Surveys are always interesting as a snapshot of what people claim to be thinking at any one time. Of course, some of us delight in giving all the wrong answers if someone is daft enough to stop us in the street with a quick questionnaire. But, allowing for there being a number who game the survey, there's always a basic element of truth buried in there somewhere. All you have to do is dig it out. So, look around the country and what do you see? Well, there's the obvious recession. Walk down any street in the suburbs or exurbs and you're going to see sale boards out front of many homes. People are hunkered down, fearing the worst on employment. And walk down any Main Street and you're going to see a lot of overweight people. Put all this together and you have the grit to make a pearl of a survey.

Look on the magazine racks, count the reality television shows, surf through the virtual bookshelves of Amazon, and walk down the isles in any drugstore and you could only conclude we are a nation obsessed with weight loss and dieting. Except, when you do your walk through a mall, you're immediately struck by the number of overweight people. We are just not eating more healthy food or exercising properly. Without a real commitment to losing weight, the necessary lifestyle changes are never going to be made. It's one of these dreams-meet-reality things. Having a great body is what we all want, but when it comes to the need to give up our favorite foods, cook for ourselves and the family, and pay more to get fresh healthy food from our local stores, we lack the stones. This latest survey shows only 35% of Americans actually have a healthy lifestyle based on eating smaller portions of healthy food and exercising. At the other end of the scale, 30% of Americans admit to being unhealthy, having unsuccessfully dieted 20 or more times.

Despite repeated failures to lose weight, people admit to being embarrassed by their bodies, particularly when it comes round to the summer months and they might be expected to show more flesh. Worse, many feel sufficiently self-conscious, they have given up dating. When it comes to this level of commitment to defeatism, it hardly seems worth mentioning Acomplia. Although the clinical trials consistently show people losing an average 10% of their body weight, this drug only works in combination with a diet and exercise program. An appetite suppressant does not reduce the number of calories you eat. That's always down to you. Worse, if you don't sacrifice your comfort and burn off some of those calories, even eating less is not going to produce real weight loss. The survey demonstrates the sad truth. Most Americans don't know how to lose weight and no matter how good Acomplia, it's never going to help the majority. But for that small percentage determined to join the 35% who remain healthy, this is the drug for you!