Calories We Consume: Don't Eat More Than You Can Burn

The simplest reason why we gain weight is that we consume more food, giving us
more calories, than we can use in one day. Anytime you eat anything your body
converts the food into sugars. This is something our bodies have learned to do over
the millions of years the human species has existed. Your body knows that it must
store excess 'energy' so if food is scarce the body can keep functioning. If, for
some reason, food is no longer available the body draws upon the resources of
sugar to provide fuel for our bodies. This meant that if a human had to continue to
hunt and forage for food their body would be able to perform everything they
asked of it.
The advantage our predecessors had over us is that they had to work very hard to
find food so that excess fat was burned off very rapidly. That meant that they didn't
experience the same problems with obesity that we do
Today, for most of us, food is readily available, so we can over eat and indulge
ourselves. This means that now we must find ways to burn off the extra calories to
allow us to maintain our weight. When we understand how the body stores and
burns fat we then have the tools to understand how not to gain weight. Our society
and our standard of living has made it too easy to eat too much, too often.

Why We Gain Weight

There are endless reasons why people gain weight. The reasons can range from
simply overeating and not getting enough exercise to burn off the calories from the
food to as complicated as being passed from one generation to the next genetically.
To have a true understanding of how a person will lose weight, you first have to
understand why you gain weight. Next I am going to describe some of the reasons
why people gain weight.

Overweight Versus Obese

I have been using the terms 'overweight' and 'obese' but I have not defined either
term. To clarify exactly the difference between the two here are the definitions I
will use:
Obese: doctors consider you obese if you are 20 to 30 percent over your 'ideal'
body weight
Overweight: doctors consider you overweight if your body mass index (BMI) is 25
or over. (Just to give you a point of reference that would mean you were 5 to 15
percent over your ideal body weight. OUCH!!)
If you would like to find out what your 'ideal' weight is here is a link that you will
find helpful:
http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/body.htm
Never lose sight of the fact that you are at a much higher risk of experiencing the
FATAL FOUR if you are just overweight. That fact alone should convince you
want to make the changes in your life to avoid that type of misery.
It is now time to take control of your life, to make the changes that allow you to
live a longer and healthier life.

Medical Fact:

In one study a group of people, 5881 to be exact, were monitored over a 14-year
period. The doctors were looking for a link between people being overweight and
heart failure. What the doctors discovered was if a person is just 'overweight', not
obese that person will have a 34% greater chance of experiencing heart failure.
The report was even more startling for an obese person. For those people who
were categorized as obese the risk of heart failure jumped to 104% versus someone
whose weight was in the 'normal' range.
Did that get your attention? I hope so.

Health Concerns

Most likely you are aware of the numerous problems to your health if you are
obese. If you are 20 lbs. overweight you can really begin to experience the ill
effects of being overweight.
The problems from being overweight can present themselves in many ways. That
nagging lower back pain is it from last night's pick-up basketball game or is your
back sore because your body is struggling to function with that additional 20 lbs.
Twenty pounds might not sound like much but grab four 5 lb. bags of potatoes and
carry them around for a few hours. I think at the end of that experiment you will
have a much greater appreciation for what your body has to deal with when you
gain weight.
When your weight reaches a certain level, when you pass being overweight and
become obese, you put enormous strain on all the parts of your body such as your
heart, your joints, your feet, your lungs.
Once you are overweight, you set yourself up for life threatening health problems
and diseases. You are now a candidate for the FATAL FOUR......stroke, heart
attack, high blood pressure, and diabetes. I'm sure you don’t want any of those in
your life, so commit right now that you will make the changes you need to make to
live a healthier and longer life.

Take a second to answer these questions, be honest so that the answers will help you.

 Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought you looked ugly?
 Are you comfortable with the body you see in the mirror?
 Are you worried about your partner’s opinion of your body?
 Do you find yourself thinking about what other people think about you when
they look at you?
If you answered 'yes' to any of those questions then it is very possible that your
weight is affecting how you perceive yourself and how you believe others may
perceive you. Life is very difficult when your physical appearance can exert such a
powerful influence. So, you have two choices:
1) Change
2) Live with it
If you picked #2 then you must also be prepared to live with the emotional
consequences of being overweight.
It is my hope that you chose the first option, that you want to change and in
another section of the article I will lay the ground work for you to do just that.

Physical Appearance

If people are honest they will tell you that they don't want to be fat. In our society
our appearance is a determining factor as to how we will be accepted by others,
which opportunities we will be offered and, most importantly, our self-esteem.
Self-esteem is a powerful force in our lives and it plays out in every aspect of our
day. If you believe that your body is not desirable then you can become depressed,
sad, and even develop depression. This depression or sadness can lead to the
development of binge or emotional eating. If that happens you enter a vicious cycle
of being depressed, eating to feel a sense of emotional contentment then getting
more depressed because of what you ate.
Doctors have been documenting the emotional toll of being obese. It has been
established that a person's sense of self-worth and emotional stability can be
destroyed when becoming obese. The emotional consequences of being obese over
a long period of time can be crushing and may require intense therapy from a
primary care physician and therapist.