Americans

Obsession
With
Weight Loss

By

Jessica Talley
English 1010
Ron Christiansen

Are you that person who is obsessed with going to the gym or counting calories? Or do you go to
the store every time there is a new diet pill to try that promised you to shed 10 lbs. a week
without changing your life style? Do you sign up for the latest and greatest work out trend? If
you are you arent alone. Americans tend to go with the fads and what will get them losing
weight as quick as possible. Is that healthy for you though? What are all of these different trends
doing to your body?
Here are some signs that you are

obsessed with your weight: Over-

exercising, excessively restricting

and/or counting calories,

constantly weighing yourself,

having a warped image of your

body, or eating disorder. (Franco, Michael) Now dont get me wrong these arent bad for you to
do, it is when you do it to the extreme. Not allowing yourself to have one cookie due to the
calorie intake or only eating enough to not pass out while you are at the gym. Dont be afraid to
look in the mirror and appreciate your body for what it is.
Did you know that is 1990 the weight-loss business topped $32 billion dollars and today we are
reaching over $60 billion.( Goode pg.1) That has doubled in over 15 years!
Exercise
To lose weight all you have to do is exercise and the weight will just
come off. Heather Havrilesky wrote an article of Why Are Americans
So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?. It gives them that adrenaline high
that you dont get anywhere else, but when you are working out. Not at
work or when you are fighting with a spouse, but actually doing something that you have control
over and feeling good about it.(Havrilesky pg 3) With exercising it is abgreat thing for your body

but you need to make sure that you are also aware food you are in taking as well. According to
Harvard Heath you need to have a balance of exercising and how many calories to eat. For
example if you really want to eat that candy bar just know that it is going to take about 45
minutes to burn it off. So you can still eat what you want just know that you will need to exercise
more to not put that weight back on. (Harvard Health)
Pharmaceuticals
Is the best way to lose weight is with the latest

diet pills or with

medicines? Dr. Oz says, that injecting yourself

with ineffective

hormones is an even worse idea. hCG is a

hormone that is made

from a pregnants womens urine.. hCG was

started in the 1970s

where you only eat 500 calories a day for 6

weeks, during that

time you give yourself human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). That is supposed to suppress your
hunger pangs. (Deardorff) Compare diet pills or medicine to taking medicine for your high blood
pressure. Your blood pressure is only going to stay down while on the pills and then go high
again once you are off. The same goes for the diet pills, the weight is only going to stay off while
you are on the pills and not long term. ( Stern)
None of the Above
There are so many different things out there for people to try, South Beach Diet, Atkins, Weight
Watchers, Hydroxycut (any diet pill), Finfin (or the equivalent), even to the extreme of a K-E
diet which is where dieters insert a feeding tube into their nose that runs to the stomach (typically
for sick people who arent able to eat or struggle to eat). (Taylor) Not only that people now have

surgeries that you can pick from to help with the weight loss, for example: Gastric-Bypass and
Gastric Banding are some of the most popular.
Have you even though that the reason you are not able to lose weight was due to your genes?
Well guess what, it more than likely is. Some people arent born with the right things in their
body to break down gluten, sugars or to even tolerate milk. That then affects our metabolism and
makes it so we hold onto things rather than to dispose of them naturally. So if you are that person
who works out and eats correctly dont worry we can now test to see how your DNA is affecting
you. (McDonald)
How to Lose Weight Safely
It is the sugar in our diet that is making us fat! Laura Casey talks about which is better, Low Fat
or Low Carb? Interesting enough is that it isnt good to cut either of them out of your diet and
you should still eat both. Again it is a

matter of amount and

type of fat and carbs that you are

partaking of each day.

Where Casey says that we need to

really watch what we eat

in with our daily sugar intake. That is

where most people get

themselves in trouble. (Casey, page 1 and 2)

Most important for how to lose weight safely is, how you lose it, and your mentality. Make sure

you are eating balanced meals and

exercising frequently.

Hasselbring talks about how eating can

be a routine and so you

need to make sure you are prepared if

something throws you

off your plan, such as stress, family

changes or unexpected

emergencies at home or work. He also talks about having some form of coach that can help you
prepare or to talk to when you feel like you are slipping back into your old pattern of eating.
I read a book called Natural Thin when the author talks about not to deprive yourself from food
your body is craving. Your body is craving it for some reason. Not that doesnt mean you need to
eat the whole cake, but to take a small piece and eat it and wait 20 minutes and if your body is
still craving it then have another small piece. We tend to just eat out of habit and not for
functionality.
I personally believe that if we eat everything in moderation and exercise consistently you can
lose or maintain your body weight. However if you are that person that is doing all of that and
you are still struggling with losing weight, dont be afraid to reach out to a doctor and see which
surgery may be best for you. Or even have your blood work done to see if your body doesnt
handle certain types of food very well. Only you will truly know what will work for your body
and your genetics.
The county pushing skinny people in your face through magazines and movies and then we
vocally belittle someone who is bigger. As a county I feel like we need to teach everyone to be
health and because everyone is so different we will still have different sizes and shapes. It
doesnt mean they are fat and dont take care of themselves it just means for their body type that
is healthy for them. You just need to be happy the way you are. Just know that you are how God
made you.

Bibliography
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Havrilesky, Heather. "Why Are Americans So Fascinated With Extreme Fitness? The New York
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McDonald, Karl M. Can a DNA Test Really Help You Shed the Pounds? Health 2.0 News
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