ing habits, for example, as I just noted regarding sugar and refined
carbohydrates. Second, stored body fat produces inflammatory chem-
icals that are a very serious threat to overall health. Chronic inflam-
mation is the first step in the process of development of most chronic
diseases, from Alzheimer’s and cancer to diabetes and heart disease.
What is Weight?
Most people consider excess body weight and body fat as synony-
mous. But this is untrue: what most really want to do is lose body fat.
We live in a weight-conscious society, and stepping on the scale each
morning is a powerful ritual, one difficult to break. Most of the
weight the scale measures is water, and most of this water is in the
muscles and other body areas, not fat. Body fat weighs much less.
However, body fat takes up much more space than water. Everyone
knows this: as we gain or lose fat, our clothes fit differently. In fact,
many of the patients I helped lose body fat often didn’t lose weight —
and some actually gained weight while getting healthy and losing
inches off their waist. As body fat is reduced, improved muscle func-
tion adds more weight, a healthy sign. So if we want to address the
real issue — reducing body fat — the best way to evaluate is by meas-
uring body size.
There are many ways to measure body size, and even percent
body fat. Many weight-loss programs sell various gadgets for deter-
mining this issue. But in keeping with simplifying the stress in your
life, my suggestion is to avoid the task of trying to focus on these
more detailed measurements — and avoid the risk of creating a new
obsession of measuring yourself. The most simple and practical way
to calculate changes in body fat is by periodically measuring your
waist with a tape measure. Do this at the level of the umbilicus, the
belly button. No other approach will provide you with more informa-
tion about what you need to do — either reduce or maintain body fat
levels.
For most people, it’s body fat that should be the focus. Reducing
body fat should be done in a healthy way, and fortunately, for the
majority of people, this is not difficult to accomplish. Essentially, this
whole book is about burning body fat, so this chapter will refer the
reader to other chapters for more detailed discussions of certain
306 • IN FITNESS AND IN HEALTH