Chapter 5 - How Many Calories Does A Man Work

You Can Trim Your Fat in the Suburbs | Men Are Getting Fatter

Men have never worked less. Machines have taken the place of muscles. You can gain weight today faster than at any time in history.

The revolution that transformed the housewife's kitchen has also wreaked havoc with masculine activities.

The farmer who once walked behind the plow for six hours a day at the rate of 400 calories per hour now rides a tractor and expends about 130 calories in the same time. The lumberjack who chopped down and handsawed trees at a furious 450-calorie-an-hour clip operates a gas-driven chain saw at a meager 130 calories. The ditchdigger who built his muscles with pick and shovel, discarding 300 calories every hour, has also been mechanized. The coal miner, a symbol of sweating, toiling man, now sweats and toils less energetically, thanks to the pneumatic drill and the electric car. The miner who once devoured enormous quantities of food to match his prodigious physical feats can now subsist on a 3000-calorie diet.

If you are a white collar worker, whether a clerk or top-ranking executive, you barely expend 75 to 100 calories an hour, bent over your desk or ledger. You sit in virtually the same position hour after hour. It is no wonder that your white collar becomes tighter through the years.

As transportation systems increase in efficiency, there is a decrease in your physical efficiency. Your one chance for exercise during the workday perishes as you spread yourself on the seat of auto, bus, or trolley.

You Can Trim Your Fat In The Suburbs

Fortunately, one phenomenon of American living has come to the rescue. It is the surge to suburbia. True, the commuter train does not provide exercise, even if it leads to nervous exhaustion. But the house with the plot of land offers inexhaustible opportunities for putting to rout the physical doldrums of the work week.

The amateur gardener expends about two hundred calories during every hour that he beautifies his property, and chores like painting, car washing, and home repairs consume other units of energy.

The country stimulates an interest in walking, and family hikes furnish emotional values as well as physical rewards. No reason now why Dad can't take his son fishing, and even if the fish don't cooperate the stroll to and from the lake has its virtues.

Golf, with its ever-widening circle of devotees, offers substantial health rewards. During an eighteen-hole session you can dispose of 600 calories, and the more strokes you miss the more healthful your experience. In golf even the duffer reaps dividends. If you carry your own clubs you'll shed more fat than the man with the caddy.

Unfortunately, refinements in this sport threaten its health values. The electric car which drives golfers from one hole to the next is especial-y insidious. Ultimately a game of golf in this luxurious manner, topped off by alcoholic refreshment at the nineteenth hole, may become a fattening experience.

Men Are Getting Fatter

There is considerable evidence that our male population is growing increasingly obese. A comparison of World War I and World War II selectees, prepared by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, revealed the following:

Percentage of Selectees 5 feet 8 inches in Height in Specified Weight Groups

Weight Group                  World War II                     World War I
1901b. or more               4.2                                     1.0
200 lb. or more               2.4                                     0.4
Under 1301b.                  10.6                                   18.3

According to this study, four times as many World War II draftees weighed in at 190 pounds as compared with the World War I group. Six times as many World War II selectees tipped the scales at 200 pounds or more.

But the figures were reversed for men under 130 pounds. The World War I group numbered 60 per cent more men in this bracket.

These manifestations of our overweight problem reveal one of the many defects of our civilization. The more prosperous and advanced we get, the fatter we get. The fatter we are, the less attractive and less youthful we become. Morale and body sag at the same time.

There is a form of modern gluttony, but it does not consist of middle-aged Americans wolfing down vast quantities of pastries and sweets. Our gluttony consists of standing idly by while machines do the work of our arms, legs, and bodies. This has coincided with our peak standard of living and with the availability of more and richer food to more and richer people.

Later you will be able to locate the average number of calories you expend daily in your occupation and recreation. It will appear in the tables on pages 58 to 60 and will help you in choosing your Safe and Sure Diet

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