1/3rd of homeless people obese

That was the headline of an article on Yahoo today... - it's "about the same proportion as people who aren't homeless."

I won't go into the details of it - that's for a political blog that I write for - but this paragraph is one you need to read:

But, the high rate of obesity among homeless people may be due to their reliance on cheap foods that contain high levels of fat and sugar. Another possible explanation could be physiological -- chronic food shortages cause the body to adapt by storing fat reserves.

The first explanation is of course a dig at restaurants like McDonalds, I daresay, with their $1 hamburgers and chicken sandwiches (*I* can remember when a hamburger, french fries and a pop cost a dollar!).

But it's the second explanation that you must take heed of:
Chronic food shortages cause the body to adapt by storing fat reserves.

That's why my pretentious little soundtrack producer takes forever and ever to lose weight, because he eats only one meal a day. His body is in constant starvation mode, so it stores fat and keeps it rather than burning it.

And it also explains why he gains back all the weight he lost (over a longer period of time than if he'd eaten three small meals o' the day) as soon as he starts eating three meals a day, small as they might be. The body takes that food, and instead of burning it off or using it as energy, immediately stores it as fat in preparation for the next bout of being given only one "meal o' the day."

And this is why you, too, musn't start starving yourself in order to lose weight. Start cutting back - very gradually - on food, so that your body has a chance to get used to it and wont' go into that starvation - immediately convert any food into fat - mode.

It helps your body, therefore, and it also helps your own willpower. If you cut back on food gradually, your appetite will also gradually cut back, until you will, eventually, be perfect satisfied with those smaller food portions, and feel no desire to snack. And, once you've lost the weight you want to lose, you can, gradually, add another serving of this or that food - but only one serving of each, of course, enough to maintain your weight instead of continuing to lose it.

And this must be done gradually as well. Your body is used to smaller portions, and you don't want to trigger an appetite attack by pigging out in celebration!

Slow and steady is always the key.