Fit in America: Coming to a town near you?

On any given day,

• nearly one out of two American women and one out of four American men are on a diet;
• over $50 billion is spent each year on dieting and diet-related products;
• four out of five 10-year-olds are worried about getting fat; and
• 33 percent of children are overweight.

Despite the attention and expense, we’re getting fatter. So what’s a country to do? Some countries have created their own solutions:

• Japan is measuring the waistlines of all citizens. Those who exceed the limit are required to attend classes and make healthy lifestyle changes.
• Mexico has introduced a national campaign to lose weight titled Vamos Por Un Million de Kilos, or Let’s Lose a Million Kilos.
• France has introduced a community-based initiative titled EPODE (Ensemble, Prēvenons l’Obésité Des Enfants, or Together, Let’s Prevent Obesity in Children). Successful in thinning children in the two pilot villages, the program has expanded to 113 villages.

Our national educational efforts, while laudable, are insufficient to trigger positive changes on a day-to-day basis. To trigger changes on a grand scale, we need a project far more imaginative than anything we’ve tried so far.

If we can harness our collective talent to put a man on the moon, surely we can direct our talents to create a fun-filled, dynamic U.S. fitness promotion campaign. If we can spend $700 billion to solve problems in the financial community, can’t we find a few million dollars to address a health concern that touches the lives of a majority of our citizens?

Let’s call the program Fit in America. Under this umbrella heading, leaders can organize group weight-loss programs that respond to the needs of each community. Fit in Atlanta can compete with Fit in Dallas. Fit in San Francisco can challenge Fit in Chicago.

Besides losing weight, we can also reinforce the sense of belonging. Being part of a larger effort will help rebuild the cohesiveness of the American people and shrink the gap resulting from the increasing polarization that has diminished our trust in one another.

Working together to lose weight and become fit, we will reaffirm that it is more fun to create than to tear down. We will discover that our differences are less important than our similarities are.

What do you think? Are you ready to bring Fit in America to a town near you?

"To pull together is to avoid being pulled apart" Bob Allisat

Does the calendar control your weight?

Who hasn't stepped on the scale on Monday morning after a weekend of splurging and resolved to shape up? To diet from this day forward until the surplus pounds are gone? And to exercise at least an hour a day?

By Tuesday, the resolve is weaker but the memory of the number on the scale is still fresh enough to ensure compliance, albeit unwilling. On Wednesday, the commitment to shape up and lose weight is hanging by a thread. Thursday is a “just get through it” kind of day.

Friday night signals the beginning of a three-day orgy that starts with relaxing drinks and food and is followed by more treats and delights on Saturday and Sunday. Then once again comes Monday's moment of truth, complete with regrets when the unhappy consequences of last week’s choices are reflected in the number on the scale.

What helped me escape the weekly cycle was taking a “no matter what” approach to my fitness commitment to myself. I resolved that whatever the day of the week or whatever events were swirling around me, I would keep my caloric intake in the range of 1,500—1,800 calories and exercise an hour each day. Unless I was sick or injured, there would be no exceptions. No days off. No matter what.

Just like I had my cup of coffee each morning and flossed my teeth each night, I would exercise and monitor what I ate each day.

Over time, this “no matter what” approach to eating and exercising has become part of my daily routine. Consequently, my habits, not the calendar, now dictate my behavior.

If you’re struggling to free yourself from repeated failure, consider experimenting with the “no matter what” approach. Building healthy habits into our daily lives is a task worth undertaking. Join me!

What can MacDonald's do for you?

First we heard about Jared and the Subway diet (Jared lost 245 pounds eating only at Subway), and now the McDonald’s diet is receiving attention. Chris Coleson, a 42-year-old Virginia resident, lost nearly 80 pounds eating two meals a day at McDonald’s for six months.

And Chris is not alone. Eating only at McDonald’s, Merab Morgan of North Carolina lost 30 pounds (10 pounds a month for three months).

These dieters aren’t the first to claim weight-loss success eating at McDonald’s. Previously, a New Hampshire woman lost more than 35 pounds on a diet based on McDonald’s fare, and Don Gorske, featured in Guinness World Records, has eaten over 19,000 Big Macs, yet he remains a slender 6-foot, 180-pound man.

For some of us, the idea of eating mounds of french fries and double cheeseburgers, topping that off with a McFlurry dessert and still losing weight is a dream come true. But the truth is that all of these dieters drastically reduced their calories by choosing salads, wraps, diet sodas and apple dippers without the caramel dip. The dieters also limited how often they ate and how much food they consumed.

Like Jared, Chris and the other McDonald’s dieters lost weight because they cut the number of calories consumed on a daily basis. Even on the reduced-calorie regimen, the dieters found eating strategies they enjoyed, so they were able to stick with their program. These successful weight-loss stories reaffirm the basic premise: if you consume fewer calories than you need, your body will burn stored fat to make up the difference, and you will lose weight.

Even if you’d never consider adopting the McDonald’s diet, Chris’s story still provides a lesson: to lose weight and sustain new habits, follow an ongoing eating regimen that you find pleasurable and satisfying. Depriving yourself of food you enjoy and forcing yourself to eat food you hate can easily send you into an attack of overeating and bingeing. To achieve your ideal weight, eat foods you like that provide nutrition and don’t pack on pounds. This way, you can continue your eating program indefinitely.

Whether the McDonald’s diet provides the necessary nutrients remains unclear. But even on a low-calorie eating regimen, you can consume the required nutrients if you eat a balanced diet.

The key to losing weight and maintaining your new weight does not involve where you eat, but what you eat. Don’t follow your inner sheep and adopt a regimen that for others. Instead, find the eating style that works for you and your body. Your goal is to achieve a healthy body weight and have fun achieving it.

"Things are only impossible until they are not." Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation