Americans Suck at Body Weight Maintenance
By: Leslie Funk
Tags: Weight Loss, Diet, Behavior, Nutrition, Obesity

Americans Suck at Body Weight Maintenance

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One thing is abundantly clear about Americans, we are really good at gaining weight. Americans are experts on how to store body fat and push the weight limit for their height. This national phenomena is evidenced by the statistics the CDC reports; that 71% of adults in the United States are overweight or obese. With January 2021 literally days away, many of us will be considering going on a diet to drop a few pounds an inches. I am suggesting you take a new path; making small changes in your food choices, one baby step at a time.



Currently BMI (Body Mass Index) is the measure used to classify a person as overweight or obese by the medical profession. As an expert in fitness and nutrition, I will remind you that some athletes and individuals who lift weights to prepare for their occupational demands will be incorrectly classified as overweight using BMI, due to their body composition. Having a higher percentage of lean body mass and a low percentage of body fat will lead to a “false positive” classification as “overweight” and sometimes “obese” in these outlier individuals.

Now back to the majority of the population in America.

Most Americans don’t even need to calculate their BMI to tell them they are overweight or obese: they already KNOW! Telling people they are fat is not the best way to help them learn more about nutrition, physical activity and healthy food preparation. Doctors have been dispensing BMI numbers since 1998, telling any adult they see that if their BMI is “over 25” they are overweight and “over 30” means they are obese. This revelation is typically followed by a recommendation that you; that adult with too high of a BMI, should lose weight.

An actual conversation about how to lose weight never happens with the majority of doctors. Your Doc just informs you “your BMI is too high” then lets you know the solution to this problem by stating, “you need to lose weight.” Maybe you have a doctor that has knowledge to share, despite the lack of nutrition taught during medical school. Often nutrition information from your doctor is in the form of a handout and/or pamphlet, maybe a group class you can enroll in to help you make some changes to your food choices and physical activity level. I am willing to bet most people throw the papers in the trash and look on the internet for a quick fix or a new diet to try. Most people just head out to have lunch.

Why don’t you decide to take the weight management class at your local hospital? Hey, maybe you do and I have bet against you unfairly. My over 30 years of experience in nutrition counseling and fitness coaching has shown me that people don’t want to change their eating patterns and food choices. Even when someone claims to be “very motivated” to lose weight it is not an indicator that they will be successful. Most humans eat when they want; choosing food they like the taste of and that is easy to prepare. The term “Prepare” may mean that said human actually plans to “dump out the take out container onto a plate at home,” not actually turning groceries into a meal.

It goes like this; the human will think, “I am hungry, I want to eat now.” Then you will determine what you have to choose from for your next meal. Will it be the lunch you brought to work, or the food at your company cafeteria, or your favorite take-out by delivery, or going through a drive-thru/fast food restaurant. When it comes to food preparation, if you are at work you are most likely microwaving something your brought to the office or you are opting for zero-preparation food choices which are usually high calorie, large serving, highly processed options. Face it; most people eat for enjoyment, not to fuel their body. If you feel hungry, you decided to eat, choosing food that tastes great.

Next comes the reasoning, where you tell yourself why your food choices are “not that bad.” Most common is a down-playing of how often you eat the less-than-ideal food options, combined with information about how much working out you do regularly. I have a suggestion for you. Instead of relying on your memory of what you have eaten lately and how much exercise you have been getting, start tracking your food and activity. The best way to track is by downloading an app that is designed for this task! You don’t need to hire a professional to analyze your daily food intake, you can do it yourself for free. Currently I use My Fitness Pal, by Under Armour and have also used Lose It! in the past. Both apps have easy to follow directions and if you log everything you eat, drink and even just taste a bite of, you will have a clear picture of your dietary intake.

Side note: “diet” and “dietary intake” both refer to exactly what you eat and drink each day in Nutritionist language.

This enlightening view will show you how you are doing in terms of total calories consumed each day, percentages of protein, fat and carbohydrates (aka “macros”), and how well your food choices support your needs for vitamins, calcium, iron, and other micro-nutrients. The flip side is you will also learn if you are consuming too much sugar, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium with your typical food selections.

Side note: you must measure your food so that you can accurately log the number of servings you consumed of eat food item. When you don’t measure you are lying to yourself about how many calories you actually eat each day. Break out the measuring cups, measuring spoons and food scale to help you be truthful.

Congratulations on taking a step towards being honest with yourself and learning what parts of your daily food choices you can change to stop gaining weight.

And there it is… STOP Gaining Weight. That is the first goal for an overweight or obese person to embrace and work on. There is a side effect to doing this work on your eating habits, I must warn you. You may lose body fat in the process, as evidenced by better fitting clothing and some definition in your muscles. Even if your weight on the scale doesn’t drop drastically, body fat loss improves your health and increases your motivation to stay the course. Travel this new path with baby steps and small changes that add up over time, producing the outcomes you desire.