Problem:

The United States of America ranks as having one of the highest percentages for obesity for countries that participate in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) - PDF. WrongDiagnosis.com has 57%, or 39.8 million, of Americans being obese. Those numbers are slightly different then the OECD statistics, but in either case, the United States is filled with ALOT of overweight individuals.

Our country also has a problem. Blame it on freedom, but advertisers, marketers, and health related companies are so greedy for power and money, they are willing to put the health (how ironic) of people at risk for their potential wealth.

Where am I heading with this? Pills and medication. We have become a nation solely dependent on doctors prescriptions, weight loss miracle pills, and hundreds of different exercise utilities that supposedly make us thinner, healthier, and sexier.

Here is the problem. For MOST people, not all, a standard diet and a solid exercise regime are completely sufficient to get the results you need. What upsets me more then anything are these pills that claim you can eat WHATEVER you want, but you won’t gain a pound because whatever is in the pill will essentially strip all the “bad” stuff in the food prior to it soaking into your system. So, in a nutshell, if you want a big medium rare juicy cheese burger with a side of onion rings, they are saying, “knock yourself out, you can actually LOSE weight and still eat the bad stuff”.

Answer

For a good chunk of the population struggling with obesity, a lot of it comes down to will power. A lot of these individuals don't have the time, don’t make the time, don’t try hard enough, or don’t care. If you match any of this criteria, chances are, you are obese and probably won’t improve unless you change your thinking habits.

If you are obese, ask yourself these questions:

What kind of foods do you eat?
How often do you eat fast food?
Do you drink sodas?
Do you exercise at all?
Do you drink alcohol?
Do you smoke?
The list could go on and on, but, at least it's a place to start.

I realize there are certain segments of the population that happen to have a higher metabolism rate then others, hence you see certain people eating horrible food yet not gaining a pound. Whereas, another segment of the population drinks several diet cokes, and they gain 1 pound. Life isn’t fair, and if you don’t realize that, you should wake up and smell the coffee (eh, actually, give that up if you drink it).

Coffee leads me to the next section, what to remove from your system if you REALLY would like to see some weight improvements.

Give up these items for your health

Coffee - yes, I know its hard. , but what's more important, spending time with your family or spending some time in a coffin?horrible analogy, my apologies

Soda’s - yep, again, the sugar content in these drinks is off the charts and all that sugar and acid has absolutely 0% health benefits whatsoever

Alcohol - This should more or less be a ‘duh’ moment. The occasional glass of wine is supposedly good for your heart, but I say remove it all together

Fast Food - Remove as much of this from your diet as possible. If you can’t (which I agree it's damn hard), find healthier alternatives at Steak N’ Shake, Burger King, McDonalds, etc.

Smoking - cigarettes have absolutely no health benefit, plus, they kill you. The idea behind getting in shape and losing weight is improving your health, and cigarettes are a detriment to your health period.

If you currently do any of the above items on a consistent basis, then removing those alone is beating half the battle. The biggest issue to losing weight is diet. Exercise is great for you, but shedding the unwanted pounds can be accomplished via a healthy eating habit.

Getting back into the topic of pills. Technology is a wonderful thing. I am all for improving our quality of life if we do things that will cost less, take less time, and produce high results. Problem, though, is that there are certain things in our society that are handled more efficiently with good old hard work and will power.

Media and the Health Market

The media is evil. Ok, sorry, that was a little harsh. The media is a good chunk of the reason we, as a society, are failing ourselves and our children when it comes to health. There is SO much quality info floating around, but advertisers and the media just don’t know how/won’t allow the public to view it the information for how it should, and that is straight up.

Every day and night when you turn on the television, there is an ad for the latest diet pill, the latest Bow-Flex machine, the latest abdominal exercise, Tai-bo, and more. The problem is that the media tries to latch onto the naive consumer market because of the money involved. The more home gym setups that are sold, the more Bow-Flex or whoever makes. Sure, getting a gym that can do 1,001 exercises in the space of 6 feet is awesome, but typically your workouts will not be as efficient if you choose your home gym versus a place that has free weights and setups that allow for greater resistance and movement.

If you are serious about losing weight, you need to eliminate many items from your standard routine everyday (again, check my list above). You also need to incorporate some basic exercise into your daily programs. Whether it's every other day, or 2 times a week, you should be getting a minimum of 30 minutes of cardio during your workout times. You know that commercial that is on right now, or was on 3 minutes ago, 10 minutes ago, 1 hour ago…the one promoting the latest diet pill. Well, news flash, that pill itself won’t cause you to have 6-pack abs, lean muscle, giant pecks, or a firm butt. They often keep the “We recommend a healthy exercise routine in association to this pill” message in very small fine print. The pill will not make you sexy. The pill will not make you run 10 miles a day. Pills are developed for diet hoppers, and diet hopping is probably the #1 health NO NO.

The only way to get in shape is to put in the work. For ANYONE, the first 2 weeks of working out sucks, plain and simple. As long as you can fall into a solid routine and one you can’t fall out of, you are winning the battle.

Important!

Results take time. The human body was not designed to lose massive amounts of weight in short periods of time. Any diet promoting a loss of 10 pounds in a week should be removed from the media. That is not healthy. If you are considering taking the ‘eating less’ route, like eating 600 calories a day, then you are doing some horrible things to your body. Your body requires calories, carbohydrates, water, etc… to function, for your organs to work, for your blood to flow, etc… When you “starve” your body just to lose weight, you are doing a lot more then shedding pounds, you are possibly setting your body up for shock and possible organ failure. I know it's scary, but it's true. The organs and heart are meant for changes to happen slowly, over time. You put more stress and strain on all aspects of your body when you go through a rapid loss of weight. Our nervous systems only let us know 10% of the time when there is pain in our body. Did you know this? So, if someone steps on your toe, a signal shoots from your toe to your brain saying, “Uh oh, something isn’t right”. Then, that signal from your brain pings back to your toe, starts the throbbing, starts the swelling, and sure enough, your brain is told, “Ouch, I hurt”.

Well, you can do ALOT of damage to your body, and you won’t even know it because “it doesn’t hurt”.

Most people can lose weight safely and properly with a healthy diet and exercise. There are many people with genetic orders and that is a completely different topic. If you are overweight, you need to reassess your health goals, what can be changed now, and why you want to change it.

Most people KNOW what they need to do, they just lack the willpower to accomplish it. Set your goals at a realistic level. Set mini goals. Example: Let's say you smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day. For the next 2 weeks, cut down to 1 pack per day. Then, go 2 more weeks at 1/2 a pack per day. Work on mini goals so you can realistically accomplish them. If they are unrealistic (many goals in life are), then you can become discouraged much quicker and give up all together.

In Summary

In summary, if you want to be successful in losing weight, do the following (for precaution, always consult your physician prior to rapidly changing anything health related):

Throw away all those diet pills

Give up/limit a lot of the bad attributes in your life (cigarettes, alcohol, fast food, sodas)
Startup a basic exercise program allowing yourself to have 30 minutes minimum of cardiovascular exercise
Set mini goals for yourself and rewarding yourself each time you reach a mini goal, but reward yourself in a positive healthy way. If you give up 1 pack of cigarettes for 2 weeks, don’t celebrate by going out with your buddies drinking. That's ignorant.
Have will power. Be strong and meet your mini goals. Doing this will continue to boost your confidence and will power.