Why do you want to lose weight?



- Do you want to live longer?

- Do you want to improve how you feel?

- Does your spouse want you to lose weight?

- Does your Doctor tell you, "you need to lose weight"?

- Do you have health issues that weight loss would improve?

- Do you need to pass a physical examination to meet a job requirement?

Bad News!

If any of these is your reason for losing weight you won't succeed. The problem is that these reasons aren't your reasons. They're someone else's viewpoint and not your own. You probably know you should but the mental torpor and low physical energy induced by being fat means you won't be sufficiently motivated to do anything much about it.

Weight reduction for many fat people can actually be harmful. Why are many people fat today? Sixty-one percent of Americans are overweight and twenty-seven obese. Already many of these people are nutritionally deprived because, while they eat more calories than they burn up, the food they eat lacks the essential nutrients for health. Most Americans don't eat the recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Add to this a reducing diet and you have a situation comparable to partial starvation. If you are deprived of food it's likely you will become irritable and on edge. Your mood becomes melancholy. You can compare it to the withdrawal symptoms of a cigarette smoker trying to give-up. Fat people usually enjoy their food, perhaps too much? Being deprived of sustenance may even result in more serious depression requiring psychiatric attention. If you have major problems in your life it's not a good idea to add to your burdens by attempting to lose weight. You are bound to fail.

Can you successfully lose fat and keep it off?

Firstly you are more likely to succeed if your life is reasonably stable. Secondly it comes back to your motivation.

- Are you motivated from within?

- Are you miserable, embarrassed, insecure and humiliated by being so fat?

- Are you disgusted with how you look?

- Do you want to look attractive and desirable again?

- Is your desire genuine and deep seated?

Until recently medical science ascribed obesity solely to an excessive intake of food. If you're fat then you must eat too much. Simple and logical, right?

Greater understanding of the situation was achieved when studies were performed on well proportioned adolescent girls and their chubby classmates. The plump girls universally denied overeating - in fact they all claimed to be eating just enough to keep a mouse from starvation. Yeah right...

The study went on to carefully analyse their diets and their daily activity by way of attaching a pedometer to their waist. Lo and behold! The fat girls ate no more than their slender classmates; in fact they often ate less. The explanation for their excessive weight was that their daily activity was only one-third as much.

If you exercise regularly you are much less likely to be obese and suffer from many of the causes of premature death. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and other degenerative disorders are much more likely if you're obese. Exercising regularly may not lengthen your life but obesity certainly shortens it. Add to that the quality of life you enjoy in the meantime.

BUT you must decide for yourself!