Facts You Should Know in The Battle to Lose Weight:

It's nothing new by any stretch of the imagination. Americans today are more overweight than they've ever been. Food is cheap, fast, and convenient. It takes more time, energy, and money to go to the local grocery for healthy, fresh food than it does zip through the fast food drive-thru. So, who's to blame and how much should you be consuming? Why is it so hard to change habits and resist temptation? Is exercise that important to a complete and healthy lifestyle? These are just some of the questions I will be tackling in this report.

First off, let me tell you that I have, personally, battled with food my entire life. As long as I can remember, McDonald's, ice-cream, chocolate, and the boob-tube have been my dearest and closest friends. Not because I was unpopular, per se, in school or other activities, or any other reason you can conjure, but because I am lazy and love food. Sure, problems on the home front, growing up also added to my emotional eating, but I still remain lazy and food, yeah, it rocks. The smell of food, the texture, the taste, the process that goes into creating it...it's art to me. Junk food, especially, I began hoarding at an early age. I wasn't allowed hardly any at home, but I did get as much as I wanted at good-old grandma's and my aunt's on the weekends (who I saw every weekend). Despite my love for food and my lazy demeanor, I was never fat; barely overweight, really, until I graduated high school. I have gained about 55-60 lbs since I have graduated in 2004. The restraints were no longer there. The waiting for lunch and dinner, etc., so I did as I pleased and ate almost nothing but fast food for about three years. And, here I am today, a fat, almost 22 year old.

Diets? Tried 'em. Exercise? Been there, done that. So, why is it so, so hard to lose the weight? Why are my bad habits so hard to break and self-control such an unattainable object for me? And not only me, but countless others who are in the battle of the bulge?

Well, let's see what we can find.

Portions and weight.