OBESITY REVISITED

Exercising is good for your health, because among other things it makes you burn more calories in rest, but is practically impossible to lose weight by exercising alone. Thus, you must diet. In my previous articles I talked about diets.

The conclusion seems obvious: Obesity is mainly due to overeating. The problem starts early in life because if while kids are growing up they overeat as if it were normal, with no control whatsoever, the harder it will be later on in life for them to burn that extra weight. Thus, a good education and support campaign could be the solution for a lot of people.

It is obvious that there are cases due to genetic problems, but if obesity were mainly due to defective genes it will be very difficult to explain that: a.- obesity-related genes have changed so much as to explain an increase in the percentage of obese people from 13% to 50% in something more than 60 years, b.- support groups are successful in drawing kids weight down, c.- since obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, lipid disorders, stroke, gallbladder disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, respiratory problems and some types of cancer, humans could not have been such a successful species and should have disappeared a long time ago, and d.- the increased in weight of the inhabitants of the Nauru Island and the difference in weight of the two Pima Indians tribe that I told you in my previous articles.

Unfortunately there are no magic bullets. No pill will take the extra-weight away. There are three prescription weight-loss drugs on the market: Phentermine, Meridia and Xenical and none of them solves the problem, all have side effects and, guess what? You have to take them with a low calories diet. Their results are Take a look at their results: With Meridia people lose no more than 10 to 14 pounds in six months, and with Xenical, 13 pounds in a year. While Phentermine can be taken only for a few weeks because it is approved only for short-term use, and most people lose less than a pound a week.

To make things worse, a study by the Federal Trade Commission in which they reviewed 300 ads that ran during 2001 conclude that: "many made claims promising more than the product or service could likely deliver. The ads often boasted "miraculous" results - quick, easy and

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