Living with 20 to 25 pounds of excess weight is good for your health and prevents disease is what the media is reporting in regards to a new study conducted by scientists from the U.S. Centers For Disease Control And Prevention which is published in this weeks Journal Of The American Medical Association. I guess as a personal trainer I should change my approach and bring my clients to the local donut shop and fast food joint instead of forcing them to workout and eat healthy foods. Last week I did a blog post about how carrying excess fat increases your risk of cancer. Are you confused yet??? Could you truly be healthier with 25 extra pounds on your body?

Are you frickin kidding me? Who in their right mind would publish this crap? What were the intentions of these people conducting this study? Do they truly have your best interests at heart or are they just trying to create controversy because they know they will get serious media attention. Or maybe they have shares in the drug companies who make the pills that you need to be on because of your weight problems.

There’s a serious problem that mass media is inflicting on our health and society. They see this controversial study and they know if they publish an article on it, and even twist the truth a bit, throw in a catchy headline, people will purchase their publication because they want to be able to justify that their weight problem is not really a problem. I know 4 people who don’t typically by the local newspaper, and they bought it today because that headline on the front page caught their attention.

As soon as I walked into a personal training clients house this morning she showed me this article. And she started justifying why it was healthy for her to be overweight. She started saying how when she was skinny she always got sick and was miserable. It wasn’t being skinny that was making her sick, it was the fact that she was starving herself to be that skinny, she was eating crap and not getting the nutrients that she needs, she wasn’t active, and she was stressed.

Being skinny does not necessarily mean that you are healthy. And this client certainly couldn’t compare her health when she was skinny to the health of my wife and I with our lean and healthy bodies. First of all she may have been skinny, but her body fat percentage was high. This is what is frequently being termed as “The Skinny-Fat Person.”

Recently I’ve burned off 10 pounds of ugly unwanted fat from my body by following the Every Other Day Diet Plan and doing the fat burning workouts from The Fit Bastard Year Of Workouts. My wife Angie has been experiencing the same amazing results as I have, although she’s following the fat burning workouts from The Fit Chic Year Of Workouts which is geared to women.

We have never felt better. Obliterating that fat from our body has made an obvious difference in so many areas of our lives. But it’s not just the fat loss that is making us feel so great. It’s the fuel that we are putting into our bodies and the activities that we are doing to energize us. Our energy is absolutely through the roof.

When I had that 10 extra pounds of fat on my body I was exhausted, sluggish, self conscious, and felt very uncomfortable.

So how do scientists justify that being overweight is somehow healthy? They somehow came up with a study shows that people who are overweight have a decreased risk of dying prematurely from bronchitis, emphysema, pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poisoning, Alzheimer, Parkinson, suicide, and falls. They go onto say that scientists haven’t actually analyzed each individual disease.

Here’s the thing. They say the exceptions to their claims are diabetes and kidney disease which just so happen to be the 2 fastest growing diseases.

Why are Diabetes and kidney disease growing rapidly…. Hmmm… maybe because our population is rapidly becoming obese?

There was one observation from the article that I read in today’s Windsor Star which was interpreted correctly. Dr. Arya Sharma, the scientific director of the Canadian Obesity Network commented “What matters more than the total amount of fat, is where that fat is located.” Sharma says that the problems are more related to abdominal obesity.

I’ve been writing articles about this for years. Even more important than abdominal obesity is whether the fat is stored just under the surface of the skin or beneath the abdominal muscles and around your organs. The later is much more dangerous and is obvious in men who have the big tight ‘beer guts’ that make them look pregnant. Men who are flabby have a reduced risk compared to the other group.

Here’s a problem that I have with one of Sharma’s comments. He says, “If you’re eating a healthy diet and you’re physically active and you have no problems related to that excess weight, well then don’t worry about it.”

My problem with this is what I hear people say is a healthy diet is way off the frickin mark. What many people believe to be a physically active lifestyle is also off the mark.

Lets face it, people are not living active and they are eating like crap. The people who are overweight are overweight for a reason and in most cases it’s because they are not eating a healthy diet.

Please don’t interpret this as being judging against people who are overweight. I’m here to help you and am not trying to put you down. I’m just really upset at the doctors who are trying to justify that it’s healthy to be overweight. And these are the doctors that are pumping you full of drugs and saying that it’s going to help you.

Bu!! $hit!

This has me so fired up because I in fact do care about you and it pisses me off to see people take advantage of you and are going out of their way to confuse the heck out of you.

I have been fortunate enough to witness an incredible amount of body and health transformations. I interviewed several people who have undergone serious transformations and overcome some incredible obstacles in my audio product Unstoppable Fat Loss. How this impacts these peoples lives, words can not express. To say that they are not any better off than someone who is 20 to 25 pounds overweight and that they are actually at an increased risk of dying prematurely is gross negligence in my opinion.

I guarantee your quality and quantity of life will be greater when you maintain a lower and healthy body fat percentage, live actively, and eat natural foods. Your entire life will improve in more ways than you could ever imagine.

Our perception of what is healthy is becoming very skewed. I actually had someone ask me if I was sick this week because I had been burning body fat for the past 3 weeks. I have not looked and felt this great in years. And guess who was asking me this question? Someone who is about 80 to 100 pounds overweight.

A little while ago a couple that I workout came back from a cruise and they told me that they were actually in better shape then they thought. Why was this I asked? They said it was because they were surrounded by so many people that were carrying more fat then they were.

I had to remind them of why they started training with me. I told them that you came to me wanting to burn off 15 to 20 pounds of fat from your body because right now you are feeling sluggish, uncomfortable, and you want to become healthier. Does all this change simply because the large majority of the world is abusing their bodies. Do we conform to this lifestyle?

No way man!

I’ve even heard of little kids being teased because they were lean. Things are getting out of hand. Instead of trying to find ways to justify why being overweight, eating chocolate, and drinking alcohol are good for your health, how about we do something that we know with absolute certainty is great for your health…

Drink lots of water, eat natural foods, avoid the man made crap or at least consume it in moderation, exercise regularly while actually pushing yourself and not just going through the motions, get adequate sleep, reduce stress, and enjoy life.

The answers are simple. It may not be easy to implement at first, but when you find that driving force and reason to adopt this lifestyle you will be UNSTOPPABLE!

Life totally rocks when you begin to live like this. It’s the life that you deserve. Go after the body and life that you desire. Don’t just give into what these scientists have to say and settle for a life where you never reach your full potential.

I want that life for you. I want you to be the best that you can be. This rant has come about because I care for you and want you to experience a life full of opportunities and excitement which come from optimal health.

You know deep down that being 25 pounds overweight is not optimal health. Go for what you want and don’t let anyone hold you back. You ROCK and nothing should hold you back from your dreams.

Live your best life possible and make today an absolutely fan-frickin-tastic day!