It’s been a long frustrating and exhausting day at work.
It’s around 8 p.m. and I head home.
On the way home I decide I am too tired to
cook dinner.
I pull into one of the two McDonald’s
on my route home and order a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, French fries, and a
Sweet Tea – the drink preference assumes you live in the southern U.S. and
ingest it before I get home.
I don’t take time to think about the 900 calories I just
consumed. The way I feel based on my day
at work is that I don’t really care much about calorie intake at that moment. The recommended intake of calories for the
average person is 2,000 per day. Let’s hope
the breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day tallied to less than 1,100
calories, because it makes me even more tired just thinking about exercising to
burn off anything over 2k calories.
The Quarter Pounder at McDonald’s made its debut on the
national menu in 1973. It was a super-sized
4 oz. pre-cooked beef patty compared to the 1.2 oz. single hamburger beef patty. I guess I can take comfort knowing it is not
a true quarter pound burger after it is cooked and the grease is drained. Because
it is less than a half or a whole our psyche tends to ignore the relevance of
its size. The amount of food became noticeable when a super-sized option began. McDonald’s ended its super-sized fries and
drinks in 2004 in response to a movie that demonstrated a diet of McDonald’s
meals was not a healthy choice and larger portions contributed to increased
girth. We become what we eat.
Moving past McDonald’s.
Think about the last time you went to a restaurant. What did you order? How big was the plate that your food was
on? Even a salad can be enormous. Were you able to eat it all? Did you request a “doggie bag” to go?
Lessons in my early years taught me not to be wasteful, so I
belong to the clean plate club. Based
on my observations where people eat, it seems there are less and less people
belonging to this club. To belong to this club, you must eat everything on the
plate…unless it’s green peas J. Because I feel
I am compelled to eat it all, I do not often eat out because of the portion
sizes. I can’t afford a new wardrobe
with a new waist size.
For most of us, there is the magic age somewhere between 35
and 45, when our metabolism shifts into the lower gears, and the pounds pile on
which requires much more effort to trim it off.
I have access to a gym, exercise equipment and exercise DVD’s that can
help me keep fit. Truth is, I am very
inconsistent about using any or all of those things. I used to be able to cut weight quickly to
stay in my weight class when I boxed many years ago. I once could eat what I wanted, as much as I
wanted, and not be concerned about packing on the pounds. These days, nagging back aches and
deteriorating painful knee joints are not real motivating factors to push
myself to fitness. And, the diets I
embark on might last a week at best. It’s
really hard for me to say no to a couple of donuts when someone else brings
them to the office. My love for donuts
goes back to when I was a young lad and ate a baker’s dozen in one sitting after
church and this feat was acknowledged in the next Sunday sermon. You can imagine how embarrassed my folks
were. I strike it up to belonging to the
clean plate club J. Some people concede at some point that it is
an impossible task to lessen the load we carry, so the spare tire and love
handles become a permanent personal accessory. I am not quite of that mindset, yet.
I recently attended a conference on obesity. Medical experts in the field advised that the current generation may be the
first generation in our history who will not outlive the prior generation in
regard to years lived. Scary
stuff. The primary reason is due to the
current rate of child obesity and the subsequent medical conditions that are
associated with obesity.
Obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater
than 30. The “normal range” for the average person is 19.5 -24.9 BMI. Between 25 and 29.9 BMI is considered
overweight. BMI is considered to be a
better predictor than what scale says, because it factors in weight and
height. My gauge is the mirror, and it’s
not a pretty sight.
In 1980, less than
the 10% of the adult population were obese.
In 1995, less than 15% of adults were obese. In 2010, 35.7% of adults are considered
obese.
In 1990 the average male weighed 176 and the average female
weighed 140. In 2010, the average male
and female were both 20 pounds more than they were in 1990. A survey was done in both periods asking
people whether they saw themselves as being overweight. The perceptions for both time periods were
not significantly different, which indicates we haven’t noticed we are getting
bigger over the past 20 years. I guess
if I am bigger today than I was 20 years ago (which I am), and so is everyone
else, then in a relative sense nothing has really changed when I compare my
body size to someone else.
How did we get here?
For starters, we are taking in, on average, 300 more calories per day than
we did in 1985…super-sized portions. Other contributing reasons include:
- Lack of sleep allows us to store fat more efficiently. And it is harder to exercise when we are tired.
- Stress may cause our bodies to release hormones that store
more abdominal fat and slow down our metabolism, as well as create a
desire for high-carbohydrate foods due to their effect on increasing
serotonin.
- Medications. People being treated with drugs to control depression, mood disorders,
seizures, migraines, blood pressure and diabetes, among other medical
conditions, have reported weight gain. The same goes for people taking
steroids, hormone replacement therapy and oral contraceptives. The effects
have been attributed to an increase in appetite, alteration in fat storage
and changes in insulin levels, all leading to people eating more.
- Medical conditions: People with certain medical
conditions such as hypothyroidism or Cushing’s syndrome tend to gain
weight with the increase in cortical production. These maladies cause a
decrease in metabolism and generalized fatigue, leading to our bodies
using fewer calories from the food we eat.
Genetics have a role in the shape of our bodies, but it is the
environmental and external factors that have the most impact in molding
that shape.
- Hormonal issues: Menopause in women and the
yet-to-be-officially-recognized andropause in men are blamed for weight
problems. We tend to become less active, have a slower metabolism, poorer
sleep and increased rates of depression, all of which affect the amount of
food we are eating.
- When and where we eat: Skipping meals (usually
breakfast), having too many snacks, eating out frequently or eating late
at night have all been implicated in causing weight gain. Eating while
watching TV, sitting at the computer, while reading or in the car can all
contribute to weight gain due to how this mindless eating adds so many
calories to our bottom line.
- Lack
of physical activity. Children
are getting less physical activity in school, which carries over to after
school. Addiction to video games
and social media contribute to sedentary lifestyles.
- Fatty foods, Processed foods and Additives: The easy availability of high-calorie dense processed foods, the
excessive use of artificial sweeteners, high-fructose corn syrup, MSG and
other food additives have all been related to weight gain. Most North Americans consume at
least 37 percent of their calories from fat (usually the wrong kind
of fat such as animal fat and refined vegetable oils). This is way more
than our bodies can handle. If you
have a diet that is too high in fat, it puts you at risk for obesity,
adult onset diabetes, certain cancers, and arteriosclerosis (hardening and
plugging up of the arteries). One
additive we often overlook is synthetic hormonal steroids given to animals
that end up on our table and to cattle producing milk. Synthetic hormones act as toxins in the
body and can be difficult to get out of your system. One of the main side
effects of synthetic hormones is WEIGHT GAIN, especially around the
abdomen, hips and thighs.
- Emotional issues: The term “emotional eater” has
almost become a cultural phenomenon, seemingly spreading like a virus.
- Our metabolism: Do you have a faulty metabolism
from repetitive dieting or your yo-yoing weight due to too much fasting
and feasting over the years?
The magical formula, so I am told, is to manage the portion
size of your meals (downsize), regularly incorporate food into your diet that
is close to its natural state (organic, fresh veggies and fruit), limit
processed food to a minimum, exercise at least 3x a week for more than an hour
each session and reduce high carb and sugar intake.
Sounds easy enough, right?
The problem with that is many fold. Poorer people have more of a challenge eating
healthy which contributes to managing their weight. The reality is that it costs more to eat
healthy, unless you eat out a lot, and that can be pricy and often not a good
choice on several levels. Added to that,
we are creatures of habit. In general,
we seek pleasure over pain, and food tends to bring us so much pleasure. So many times the least healthy foods (pastries,
pizza, ice cream, Quarter Pounders with Cheese, etc.) are those we interact
with the most because frankly they just taste the best and satiate our
craving(s). It also is difficult to
break away from cultural influences in regard to food. Many foods in the South are fried…they even
fry vegetables – fried okra, fried green tomatoes, etc. Lard and grease galore, but it sure does
taste good when it hits that palate.
And, it goes without saying, outside of Texas, barbeque is all about
pork…and too much pork makes up portly.
Another reality I recently learned is that a large number
people who live in rural areas in South Carolina and are at or below the
national poverty level do not have a full-service grocery store in their
community that provides fresh produce or meat.
Thus, their choice is limited to largely processed foods. Processed foods are less expensive. For example, Raman noodles have little nutritional
value and are loaded with lots of saturated fat and sodium, but it is simple to
prepare, can satisfy hunger and can be gotten at a low price. A handful of fresh peaches, especially when
out of season, are more expensive than the nicely packaged single serving fruit
cups that have the diced peaches swimming in high fructose corn syrup. And, organic products are almost always more
expensive than non-organic foods.
In these same communities, it has been reported that some individuals who were walking or riding bikes
on the side of the road for exercise were struck by vehicles. They used the roads for their exercise because
their town had no sidewalks. These realities
are not an excuse for obesity, but I understand better how a person can get
there.
At the end of the day in order to lose weight you have to expend
more calories than you take in. That
requires a commitment to: 1) change eating habits, 2) make better nutritional and
smarter food choices, 3) start and sustain a consistent exercise regimen, and 4)
say no to that Quarter Pounder and those super-sized portions.
Am I willing to sacrifice my inner desire to eat a couple
donuts the next time they arrive in the break room? Am I willing to reprogram my brain to realize
that I don’t need to super-size my hamburger, when a smaller patty will be
enough? Am I willing to ask for a “doggie
bag” in the restaurant? Am I willing to
say no to the stuff that tastes so good, but is killing me, literally and
figuratively? Am I willing to make time
to exercise regularly? It comes down to
- how bad do I want to lose that weight and those personal physical accessories
I have acquired? I figure, if the folks
on the Biggest Loser can do it, so can I.
