The holidays are here again, which means that many of us are going to be packing on weight and then agonizing about losing it. When you sit down with your family to a holiday feast, the last thing you want to worry about is your low-fat or low-carb fad diet. Wouldn't it be nice to forget about counting calories, eat what you want over the holidays and still remain thin?
According to David Hariton - the thin, 40-something author of Survival of the Thinnest -- you don't need to make a crazy New Year's resolution in order to lose weight. His research led to a diagnostic breakthrough that provides motivational energy for sticking with a simple plan, and he reports that his 30-minutes a day prescription works to let you look good, feel great and stay thin while eating whatever you want.
Hariton's conclusion is that all diets are doomed, because they fight our genetic script. Over time, he explains, our genes have evolved, and now an "active, thin/sedentary, fat" gene directs our bodies to stay thin if we are active and store fat if we are sedentary. As a number of studies show, our bodies are not merely passive fat depositories; instead, they actively maintain the particular level of fat that suits a person's lifestyle - high levels of fat if you're a couch potato; low levels if you "make your body think you run for a living."
That's why the key to Hariton's approach is exercise. "By maintaining a 30-minute daily exercise regimen, you will stay thin for the rest of your life," he declares. "Once you get your 30 minutes out of the way, you won't have to be active again all day. You can spend the rest of your time lounging about in an easy chair and still be able to eat whatever you want without gaining weight."
In our diet-obsessed culture, Hariton has had the nerve to design a stay-thin plan that eliminates dieting and all its frustrations. His process works, he says, because it lets you take advantage of your genetic inheritance to make your body "change its mind" about how thin to let you be.
Bestselling author John E. Sarno, M.D., who is also Professor of Rehabilitation at the New York University School of Medicine, supports Hariton's position. "Mr. Hariton maintains that exercise is the key to being thin and that this is genetically determined," Sarno says. "He obviously has done his homework and is an excellent writer, so reading his book was both an instructional and pleasurable experience."
Hariton's research jibes with a recent report in Nature about a study conducted by Dr. Dennis M. Bramble of the University of Utah and Dr. Daniel E Lieberman of Harvard University. When our distant ancestors developed primitive running attributes, the study's authors concluded, they must have improved the odds for survival and reproduction.
According to Hariton, Survival of the Thinnest is about helping people realize that running (along with other kinds of exercise) is still crucial, and that being thin and healthy for life is well worth 30 minutes a day. "My plan is designed to get you lean and keep you that way permanently, as no fad diet, extreme exercise routine, or expensive and ineffective pills ever can," he notes. "What's more, the life you live will be happier, healthier, stronger, more energetic, and more fun."
Survival of the Thinnest is available through www.survivalofthethinnest.com, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble.com as well as at independent bookstores throughout the country, and the fact that booksellers are ordering more and more copies may mean that there will be lots of thin and happy hearty eaters as this holiday season progresses.