I was doing some research this morning on body fat and osteoarthritis and thought you should know this: you can cut your risk of developing OA by 50% if you lose 12 lbs. over 10 years. That's just 1.2 lbs. per year. How hard could that be?
What do you need to do to lose 1.2 lbs. per year or 1/10th of a pound per month? You could:
- Eat 12 calories less per day - the equivalent of one animal cracker.
- Burn 12 calories more per day - the equivalent of one more hour of walking per month.
Sounds simple, right? But, the average person after the age of 25, GAINS 1 lb. per year of body fat. Why? The basic reason is you eat more calories than you use and the extra energy has to go somewhere. So, you store it as fat.
Most people, though, when they try to lose weight, try too hard. They try to lose too much too fast when all you need to do is shift the energy flux just a little. Just one more walk per month. Just one less animal cracker per day.
Why do we make things any harder than they need to be?
Doug Kelsey
Author. Speaker. Therapist.
