subject: Weight Control And The Issues Associated With Obesity [print this page] Naturally thin people do not understand why overweight people struggle so much with weight management. After all, it seems pretty straightforward. If you eat too many calories your body will store what you do not use as fat. If you want to lose weight, just make sure that you are burning more calories than you eat. To stay at the same weight, eat and burn the same number of calories. If "how to lose weight fast" was that simple, nobody would be fat.
Obesity Epidemic
Turn on the news or pick up any newspaper and you are bound to see a story on the obesity epidemic. More and more children are getting fatter and fatter, developing heart disease, diabetes and high cholesterol all before they hit adulthood. The predictions for this generation are grim. Experts agree that this will be the first generation in a century that will not outlive their parents. Adults are fat, too. Around one-third of all adults can be considered obese. Clearly there is a problem.
The Struggle
Even with those glaring statistics and the fact that we know we need to get healthy, that being obese may shorten our lives, so many people still struggle with weight management. Some people develop bulimia, anorexia, or laxative abuse problems in an effort to maintain fat burning. Why is it so hard to keep our weight at a reasonable level? The answer to that question is complicated.
Giving Up, Getting Fatter
Maybe we should all just give up the struggle and get more and more unhealthy and obese. Ultimately, that does not seem like a very attractive option. Maybe we should go on a very low calorie diet and get rid of the weight once and for all. That is too drastic for most people to do for very long. Before you decide to give dieting one more try, look at your expectations of yourself. Chances are you are expecting yourself to achieve 100% compliance with your diet. Your success is doomed before you even begin. Nobody can be 100% compliant with anything 100% of the time for any extended length of time. Life gets in the way.
Looking At Things Differently
What if we just accepted the fact that we are human and that humans do not do anything 100% of the time for very long? Let's look at the weight management issue differently than we have done in the past. Would it be possible for you to eat healthy foods 50% of your meals in a day or a week? Could you do it 60% of the time? How about 80% of the time? Do you think that you could eat healthy foods for 90% of your meals? What percentage of meals could you actually eat healthy foods without stirring up a lot of anxiety in yourself? That is where you need to begin. Gradually work your way up to eating 90% of your meals with only healthy food. This way you have 10% of your meals left for indulging yourself while still losing weight.
Now think about exercise in the same way. Could you see yourself actually doing some exercise for five minutes a day? What about 10 minutes or 30 minutes? Could you do this two or three times a week to begin with? Begin at the point you can physically and mentally handle and work your way up to exercising 30 minutes five days a week.
