THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507100219
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: FITNESS QUEST
The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star asked for volunteers to join a
six-month weight-loss and fitness program. Fitness Quest starts today
in Real Life, K1.
Graphic
THE FITNESS GROUP
To call our BFIT line, dial 640-5555 and press 2348, follow the
instructions.
As a Fitness Quest participant, you're eligible to win one of 10
free T-shirts we'll give away each week.
At the end of six months, if you call and tell us you made your
goal, we'll put your name in the newspaper.
Plus, you'll have a chance to win a $500 grand-prize shopping
spree. We'll also call you for other fitness-related stories during
the six months.
SOURCE: By DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
Let's face it. We Americans are fat.
One third of us are more than 20 pounds overweight. Ten years ago, only one fourth of us were that tubby.
We have high cholesterol, high body weights and high stress.
For many of us, our idea of exercise is when the remote breaks and we have to get up to change channels.
By the time we get home at night - exhausted from high-stress jobs that keep us trapped in front of computers all day - we're too tired to do more than plop down on the couch with dinner in our laps, eyes glued to the tube, fingers doing the remote control conga.
And that dinner . . .
With every kind of low-fat, no-fat and lite item imaginable on the supermarket shelves - no-fat butter? - we still weigh in as a nation heavier than at any time in our history. And that includes our kids. Even our pets are overweight.
We don't want to be this way. We spend billions on exercise videos and classes. We have enough spandex in our closets to slim the budget deficit.
And if the old-fashioned regimen of exercise and healthy nutrition doesn't work, we're not adverse to popping pills or swilling ``diet'' milkshakes.
But nothing is working.
Weight Watchers reports decreasing attendance - not because we don't need its services, but because we're giving up.
The once-hated girdle is back, albeit with such '90s names as tummy trimmers and thigh thinners.
There's even a movement to throw in the towel and just consider fat a good thing, led by the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. The group has declared May 6 International No-Diet Day, a day of education about fat, brownie-eating and high intensity lounging.
We try to listen to the doctors and scientists, but their messages are confusing. Diet. Don't diet. Exercise an hour at a time. No, spread that hour over the course of the day. Fat is bad. But olive oil is good. Cholesterol is bad. Unless it's the good kind of cholesterol. Drinking is bad. Except for moderate drinking.
The experts tell us that if we lose the weight dieting, most of us will just gain it back - and then some.
They discover that the fat-free cookies we've been scarfing up actually trigger us to eat more, and besides, they're loaded with sugar and calories.
They tell us there's a fat gene that determines a ``set point'' in obese people. So there's nothing we can do if we're really overweight.
Sigh.
It's enough to make you hide under a blanket with a bowl of cheese doodles.
But we can't. Because we know obesity raises our chances of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
We know how much better we'd feel every day if we got out there and did some regular exercise.
We know we want to live longer. And we want our longer lives to be healthier ones.
If only. . . . If only we could get motivated.
Last month, The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star ran an ad asking for volunteers for Fitness Quest, a six-month program. We said we were looking for four brave people who desperately want to get in shape and would let us track their progress. In other words, we were asking for some overweight, out-of-shape readers to share their stories with a half-million people.
We learned something from this ad.
We learned that many of us are truly desperate.
During a four-day stretch, 275 people called - many two or three times.
Here's what some of them said:
``I feel like a cellulite ball from my chest down to my knees, and if that's not a reason to get me into getting shape, then I don't know what would be.''
``I'm fat (snort, snort). I need to lose weight, and I'm dying if I don't do something.''
``I lost 70 pounds five years ago and gained 100 back. Last year, I lost 80 pounds and gained 50 back. Maybe this will give me some extra motivation to help me get in shape.''
``I am 40 years old, 6 feet tall and weigh about 280 pounds. I am a confirmed couch potato. I have an aversion to exercise, eating right, all those things. I don't have any internal motivation to do this, but I need to do it. I think some external motivation would be excellent.''
``I am a chemical dependency counselor. We talk about many types of addictions in my group, one of them being food addiction - which I have.''
``I need to get in shape because I can't fit into half of my wardrobe. I would like to attend my class reunion looking fit and trim.''
``I need to get in shape because my husband is 79 and I'm 48 and I can't keep up with him.''
``My husband is messing around with 50 pounds of woman who wasn't at the wedding.''
We couldn't call even half of the people back. And, of course, we could only choose four. Their story begins in today's Real Life section.
But we still want to give everyone else a chance to participate.
So, if you're one of those people who needs some external motivation, set your own goal, whether it's to lose weight, walk every day, lower your cholesterol or anything else. Then call our BFIT line (see box XXXX). We've provided fitness and nutrition tips and a way to hear how others are doing in meeting their goals.
During the next six months, we'll be calling some of you back as we research other stories about: thin people and their efforts to stay in shape; avoiding the ``freshman 15'' for new college students; fitness and kids; fitness and older people; nutrition and fat-free myths.
The series, which will include updates on our four get-in-shape role models, is called Fitness Quest Hampton Roads.
We're not promising spectacular results. And much of what we tell you will be information and ideas that - deep down - you already know.
We'll suggest you start exercising four or more times a week. That you reduce the fat in your diet and increase the fruits, vegetables, grains and beans. That you start packing some turkey sandwiches for lunch, and leave the triple bacon burgers for skinny kids.
All common sense things. All things that together, maybe, we can do. by CNB