How We Lie To Ourselves About Our Weight

For years the measure of a man's girth was indicative of his wealth. If one could eat in excess and physically toil little, then one must be rich and powerful right? wrong.

Perhaps in days of old, but not today.

Obesity and lack of fitness not only create unsatisfactory life styles, they also truncate the life line. My favorite target, the media, are finally starting to wake up and smell the roses. Lately more news items are zooming in on the obesity crisis in the USA. Some experts suggests that over 75% of the country is overweight and over 30% should be classed as obese.

With health costs rocketing higher and higher, no wonder so many diet programs, nutritional supplements, fitness clubs and health food stores are appearing on infomercials, TV ads, general media ads and in strip malls.

It is time to educate yourself. Do you know your basal caloric requirement? How about the standard number of calories required for your sex, age, weight, height and activity level? Do you know which foods you should be eating and why?

Here are some websites with some answers. Nothing is perfect but a little education is a great first step.

Daily caloric load
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calorie-calculator/NU00598

Basal caloric load (what your body would burn up if you just lay in bed all day)
http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html

With the results from these calculators, one can plot a health and fitness strategy.
Some typical calculations are listed here.