“Big Billie,” as we call him at the gym, just got the bad news. His doctor told him: “You have diabetes.” He’s been feeling depressed ever since. He never thought it could happen to him.

Billie is a 43 year old powerlifter I’ve known for years.He’s a mountain of a man with a 545 pound bench press. At5′ 9″ and 265 pounds, he has muscle on top of muscle, butNOT all of that weight is lean mass. Billie is overweight.

Billie does zero cardiovascular exercise and for years, hehas defiantly eaten anything he wanted. He even used to crackjokes about his “big gut” all the time.

His strength and muscle mass didn’t protect him from diabetes.

For the first time in his life, fortunately, he came aroundasking what he should eat to lose fat and get healthy again.

diabetes_small.jpgDr. John Kovac, a long time Burn The Fat newsletter readerand M.D., coincidentally, sent me an email yesterday that leftme aghast.

“Tom, I just came back from a Kaiser Permanente Annual DiabetesConference here in LA today and some of the findings areunnerving.

Here are a few facts for you to think about asyou write your newsletters…”

Currently 1/3 of people with diabetes are also depressed.
47 million Americans have what is called Metabolic Syndrome, due to obesity.
40 million additional Americans have Pre-Diabetes, with abnormal glucose tolerance.
20 million Americans are diabetic.
60 million Americans are obese, with BMI over 30.

There were 195 million diabetics in the world in 1995.
There were 200 million diabetics in the world in 2000.
By 2030 there will be 366 million diabetics in the world.

Death rate from complications of diabetes has increasedby 45% since 1947.

Depression precedes diabetes.
Depression precedes metabolic syndrome.
Depression precedes obesity.

Medical Doctors can impact only about 10% of the people regarding
premature death from all causes, and 90% are out of control of
healthcare systems and doctors.

Smoking causes 435,000 premature deaths per year in the USA.
Half of all smokers carry some mental illness diagnosis.

58% of diabetes is directly caused by obesity.
14% of diabetes is directly due to physical inactivity.

365,000 premature deaths are caused directly by obesityand inactivity.

Researchers with a great idea for a new medication to treator prevent diabetes have only about a 2% chance that theiridea will ever reach the market, due to the regulations andconstraints on such development.

From time of idea, to time of marketing for a new medication iscurrently around 20 years. We don’t have enough time to waitfor the magic bullet.

50% of all drugs given to patients do not work for the patientsthat they are given to. That is the nature of genetic variability.

Every 10 seconds one diabetic person dies in the USA. But inthe same 10 seconds two new diabetics are diagnosed with the disease.

Absolutely no intervention tested is effective in slowing orstopping the progression of pre-diabetes to diabetes. The onlything that appears to make any difference at all is to reducebody fat and stabilize the function of the cells in the pancreasthat produce insulin.

“As I said above, it was a very interesting conference, andoutlined the fact that at current rates of diabetes appearancewe will never impact that in the healthcare industry. We mustdo something to CHANGE THE BEHAVIOR OF PEOPLE. In the 1960s wedid that with seatbelts. In the 1950’s 50% of Americans weresmokers, and now only 25% are. We still have a long way to go.”

“I tell my patients that diabetes is not a disease, but acondition that requires management. If you ignore it, other badthings will happen.”

Special thanks to Dr. Kovac for sending me these statisticsto share with all our Burn The Fat readers all across the globe.

Now take a look at this list:

1. Abdominal obesity (waist circumference greater than 40inches/ 102 cm in men, or 35 inches/ 88 cm in women

2. High triglycerides: greater than 150 mg/dl

3. Reduced HDL cholesterol: lower than 40 mg/dl

4. elevated blood pressure: greater than 130/85

5. elevated fasting glucose: greater than 110 mg/dl

This is a list of the symptoms of metabolic syndrome. If youhave three or more of these symptoms, you have metabolic syndromeand you are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease as wellas type 2 diabetes.

A randomized controlled clinical trial at Brown Medical Schooljust published in September said that one third of overweightsubjects had metabolic syndrome and that males and people overage 44 were at even higher risk.

The good news is, the research also showed that even small lossesin bodyweight markedly reduced the risk. For each 1 kg of weightlost, the odds of metabolic syndrome were reduced by 8%

If you have a friend or loved one who is at risk, please sharethis information. You can always give someone a friendly, caringnudge, although I realize that sometimes, a “slap in the face”wake up call is needed.

If you are carrying excess body weight yourself, then I’m givingyou a nudge, or consider this YOUR wake up call.

Whether you use my program (www.burnthefat.com), another program,or you just do it completely on your own, I’m urging you not to wait.

Begin to change your behaviors today. Begin to clean up your eatinghabits right now. It doesn’t matter that it’s the holidays. In fact,with this being a stressful season with many temptations,there couldn’t be a better time to start.

I also urge you to include exercise, not just diet.

Results of an Austrian study were just released a week ago whichsaid that “fat loss depends on the energy deficit only and not themethod for weight loss.” It was the second study of its kind thisyear and the media and anti-exercise bandwagon jumped all over itand started shouting “see! You don’t need exercise after all. Just diet.”

You mean, “A caloric deficit from food reduction causes the same amountof body mass lost as an equal caloric deficit from aerobic exercise???”No kidding Einstein! It’s called the law of energy balance.

However, people who exercise, especially when they do both weight trainingand cardio, usually have outstanding glycemic control and fewerproblems with blood sugar management, not to mention all the otherhealth and fitness benefits.

They not only weigh less, they are stronger, fitter and have more attractive physiques.

As Dr. John Berardi recently said, “not exercising is a fool’s choice.”

Any energy deficit will make you lose body mass. But what isyour “lighter” body going to look like after losing body mass fromdiet alone? A smaller version of your current body maybe? Or maybejust a “skinny fat person.” what more would you expect with no exercise?

Exercise is the chisel you use to sculpt your body.

Yes, losing weight with diet alone will improve your health andreduce risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes. But no amount offood restriction will get you fit and strong or give you a nicephysique.

Here you have the simple 1-2-3 formula which is theoptimum way to improve your body composition, get healthier,get fitter, AND get stronger:

(1) Healthy food choices with mild caloric deficit
+
(2) Cardiovascular exercise
+
(3) Weight training

If you’re not using this formula, then read those statistics again,especially the ones about inactivity. I hope they serve as a wake upcall to millions and I hope the message is clear:

Do not ignore these “twin epidemics” – diabetes and obesity. Change your behavior. Start withyourself, then help others.

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About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength andconditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer(CPT). Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,”which teaches you how to get lean without drugs o
r supplementsusing methods of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models.Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolismnaturally by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com

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