Well those boys at Big and Tall stores have the solution for the obesity problem worldwide.  It doesn’t matter that 50% of us will be obese in the next twenty years, they’ll just keep adding X’s to our clothing.  You have to figure they can make that tag a lot fatter than it currently is.  Shoot, you won’t even notice it until it stretches about half way around your neck.  On your pants they could run X’s all the way down the side of your pant leg and call it a fashion statement.

So go ahead and forget all my other weight loss posts before this.  There is good news all around, I also found out that polyester’s aren’t little animals either.  That means no animals will be harmed or killed as we expand your personal territory, and you can get as big as you want and they’ll just keep adding X’s for you.

Greg Arnold
How I am losing my big butt…

The article that inspired this blog:

Out of control obesity has led to size XXXXL clothing

“(NaturalNews) Obesity rates have reached epic proportions — literally — as a new British retailer unveils its largest clothing size ever: the XXXXL size. According to a recent report in New York Daily News, “High and Mighty”, a U.K. “big and tall” store for men recently plopped the XXXXL clothing on its store shelves, with expanded shirts for men that have 64-inch chests, and widened pants for men that have 60-inch waists.”

“We are leading increasingly sedentary lives,” explained John Murphy, director of retail operations at High and Mighty, to Telegraph reporters concerning the new size line. “It is hard for parents to keep their children away from the television or the computer, and the consequences of that are visible.”

“According to the Telegraph, a full quarter of Britons are now officially obese. Twenty percent of British men now have a waist size larger than 38 inches, and a chest size larger than 44 inches. And obesity has become so mainstream that “fat” clothes are now being sold alongside normal clothes in many mainstream retail shops.”

“Clearly so many are reaching this weight that clothes to fit them are available on the High Street (a generic name for a primary business street) alongside normal sizes,” emphasized Tam Fry, spokeswoman for the National Obesity Forum. “The public health implications are huge, and it is going to take a generation or more to tackle this crisis.”

“High and Mighty plans to more than double the number of its retail stores within the next three years — increasing from its 14 current stores to 25 — since increasing numbers of new men are falling into the larger size category.”

“And another “big and tall” retailer recently began selling “plus-size” clothing for children as young as three years old, citing the fact that a whole new generation of obese children needs clothing that comes in sizes larger than what is currently available.”

However, if you ask the average American who the father of our country was today, they’d probably tell you Bill Clinton. We don’t read anything, we don’t know anything. So when it comes to reading labels on food boxes, the manufacturers know that the most important part for them is the Tag line they put on the front of the box.

It really doesn’t matter if a breakfast cereal is 80% sugar if it says “An important part of a balanced breakfast” on the front. We don’t have a clue! Why, because we simply don’t read. All we want is the reader’s digest version and that is what’s on the front of the box. No food manufacturer is going to put “This product makes you FAT!” on the front. That is what you can read for yourself on the back in the ingredients. The manufacturer is going to put something more like “All Natural” which means what little it contains that is actually natural is all natural.

If nothing else, read the ingredient list under the nutritional facts. It runs in order of most to least. If the number one or two ingredient is sugar or high fructose corn syrup, that should tell you something. If it says “whole wheat” on the front but it’s the 8th ingredient on the back, well, they are trying to blow one past you. You can’t always tell by the label, but if you never read the dadgum thing, you’re going to get screwed over every time.

Greg Arnold
Here is a link to my new book: The Elementary Diet!

Here is the article that inspired this blog:

Do You Really Read Nutrition Labels?

“MONDAY, Oct. 24 (HealthDay News) — American consumers don’t pay as much attention to food product nutrition labels as they claim, a new study finds.”

“Researchers asked 203 people to look at information about 64 different grocery products displayed on a computer screen. The information included the well-known Nutrition Facts label, a picture and list of ingredients, and a description of the product that included price and quantity.”

“The participants’ eye movements were tracked as they looked at the information on the computer screens. This revealed that many participants read only the top five lines on the Nutrition Facts label and that their self-reported viewing of certain items on the label was much higher than it actually was, the study said.”

“While 33 percent said they almost always look at calorie content, 31 percent said the same about total fat content, 20 percent for trans-fat content, 24 percent for sugar content and 26 percent for serving size.

However, only 9 percent of the participants actually looked at calorie count for nearly all the products in the study, and only about 1 percent looked at total fat, trans-fat, sugar content and serving size…”

It has come to the point that we as humans will hardly eat anything that isn’t sugar infused. We currently ingest an average of 150 grams of sugar per day. That’s about 120 pounds of sugar per year! I think we can also agree that eating that much sugar each year certainly contributes to 2 out of every 3 of us being overweight in America.

So here is what you may not of know; sugar not only makes you fat but it is a huge contributor to 80% of all cancers out there. Yes I am saying that we could reduce cancer by 80% in America if we would cut out 125 grams of sugar or more per day. That would require a major effort on your part. At the very least you’d have to learn to read the labels on everything.

Would it be worth it? You have to decide that for yourself. The benefits could be you wouldn’t be fat anymore and you probably wouldn’t get cancer in your lifetime.

Greg Arnold
My get rid of your big butt website…

Here’s the article. Very interesting reading:

“Experts agree – Sugar is a health destroyer“

“Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, is one of the leading experts on sugar and how it is broken down by the body. In addition to being the lecturer responsible for the viral video “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” Dr. Lustig is also a leading expert on childhood obesity. In his lecture, Dr. Lustig asserts that sugar is a toxic substance that wreaks havoc on the body. Since fructose is the number one source of calories in the U.S., this assertion should not be taken lightly. In fact, the average U.S. citizen consumes around 150 grams of sugar each day; whereas, some experts believe that an acceptable amount of daily sugar may be as low as 25 grams per day.”

“The impact of sugar on the body does not stop at obesity. Fructose has been found to raise uric acid levels, leading to decreased nitric oxide levels, elevated angiotensin levels, and smooth muscle cell contractions that lead to higher blood pressure and potential kidney damage. Higher uric acid levels have also been linked to low-level inflammation, which can lead to a large number of diseases. As a testament to the deteriorating health of the U.S. since the introduction of sugar into the primary diet of most citizens, uric acid levels among Americans have risen dramatically since the early half of the 20th century. In 1920, average uric acid levels were around 3.5 ml/dl. In sharp contrast, average uric acid levels in 1980 shot up to around 6.0 to 6.5 ml/dl. Uric acid levels above 5.5 mg per dl indicate an increased risk of developing hypertension, kidney disease, insulin resistance, fatty liver, obesity, diabetes, and a host of other conditions.”

“Another scary relationship is the connection between sugar and cancer. Insulin resistance, a response to prolonged and excessive sugar intake, has been fingered as a primary factor in many cancers. Lewis Cantley is the director of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School. According to Cantley, as much as 80 percent of all cancers are “driven by either mutations or environmental factors that work to enhance or mimic the effect of insulin on the incipient tumor cells.” This link between chronic sugar consumption and 80 percent of cancers is one that challenges the mainstream ideology of how nutrition affects the body. In addition, it is a link that must not be taken lightly.”

“Sugar is currently a staple of most American diets. With the primary source of calories in the U.S. coming from fructose, it may be time to rethink the way that sugar is consumed around the world. With numerous studies coming out tying sugar to a multitude of diseases, even mainstream health outlets are starting to question sugar’s impact on our bodies. Perhaps it is time to put down the processed junk, and revolutionize the nation’s health.”

Do you weigh more than you did last year, or five years ago? Most people do. America is FAT because we eat too many carbohydrates! It really is that simple. The food industry knows that you want cheap food that tastes good. Their response: Instant Macaroni and cheese, Hamburger Helper, Microwave casseroles and pastas with meat-like sauces. By the way, those Italian-like sauces are loaded with high-fructose corn syrup.

When you eat sugars, your body looks for heavy physical activity on your part to burn it off. In the absence of that, it stores it as fat. Carbohydrates basically get converted to sugar for energy and then, well see sugar. Proteins don’t convert to sugar, but they do build and rebuild your muscles and organs. (see the above chart on this page)

You really don’t have to be fat!  While this is science, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to use it.

Greg Arnold
The easy to follow not rocket science diet…

This blog was inspired by this article:

How to Fight Hunger Pains With Protein

“Whether you’re packing on the pounds or simply want to maintain your current weight, adding more protein to your dish could be your slim-down secret weapon.”

“Past research has found that protein keeps you feeling full longer than either carbs or fat, so you can eat less and still be satiated.”

“A new study supports this idea: Researchers from the University of Sydney found that people who ate a diet of 10 percent protein reported feeling hungrier and ate 12 percent more calories throughout the day—mostly from mindless snacking—than those eating a 15 percent protein diet.”

“Researchers estimated that the extra calories eaten by participants on the lowest protein diet could add up to an extra 2.2 pounds of weight gain a month…”

You know, I’ve always thought it was a shame that our youth today won’t go get a job, but it seems as though the same mechanism that is driving them to stay away from a punch-in clock will keep them skinny too. That is unless you are buying them a bunch of chips and sodas and processed instant meals so they don’t need to go to a local Micky D’s for their fat and sugar fix.

If you want to read about the study, it’s down below. As always, I’m just your humble messenger with a somewhat twisted slant on the news.

Greg Arnold
How to quit shopping in the plus size isle…

Proximity to Fast Food a Factor in Student Obesity
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: March 25, 2009

“Ninth graders whose schools are within a block of a fast-food outlet are more likely to be obese than students whose schools are a quarter of a mile or more away, according to a study of millions of schoolchildren by economists at the University of California and Columbia University.”

“The study, a widely circulated working paper of the independent National Bureau of Economic Research, marks an intensive effort by economists to determine whether close geographic proximity to fast food plays a causal role in obesity…”

As always, this isn’t a substitute for eating sensibly and taking daily walks. But it shouldn’t be ignored either. Antioxidants serve a variety of good purposes in your body. Even if you don’t have metabolic inflammation, they do help boost your immune system which couldn’t hurt.

Greg Arnold
How I am losing my big butt

Here is the article that inspired this blog:

Brain Pathway Responsible For Obesity Found: Too Many Calories Send Brain Off Kilter

ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2008) — An overload of calories throws critical portions of the brain out of whack, reveals a study in the October 3rd issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. That response in the brain’s hypothalamus—the “headquarters” for maintaining energy balance—can happen even in the absence of any weight gain, according to the new studies in mice.

The brain response involves a molecular player, called IKKß/NF-κB, which is known to drive metabolic inflammation in other body tissues. The discovery suggests that treatments designed to block this pathway in the brain might fight the ever-increasing spread of obesity and related diseases, including diabetes and heart disease.

“This pathway is usually present but inactive in the brain,” said Dongsheng Cai of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Cai said he isn’t sure exactly why IKKß/NF-κB is there and ready to spring into action in the brain. He speculates it may have been an important element for innate immunity, the body’s first line of defense against pathogenic invaders, at some time in the distant past.

“In today’s society, this pathway is mobilized by a different environmental challenge—overnutrition,” he said. Once activated, “the pathway leads to a number of dysfunctions, including resistance to insulin and leptin,” both important metabolic hormones…

Right now every single fat person walks in a room full of people and looks for someone fatter than they are. They can’t help it. When they spot that person they are dramatically relieved. That means they don’t have to feel self conscious. If they don’t find that person who is fatter than they are, then they just want to die.

The good news is by 2030, that will be a lot easier than it is today! Half of us will be really fat by then and your chances of spotting people that are fatter than you are will greatly increase. You see, not all news that you hear is bad news! Let’s order a pizza and celebrate…

Greg Arnold
How I’m losing my big butt!

Inspirational article:

Half Of All Americans Obese By 2030 With UK Close Behind

If present trends persist, the USA will have 65 million and the UK 11 million more obese people by 2030, bringing the US obese total to 164 million people, approximately half the country’s population, researchers from the University of Oxford, England and Columbia University, New York, reported in The Lancet.

Dr. Y Claire Wang and Professor Klim McPherson, in the second Paper in The Lancet Obesity Series, examined trends in obesity in the USA and the UK, and what the impact is and will likely be on disease prevalence and healthcare spending.

The researchers explain that several acute and chronic illnesses and conditions linked to overweight burden a society in several ways: people’s quality of life are negatively affected, and the economic toll for the overweight individual and society as a whole is considerable – mainly from lost productivity and greater health care costs.

Greg Arnold
How I an losing my big butt…

Here is a great article:

Resveratrol revs up metabolism, promotes weight loss in first ever primate study

(NaturalNews) “Resveratrol is a type of phytonutrient known as a polyphenol. Found in the skin of grapes, wine, grape juice, peanuts, and berries, it has often been hailed as a life-extending natural compound. After all, research in mice and lab rats has indicated it can protect those animals from obesity and diabetes and has anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and blood-sugar-lowering effects, too. However, rats and mice are rodents — and their physiology is in many ways different from the primate family that includes apes, monkeys and, most importantly, human beings.”

“But now for the first time a study has shown resveratrol has the ability to rev up metabolism and spark weight loss in primates — and that means the polyphenol might have weight loss and even anti-aging and life-extending benefits in people, too…”

So blog, here I am once again reminding myself to; Eat you idiot!  Ok, where was I.  Oh yea; eating.  The reason you need to eat is your body will protect it’s fat stores if it thinks you are about to settle in for a long winter deprivation period.  As long as you take in 1500 to 2000 calories per day, you will win.  If you want to speed up the process, it is better to walk off 400-500 calories along with eating 1500 than it is to try to cut down to 1000.

So, if you want to lose weight permanently, be sure to eat!

Greg Arnold
Losing my big butt, one day at a time!

That’s why crash diets don’t work. You will drop a few pounds in the initial stages but before long your body catches on and starts conserving it’s fat stores. It thinks you’ve just settled in for a long winter with very little to eat. Your metabolism slows, your energy level drops, your insulin levels rise, you become one stubborn fat storing machine.

That’s also why you bounce back so fast after you become exhausted from dieting and gain even more back than you originally weighed. Your body doesn’t trust you anymore so it stores a little extra for the lean times it believes are ahead.

Sounds like it’s useless dieting, doesn’t it? Well, it is. If you think starving yourself is the answer, shame on you. Yes you should cut down on what you are eating but not to starvation levels, and you need to move too. A brisk one hour walk each day will burn off 300 to 400 calories. But more important than that you not only see an increase in calorie demand, but also you are strengthening your circulatory system, altering your lipid composition by increasing your HDL, or good cholesterol, lowering your total cholesterol, and lowering your blood pressure.

Additionally research has shown that weight loss from increased physical activity resulted in reduced levels of obesity, especially abdominal obesity and insulin resistance in obese men. They also concluded that exercise without weight loss also reduced obesity levels, and prevented future weight gain from happening.

Research on sedentary woman looking at how intensity and duration affected the outcomes on weight loss. They concluded that all participants in the study demonstrated increased weight loss and cardiovascular fitness during the 12-week program, with both diet and exercise. They also concluded that intensity and duration had no significant effects on this group of sedentary woman. In other words, you don’t have to kill yourself exercising to lose weight. In fact it really doesn’t help to spend 3 hours a day in the gym.

Bottom line, eat wisely, 1500 to 2000 calories per day and take a walk. No you won’t lose 40 pounds in 30 days but you will drop 40 pounds in a year. And you’ll keep it off! If you’re a man and you’re 200 pounds over weight, it may take you two years. If that sounds like too long to get to where you want to be for life and stay there, what the heck are you doing that is more important over the next two years anyway?

We’re talking about our lives people. I don’t know about you but I hate being fat. I hate being discounted on everything because I am fat. I started working on my blimpish self a year ago. I’m down over 90 pounds and I have about 70 more to go. My life has changed for the better forever. Yours can too.

Remember, dieting alone leads to failure because you’ll just gain it all back when you’re done dieting. Exercising your butt off every day leads to failure because you won’t keep it up forever.  All things in moderation. Eat a little less and talk a walk every day.  You can do this!

Here is the article that inspired this blog: http://www.getprograde.com/walking-and-weight-loss.html?advert_id=CN

Greg Arnold
How I am losing my big butt