Essay

The weighting game

By David Parmer

"You think I need to lose some weight?"(Forest Whitaker to Paul Newman in "Hustler II")

It seems we all ask ourselves that question from time to time. And these days, for most people, the answer seems to be "yes." The media is rarely without a weight loss-related story. Weight loss and overweight is right up there with global warming

Most of us tend to think of being overweight as an aesthetic issue: We want to look good. But there is a significant health issue behind the question of body weight. Those who are overweight are at greater risk of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and even cancer.

The market is flooded with books, CDs, diet foods and exercise equipment to combat the problem. And to top it off there is a lot of misinformation floating around

Perhaps the most radical way to deal with serious overweight is surgery. There are also drugs to block fat absorption and reduce appetite. These are generally used by doctors for seriously obese people.

For the non-obese person, it usually comes down to diet and exercise. When we hear the word "diet" we often think of weight loss, but strictly speaking, "diet" means everything we eat. We can say "the Japanese diet," or "the American diet," meaning the traditional foods of those countries. What we are really talking about is a "weight-loss" diet, or a "weight-control" diet.

The basic theory of weight loss/gain is the caloric one. The calories we use are like a bank account: Generally, the active man burns around 2,000 calories a day, and a woman 1,500. If we take in more calories, they are stored as fat. If we use more calories than we take in, i.e., create a deficit, we lose fat. If we exercise we burn more calories

In addition, the foods we eat are divided into fats, carbohydrates and protein. Many of the "fad" diets emphasize one type of food, i.e. high protein, low carbohydrate or low fat. All of these are an effort to influence the caloric deficit. And each diet claims to be both safe and effective.

As for exercise, most of us know it is good for us, and not just for cosmetic or weight-loss reasons, but for life enhancement and life enrichment. But many people dislike, no, despise exercise. You can't blame them. Most of their experience with exercise comes from school, where they were forced to do boring and sometimes painful exercise. Even in later life, they have no understanding of exercise. Usually they start an exercise program, do too much in the beginning and quickly give up.

So what is to be done? Weight control really has to be a long-term project. It has to be tied in to the way we live our lives. If we do a radical makeover, do a "crash" diet and exercise program, and then return to a diet of junk food and colas and inactivity, it is meaningless

The first thing is to get the information you need, plan a program, and then go on the program for the long term. It might be that to change your weight you have to change your life. Or it might be that changing your weight is the most important thing you can do for your life.

Yes, Forest, you could afford to lose a few kilos.

Shukan ST: June 8, 2007

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