Jesus Was Thin: So You Can Be Thin Too

By Elvin Adams

A review of the Bible's take on obesity, gluttony, and loss of self control.

The formula for lasting behavior change based on scripture.

Jesus was thin and has the power to make anyone thin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450205177

Elvin Adams

Dr. Elvin Adams is a graduate of Loma Linda University School of Mediicne. He also holds a Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University. Adams is a board certified specialist in Internal Medicine and has been treating overweight and obese individuals for over 40 years. In his time, Adams has become recongized in the field of nutrition. Dr. Adams is the author of the popular Best Weigh Nutrition and Weight Management program. Best Weigh is a low cost program conducted in Seventh-day Adventist Churches all across the United States. Adams has demonstrated that a weight management program containing the elements of prayer, Bible Study, and regular contact with church members is more effective that a program based on diet and exercise alone. Jesus is the power behind long term behavior change.

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PART ONE

The Problems Of Obesity

1

How Do You Know if You are Fat?

How do you know if you are fat? This is one question with an obvious answer. Anyone can spot an obese person a mile away. You know you are fat. Look in the mirror. Look at the size of your abdomen. Look at the length of your belts. Look at the size of your dresses. Look at the size of your arms. Get on the scales. These all scream out to you that you are fat.

The most widely used measure of obesity is the Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI is a number calculated from your weight and height. BMI is a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people. BMI does not measure body fat directly, but research has shown that BMI correlates to other direct measures of body fat, such as underwater weighing and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Additionally, calculating the BMI is easy to do.

Because calculating your BMI requires only measuring your height and weight, it is inexpensive and easy to use. The BMI allows people to compare their own weight to that of the general population. Scientists all over the world use BMI in studies of obesity.

The BMI can be calculated with just a bit of basic mathematics. With the metric system, the formula for BMI is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by their height in meters squared. Since height is commonly measured in centimeters, divide height in centimeters by 100 to obtain height in meters. Formula: weight (kg) / [height (m)]²

The formula using pounds and inches is a bit more complex and is calculated by dividing your weight in pounds (lbs) by your height in inches (in) squared and multiplying by a conversion factor of 703. Formula: weight (lb) / [height (in)]² x 703. There are many websites that have an automatic BMI calculator where you simply plug in your weight and your height and your

BMI is quickly calculated. Several Microsoft Excel templates for BMI can be downloaded for free.

Weight categories based on BMI are displayed in the following table.

Notice that there is a difference between being Overweight and being Obese. These terms are not synonymous. Overweight people are not yet obese.

Prayer. Oh, Lord. I am fat! My BMI doesn’t lie. You have made me painfully aware of my obesity. Help me to never become comfortable with being fat. The struggle to become thin again seems too great. I wish you would make me thin while I sleep tonight, but I know that obesity is never cured in a day or even a month. Give me courage to do the dieting I must do in the weeks to come. Preserve my health and improve my health along this journey. Help me to not become weary or to give up in the process. Give me endurance to see this through until I am thin like Jesus was. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

2

How Many Obese People are there?

In the past 20 years there has been an epidemic of obesity in the United States and many other industrialized countries. In 2010 about 1/3 of the population is overweight and another 1/3 of the population is in the obese category. This means that nearly 66% of the adults in the United States are overweight or obese.

Children and teens are not exempt from this epidemic. Type II diabetes, which used to only be seen in adults, is now common in overweight and obese children. The number of obese and overweight children is at or above 30 percent in 30 states.

Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee are the states with the heaviest adults with more than 30 percent of adults being obese. Colorado has the lowest percentage of obese adults at 19%. State by state rankings in a dramatic PowerPoint presentation demonstrating this epidemic of obesity can be viewed at the CDC.gov website. Use the search term obesity.

The cause of obesity has been found to be 82% due to eating too many calories and most of the rest is due to a lack of exercise. Public health experts have estimated that 10% of health-care spending or about $147 billion annually is obesity related. Every healthy, normal weight, person pays an estimated $259 a year in extra health insurance premiums to cover medical expenses due to obesity in the rest of the population.

Obesity also runs in families. You are 80 percent more likely to become obese if your parents were obese. Part of this familial obesity may be in the genes, but a big component is learned behavior from parents who set a poor example of eating to their children.

Prayer. Oh God, there are so many fat people. Fat is beginning to look like normal to me. I can always spot someone who is fatter than I am—the poor sucker. Help me not to use someone else’s body as a standard for my body. I don’t want to blend into the fat society as one more fat person. I want to be the thin person I once was. I want to be the thin person Jesus was. Help me to not be critical of others but only critical of myself. Help me to be thin like you want me to be. May Jesus be my example in all things. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

3

Health Risks of being Overweight and Obese

Being overweight or obese isn’t just a cosmetic problem. It greatly raises the risk for many diseases and conditions.

Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease occurs when fatty deposits build up on the inside walls of your heart’s arteries. This reduces blood flow to your heart. Your chances for having a heart attack go up as your BMI increases. Obesity can also lead to congestive heart failure, a serious condition in which the heart can’t pump enough blood to meet your body’s needs.

High Blood Pressure (Hypertension).

Your chances for having high blood pressure are greater if you are overweight or obese. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes as well as peripheral vascular disease.

Stroke.

Being overweight or obese can lead to a buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries that supply blood to your head. Narrowed arteries become obstructed due to a blood clot forming in a narrow or ulcerated spot in one of these arteries leading to your brain. Loss of blood flow to the brain is what causes a stroke. The risk of having a stroke rises as your BMI increases.

Type 2 Diabetes.

In Diabetes, blood sugar (glucose) levels are too high. Normally, the body makes insulin to move blood sugar into cells where it is used. In type 2 diabetes, your cells don’t respond well to the insulin that your body makes. Diabetes is a leading cause of early death, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and blindness. More than 80 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese.

Abnormal Blood Fats

If you are overweight or obese, you have a greater chance of having abnormal levels of blood fats. These include high amounts of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), and low levels of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol). Abnormal levels of these blood fats create an increased risk for heart disease.

Metabolic Syndrome

This is the name for a group of risk factors linked to overweight and obesity that raise your chance for heart disease and other health problems such as diabetes and stroke. A person can develop any one of these risk factors by itself, but they tend to occur together in a group. Metabolic syndrome occurs when a person has at least three of these heart disease risk factors:

1. A large waistline. This is also called abdominal obesity. Having extra fat in the waist area is a greater risk factor for heart disease than having extra fat in other parts of the body, such as on the hips.

2. Abnormal blood fat levels, including high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol.

3. Higher than normal blood pressure.

4. Higher than normal fasting blood sugar levels.

Cancer

Being overweight or obese raises the risk for colon, breast, uterus, and gallbladder cancers.

Osteoarthritis

This is a common joint problem of the knees, hips, and lower back. It occurs when the cartilage that protects the joint surfaces simply wears away. This puts bone on bone causing significant pain. Your extra weight creates abnormal wear and tear on your joints.

Sleep Apnea

This condition causes a person to stop breathing for short periods of time during sleep. A person with sleep apnea may have more fat stored around the neck. This can make the breathing airway smaller so that it’s hard to breathe while asleep. Sleep apnea is a risk factor for heart attacks.

Reproductive Problems

Obesity can cause menstrual irregularity and infertility in women.

Gallstones

These are stones that form in the gallbladder. They are mostly made of cholesterol and can cause abdominal or back pain. People who are overweight or obese have a greater chance of having gallstones. Also, being overweight may result in an enlarged gallbladder that may not work properly. Surgery is frequently needed to remove the gallbladder when gallstones cause serious symptoms.

These are just some of the diseases caused by obesity. Obesity also causes serious limitations to mobility. Obese people can’t run, bend over easily, or get up from a sitting or lying position without considerable effort. Obesity also affects the work of individuals. This results in more days off due to sickness or injury and days of limited activity due to not feeling well.

There are young obese people who are active and mobile and seem to have escaped many of the problems associated with obesity. This period of good health doesn’t last long. There is a premature onset of disease that occurs much earlier than in normal weight people. The best way to avoid these diseases and limitations is to lose weight while you are still young.

For older obese individuals who have already developed disease and disability, normalizing your weight will reverse or limit progression of many of your symptoms. Lose weight now! You will never find a better time than this.

Prayer. Lord I am sick. I really am. I feel alright some of the time but I know that my blood pressure is up, my sugars are high, my cholesterol is elevated, and I am fat. I am a disaster just waiting to happen. I am killing myself by all I am eating. I can’t control my self any more. Save me from myself. Don’t let me die young. Keep me alive. Help me get this weight off. Make all my blood chemistries come back to normal as I lose weight. Please make me healthy as I lose this weight. Make me thin like Jesus was. Amen.

PART TWO

Obesity Issues In The Bible

4

God Wants You to be Healthy.

Is God concerned about your health? Does God care whether or not you are fat? Isn’t God just in the business of saving souls? Isn’t your body something you leave behind when you die? Notice God’s concern for your health in this text from the Bible.

3 John 1:2 (NKJV)

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

I believe this is God’s wish for you. God is just as concerned about your health as he is about your soul! This is because you soul and your mind are functions of your physical body. The brain is the organ of the mind and spirit.

When your body is suffering, your mind and spirit suffer. You know you can’t think straight or solve complicated problems when you are sick. A cold or the flu knocks your mind into neutral and you aren’t able to do creative thinking for days, until your body recovers.

Just so, you are unable to know and grow in your relationship with God when your body is holding you back. When your body is in good health, your mind and spirit are able to flourish and you can grow in grace and in a knowledge of our Lord.

It is impossible for fat people, who are indulging their appetites, to fully appreciate the concept of surrendering their lives to God’s guidance. You can’t put God first when you are putting your belly first! The prayer of a fat person that God is waiting to respond to is a prayer for help.

Don’t be discouraged. God is on your side. He has made many a fat person thin. He wants you to know him in ways that only a thin person can understand. God will restore you to an optimum level of health. In the process, you will find God to be right there when you need him most. This help is promised in the Bible. You are encouraged to boldly ask for the help you need to become thin.

Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV)

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Prayer. Here I am God. I come boldly in my bigness. I am not worthy, but you offer me mercy. You offer me a pardon for who I am. You offer me grace to become what you want me to be. Save my soul. Save my body. Please give me help. I need it now, 5 minutes from now and for the rest of today. May today be a good day for losing some fat. I ask this in Jesus name who is my example. Amen.

5

Created in the Image of God

God loves to create. God creates suns and worlds and displays them in galaxies throughout the universe. God also creates living things, both plants and animals. What beautiful, curious and humorous things he has made.

Humans are different from other animals. Men and women can talk, think, worship, remember, grow intellectually and communicate with God. This is all in God’s design. When Jesus created humans, he followed a specific pattern. This is found in the first book in the Bible where the members of the Godhead in consultation with each other said,

Genesis 1:26-27 (NIV)

"Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. What did Adam and Eve look like? It is unlikely that they were made real skinny. I doubt that their eyes were sunken into their heads. Their ribs weren’t showing. Their muscles weren’t wasting away. No, you have seen starving children and adults. God would not have made humans that thin.

On the other hand, I don’t think God created humans as fat, roly-poly, figures either. Adam was probably trim and muscular, showing the kind of definition that indicated very little excess fat under the skin. Eve was likely well proportioned without a bulging belly or huge arms or fat legs. It is an awesome thing to be created in the image of God. It is an awesome responsibility to stay that way throughout life. God is dishonored when you deviate from the pattern he created.

Satan is bent on eradicating the image of God from the bodies of human beings. Satan delights in causing misery and death. Satan has invented many diseases that cause disfigurement and premature death in humans. Beyond disease, Satan accomplishes this distortion of the image of God by depriving much of the world of food. As a result humans starve and become living skeletons. Satan also distorts God’s image in humans by getting them to eat too much. People develop fat, bloated bodies that can barely get around.

Your fat body is dishonoring God. You were born in God’s image, but today your fat body is mocking God. God is honored when we keep our bodies as close as possible to the silhouette he originally designed. Time will take its toll on your height, your skin, and to some extent your shape. But look at the old people who dedicate themselves to