I could go on for chapters about the detrimental effects of being sedentary and overweight, but instead I’ll just hit the lowlights.

Being sedentary, having a poor diet, smoking and being obese are leading causes of early death. It is a major risk factor for all forms of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, certain forms of cancer, and a host of other debilitating conditions such as gout, gallbladder disease, and sleep and mood disorders.¹ Body Mass Index (BMI) is the measurement used to determine whether a person qualifies as underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese. BMI is a calculation of height and weight and despite what some critics say it is a good predictor of health and life expectancy. People with higher muscle mass get a bit of leniency in terms of BMI, but not much. With all my muscle I am still within a normal BMI range.

Use the chart below to determine your BMI:

At six feet even and 175 pounds my BMI is 23.7 – leaning towards the higher side of normal due to having a higher than average amount of muscle, but it is still in the normal range. Even if I had eight more pounds of muscle (which would be pretty difficult for me to achieve without taking anabolic steroids) I would still fit in the normal range. The reason for this is that “normal” is rather forgiving. Normal does not mean you must have such a low body fat percentage that you have visible abdominal definition. You can have average musculature and some pretty good love handles and still fit well within normal. This is why the following information is so freakin’ scary. 

Americans are some of the fattest people on the planet, but not by much. The rest of the developed world is catching up. This information is not intended to make you feel better, though misery does love company.


Here is the data for American men by age group³: 

Age	BMI 18.5-25 (Normal)	BMI 25-29.99 (Overweight)	BMI >30 (Obese)
20-39	37.8	34.2	28
40-59	21.8	43.4	34.8
60+	26.3	43.3	30.4
20+	29.2	39.7	31.1

This is bad news. For men over the age of 20, 70.8% are overweight at the very least and 31.1% of all American men twenty and older qualify as obese. The obese folks are the ones at the greatest risk of early death. There is ample evidence to show that a person who is physically active on a regular basis and who eats a good quality diet can still be in the “overweight” category and live a long and healthy life.⁴ However, most overweight people do not follow such healthy lifestyles. Fewer than 30% of people are in the normal (or an insignificant number who are “underweight”) BMI range, and this figure is not surprisingly close to that of Americans who engage in enough regular physical activity to achieve health benefits: 23%.⁵ Oh, and did you note that the folks in the 60+ group see an almost 12% drop in the obese category? A good chunk of that can be explained by the fact that the obese people are dying! The healthy weight guys are living into their 80s and 90s and skewing the data. Seriously, when you see on the news about some dude celebrating his one-hundredth birthday, how often is the guy fat? 

Waist-to-Hip Ratio and Waist Circumference (WHR and WC)
It has recently been discovered that WHR and WC are even more highly associated with heart disease and death than BMI.⁶ I’ve spent more time analyzing BMI because it is still a good indicator, there is a great deal of population data for it, and it is an easy number for most people to determine. I’m not going to analyze WHR and WC in depth. Instead, I will simply tell you that the more fat you have around your midsection, the higher the risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and death. If you are an otherwise scrawny guy, it is possible to be in the normal BMI range and still have a noticeable gut, which is not healthy.  To improve your health, and to look a lot better, you must focus on losing the gut.  

Thanks, Doc!
Prior to the 20^th century lifestyles were a lot different; most labor was done by human power rather than machines. People didn’t need jogging shoes or gym memberships; they busted their asses all day long just to live. Diets were lower Calorie and lower in fat content and only a small percentage of the population were overweight. And the poor buggers dropped like flies. Average life expectancy prior to the 20^th century was less than 40 years of age.⁷ Yes, we have much longer lives now, but this is in spite of our terrible lifestyles. We have modern medicine to thank for improved longevity. Rates of death from heart disease are actually declining as obesity rates rise, but this is because of improved medical treatments,⁸ which does not mean you should maintain your crappy lifestyle and rely on doctors to save your fat ass.  A major healthcare crisis is looming because so many people are doing just that. In the not too distant future the whole system could become overwhelmed if people don’t start focusing on preventative medicine rather than treatment.⁹  

Is this You?
If you are in your 30s or 40s you may have a hard time worrying too much about something that could take a couple of decades to manifest, so think about the negative effects that being overweight could be having on you right now:

• Being embarrassed about the way you look. Aren’t you tired of sucking it in when you take your kids to the pool?
• Getting winded going up a flight of stairs
• Having low energy
• Being a weakling who can’t perform any real feats of strength
• Being in various states of pain
• Being stressed out
• Poor sleep habits
• Cancer: this one can sneak up on you sooner that you think
• ERECTILE DISFUNTION! Seriously, being overweight or obese raises the risk as much as 90%.¹⁰

• Stronger
• Faster
• Significantly increased endurance
• Having higher performance at almost everything, including mental tasks
• Lower stress and a more positive attitude about life
• WAY better looking
• Improved career success: there is ample scientific evidence that physically attractive people are more successful in myriad aspects of life, including being more likely to get hired at a given job, make a higher salary, and being more likely to get promoted.¹¹ Don’t be surprised if your wife wants sex more often as well.
• Higher sex drive, including harder erections and a shorter refractory period (downtime). Really fit guys aren’t the ones getting Viagra prescriptions
• Better sleep
• Fewer common illnesses due to a better functioning immune system
• Lowered bad cholesterol and higher good cholesterol levels
• Lowered blood pressure
• A better functioning body that experiences less pain
• A longer life that has a much shorter period of disability at the end

• A 2008 study entitled “Exceptional Longevity in Men” studied 970 men who lived to a minimum of 90 years of age. The conclusions were: “Modifiable healthy behaviors during early elderly years, including smoking abstinence, weight management, blood pressure control, and regular exercise, are associated not only with enhanced life span in men but also with good health and function during older age.” Some other interesting findings from the study were that 68% of the men reported their late-life health as excellent or very good, and less than 8% said their health was fair or poor.¹³
• Another 2008 study segmented over 9,000 middle-aged and older men based on four health behaviors: 1) smoking, 2) fruit and vegetable intake, 3) alcohol intake, and 4) physical activity. Those who had all four positive health behaviors (nonsmoker, moderate, light or nondrinker, moderate or high fruit and vegetable intake, moderately active or highly active) were compared with those who had none of these behavior traits. They found that those who had all four positive behaviors had the equivalent of a chronological age 14 years younger than those who had zero such behaviors.¹⁴
• A 1999 study in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine predicted that active non-smoking men could expect to live almost eight years longer than inactive smokers. It also predicted that active non-smokers would experience a much shorter period of disability near the end of their lives.¹⁵
• A 1987 study that was a twenty-year follow up of 636 Finnish men found that “a high level of habitual physical activity helps to prevent premature mortality, especially from coronary heart disease.”¹⁶
• A 2007 study of centenarians found that the majority of them had what is referred to as “compressed disability” or “compressed morbidity.” What this means is that the long-lived remain highly functional and without debilitating diseases until they are close to death.¹⁷ Being that leading a healthy lifestyle is proven to dramatically decrease the likelihood of contracting myriad diseases there is direct causation to lengthening life expectancy, and by reducing disease the years added are good quality ones.¹⁸
• A study published in 2008 of 15,660 white and black men shown a strong inverse correlation between exercise capacity and early death. They found that men in their 50s and 60s who had the best ability to exercise at a high exertion level had a much longer life expectancy. They did a follow up of the men 7.5 years later and found that 44% of the men in the “least fit” group had died, whereas as only 8% of the “highly fit” men had died.¹⁹
• A 2006 study of 5,820 men found that “High grip strength [an indicator of physical fitness] and avoidance of overweight, hyperglycemia [related to type 2 diabetes], hypertension, smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption were associated with both overall and exceptional survival.”²⁰ The study also found that men were more likely to live longer if they were married.²¹ I have my own theory about that last statement. I’m not sure that companionship has a direct causation in regards to longevity. I think it’s the nagging that keeps men alive. Single guys don’t have a woman telling them not to smoke, drink too much, eat pizza every night, sit on his ass all day getting fat etc. I think wives nag their husbands into adopting healthier lifestyles and as a result they live longer. I’d like to see a researcher conduct an academic analysis of my hypothesis.

• It gives you a major sense of accomplishment. Think about what it is going to do for your ego when you drop 40 pounds of fat and add 20 pounds of muscle and stay that way. It will make so many other goals you have seem more achievable.
• Being in shape provides you with the energy to follow through on those other ambitions.
• It gives you experience as a problem solver. Right now you’re in bad shape, and that’s a problem. Not only that, but it is one that is difficult to solve. Remember, I have written again and again that this isn’t going to be easy, but you will build a valuable skill set in doing so.

1. Claude Bouchard (Ed.), Physical Activity and Obesity, (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2000), p. 3; George Bray, “Overweight, Mortality and Morbidity,” Physical Activity and Obesity, p. 31.
2. National Institute of Health Body Mass Index Calculator: www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi
3. Cynthia Ogden et al., “Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in the United States, 1999-2004,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 295 (13), April 5, 2006, p. 1553.
4. Timothy Church et al., “Exercise Capacity and Body Composition as Predictors of Mortality among Men with Diabetes,” Diabetes Care, 27 (1), January, 2004, pp. 85-86; Peter Katzmarzyk et al., “Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity and Mortality,” Diabetes Care, 28 (2), February, 2005, pp. 393-395; Chong Do Lee et al., “Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Body Composition, and All-cause Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in Men,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 69, March, 1999, pp. 377-379.
5. Curt Lox et al., The Psychology of Exercise: Integrating Theory and Practice, (Scottsdale: Holcomb Hathaway, 2006), p. 27.
6. Lawrence de Koning et al., “Waist Circumference and Waist-to-Hip Ratio as Predictors of Cardiovascular Events: Meta-regression Analysis of Prospective Studies,” European Heart Journal, 28 (7), April, 2007, p. 850; T. Pischon et al., “General and Abdominal Adiposity and Risk of Death in Europe,” The New England Journal of Medicine, 359 (20), November 13, 2008, p. 2105.
7. Stuart Biddle and Nanette Mutrie, Psychology of Physical Activity and Exercise, (London: Springer-Verlag, 1991), p. 5.
8. Edward Gregg et al., “Secular Trends in Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors According to Body Mass Index in U.S. Adults,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 293 (15), April 20, 2005, p. 1871.
9. Martin Hagger and Nikos Chatzisarantis, The Social Psychology of Exercise and Sport, (New York: Open University Press, 2005), pp. 8-9.
10. K. Esposito et al., “Obesity and Sexual Dysfunction, Male and Female,” International Journal of Impotence Research, 20 (4), July-August, 2008, p. 358.
11. Gordon Patzer, Why Physically Attractive People are More Successful: The Scientific Explanation, Social Consequences, and Ethical Problems, (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006), pp. 445-446.
12. Pierpaulo De Feo et al., “Physical Inactivity is the Main Cause of Metabolic Syndrome,” Role of Physical Exercise in Preventing Disease and Improving the Quality of Life, by Vilberto Stocchi et al., (Eds.), (Milan, Italy: Springer-Verlag, 2007), p. 30.
13. Laurel Yates et al., “Exceptional Longevity in Men: Modifiable Factors Associated with Survival and Function to Age 90 Years,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 168 (3), February 11, 2008, p. 284.
14. Kay-Tee Khaw et al., “Combined Impact of Health Behaviors and Mortality in Men and Women: The EPIC-Norfolk Prospect Population Study,” PLoS Medicine, 5 (1), January, 2008, p. 42.
15. L. Ferruci et al., “Smoking, Physical Activity and Active Life Expectancy,” Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 149 (4), 1999, p. 645.
16. Juha Pekkanen et al., “Reduction of Premature Mortality by High Physical Activity: A 20-Year Follow-up of Middle-aged Finnish Men,” The Lancet, June 27, 1987, pp. 1476-1477.
17. Dellara Terry et al., “Disentangling the Roles of Disability and Morbidity in Survival to Exceptional Old Age,” Archives of Internal Medicine 168 (3), February 11, 2008, p. 282.
18. David Hood et al., “Exercise-Induced Mitochondrial Biogenesis in Skeletal Muscle,” Role of Physical Exercise in Preventing Disease and Improving the Quality of Life, by Vilberto Stocchi et al., (Eds.), (Milan, Italy: Springer-Verlag, 2007), p. 52; Michele Guescini et al., “Molecular Modifications Induced by Physical Exercise: A Significant Role in Disease Prevention,” Vilberto Stocchi et al., (Eds.), p. 94.
19. Peter Kokkinos et al., “Exercise Capacity and Mortality in Black and White Men,” Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, 117 (5), February 5, 2008, pp. 618-621.
20. Bradley Willcox et al., “Midlife Risk Factors and Healthy Survival in Men,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 296 (19), November 15, 2006, p. 2343.
21. Ibid., p. 2343.