everything i have read about finance says the small changes don’t help much when faced with a daunting goal or debt. drastic changes need to be made. you need to make a big lifestyle change to have an impact. little ones won’t do it.

also, i have read you are into gaming. why not try the xbox kinect? it is a great way to combine gaming with exercise.

You should push yourself to work harder and don’t just settle for 15 minutes a day. I find it hard to believe that will truly pay off on the long haul. And why bother getting dressed to work out if you’re only doing it 15 minutes. Give it at least a half hour!

I think the stability ball is one of the best pieces of equipment out there! I hope it helps your back. Good luck with the new goals/routine!

JD is right, however, it is most important to find something that you will stick with.

Best of luck in 2012!

Losing 52 pounds? What happened to the 40 pounds you had lost before? I remember that whenever someone challenged you on something you wrote about diet or fitness, you’d say something like “this works, I have lost XX pounds doing this”.

I hope you don’t have any reading goals for 2012. We already know you read a lot and it’s not such a challenging goal…

And, to add to the growing list of the “I know best” suggestions already given, I’d recommend following The Fat Loss Bible ebook by Anthony Colpo

The key is finding a lifestyle that works for you. Low carb works great for me because it has eliminated all of my cravings. I’m smaller than I was in my early 20′s and that was ten years ago. I feel great. But remember, it isn’t something that you just have to do for a few months or a year and the. Go back to your old ways. It is something you are going to have to work on and be committed to for the rest of your life.

Stay focused!

Second, even if a health problem is the direct result of a person’s weight, telling them to lose weight isn’t always the best way to treat it. For many people, losing 1 pound per week means it would take years to get down to a “normal” BMI, but the health problem may need to be treated sooner than that.

Finally, “seeing people who are overweight as being unconcerned with their health” *is* fat hatred, just like making generalizations about people based on their race is racism. Do you need me to spell it out for you?

How about treating the issue while simultaneously working on weight loss? How about acknowledging that weight loss is a seriously complicated issue? I guarantee you every single obese person knows the “eat less than you burn” rule. They probably think about it every single day too. That fact doesn’t make losing weight easy.

Acknowledging that losing weight is difficult is not the same as making excuses.

You know what doesn’t help at all? Seeing the fat and not the person. Treating obese people as second-class citizens who don’t deserve medical treatment until they lose weight.

Being overweight leads to so many health problems that I think it is at least somewhat reasonable to suggest the person lose the weight before treating them for a symptom of the problem rather than dealing with the cause.

First, correlation does not equal causation. If a disease/condition is correlated with higher body weight, it could mean that being heavier causes the disease, or it could mean that the disease causes you to gain weight.

Second, there are also diseases/conditions correlated with lower body weight. Think osteoporosis.

Third, none of this happens in a vacuum. If a thin person goes to the doctor with the beginning stages of osteoarthritis, they’re more likely to be taken seriously and given treatment that may help them avoid a joint replacement. If a heavy person goes to the doctor for the same reason, the doctor is likely to say “Go away until you lose weight.” I have no idea how much of the correlation between weight and joint replacements this might explain. But fat hatred in the medical community exists and is not irrelevant.

Fourth, if what you’re worried about is economic impacts, what is the economic impact of millions of people trying (and largely failing) to lose weight? Imagine how much more economically productive we could all be if we took the time, money, and mental energy that we’ve been spending on weight loss and did something else with it instead.

Diet is important too, and especially portion control. I see there are a couple of Taubes fans here. I’m not one of them. His science is dubious at best. He ignores the things that disagree with his viewpoints, for instance. For me, “moderation in all things” has been key. I’ve reduced my portions, increased my protein intake, and tried not to binge eat when stressed. Other than that, I don’t have a list of good and bad foods. Such lists make me feel guilty.

The key, I think, is to make fitness a priority. So far, it hasn’t been a priority for you. You say that it has, but it hasn’t. As somebody else said, if you have time to read 100 books, you have time to lose 50 pounds.

I know this is going to be a series of posts with your list of resolutions. But if I were you, I’d stop with this one. Set only one goal for 2012. Focus on killing it. That’s what I did in 2010, and I lost forty pounds and gained a ton of muscle. Why? Because I didn’t have other goals distracting me. I could concentrate on the one thing I decided mattered most. You can do that too. And I think you should.

But then, as I said at the start, there are lots of people with lots of advice. You need to decide what works for you. :)

You know, AndreaS, that ’300-pounder’ is a person and I find that language to be very inconsiderate. How about “I know a person who weighs 300 pounds” as a better phrasing?

Words matter, even online.