Dieting is one of those things that is completely integrated into American culture. On any given day, a huge portion of the U.S. population is “on a diet” and “counting calories” in one way or another. And look at how many of the diet names in the following list you recognize: The Atkins Diet, The Cabbage Soup Diet, The Grapefruit Diet, The Hollywood Miracle Diet, The Rice Diet, The South Beach Diet…
You probably recognize many of these names because you hear them all the time!
In this article, we will look first at weight gain and why gaining weight is so easy. Then we will look at what you can do about weight gain — in the form of diet and exercise — to maintain a consistent weight.
Your Body’s Efficiency
Have you ever wondered why, for so many people (and especially for anyone older than 30 years old), weight gain seems to be a fact of life? It’s because the human body is way too efficient! It just does not take that much energy to maintain the human body at rest; and when exercising, the human body is amazingly frugal when it comes to turning food into motion.
At rest (for example, while sitting and watching television), the human body burns only about 12 calories per pound of body weight per day (26 calories per kilogram). That means that if you weigh 150 pounds (68 kg), your body uses only about:
150 X 12 = 1,800 calories per day
