Creeping Obesity

So slowly are these dual changes occurring that often it takes a decade or more to notice that something major is happening to your body.

Fat Gain
The average man between the ages of 20 and 50 gains 1.5 pounds of fat each year. That adds up to 15 pounds of fat gain per decade or 45 pounds in 30 years. This slow gain of body fat is what nutritionists call creeping obesity. Actually, this creeping obesity is somewhat disguised by the shrinking of muscle mass that is going on at the same time. A 15-pound muscle loss means that the overall gain in body weight is 30 pounds, not 45. In fact, the loss of muscle
compounds the situation. Here's why.

Resting Metabolic Rate
A person's resting metabolic rate is the number of calories that his body requires to function in a relaxers resting state. The brain and internal organs such as the hearty lungs, liver, and kidneysy require a lot of energy. But it's the skeletal muscles, which comprise from 35 to 50 percent of a man's body weight, that have the most energy potential.

Add a pound of muscle to a man's body, and his resting metabolic rate goes up approximately 50 calories per day. The inverse is also notable. Lose a pound of muscle through disuse atrophy, and the rate is lowered by 50 calories per day. Interestingly, fat also has a metabolic rate: approximately 2 calories per day. Muscle is twenty-five times as active metabolically as the same amount of fat.

You've probably noticed that it is more difficult to shed excess fat than it used to be. Long-term metabolism studies reveal that an average man experiences a 0.5 percent reduction in resting metabolic rate each year between 20 and 50 years of age. The gradual loss of muscle mass each year is primarily responsible for this metabolic slowdown.

Muscle Your Fat Away
Certainly, controlling dietary calories is an important aspect of combating creeping obesity. But equally important is the building, or rebuildingy of muscle mass. Do not let your fat cells grow while your muscles wither. It's time to muscle your fat away.

I sincerely want the information and program in this book to help you look younger, feel better, and live longer. In fact if you accomplish these goals, doing so will help me look younger, feel better, and live longer. .

How can this happen?
As the life expectancy of people increases, the total storehouse of knowledge and experience automatically expands. That expansion of knowledge and experience enhances the good life for everyone.

Ben Douglas, in his book AgeLess, makes a convincing argument for the relationship between inbreasing life expectancy and improving problem-solving ability.

''The whole process,'' Douglas says. ''is self-perpetuating. As we solve more problems, we will live Ionger, and as we Iive longer we will be able to solve more problems."

The drawing below illustrates concept.

Let's consider 100,000 people in two different situations. First, the people develop into adults, are educated and skilled in a profession and start using their talents at age 25. Gradually, their numbers decrease as a result of typical accidents and diseases. The survivors use their skills until age 65 and then retire. Thus, the darker shaded area under the curve represents the contribution of the body of knowledge and experience of the orig-inal 100,000 people.

In the second situation: the individuals are much more preventlon-minded. As deaths from diseases and accidents decrease, more people live productively to near the end of the human life span of 115 years. The amount of knowlege and experience that is gained is shown by the Iighter-shaded area under the curve. This lighter-shaded area represents a new pool of knowledige and experience, which will provide increased potential for prolblem solving.

Sometime in the twenty-first century, we will have a problem-solving potential ln the United States that will be simiilar to the second situation. When this happens, we'll see dramatic changes in all aspects of our lives. It will indeed be a good life.