Tom Elliott: We must find the will to lose weight

THERE are many things in our lives that we can’t control but our weight isn’t one of them — in an obese world we must find the will to slim, writes Tom Elliott.

AUSTRALIA is a nation of fatties. I should know; I was once one of them. Collectively, we love fast food, are averse to exercise and have a predilection for making excuses.

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In order to halt our climb up the obesity tables, we must do two relatively simple things: eat less and move more. All we need is the willpower to act.

As a child I was overweight. I disliked sport and loved calorie-rich after-school snacks (like Coco Pops with milk — and a dollop of cream). As a consequence, by the age of 12 I was well above my recommended weight.

For that I was teased by other kids. Children at my school called me cruel names like “Fatso” and “Blubberguts”. During the 1970s and ’80s, a typical class of 30 children would have had, at most, one or two overweight members. And I was one of them. Because I stuck out — quite literally — my classmates considered me fair game. At the time I hated those who tormented me. But in hindsight I should have thanked them. Sick of all the taunts, at the age of 13 I decided to solve my weight problem. The easy approach would have been to blame others, keep eating too much and demand acceptance. Instead, I started running and going to the gym — every day. I also told my mother I didn’t want any more junk food in my lunchbox.

Slowly, but surely, the lard fell away and was replaced by muscle. My performance at sport improved dramatically. My level of self-confidence grew. In general, I felt much better about life. And I learnt an important lesson: excess weight is a choice for most people, not something that is forced on them.

Obesity represents a massive cost to our public health system.

Some of the statistics about obesity are truly frightening. According to the The New England Journal of Medicine, a third of the world’s population (that’s a staggering 2.2 billion people) is now overweight. Proportionately, Australia’s problem is even worse: the World Health Organisation has estimated 67 per cent of us weigh more than we should.

Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that one in four Australian children under the age of 17 is overweight or obese. If you’re not the proper weight at a time in life when your body is growing and sport is compulsory at school, chances are you’ll be fat for good.

And there’s really nothing good about being overweight. Although fat people are often referred to as “jolly” in kids’ stories, excess kilos cause all sorts of medical problems. According to the Australian Medical Association, “Obesity is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, musculoskeletal diseases and impaired social functioning”.

If that isn’t enough, obesity also represents a massive cost to our public health system.

DUE to Australians’ increased size, many ambulances are having to be redesigned to accommodate bigger patients. The same is true for emergency ward gurneys and hospital beds — devices that until recently catered for most people must now be widened and strengthened. Even paramedics and nurses complain of back strain from lifting patients who often weigh upwards of 150kg.

Society’s obesity problem can be dealt with two ways: first, we could take the easy route and simply accept it. This implies telling people that weight is something over which they have no control. That diets don’t work. That exercise is too hard. That our bodies simply want to be big (and unhealthy) and we should accommodate them.

Only a small minority of people are overweight because of a genuine medical complaint. The rest are just lazy.

That approach appeals to people who deny personal responsibility for their problems; like those who claim drug use is a disease, or that a tough childhood justifies violent crimes in later life.

It also means that we’ll have to keep building bigger hospital beds for the growing number of patients who can’t control their appetites.

Alternatively, we could toughen up our approach to obesity. Essentially, our bodies are machines. Given the right amounts of fuel and nutrients, they’re capable of immense athletic feats. Overdo the fuel, and forgo the exercise, however, and excess kilos inevitably pile on.

Here is my hard-earned advice to maintain a healthy weight. Most of us should eat and drink less than what we’d like. That means smaller meal portions, more vegetables than meat, limited takeaway food, no soft drink and keeping desserts to a minimum.

In addition, we all require at least 45 minutes of vigorous daily exercise. It doesn’t really matter whether you run, swim, lift weights or whatever; just do something that makes your heart beat faster.

And finally, we need to ease off the excuses. Only a small minority of people are overweight because of a genuine medical complaint. The rest are just lazy. If you’re 35 years old, weigh more than 120kg, “enjoy” your food and can no longer see your toes, put down the fork and go for a walk.

Repeat that every day, without fail, and soon positive results will appear.

Weight gain isn’t really society’s problem. Rather, most individuals have the ability to fix it. Willpower is the only ingredient lacking.

Tom Elliott is 3AW drivetime host, weekdays 3pm-6pm

@TomElliott3AW