Weighty Matters

[Guest guest]

Got this from another list this morning - be sure to read to the end.

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Weighty Matters

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/10/sunday/main665725.shtml

It's a new year, which means dieting seems to be on everyone's plate.

For many of us, says on CBS News Sunday Morning, losing weight

is the same resolution we made last year.

And no wonder.

You've heard the numbers – 64 percent of adults in this country are either

obese or overweight. That's about 175 million people.

We're fat, and getting fatter every year. The average American adult today

is seven to ten pounds heavier than in 1990, tipping the scales at 180

pounds for a 5 foot 9 inch man and 154 pounds for a 5 foot 4 inch woman.

Even President Bush, one of the fittest presidents ever to jog around the

White House, has been informed by his doctors that he's a little chunky.

After his annual physical, Mr. Bush said, " My New Year's resolution has

become apparent after getting on the scales. "

But if the president turns to one of the popular diets for help, the odds

he'll lose weight and keep it off are -- slim.

A report out Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association

showed that, while most diets can be moderately successful if followed for a

year, hardly anyone does: Fully 75 percent of people who start a diet give

up, long before a year is up.

And so, while the latest fad might tantalize you with visions of looking

like a model, most of us, no matter how hard we try, or how much we spend,

still look like, well, not a model, to be sure.

Perhaps no one knows the truth behind the fiction of those images better

than model Alt. In the 1980s, and her supermodel sister,

Carol Alt, had the look most women could only dream about: very slim.

But for and, she says, the public, that perfection was an

illusion. " I remember one time, " she told , " going about ten days

without eating. I lived on flavored seltzer water. "

When she was a size 4, Alt says, " I felt very tired. I was very

crabby. My family had a nickname for me I can't repeat on TV. It rhymes with

'witch,' " she laughed. " I was tired, I was irritable. I was hungry all the

time. I was very, very unhappy. "

Alt stopped starving herself, went from a size 4 to a size 14, and

began a second career -- as a " plus-size model. "

And says she's happy and healthy now.

Americans, she believes, aren't failing their diets -- diets are failing

America: " It's a moneymaker. They prey on our desire to be something that we

will never be. …And even if we lose 40 or 50 pounds and get down to the size

we've always wanted to be, the odds of us staying at that size are so

remote. Because once you get off that diet and start eating like a normal

person, you are going to gain weight back. "

Still, notes , no matter what size we are, at some point, many of us

look at ourselves and think, man, I really could stand to lose a few pounds.

But with evidence mounting that most popular diets just don't work in the

long run, a growing number of Americans, tired of obsessing over the few

pounds they never seem to lose, are taking a radical new approach: They're

mad as hell, and they're just not going to diet anymore. "

" The word 'fat' to me is not a dirty word, " says Shanker, author of

" The Fat Girl's Guide to Life. " " I love the word 'fat.' "

So, asks , " I can call you fat, and you're fine with that? "

" Well, I am fat! " laughs Shanker. " I would like to be able to use the word

'fat' just like you use the word 'thin.' Thin means not a lot of fat on the

body. Fat means a lot of fat on the body. "

Shanker, says , is a pioneer of sorts. She's fat -- and happy.

That may sound insensitive, observes, " but I assure you she doesn't

mind. She uses the 'F' word herself – proudly, in the title of her book. "

" I wrote this book, " Shanker says, " because I had to. Because I was so

angry, and because I felt it was so important for people to hear the message

that I was finally hearing for myself. When all you hear in your life is

that you're not okay, and that you're ugly and you're lazy and you don't

work hard enough, you don't care much, and you could be better, then for

somebody to say, 'No, you're good. You're good!' is radical. "

What's radical is her conviction that for most people, diets are doomed from

the start, because they're rooted in denial. " That's like, Biblical. That's,

'Hey, Eve, don't eat that apple,' " Shanker laughs. " It's the first diet in

history, by the way. …(it wasn't) too successful. It's led to some

problems. "

Her book, which preaches living an active, healthy, though not necessarily

" and thin " lifestyle, hs struck a chord.

Shanker says she's gotten hundreds of letters and e-mails: " They're just so

incredibly moving. A woman said to me, 'My self-image is not perfect. But

now, when I look in the mirror or think something self-loathing, there's a

little in me that tells me enough of that. You are fine the way you

are. Thanks for being the angel on my shoulder. We have much better things

to do than worry about our abs. Let's change the world.' "

And, reports , Shanker's not alone.

Glenn Gaesser of the University of Virginia urges, " Don't diet. Really:

Don't diet. This has been proved time and time again, that it's just not

successful in the long term. If diets were successful, we wouldn't need to

make New Year's resolutions every single year. "

Gaesser is an exercise physiologist and author of " Big Fat Lies: The Truth

about Your Weight and Your Health. "

" The biggest (lie), " he says, " is this notion that we have to be thin to be

healthy. It's just not true. Healthy bodies come in all shape and sizes. "

With abundant proof that, as the diet industry grows, so does our nation's

waistline, Gaesser says it's obvious that it's time to stop thinking pounds

and concentrate on fitness.

" Take a fat person with health problems, " Gaesser advocates, " and put them

on a lifestyle program that involves, let's say, some brisk walking,

moderate intensity activity, clean up their diet, add more fruits,

vegetables, whole grains and so forth; reduce a lot of saturated fat and

junk food, and you will find, in a very short time, typically in a matter of

weeks, their health's greatly improved. …yet, they still remain, by

definition, overweight or obese. …It's easier to get a fat person fit than

it is to get a fat person thin. "

But before you throw your diet out the window, says Alt, remember:

There's no free lunch, and the " no diet " approach isn't a license to binge:

" Let's be realistic here. If you have health problems and your doctor says

you need to lose weight, then let's listen to what the doctor says. But if

you're healthy, and somebody else is saying to you, 'You know, you got a

pretty face. If you lost ten pounds…,' but you're happy with yourself and

you have a healthy attitude, forget about what that person says. You know?

Just live your life and don't let weight become such an obsession. "

Most of all, say the Alts and Shankers and Gaessers of the world, we need to

adopt a new approach to weight and fitness: one that isn't about denial, but

instead is a gift -- to yourself -- one that can last a lifetime.