Many thanks, Pete, Flick and Joyce for your thought-provoking
contributions on this topic.

I would like to respond to your requests to hear other people's
stories. Although I have never been in the "clinically obese"
category, I have ventured in and out of "overweight" (based on BMI)
and "raised cholesterol", depending on what has been happening in my
life.

By the way, a good BBC guide to Body mass index [BMI], including an
online BMI calculator, is online here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/healthy_living/your_weight/whatis_bmi.shtml
It includes info on Waist circumference measurement and body shape,
which are now believed to be much more accurate predictors of future
health risk than BMI alone.


Late twenties - Experiences of sources and costs of being overweight
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I had always been "thin" [sometimes overly-thin] as a child and
teenager. I first hit fat-deposition problems in my late twenties
after swopping an active lifestyle as a country vet, for the more
sedentary lifestyle of a PhD research student, including 1.5-2.5
hours a day of sitting in a car travelling to and from work, plus a
fair amount of sedentary car travel going out to farms and abattoirs
in the course of my research projects. The large amounts of travel
and long hours of study was the death knell for my previous main
exercise activity (judo).
Even at this tender age I suffered one of the many health costs of
poor diet/sedentary lifestyle in the form of constipation and
haemorrhoids [for which I eventually needed surgical treatment].
Fortunately I was eventually treated by a consultant who [rare in the
1970s] wisely combined dietary advice with treatment, so I have ever
since taken good care to eat a high-fibre diet.

The diet change alone did fix my "lower aspect" problem, but did
nothing to reduce my being overweight for my age. My then wife
actually preferred me "a bit more cuddly" [I note that many people of
both sexes like a partner who is more of a teddy bear than a "stick"]
so there was no motivation for me to take up regular exercise again.

However, my formerly sylph-like figure continued to deteriorate, and
for cosmetic reasons, plus the need to exercise a rather vigorous
Dalmatian dog we had acquired, I decided to take up jogging - a
couple of miles about 5 times a week. The effect on my food intake
was quite astonishing! I had been over-eating for some time and now
my appetite became much easier to satisfy, and my constant weight
gain was halted, though not actually reversed.

My over-eating pattern had grown with an escalating amount of stress
in my life. I was teaching and doing research by day, then working
late into the night, most evenings, doing charity pet clinics - with
considerable travel involved also. At weekends I was also constantly
on the go, looking after my young children, doing D-I-Y jobs and
often extra work as well.

In retrospect I had gone into "chronic hyper-arousal" - relentless
over-stimulation of my nervous system with consequent over-activation
of my mind and basic drives, including eating. The only thing that I
was under-doing was exercise! Everything else I was over-doing.
Jogging didn't just burn energy, it "wound-down" my over-wrought
brain, which was over-reacting and over-driven, and stuffing in
quantities of unnecessary food as part of a general pattern of over-
doing everything, everything except physical exercise!


Thirties - Another experience of the health cost of excess weight
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Jogging had halted my constant gaining of weight and I had become
aware of a rather surprising close link between exercise and food
consumption. I had previously believed that increasing exercise leads
to increased appetite, but in my situation (chronic over-
stimulation/over-work) the reverse was true. In periods when I
neglected my jogging, food consumption went up and when I was jogging
regularly, my over-activated appetite went down.

Jogging halted my relentless weight gain, but did not reverse the
weight I had already gained. This may be an important distinction to
note, do different factors operate in "losing weight already gained"
compared with "avoiding weight gain"?

Despite my early-morning jogging, my "cuddly" frame and over-
stressful lifestyle persisted, until I hit an even more distressing
health complication - BACK TROUBLE!

This was terrible. Jogging did not help and possibly made it worse.
Sleepless nights meant that I was often too tired in the morning to
go jogging. I spent 6 months sleeping on our hard bedroom floor,
because a night on our soft bed would give me a sleepless night of
crippling pains. Eventually I saw a consultant who prescribed 3
months of physiotherapy exercises. This not only got me back into the
marital bed (albeit with a board under my side of the mattress) but
seemed to halt the weight gain brought on by a decline in my jogging
ability. There is of course a vicious cycle in which joint pain
reduces activity, leading to more weight gain and thus more strain on
joints, leading to further reduction in physical activity.

From this I learned the importance of regular exercise that involves
the upper body as well as the legs and cardiovascular. I followed up
the regular physiotherapy class by taking up regular swimming for 2
years, and when I got bored with that, I went on to train in the
Japanese martial art of karate. Karate was the thing that eventually
brought my weight back into the "normal range" for the first time in
a decade. I had started Karate very cautiously, in case the jarring
movements and impacts made my lower back problem worse. To my great
surprise, the back problems disappeared entirely!

Karate was much more effective than swimming in terms of both losing
weight and getting healthy muscle tone into my back and stomach (the
two being closely linked in terms of good posture spinal support).
The swimming was not gentle, relaxed stuff, it was quite vigorous and
demanding because I followed a long course of very challenging
proficiency and survival tests.

Weight gain and "The Warrior Spirit"
-----------------------------------
I link the superior benefits of a martial art like karate, to
something which links up with the point that you have been making,
Flick, about psychotherapeutic/energy-block aspects to weight-gain.

My first intimation of this came when my karate instructor shocked me
with these words "Humans are aggressive animals - get in touch with
your aggression and channel it into your karate!".
For some time after starting karate, I resisted the truth of his
words - surely we can be sweet, loving, peaceful creatures, if we
just have the right attitude and live our life right!

Despite my opposing belief, as time went on I did increasingly
contact within myself something which I will call "the warrior
spirit". This was to be found just beyond "the edge" of my comfort
zone. Athletes call it "the wall" - the (often scary) place where you
want to give up and get back into your comfort zone as quickly as
possible!

I suspect this links in with the point you have made, Pete, that just
giving people information about diet and exercise does not produce
much result with most people. As soon as they move out of their
comfort zone, they will feel bad and want to get back into their
unhealthy comfort zone ASAP. Interestingly, a similar, though
opposite, phenomenon occurs with anorexia sufferers - while starving,
their glucose-deprived brain experiences little emotional discomfort,
but when blood glucose rises, after eating, the brain starts to
register repressed emotions again and they feel worse - no wonder
they want to get back into the comfort-zone of starvation ASAP!

Some people successfully hire a personal trainer to help them lose
weight. Personal trainers usually have quite an aggressive - even
bullying! - approach and can produce quite amazing results. The
drawback is that when this external source of "warrior spirit" is no
longer around, the pounds start to pile back on!

Comfort eating
--------------
My own learning about the importance of the "warrior spirit" in
weight gain (repressed or denied "warrior spirit") continues to this
day. During periods of stress I notice my "comfort eating" and "junk-
food" eating quickly increase. I believe this is because some types
of stress naturally activate our "fight or flight" ("warrior spirit")
survival mechanism. If I don't take time out to connect with these
forces (I was conditioned as a child to disconnect from them)
and use clearing techniques to harness and channel their energy into
safe and life-enhancing directions, I gain weight and my cholesterol
level (occasionally even my blood pressure) rises.

A few years ago I attended a rather wonderful "scientific outreach"
evening held at the Eagle pub in Cambridge. The Eagle has a number of
claims to fame, especially being the place where the discovery of the
structure of DNA was first announced [see
http://www.cheal.org/message/445]. In the forum session, I asked
these intrepid (and well-informed) nutritional experts from the
University about the possible relationship between stress and
obesity. They replied that the scientific literature is quite
confused on this subject - sometimes stress results in weight loss
and sometimes it results in weight gain.

Of course there are many different types of stress as well as types
of people and lifestyles.
When I suffered attacks of clinical depression in the 1980s [around
the age of 40] I lost weight, at the time (reported above) in my life
when I have suffered the hyperarousal [over-driven-ness] type of
stress (see above) I have gained weight due to "mindless" over-
eating. At times in my life when I have felt bored, miserable or
frustrated [mildly depressed], I have gained weight due to "comfort
eating".

I do believe that there is much in what you say, Flick, about
underlying psychotherapeutic issues/energy blocks, in relation to fat-
deposition. In "Heal Your Body: The Mental Causes for Physical
Illness and the Metaphysical Way to Overcome Them"...
http://www.Amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1870845048/sunflowerheal-21
[you can buy a copy here for as little as 1P!]
the renowned healer, Louise Hay, attributes excess fat deposition
to "Oversensitivity - often represents fear and shows a need for
protection. Fear may be a cover for hidden anger ad a resistance to
forgive." She goes on to link specific areas of fat deposition
(thighs, hips, stomach, arms) to specific "repressed rage" issues.

What she says, links closely to my own learnings about the role of
the "fight/flight" warrior spirit energy. Oversensitivity (e.g. from
the old wounds that Flick refers to) and holding onto
resentments/victimhood, over-activates our naturally-
protective "warrior spirit" energy. This may be so powerful that it
is in itself quite frightening and therefore may be denied or
repressed, due to our social conditioning.

There can be a vicious cycle, as alluded to by Flick, wherein obese
people suffer increased "victim" experiences, leading to activation,
then repression, of the "warrior energy". The repression can be aided
by energy-deposition patterns such as comfort eating and/or lowered
metabolic rate due to depression.

Not all of us feel inclined to take up martial arts in order to
connect better with, and clear accumulations of, our "warrior
energy". My own journey out of the prison of depression [a
significant "vicious cycle" dynamic in many cases of obesity] took a
leap forward when I learned techniques for "cathartic release" of
held-in anger/rage/frustration
http://www.lovehealth.org/tools/catharsis.htm
which I now incorporate into my "Anger Management/Release"
workshops...
http://www.sunflower-health.com/courses/anger.htm

In these workshops we don't just give people an opportunity to "let
out" their built-up well of held-in rage in a safe and supported
environment (a private gym with mattresses). Research shows that the
benefits of this type of cathartic release alone are not sustainable
in the long-term (i.e. you will keep accumulating rage and therefore
need to keep doing it). After a full "letting out" (yelling and
flailing around as necessary - just like a young child will do quite
naturally - and actually only taking a couple of minutes) there is a
brief "window" when the underlying wound (as referred to by Flick) is
exposed. This gives an opportunity for the person concerned to gain a
glimpse (insight) into the root of the accumulated rage (e.g. a
childhood trauma or specific relationship dynamic) and for the the
person's partner, or our supportive group of fellow-sufferers, to put
some healing TLC (unconditional loving compassion) into the wounded
person so that the journey of healing that old wound (a source of
the "oversensitivity" that Louise Hay refers to) can begin.

Diet and Blood Type
--------------------
I don't know much about this subject, Joyce, but I am Blood Group A,
and I have to say that a mainly vegetarian diet now serves me very
well. I was raised in a high-meat-consumption culture and over the
last decade have become increasingly (but not rigidly) a veggie.

If I eat too much meat I become lethargic and develop aching joints.


A Happy and Healthy New Year to Everyone!

Mike