Updated: 5/2/2006 11:29:13 AM Posted: 5/1/2006 2:16:48 PM
More than half of Americans say they'd rather lose their jobs than get fat.
Fifty-eight percent of women and 54 percent of men say they'd rather be unemployed than gain 75 pounds. And 63 percent of women and 55 percent of men say they'd rather be poor with no extra pounds to lose than rich and substantially overweight.
These are the findings of a poll of 1,007 people for Fitness magazine. It will appear in the June issue.
?People believe it's a monumental struggle to lose 75 pounds,? says Liz Vaccariello, executive editor of Fitness.
?They think they can find a job much easier than the commitment it takes to lose weight, which means giving up food, which people love, and moving more, which many people don't love,? Vaccariello says. ?In reality, small daily changes can make weight loss a much less daunting effort.?
Still, to drop that much weight in a healthy way, you'd have to work at it for a year or more, says Bonnie Taub-Dix, a registered dietitian in New York City. ?People would rather pick up the want ads than pick up extra pounds.?
Other findings:
Taub-Dix says lots of women tell her that they avoid sex because they don't like their bodies, and that they feel sexier when they lose weight. She tells her clients who are trying to lose weight before swimsuit season that they should wear their bathing suits under their clothes so they're constantly reminded to stick with their healthy eating and exercise plan.
But Taub-Dix is skeptical of the finding about reunions. ?People are often embarrassed by how they look now compared to how they used to look in high school,? she says.
Still, ?it is comforting to know that most people would choose brains over being thin,? says Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian at Northwestern Memorial Wellness Institute in Chicago.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
© 2009 USA Today
