Pioneer press ran an interesting story recently on the effect your weight can have on your job.  If you think your weight isn’t anybody’s business, you’d better think again.  With health insurance costs sky rocketing, many employers are paying attention to your figure whether or not you are.  Companies like General Mills have made “healthy weight” part of their mission statement.  A Minneapolis marketing firm launched a “Biggest Loser”-style weight-loss contest. An Indianapolis employer even proposed $30 fines for overweight workers!  Treasure Island Resort & Casino now requires employees and their spouses to take a medical exam which includes a body mass index reading in order to qualify for employer-sponsored insurance.

With two-thirds of Americans overweight or obese health care costs are being driven up. It is estimated that obesity costs corporate America $13 billion a year in additional health insurance expenses, sick leave, life insurance and disability insurance.  In response, employers preaching the benefits of eating better, eating less and exercising more.

Of course, this doesn’t come without some backlash.  A recent national survey of 30,000 employees shows that 88% don’t think their health should be dictated by their employer.  The same survey found that 88% of employers plan to invest in wellness programs within the next 5 years.

Consider General Mills. The food giant, a regular on lists of best places to work, has long offered fitness programs to its corporate employees in Golden Valley. Now, manufacturing plant managers across the country are using the corporate wellness programs as models for their own customized programs.

Clarian Health Partners, the Indianapolis company that tried to fine people for being overweight, had to change their program to an incentive program instead that rewarded people for meeting the standard for body mass index.

So, what are the legal limits?  The jury is still out on that. There are restrictions in how big a financial incentive can be, for instance.

Let’s face it; health and fitness are part of the new culture. Employers may not be forcing workers to run around the block or forgo the doughnuts and half-and-half with their morning coffee, but there is no doubt there is a good deal of peer pressure to shape up, or face the consequences in lost benefits — and very probably being passed over for a promotion or even a job — although you won’t find that the official reason on the paperwork.

Want to watch your figure so that your boss doesn’t see you in a negative light?  Be sure to include some exercise in your weekly routine.  Some type of aerobic exercise that gets your heart pumping and makes you use oxygen is your best bet.  Brisk walking for 20 to 30 minutes 3 days a week will increase your calorie consumption and aid you in releasing unwanted pounds.  In addition to eating healthy foods, try calorie cycling to really speed up your weight release by shifting your metabolism into overdrive and giving you an extra energy boost.

A recent study in Economic Inquiry raises the question: “Is fat the new normal?” Let’s face it, what we consider “normal” changes based on what appears to be a majority rules mind set. With approximately 2/3 of the American population now considered overweight or even obese, has this changed our view of what we see as “normal weight?”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think we needed to adjust our sights from the rail thin, “waif” look that was so popular when skinny models on the covers of fashion magazines were all the rage. The skeletal look caused widespread self-esteem issues among American women – especially young girls – as they compared themselves with these impossibly thin role models. But, has the pendulum swung too far in the opposite direction now making fat the new normal?

The study found that standards for acceptable body weight relax as the average weight of the population increases. And the average weight continues to increase in response to the loosening up of social standards. This report doesn’t really present any shockingly new information. A 2000 study in Obesity Research obtained similar results in that people general choose their own shape as being within the “acceptable” range – even if the respondents were obviously outside of what would be considered a healthy body weight.

In the end, what truly matters is not what is “normal” or “acceptable” but rather, what is “healthy”. Do you feel energetic? Can you take a brisk walk without gasping for breath? Is your blood cholesterol level in a healthy range? If you answered now to any of those questions, then it may be time to re-evaluate your own body shape. If it isn’t where you would like it to be, you can change it.

A healthy diet combined with physical exercise is your best bet at achieving a healthy weight for your own body. Yo-yo dieting, low fat/low carb diets or the latest diet fad won’t get you where you want to be long-term. Calorie cycling is a wonderful way to achieve that healthy weight. You don’t lose the weight only to put it back on, because you never feel as though you are depriving yourself of the foods you love. In fact, most people comment that they can eat far more food than they ever dreamed, and still lose weight. And, the best part is, because you are retraining yourself to eat more healthily rather than simply “dieting”, you will keep the weight off.

Shifting calories is quite simple.

All one needs to do is eat moderate calories 5 days of the week, and then have two higher “cheat days” (calculators are available within yayFOOD.com).

The reason that this works so well is because the body is kept constantly guessing. It can’t ever anticipate a set amount of calories coming to it, so it doesn’t know what to hold fat storages for. With normal low calorie diets, the body is able to easily adjust.

People love it since they’re not miserable at all (they don’t have to eat low calorie for any of the days… and the days that they want to eat more, they know that they have a cheat day right around the corner.

People who shift calories end up falling in love with this method of weight loss since they don’t feel restricted or neglected at all.

As mentioned in other posts, psychologists and doctors heartily recommend shifting calories.

A common misconception with calorie cycling is that it’s a new “fad” to lose weight. The truth is, bodybuilders have been using it for years. Calorie cycling is just taking the same concept and applying it to LOSE weight.

What calorie cycling does is take the way that our bodies were made (since evolution) and spins it to work for the way that our bodies are now.

The thing is – when we first started out as cavemen, we had totally different lifestyles. We chased our food to the ground, we were very active, and we didn’t sit around and watch T.V. for hours on end in our heated homes.

(Not saying there’s anything wrong with that – but it’s a fact of life.)

Anyway, when people used to eat in the cavemen era, they never knew when they were getting more food… so every time they’d eat, they would eat a LOT… and their bodies adjusted and held on to the food as “fat storages”. Their metabolisms literally slowed down to adjust for the fact that they were eating the way that they were.

Today, this isn’t the case. We still eat a lot… but we don’t need the body to hold on to fat storages, because we always have a lot of food around.

Our bodies don’t know this though… so when we eat the extra food, it continues to hold everything.

With calorie cycling (also known as shifting calories or the zigzag method), the metabolism can never remain stagnant, because the user is constantly “shocking” it by changing up their calorie intake.

Some days they might eat less calories, and some more… so the body can’t adjust to one set way of eating (most people eat consistently high calorie, or even consistently low calorie), and the whole “fat storage” formula is shocked.

The body doesn’t know what to do – hold on to fat storage, don’t hold on to fat storage – and as a result, you end up losing weight.

While this sounds a bit odd, it’s actually very healthy and is recommended by most doctors and psychologists.

When you eat low calorie or low carbohydrate, your body gets used to the same routine. Eating 1200 (or however many you choose) calories every day is something that your body can easily get used to, and it will adjust accordingly. It will lower your metabolism accordingly, and it will make you lose weight at a much slower pace.

Changing up your calories is a great way to lose weight, because it helps you easily trick your body.

With this method, your body never knows what’s coming to it, so it will never be able to plateau. You’ll continuously lose weight, over and over again.

This is also great for your mindset, psychologically speaking. First of all, you’re never bored on this “diet”. This is great because a “diet” isn’t a long-term fix. People get bored with “diets”, and then revert back to their old eating habits. The shifting calorie method is one in which you can stay with for life.

With this lifestyle change, you shift you calories to a certain level on different days. Because some days are almost drastically higher, you get to “cheat” on those days. This is great for people because they don’t feel like they’re missing out on their favorite foods, or that they’re different from the non-dieters in their life.

With the shifting calorie method, you also don’t need to deprive yourself of nutrients, as you would on diets such as the cabbage soup diet, the cookie diet, or other popular fad diets. You can eat whatever you want, as long as it’s within calorie allotments.