overweight

The issue of political correctness is a struggle for me. It’s not that I personally try to offend anyone, but rather I look to entertain. See, I firmly believe in the wisdom of Johnny Carson: “People will pay more to be entertained that educated.” When it comes to writing about fitness and weight loss, I endeavour to do both.

It's no secret that more and more Canadians are overweight, but a new report shows us exactly who is gaining the most — and what some provinces could learn from their healthier neighbours.

Are you looking to shed a few pounds? We've got advice from someone who's been there, and who's kept it off for almost 20 years.

On Monday of this week, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information released a joint 62-page report on obesity in Canada (PDF). Dr. Arya Sharma is an internationally-renowned Canadian obesity researcher who referred to this report as “thoughtful, insightful, and thorough...” I’ve been reading Dr. Sharma’s blogs for a while, and this is a guy who doesn’t pull punches. He had largely good things to say about the report, but criticised the way the media covered it.

According to a new study out of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, our jobs are contributing to rising obesity rates. According to the study, “Over the last 50 years in the U.S. we estimate that daily occupation-related energy expenditure has decreased by more than 100 calories, and this reduction in energy expenditure accounts for a significant portion of the increase in mean U.S. body weights for women and men.”