read a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report where experts reviewed 300 weight loss ads and found that, “more than half of what you see is deceptive, misleading, or just plain false”.  I found where the U.S. Government statistics showed that only 2 percent were achieving any reasonable long-term weight loss.  I knew then and there that something had to be amiss.

I began to see that many diet and exercise programs were only telling me part of the story about weight loss.  I felt abandoned because I had little long-term success with losing weight.  And, it seemed that there were many more experiencing the same thing as me.  I wanted to know “the rest of the story”.  This book is about “the rest of the story”.  I want to share some important things that I learned about our bodies and how these things are crucial to achieving meaningful weight loss.  In fact, I’ve learned that without these things, you and I probably won’t achieve any reasonable long-term weight loss.  I have discovered that we need to know a little bit about the way the body processes food, uses its energy and assimilates water and alcohol.  I was surprised to find that not just the size of my body, but its actual shape is predetermined by my fat cells.

I wondered why most diet plans ignored most of these important points to losing weight.  Maybe because it can become a little complicated to try to explain.  Perhaps the promoters wanted to create the maximum marketing impact and just use a few catchy words that would grab the public’s eye.  Whatever the reasons, most of these programs did not seem concerned with giving the balanced truth about weight loss.  And, our government had said that 98 percent of the programs were failures.

Obesity Is a Big Problem

Is there a pun in that title?  If so, it is not very funny.  We have been misled and the problem is enormous (please, no more puns).  80 percent of the U.S. population is cursed with being overweight and one-quarter of those overweight are classed as “clinically obese” (60 percent or more overweight).  Russia reports that 54 percent of its population is overweight, United Kingdom reports 51 percent and Germany reports 50 percent.

Starting at age 25, the average American starts gaining one pound of weight per year, while each year losing a half a pound of lean tissue.  So by age 65 the average American has gained 60 pounds of weight: 40 pounds of new fat and 20 pounds of lost lean body mass, now also fat.  I was in this shape when I started to look into this diet business.  Are you in the category too?

Obesity Related Medical Problems

Obesity causes numerous health risks.  Just some of the complications associated with obesity include the following.  Hypertension, diabetes, cancer, degenerative arthritis, elevated cholesterol, gallstones, heart attacks, strokes, sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, kidney disease, liver disease, heart disease, fatal respiratory diseases, back pain, osteoarthritis, hirsutism (excess body/facial hair), stress incontinence, increased surgical risk, shortness of breath, impaired immune function, reproductive disorders (including miscarriage) and impaired mobility.

The American Diabetes Association has concluded, “you are what you eat”.  They report that “Type II diabetes rates are jumping in tandem with obesity rates”.

20 percent of Americans (40 to 50 million) are obese.  This contrasts with 8 percent being obese in the late 1970’s.  CNN reported that obesity has doubled in American adults in the last 5 years, but it has tripled in adolescents in the same time period.  Time Magazine reported that 15 percent of American adolescents ages 5 to 19 are overweight – triple the rate of 20 years ago.  Obesity is responsible for about 280,000 deaths in the U.S. each year and it costs the American economy $99 billion a year.  50 million Americans will spend $40 billion on diet plans.