Weight
Loss: Let's Get Real By Kevin Jones A
chance doctor's check-up and a sky-high blood pressure reading showed Kevin
Jones that weight loss is not a vanity issue but a matter of
life or death.  The
weight-loss industry throughout the Western world is positively obese
itself.
It's an unwieldy worldwide phenomenon
that feeds largely upon the vanity and insecurity of portly Westerners
who are made to feel that they are hopeless, fat failures with no
allure for the opposite sex. The glossy
magazine-driven obsession with the body beautiful, with Hollywood
glamour and with TV soap-star plastic perfection has spawned every type
of fad diet imaginable. The fact that some just
don't work - in fact, seem cynically designed to fail shortly after mug
punters have paid their money - only means that there are further
opportunities for new ones to spring up with an ever-widening circle of
unhappy fatties queueing up to try their luck. The
purpose of this article is not to further discredit an already tainted
industry. In fact, it is to promote weight loss - but not for the
popular reasons. Put bluntly, it is time for all us
sedentary chunks to get real. It's time to stop whingeing about how
imperfect we look and concentrate on, ahem, weightier matters.
The fact is that a lot of weight-loss programs and products
miss the point by wrapping their big sell around the body beautiful
myth. Take vanity and sexuality out of the
equation, because losing weight is downright good sense for your body
and mind and may even be a matter of life or death. Forget
your body shape; forget your appearance for a moment. It is irrelevant.
You may feel as ugly as a hatful of belly buttons but that should not
be your motivation. Weight loss is a good idea no
matter how you look because it will help keep you alive longer and in
better health. The human capacity for denial is
immense. It is only when confronted by in-your-face health issues that
many people stop and think about what they are doing to their bodies on
a daily basis. High-fat, low-fibre diets are the norm for Joe and Josie
Average in Australia when precisely the opposite is what we really
need. We also tend to wash our junk down with
copious sodas, beers, wines, spirits and sweetened hot drinks as we sit
on the couch watching the box. If you're lucky,
you may fluke an early-wake-up call. A timely doctor's check-up may
just alert you to the fact that your blood pressure has crept up and up
along with your weight and placed you in a high-risk category. You may
be lucky and be given enough advance warning to avoid a stroke
or heart disease or get an early
tip-off about diabetes. Then
again, you may not be so lucky. You may get your wake-up call when you
come round, flat on your back in a hospital bed with tubes hanging out
of you. If your family is really out of luck, you might not even wake
up in a hospital bed. One of the leading, largely
gimmick-free, weight-loss programs is provided by Meditrim in
Melbourne. Meditrim was asked by the Baker Medical Research Institute
(Alfred Hospital) to provide the weight loss program for a major heart
research study in 1996 and the results made illuminating reading.
As the weight came off, the study participants reported a 28
per cent improvement in the elasticity of the arteries (an important
indicator of heart health); a 17 per cent reduction in plasma
triglyceride levels; a 7 per cent reduction in blood pressure and a 12
per cent reduction in plasma cholesterol levels. More
than 60 per cent of Australian adult males are classed as being
overweight, if not obese. Programs like
'Gutbusters' were created with specific male weight-loss problems in
mind. Overweight men are among the most frustrating fatties as far as
nutritionists are concerned. A pot belly is
downright dangerous but is relatively easy to get rid of, should a man
decide the time is nigh. Fat stored around a man's waist is known to be
released into the bloodstream at a rate 4-7 times that of lower body
fat, which is more characteristic of females. The
higher release of fat into the bloodstream acts like mud in a hose,
according to Gutbuster research, leading to higher rates of heart
disease, late onset or type 2 diabetes, gallstones and some forms of
cancer. The truly hard part lies not in losing the belly, but in
getting a man to acknowledge the need to lose it in the first place.
Similarly, many overweight women may fret over cellulitic
thighs or less-than-flat stomachs. If they could get as worked up about
their risk of stroke, heart disease or diabetes, they may achieve more!
If step one is in getting real, step two should be setting up
a visit to your GP. Don't make the mistake of making step two a wander
through the Yellow Pages. You will find scores of weight-loss listings
but you will be at the mercy of the big sell. Your
doctor is (generally) not out to make money out of your weight loss. He
or she will just want what's best for you and will recommend the best
dietary approach for you and advise on the need for sensible exercise.
Note we didn't say "diet". We won't say "gym" or "aerobics"
either because no one faddish pursuit will take and keep weight off
you. Ask your doctor to put you in contact with
weight-loss professionals who work along educational lines. Education
is a key component because of our capacity for denial. While we don't
want to know the bad news about that tasty-looking burger and chips,
wouldn't it be easier to take than the ultimate bad news down the track?
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Note: the
author was given a blood pressure reading of 205 on 130 in June and
told that he was at considerable risk of heart disease and stroke.
Since then, he has lost around 12 kilograms and is aiming for more.
With medication and the weight loss, his hypertension is now being
controlled. | 
