SINthysist
Rural Racist Homophobe
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2001
- Posts
- 11,940
Wednesday, June 19, 2002
[John Boutillier]
Let’s face it: our country has become shockingly fat – obese, in fact.
If you go back 20 years, you almost never saw a hulking, drooping figure struggling along the sidewalk with extra baggy clothes to ‘hide’ his or her fat. Now, we see such figures on every block!
What has happened?
Quite simply: we eat too much. Period.
Now, why has this happened over the past 20 years?
A combination of the following:
1) Portion sizes in restaurants have ballooned. What used to be a “chicken plate” has morphed into a “chicken platter” – and there is enough food on it to feed a family of four for two days!
2) The easy availability of fast food. It all tastes so good, is easy to buy – and is loaded with fat and sugar.
3) ‘Supersizing’ has become the new “in” thing. And the result is “supersized people”!
4) Public schools have succumbed to serving fast food – MacDonalds in particular – for lunch. Thus our young are ‘hooked’ from an early age.
5) Exercise is rare for most people. And, with the more frenetic pace we all live in, it is even more difficult to find time to work out – and work “off” those lbs.
I have been dieting since 1970. I have tried every known diet as well as every gimmick, solution, pill and fad.
And I know the utter embarrassment of not even being able to look in a mirror or when walking past a glass storefront. You really get to hate what you look like.
OK. That’s where we are. Now, what to do?
As a lay expert on losing weight, I can sum it all up very simply:
1) The only thing that matters is the number of calories you eat per day.
2) What you eat is much less important than the amount of calories you consume per day.
3) So, to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you take in. Period. Simple, eh?
4) Do you realize that if you eat just one chocolate chip cookie (I could eat seven right now!) per day – at 100 calories per cookie – that in one year you will put on 10 pounds?
5) Exercise is valuable only as a way to burn more calories, thus adding to you “caloric deficit.” Plus, it just makes you feel better.
6) Those of us who love to work out also know another dirty little secret: you actually have less appetite when you are on an exercise program. Seems like it should be the other way around but it is not.
7) The other thing I’ve learned – and it’s awful sounding – is that you are going to be a little bit hungry a lot of the time. But when you’re hungry – and you don’t eat anything - you are burning that fat away.
To sum it all up: we as a nation have a Big problem. Sixty percent of the people are so Big they are now categorized as obese.
Putting that weight on is easy as pie (uh oh!)...OK, putting it on is a piece of cake (uh oh again!).
But getting it off is much, much tougher.
No wonder so many people try gimmicks and pills and solutions to drink before bedtime that supposedly allow you to eat “all you want.” None of them are the right way to proceed.
The only way is to count those calories, cut them down bit by bit – and for the rest of your life dedicate yourself to less food going into our mouths.
The hardest part is getting started. Once you get going it is not so bad. And then when you start to see results, everything seems better.
America is fat - period. And we need to go on a diet.
[John Boutillier]
Let’s face it: our country has become shockingly fat – obese, in fact.
If you go back 20 years, you almost never saw a hulking, drooping figure struggling along the sidewalk with extra baggy clothes to ‘hide’ his or her fat. Now, we see such figures on every block!
What has happened?
Quite simply: we eat too much. Period.
Now, why has this happened over the past 20 years?
A combination of the following:
1) Portion sizes in restaurants have ballooned. What used to be a “chicken plate” has morphed into a “chicken platter” – and there is enough food on it to feed a family of four for two days!
2) The easy availability of fast food. It all tastes so good, is easy to buy – and is loaded with fat and sugar.
3) ‘Supersizing’ has become the new “in” thing. And the result is “supersized people”!
4) Public schools have succumbed to serving fast food – MacDonalds in particular – for lunch. Thus our young are ‘hooked’ from an early age.
5) Exercise is rare for most people. And, with the more frenetic pace we all live in, it is even more difficult to find time to work out – and work “off” those lbs.
I have been dieting since 1970. I have tried every known diet as well as every gimmick, solution, pill and fad.
And I know the utter embarrassment of not even being able to look in a mirror or when walking past a glass storefront. You really get to hate what you look like.
OK. That’s where we are. Now, what to do?
As a lay expert on losing weight, I can sum it all up very simply:
1) The only thing that matters is the number of calories you eat per day.
2) What you eat is much less important than the amount of calories you consume per day.
3) So, to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you take in. Period. Simple, eh?
4) Do you realize that if you eat just one chocolate chip cookie (I could eat seven right now!) per day – at 100 calories per cookie – that in one year you will put on 10 pounds?
5) Exercise is valuable only as a way to burn more calories, thus adding to you “caloric deficit.” Plus, it just makes you feel better.
6) Those of us who love to work out also know another dirty little secret: you actually have less appetite when you are on an exercise program. Seems like it should be the other way around but it is not.
7) The other thing I’ve learned – and it’s awful sounding – is that you are going to be a little bit hungry a lot of the time. But when you’re hungry – and you don’t eat anything - you are burning that fat away.
To sum it all up: we as a nation have a Big problem. Sixty percent of the people are so Big they are now categorized as obese.
Putting that weight on is easy as pie (uh oh!)...OK, putting it on is a piece of cake (uh oh again!).
But getting it off is much, much tougher.
No wonder so many people try gimmicks and pills and solutions to drink before bedtime that supposedly allow you to eat “all you want.” None of them are the right way to proceed.
The only way is to count those calories, cut them down bit by bit – and for the rest of your life dedicate yourself to less food going into our mouths.
The hardest part is getting started. Once you get going it is not so bad. And then when you start to see results, everything seems better.
America is fat - period. And we need to go on a diet.
