by Anthony Megna

Created on: September 18, 2009   Last Updated: May 21, 2012

Being more active is only one piece of the puzzle in order to cure America of its obesity problem. Burning off calories is all well and good, but it can be awful tough to burn even one pound of fat through activity alone. To burn one pound of fat, it would take doing 3500 calories of exercise. To put this in perspective, that means seven hours of aerobics! And that is just one pound! No one in there right mind is going to do that, but you can burn more than you take in over the course of time. Will that cure the problem? I don't think so.

The reason why America is getting fatter by the day is two-fold. Technology has made our life easier in some respects. We don't have to spend days on the hunt for our food anymore, and all those calories that were burned doing so we've saved over the years. We don't have to walk miles to go to school or work, we have automobiles.

Let's combine this lack of activity with the barrage of advertising for the latest "gourmet hamburger" from the fast food chains, or the obscene portions some restaurants now serve. What is the result of this deadly mixture? You got it, weight gain. The human body is like a bank, the more calories consumed, the more the excess is stored as fat. The more calories burned, the more fat is dropped off the body. It really is as simple as that. Or is it? The x factor is behavior. We need to change our behavior to modify the way we eat, the way we exercise, and the way we think about food. Over time, it's the little things we do that will burn just a little more fat each day.

For the people who have tried dieting, we all know about the rebound effect. Okay, you start the diet and the first few days you drop a couple of pounds. This does wonders for the mind and spirit, but don't get so excited, because the odds are that is water weight coming off. After that, we all hit the "plateau", where even though we are dieting like crazy, nothing much is happening. The reason why is that we are now into the fat burning phase of the diet,and fat is tougher to lose. What happens now? Usually, we get discouraged and go back to eating even more because we are so damn hungry. The weight goes back on. That's why diets usually fail.

We need to incorporate a total life-style change to accomplish a healthier way of life, and to not put on any more weight. How? By having a healthy balance of exercise and eating. I hate to say it's as simple as that, but it really is. Over time we will begin to get down to our normal weight. The key is TIME. We are not going to spend seven straight hours in an aerobics class, are we? Of course not. But we can spend seven hours over the course of a few days. We still get to burn the calories, but we take the "time" to do it right.

Time seems to be the key word when it comes to activity and fighting obesity. Do it right and give yourself the right amount of time. This way we don't get discouraged and upset. Time has a nice way of healing our lives.....

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