by Mike Whitman
Look, at some point we as Americans have to realize we are too damn fat. Like fat fat. I mean really fucking fat. According to the CDC 20.6% of 12 – 19 year olds are obese. That is one out of five! Don’t worry it only gets better, 39.6% of adults suffer from obesity, which is basically two out of five! We are fucking fat.
Now, before we get going, I will acknowledge that just using the BMI scale is flawed. If you are 5’ 8” 200 pounds and 13% body fat you will still be considered obese by the BMI scale, when clearly you aren’t and you just carry a lot of muscle mass. The BMI system is flawed, but let’s not pretend like we have 130+ million people who just happen to be really stacked in the US and that is why our rates are so high.
Why are we so damn fat? Well there are a lot of reasons but I am going to focus on 3.
- We consume too much. Flat out, we eat too much food. We also eat a lot of sugar and a lot of fat, but without doing a deep dive on sugar, we eat too much food. Have you ever worked around people who basically plan their entire day around when they are going to eat next, or from the moment they get to work are already talking about the cheesesteak they want for lunch? Yeah, that is a problem. I promise you, we could eat a whole lot less. I challenge anyone to count all of the calories they consume. I mean measure your food, every serving, track it for a few weeks and see what your intake is. I promise you the moment you start doing this you will automatically eat less because people don’t even realize how much they eat. Another trick is to eat until you aren’t hungry, don’t eat until you’re full. There isn’t an award for finishing your plate the fastest unless your name is Joey Chestnut, and no one is taking that debaucherous crown.
- We need to learn how to cook. Seriously, it isn’t that hard. The concept of applying heat to food via heat source not called a microwave is critical to your health, and it was critical to the evolution of our species. If some dipshit in a cave could make a fire and cook a leg of some extinct animal on a stick, you can use an oven or a stove. Ya ever sit back and watch a cooking show and see how much butter and salt they use? I would happily wager (unless you are a chef) that you have never used that amount of salt, butter, and oil when you cooked your own food. Butter makes things taste delicious, I get it, trust me I do, and I LOVE a good meal as much as the next person, but when you only eat food cooked by other people you are flooding your body with levels of fat, salt, and sugar that you would never personally use. Cooking your own food will automatically cut down on calories, and overall unhealthy shit you put into your body. You can even cook vegetables, in fact you don’t even need to cook most salads, ya sorta just throw that shit in a bowl add some oil, vinegar, black pepper and call it a day.
- We need to move more. We are inactive, we sit too long at work, we go home and sit down to eat shitty food, then we lay down to go to bed. If your only movement is getting out of bed to walk to your car to drive to work to walk to your desk, to walk to your car to drive to lunch, to walk back to your car to drive to work to sit at your desk, to walk to your car to drive back home to sit on the couch and watch TV, to walk to your bed and go to sleep, you are incredibly sedentary and massively out of shape. Unfortunately the scenario I laid out applies to a large percentage of our population. So what can you do to combat this? If you are completely sedentary then walking may be the first best step. Then walk farther, walk up stairs or go for hikes. Outside of that, going to the gym is always a good idea because you’re probably weak, move like shit, and could use professional help. Ironically I know a place where you could go…
It isn’t hard to lose weight and get in better shape, it just takes a conscious and consistent effort. If you watch what you eat, cook your own food, and are physically active you will improve your health. It isn’t rocket science it just means you have to invest in yourself, which is probably the best investment you can make. Let’s get less fat and a lot fitter.
P.S. We did an entire podcast with Katie Sampayo where we discussed diet, nutrition, working out and her best selling book Eat to Thrive: The Anti-Diet Cookbook which can be found here.https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Thrive-Anti-Diet-Katie-Sampayo-ebook/dp/B0722SDR66
– Mike