Week 2: The Single-Cookie Theory

Just one small cookie a day.

That's all that a team of researchers suggests stands between most Americans' piling on an average of two pounds per year and holding the line against weight gain.

The team led by James O. Hill, director of the Human Nutrition Center at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, came to that conclusion after examining three large national nutrition surveys. Government surveys show that in a little more than a decade, the number of overweight and obese American adults has grown from 56 percent to 65 percent and the ranks of obese children and teens have swelled from 11 to 15 percent.

At this rate, Hill and his colleagues report in this week's edition of the journal Science, four of every 10 American adults will be obese by 2008.

Nor is the obesity epidemic confined to the United States. "The rest of the world is catching up," say Hill and colleagues Holly R. Wyatt, George W. Reed and John C. Peters. "Worldwide, more than one billion adults are overweight and over 300 million are obese."

That works out to about 16 percent of the worldwide population of 6 billion, according to the latest United Nations figures.

The exact cause of the worldwide weight epidemic is still under debate. But while scientists argue the fine points, Hill and his team propose a simple way to hold the line on weight: a little less food and a little more activity each day -- advice that fits well with the Lean Plate Club's philosophy.

How little? "To the best of our knowledge, it looks like 100 calories a day less is plenty to hold the line on gaining two pounds a year," Hill says. Making that adjustment can come from eating a little less food (that one small cookie, for example), getting a little more activity, or a little of both.

"Tiny things can make a big difference," Hill says. "If you drink two cans of non-diet soft drinks per day and you cut back to one, you've done your 100 calories. In the scheme of things, 100 calories is nothing, and it's something that you can do that is fairly easy."

Of course, trimming some of those 100 calories can also be done with "lifestyle exercises," as such as taking the stairs, parking a little farther from a destination or walking to errands. "Walking a mile, whether done all at once or divided up across the day, burns about 100 calories," Hill notes. And that would "theoretically completely abolish the energy gap and hence the annual weight gain for most of the population."

That advice fits well with the with Make the Move, the Lean Plate Club challenge that began last week and is designed to help sedentary people get moving.

Unlike most physical activity plans, Make the Move aimed squarely at the people who never get out of the car or off the couch. It's for those who insist they don't have the time, or are beyond hope, or hate exercise and always have since gym class and don't have a clue about how to start moving. Make the Move is also designed to help loyal Lean Plate Club members who have already succeeded in working up to and maintaining 20 to 30 minutes of activity on most days, as the U.S. Surgeon General's report recommends.That's because the evidence suggests that more Americans -- even hard-core exercisers -- could benefit from moving more throughout the day.

For those of you participating in Make the Move, here are the goals for this week.

* Take a look at your personal time study. (Blank forms are available at www.washingtonpost.com/leanplateclub and it's never too late to join.) Developed by Steven N. Blair, president and CEO of the Cooper Institute in Dallas and co-author of "Active Living Every Day" (Human Kinetics; $ 21.95), this form prompts you to record sedentary periods on weekdays and on weekends. Now, circle just one sedentary period that you could change into an active perod each day. Perhaps it's walking in place while watching television. Or maybe it's walking up the Metro escalator or getting off the bus a stop early and hoofing the rest of the distance.

* Add a second two-minute walk to your day, boosting the number of walking minutes to four. Sure, that's not much activity, but remember, the idea is to establish that habit of getting some movement every day. It can be around your office, around your apartment or around your block. Any pace you want. Just make sure you do it. At this point, it's not about the calories or fitness, it's about establishing a healthy habit and convincing yourself that, hey, maybe you can be more active after all.