America the fat?

It is no secret that America is the earth's most obese large nation. I used the adjective "large" because there are smaller, homogeneous countries where obesity is more of a problem (Samoa, for example). All one need do to verify this fact is to observe persons where one works, travels or spends much of his or her day. Obesity in the U.S. is a national health crisis, and for many a personal crisis as obesity affects every aspect of our physical and mental lives.

Obesity is defined as a Body mass Index (BMI) of 20kg/sqm or greater. The BMI is seriously flawed, I know (in college, at age 18, I had a BMI which labeled me as obese because of my muscular structure, even though I had a measured body fat of only 4% and wrestled competitively) but the BMI is what our country uses so we have to deal with it for now. A BMI which registers 20kg per square meter puts a person at serious risk for quite a number of mental and physical problems. Hypertension, diabetes, gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis, and sleep apnea are just a few of health problems you will suffer if you are morbidly obese.

In the U.S., the diet and supplement industry is a growing, multi-billion dollar industry which purports to help persons lose excess weight. Some programs such as weight watchers and Jenny Craig have some verifiable success, but these programs are fairly restrictive and can be expensive.

Science has experimentally determined that obesity causes major health problems, and yet more and more Americans are becoming obese, why is this?

Recently, I was in China and was given the answer by a Chinese man. He asked me if I wanted to know why Americans were "so fat". Curious, I said "yes". He said simply, "You eat too much".

Could this be true? Could the American obesity epidemic be due simply to volume? Well, it turns out that it can and indeed may be. Dr. Andrew Chung of Atlanta conducted research related to obese cardiology patients in his practice. He found that most persons in his study consumed between 3 and 11 pounds of food per day. Very few modern humans require this much food for survival (the only exceptions being extreme athletes). Dr. Chung discovered that climbers of Mt. Everest required only 2 pounds of nutrition per day during their climb which required constant effort and struggle. Reasoning that the average American doesn't expend even a fraction of the energy of an Everest climber, he designed a diet which he calls the 2pdOMER diet. Basically, this diet restricts a persons food intake to 2 pounds or less per day.

Can this really work, and is weight maintenance really this simple?

I think it might be. While I always lose weight when I travel to wierd places in the world, (often because of illness) I almost always gain it back within 2 weeks of returning to the U.S. However, after the rebuke of the Chinese man, I decided to try Dr. Chung's program for myself. The results? Not only have I not gained back the weight I lost in China, I have lost additional weight and am looking forward to reducing the size of my clothing for the first time in 10 years.

What I discovered in China was that I didn't need huge amounts of food. Even Chinese athletes I met didn't consume nearly as much as I had normally consumed in the course of a day.

In conclusion, if you are struggling with weight, here's some food for thought.
To see what being overweight is doing to you physiologically, go here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?highlight=obesity&rid=obesity.section.136

Dr. Chung's website can be viewed from the link at the top of the page.

Buy a cheap food scale and try limiting your entire food intake to 2 pounds per day. You'll discover some strange things. One, you'll find that you won't be able to eat much fast food. A whataburger with cheese weighs in at 1.6 pounds. Add fries and you are pretty close to using up all of your available food mass for an entire day.

Will you be hungry? Yes. For the first few days, you will experience hunger, but being hungry for a bit isn't going to kill anyone and will in fact be a benefit to you. Then, as your body adjusts to eating less, the hunger pangs will decrease and will eventually go away.

As an individual and as a nation we must decide to do what is right. All of the information in the world won't do a bit of good if we ignore it. If you are struggling with weight, here is some information - now it is up to you to take action.

Blessings,

Jeff Cokenour