In high school, I joined the wrestling team. The coach took one look at me and said, "you need to drop twenty pounds." I had no experience with weight loss. Having no knowledge on how to do it effectively, and no examples in my life of people who had, I interpreted his blunt invitation as being as absurd as saying, "you need to fly to the moon." That's nice, but impossible.
Having learned a lot about the way bodies work since then, and having gained a lot of experience in my own, I have not only dropped 20 pounds many times in my life, but could do so again, right now, without a problem.
This is, I fear, far too similar to the experience of all people when it comes to most kinds of improvement--including the integral, consummate improvement known as "repentance" of "sin." I put these two words in quotes to highlight that I am not using these words in the common modern sense, where they are strictly limited to overtly religious ideas.
What I am talking about is the complete alignment of an individual to his or her imagination of the best person one could possibly be, at all times and in all places. You can read more about that in my book called "Repentance."
Recently, I subjected my children to the 1978 movie "Superman." I say subject because that movie is not nearly as good as I recall. We had an interesting experience, though.
It seems we were all struck by how everyone in Metropolis was what today would be regarded as skinny. Even the old ladies. The only person in the movie who was not in impeccable shape by today's standards was Otis, the dolting minion of Lex Luthor. And he was obviously cast for the fact that he was much heavier than his colleagues, constantly snacking on something. Speaking of chunk, do you remember the movie "Goonies?" As I recall, the only two not skinny people were Mama Fratelli--who likewise was cast because she was abnormally unattractive in every way (her face, her voice, her behavior)--and the kid named "Chunk." Both were caricatures clearly meant to be exaggerations beyond acceptable norms. Chunk, for example, was always eating candy bars and ice cream and acting foolishly. Neither Chunk nor Otis nor Mama Fratelli were obese. They were merely overweight, and actually quite average by today's standards. While neither Chunk nor Otis would be regarded as even slightly abnormal today, it is fascinating that just a few years ago, they were sufficiently abnormal to fit the need for an absurd character. It is also important to note that the writers found it natural to make their characters morally and mentally deficient. Back then, one's weight was seen as an outward sign of one's self-governance ability, and a problem with self-governance in eating was regarded as evident of a problem with self-governance in all other things. So Chunk couldn't just be chunky, he had to be untrustworthy. Mama Fratelli couldn't just be heavy, she had to be old, wrinkled, have a gravel voice, be a horridly abusive mother and a murderer. Otis had to be an unreliable moron.
Here, I want to make an emphasis that I repeat often: when I bring up things that are particularly offensive, it's not the thing itself that I am drawing attention to. I'm using something that evokes a visceral response to draw attention to a much deeper, much bigger problem.
The little things are the big things. If you are openly rebelling against God in the little things, how will he teach you about the bigger things? As Jesus said to Nicodemus, "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" (John 3:12)
So, why are so many people fat today? Even normal people today are not normal by standards that suddenly and abruptly collapsed around 15 years ago. Why isn't it just the morons and the klutzes and the crime bosses who are overweight today? What happened?
The problem here is not obesity, or gluttony. Those are both sinful, don't get me wrong. But eating the wrong things too much and too often belies a much bigger problem.
There is more of a connection here than it seems. Is violation of weight norms the only thing once seen as a moral issue that is accepted and even celebrated today? No, it' s not.
Let's get back to my opener. I will never struggle with my weight because I discovered a way to lose weight that works better than any of the many things I've experimented with previously, none of which provided results that were in any way worthy the trouble: fasting. Who would have thought that the most effective solution to a problem could be to do nothing? And yet, the 100% most effective way to lose weight is to simply stop eating any calories at all for a prolonged period of time.
To vastly simplify the science of fasting: Your body will not burn fat in any significant amount until you remove all insulin from your blood. Any calorie you eat triggers the release of insulin into your blood. When you stop eating, it takes about a day to burn through the short-term stores of sugar your body has in your muscles and liver. After that, it switches over to fat. It's that simple. One pound of fat is 3,500 calories. Rounding out all the details: multiply 3,500 by how many pounds you want to lose, divide by how many calories you burn a day and add 1: this is how many days you'd have to fast to lose that much weight. If it's a really big number, you can split it up into chunks, but remember you will suffer one extra day of burning the short term stores for each chunk you split into. [1]
Here we have a problem that no one wants to talk about, a solution that is so easy that it should be common knowledge, a shockingly small segment of people who are putting it into practice, a supermajority residue who are pretending the problem is unsolvable while persecuting those who have clearly found and practiced a solution. And thus it is with pretty much everything today.
Why is it that so many people are overweight today? What changed? In short, society had drunken deeply from the liquor of delusion.
For example, society has drunken deeply from the idea that you can violate your character sometimes, so long as you are mostly good. In all aspects of our modern culture, we've accepted the lie that it is ok to be a little bad. Take it easy at work, just don't get fired. Get a little crazy at parties, but keep your weekday life respectable. There are two scriptural phrases for this idea.
Here is the first:
8 And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.
9 Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false and vain and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark. (2 Nephi 28)
Isn't it interesting how this description includes eating and drinking? Also note how it is tied to doing things in secret?
Here is the second:
36 And now, I say unto you, my brethren, that after ye have known and have been taught all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom’s paths that ye may be blessed, prospered, and preserved—
37 I say unto you, that the man that doeth this, the same cometh out in open rebellion against God; therefore he listeth to obey the evil spirit, and becometh an enemy to all righteousness; therefore, the Lord has no place in him, for he dwelleth not in unholy temples. (Mosiah 2)
The truth is that everything you do matters. Everything you do has an impact on who you are. There is no such thing as a secret sin. You can't resist or reject your conscience without becoming a worse person. Privately doing what you know is wrong or neglecting what you know is right WILL have impacts on you in ways that other people will see, and ways that will affect you and those you love, just as overeating is going to make you fat, even if you just do it every once in a while.
The solution is to reconcile yourself completely to what you know is right. Don't just sin less, stop sinning. Don't just eat less, stop eating. Fast from food, and forsake sin. When you return to eating, eat what you should, not what you could. And act that way in all things.
Modern society has willfully turned away from the obviousness of reality. This is a terminal spiral: when you start being dishonest about something, you have to become more dishonest about everything to keep that first lie going. Modern society has willfully turned away from the obviousness of reality. This is a terminal spiral. When you start pretending that your weight has anything to do with anything other than what you choose to put into your mouth, you need to start lying about a lot of other things to keep that first lie going.
You absolutely possess the power to fix yourself, in all things. God gave you this power. Stop relinquishing your agency to others by blaming them for your own choices. In weight matters, the solution is so simple you simply need do nothing. In the broader issues, it's a little more complicated, but the right way is so obvious that it is described as being comparable to the difference between daylight and night:
15 For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.
16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God. (Moroni 7)
It is so obvious that indulging in sin is like exerting the effort to pull a cart around with you everywhere you go:
18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5)
There are people who are fit in modern times, and you can be fit, too. There are people who do not sin in modern times, and you can be sinless, too. And you really need to get moving, because the time is short.
The plentitude of overweight people makes it easier to make excuses for yourself. Realize that there are people, even today, who do not indulge in gluttony. Realize that 30 years ago, when the world was a much saner place, you would be in an extreme minority. Back then, you would be considered a person who should not be entrusted with anything that matters, because you refuse to govern yourself in even the simplest of ways according to what is obviously good and right.
[1] This should be obvious, but legal disclaimers are an unfortunate part of modern society. Do your own research and consult a medical doctor before enacting health plans such as fasting to ensure your actions are within what you can safely handle.