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EXPLORING WEIGHT CONTROL

Susan has always been preoccupied with her weight. As far back as she can remember, she was too fat. For years she considered it purely a genetic problem. After all, her father is obese and her mother is stocky. She thinks perhaps the cards are stacked against her. As an adult, she has tried every diet described in Good Housekeeping, Redbook, or that appeared on the best-seller list. Perhaps there is nothing she can do about it. According to the literature, diets don't work and she hates to exercise. Why diet for a lifetime when you need to lose only 8 to 10 pounds?
Is there any hope for women and men like Susan? This chapter provides the answers to these and other questions about weight control.
During the late 19th century in the United States, human muscle power provided 33 percent of the energy needed to run the farms, homes, and factories. Today, muscular effort contributes only 0.05 percent of the energy. Most people in the United States work in office-bound, service-oriented jobs and use business machines, pens, and pencils to accomplish their tasks. The jobs we do and the types of energy needed for those jobs have changed over the past 100 years. The human body has remained the same, however, as we have become victims of a technology-oriented lifestyle. As a result, more and more Americans of all ages are overweight, 20% above their range on height-weight tables; overfat, more than 20% (men) or 25% (women) body fat; or obese, more than 25% (men) or 30% (women) body fat.
In 1995 it was revealed that the incidence of overfatness and obesity among those aged 6 to 17 doubled in the past 25 years; from 5 percent to 11 percent. A similar increase occurred among adults. A February 1996 Harris Poll of randomly selected adults indicated that 74 percent weighed above their recommended weight on the new Metropolitan Life tables. Data on overfatness and obesity using the percentage of body fat rather than weight charts reveal similar findings. The increased number of overfat children will result in a significantly higher number of overfat adults in the future. With each passing decade, the typical adult in the United States also accumulates additional pounds of excess fat and loses some lean muscle tissue until, by middle age, over 50 percent are overfat or obese.
At all ages we are growing several pounds heavier each decade. Although our average height is also increasing, the majority of this weight gain is fat, not muscle. This trend must be brought under control since obesity is associated with a number of disorders, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes, heart/lung difficulties, early heart attack, and numerous other chronic and degenerative diseases and disorders. The death rate for obese men between the ages of 15 and 69 is 50 percent higher than that of normal-weight persons and 30 percent higher than those classified as merely overweight. For every 10 percent a person is above normal weight, it is estimated that life span is decreased by one year. Unfortunately, the quality of life also declines dramatically in obese individuals.
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