Ted Broer - Maximum Fat Loss: You Dont Have a Weight Problem! Its Much Simpler Than That.

MAXIMUM
FAT LOSS

MAXIMUM
FAT LOSS

TED BROER

Copyright @ 2001 by Ted Broer

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Scripture quotations are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Broer, Ted.

Maximum fat loss : you dont have a weight problem! Its much simpler than that / Ted Broer.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-7852-6711-5

1. Weight loss. I. Title.

RM222.2.B7815 2001

613.7dc21

00-066839

CIP

Printed in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 BVG 05 04 03 02 01

CONTENTS

2 If Your Old Attitudes and Ideas
Havent Worked... Trade Them In!

Introduction
FAT... AND GETTING
FATTER AND SICKER

A mericans are the fattest people on earth. No nation on earth is more preoccupied with dieting than the United States. Even so, there are no people on earth who are as fat as we are.

A third of us are at least 20 percent overweight and about three-quarters of us are heavier than our optimal weight. Weve gained a whopping twelve pounds per person, on the average, in just the last decade.

At least thats what the statisticians tell us. I believe these figures are low. Just watch the people walk by on a beach or in a busy airport and mentally calculate the percentage of people who are carrying around excess fat. I think youll agree with me that the percentage is about 50 to 60 percent. Sadly, about a third of our children are also obese.

One of the amazing facts to me is that given the mass media onslaught against fat and the many exercise programs available to the public, we dont seem to care that we are fat. At least we dont seem to care enough to do anything about it. All around me I see signs that people celebrate the fact that they are overweight, declaring that big is beautiful and advocating fat acceptance. Theres even a National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance, which declares that an obsession with thinness is basically a prejudice against fat people.

The science of weight management, however, says otherwise. Obesity is a serious physical ailment.

In my work with thousands of clients through the years, helping them to implement health and fitness programs, I have found that few people really know just how harmful their excess fat can be. Let me share with you some scientifically based facts.

OBESITY LEADS TO SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEMS

Obese people tend to develop cancer more than lean people. The American Cancer Society has published a study in which they found cancer deaths overall were 33 percent higher for men and 53 percent higher for women whose weight was 40 percent or more above average.

Overweight men have a much higher chance of dying of colon, rectal, and prostate cancer.

Overweight women have higher rates of endometrial, gallbladder, cervical, ovarian, and breast cancer. In breast cancer, obesity is double trouble: Overweight women have an increased risk of getting the disease and a greater likelihood of fatality because fat makes it harder to detect tumors early. A Nurses Health Study found that women who are forty-four pounds overweight doubled their risk of breast cancer, and a Yale study found that severely obese women were more than three times as likely to be diagnosed late.

High levels of insulin in the bloodstream, a common occurrence among the obese, tends to cause a constant detrimental change in genetic expression, increasing the risk of cancer. In addition, insulin causes too much sodium to be reabsorbed, thereby potentially increasing blood pressure. (Theres more on these insulin effects later in this book.)

Both men and women who are overweight often die prematurely, primarily through heart disease, but also through stroke and diabetes both of which are impacted negatively by excess fat. Obesity puts a person at a much higher risk for developing coronary artery disease, gallbladder disease, kidney disease, liver damage, and other serious health problemsthe kind that lead to premature death.

Complications of pregnancy are also more common in overweight individuals. Obese women are less fertile and twice as likely to give birth to babies with spina bifida.

Obesity has been linked to arthritis, gout, and even cataracts.

More General Sickness, Colds, and Flu

Even if you claim not to fear developing a major disease or ailment as a result of obesity, you should know that excess weight greatly impacts a persons immune system. Obesity increases the bodys resistance to insulin and its susceptibility to infection. The result is plain and simple: Obese people get sick more often than thin people. If for no other reason, choose to lose the excess fat in your body so you can enjoy more days of good health a year. I promise you will be glad you did!

Overweight people statistically suffer from more colds and infections than lean people. One of the reasons for suppressed immunity in larger people is that the two major organs of the immune system, the thymus and the spleen, are often smaller in the morbidly obese. When the spleen and thymus are too small for the body, the immune system suffers. Immune cells are initially produced in bone marrow and released into the bloodstream. When some of these unspecialized immune cells find their way to the thymus, they mature into specialized T cells. These cells are then programmed to attack substances that are foreign to the body. Other unspecified cells find their way to the spleen, where they develop into macrophages. As the blood filters through the spleen, macrophages literally engulf and digest viruses and bacteria.

Obese people tend to have excess levels of glucose, insulin, adrenocorticotropin ACTH, and corticosterone, and lower levels of growth hormone in their bloodstream. These out-of-whack levels inhibit young unspecified immunity cells from developing into mature macrophages, which again decreases the efficiency of the immune system. Needless to say, sickness and disease are the byproducts of a chronically fatigued immune system.

More Pain

I have yet to see a person who weighs three hundred pounds who does not have joint, ligament, or general body-organ problems. Most complain of ongoing back and knee problems. Obesityeven moderate obesityputs undue stress on the legs, back, and internal organs. These structural and internal problems compromise a persons mobility and flexibility. In a word, obesity results in pain. It limits human motion and the quality of life a person enjoys.

A Serious Identity Hit

And finally, obesity can have negative psychological consequences because our societywhether right or nottends to equate beauty, intelligence, sociability, and even success with thinness. The general prevailing opinion of our society is that those who are obese are undisciplined, unmotivated, and in some way out of control. It is not surprising that employers tend to hire those who are thin at rates higher than they hire those who are not. The hidden opinion that is rarely expressed seems to be, If this person cant control his food intake, why should I trust him with my business?

CONSIDER FAT TO BE ENEMY NUMBER ONE