Ways To Reduce

The toughest thing about reducing is sticking to it.

Since overeating is without doubt the major factor in overweight, the important question asked by many is why people overeat.

Dr. Irwin Ross offers the following reasons:

• Food is often a vicarious means of obtaining emotional satisfaction.
• Food may symbolize strength and security—being “big” or “bigger” than others can bring about a feeling of superiority.
• Food may symbolize hostility. Devouring a meal may very well be a substitution for “devouring” one’s minor enemies.
• Overeating may serve as a means of punishing oneself.

The above can be traced to psychological factors. Or food and the resulting obesity may represent an impregnable wall of defense.

To undertake a sound reducing program, Dr. Ross offers five ways:

• Discover why you are overeating.
• Give yourself a real motivation to reduce.
• Set up a reasonable goal in pounds.
• Realize that it is quite normal to break a diet.
• Choose a sensible diet.

The Ideal Weight. A good rule of thumb is that a desirable lifetime weight should be no more (or no less) than what you weighed at age 25. To be 20% heavier is definitely overweight; anything more than this is considered obesity.

Overweight results in high blood pressure, arterial disease, liver and kidney disease, varicose veins, chronic fatigue, and that Number One Killer, Heart Disease.

How Fat Can A Human Being Become? According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s fattest man was Robert Earl Hughes, who tipped the scales at 1,069 pounds. But he died young; he was buried in a piano case.