Good News/Bad News on Visual Pollution in the United States

First the bad news:

U.S. Women are on average 30 pounds heavier now than they were in the 1960’s. They are a jaw-dropping 42 pounds heavier than their current-day counterparts in South Korea, while only standing 2 inches taller on average.

I’m not talking about bullshit BMI numbers, I’m talking raw weight. 30 pounds of fat added to a 5’4″ frame.

Now some of you may be asking, “What difference does 30 pounds make? That doesn’t seem like so much.”

This woman went from 165 pounds to 135 pounds and is now looking very good. She’s easily in the top 10% of American women (non-models or actresses) for attractiveness. What brought about the change? Her boyfriend proposed and she was very excited to post the pictures to Facebook, but when she saw how fat she looked she was too embarrassed to upload them. She went on to lose 30 pounds and now that lucky guy gets to marry a hottie.

So what’s the good news? Well, as you can see from above, people can lose weight if they are dedicated and willing to make it a priority. She used a combination of diet and exercise and that works for her.

What people in general need to realize is that they need to find out what works for them, personally. When I was training for my first Ironman race I was doing 15-18 hours cardio a week, but I didn’t lose a pound ( I was 185) because I was still eating a pretty crappy diet. Prior to that, when I trained for my first marathon, I lost almost 40 pounds  (starting wt 195) by keeping calories below 1500/day while running (not jogging) 40-60 miles per week. When I stopped watching my diet and cut back on the running, the weight came back quickly.

Currently, as I strive to get my body-fat percentage to 10%, I’m eating a lot of Jimmy John Unwiches. It’s actually kinda of fun to go to their website and play around with the sandwich customizer menu app.

I’ll often get this one and if you switch out the french bread for lettuce, and drop the mayo (the devil’s condiment) you can reduce the carbs from 79 to 6, and total calories from 830 to 290! Now protein does drop from 50 to 35, but that’s a more than acceptable trade-off for a 540 calorie savings. Of course no cookies or chips for me, and I drink unsweetened tea with the Unwich.