Many people are preoccupied with their weight. More people seem concerned with being too heavy than those who might be concerned about being too thin. The media is full of stories, studies and editorials discussing, documenting, and warning about the increasing incidence of obesity in the US.

Everyone knows that weight – or, more accurately, too much of it – can jeopardize the overall health and well being of the person. So, like with any identified human need – especially in a capitalistic, entrepreneurially driven culture like ours, programs to ‘help’ spring up like weeds. Weight loss programs, books, pills such as idealica gocce, and more diets than you can shake a stick at.

Some of them work for some of the people some of the time – but the one thing that seems to work most reliably for most of the people most of the time – and is actually free – is simply aging. The older most people get past 50 or so, the smaller their appetites tend to become. Consequently, if you wait long enough, you may be able to lose the weight you have been wanting to unload for years with little or no deliberate effort – just get older.

So, if you can wait to lose the weight – you can save a great deal of money (on programs, tapes, books, clothing, classes, and specially processed frozen meals) and angst by telling yourself that this, too, shall pass – probably. I refer to this as the “Sure Fire Weight Loss For Most People – Eventually Program” and I invite you to try it out. It’s easy. Don’t do anything at all. Just wait. Before you know it, your clothing will feel too big and your stomach will seem to have shrunk. You will be the lighter person you always wanted to be.

I realize that this ‘solution’ will not do much for a 20-year-old who wants to drop 50 pounds. But for those in less of a hurry (as most middle-aged people tend to become), time will heal. There are lots of reasons for this phenomenon – some understood better than others. As we age and our cells are no longer growing and reproducing at the rate they were when we were ‘growing up,’ we need less nourishment. Also, many people tend to become somewhat less active as they age, requiring, again, fewer calories and carbohydrates. Eventually, these lessened need to translate into lesser desires and drives.

So the long-term, almost sure-fire diet begins, nearly effortlessly in midlife and continues until you don’t need to eat anything at all anymore. Radical – perhaps. But unarguably inevitable.