Recently FatGeeks.com interviewed fitness guru, Don Lemmon.

This is what he had to say:

FatGeeks.com - In your opinion, is the acceptance of being overweight, and in particular a site like FatGeeks.com, having a positive or negative impact on the country?

I can see this is gonna be funny. Well bro, being fat, aint all that. Accepting it is accepting you are trying to kill yourself. I also feel bodybuilders take it too far and get so lean they become diseased too. However. Accepting you are fat is like accepting you are a wife beater or child molestor. There is nothing good about being fat except the jokes we can make at their expense. While some folk are overweight and do not know why, it is those who feast on twinkies and chips that are also saying it is acceptable. They know they are fat, act like it is no BIG deal, then die at age 45. I think humor has it's place as I love to laugh but allowing one self to be a slob is not good.

FatGeeks.com - Is the attitude of accepting who we are acceptable in an age where beauty and ultra-thin models are the "norm" in society?

I think the anorexic have issues to deal with as well. I am into the normal looking, healthy and athletic woman myself. Everyone is and can be beautiful. People are wonderful, what they are also is compulsive and uneducated. The media has warped our sense of perception beyond imagination. Telling us what to think and believe all the time. Nuts man.

FatGeeks.com - Can the terms "fat" and "phat" truly co-exist with one another dispite the obvious differing connotations of the two words?

Laughs. I think that's why they do it! My question is, why do Asians want to be white, whites want to be black and blacks want to be left alone but still do these things to make us ask? People are funny. Your site is HILARIOUS!

FatGeeks.com - In your opinion, which is more important: diet or exercise?

Definitely eating habits. I know alot of fat weightlifters.

FatGeeks.com - Who is "phatter":

Celine Dion or Cher? Definitely Cher. Celine is Canadian.
Shania Twain or Faith Hill? At least Shania has good song writing.Twain wins it..
Alanis Morrisette or Tori Amos? Can't we all just get along?
Meat Loaf or Calista Flockhart? Meat!

FatGeeks.com - Why, in your opinion, do most diets fail?

They are followed wrong. For instance, the Zone cuts your carbs in half. The Atkins removes carbs. Low fat keeps fat away from carbs but still mixes proteins. To succeed the first step is to lower carbs, then separate them from fats and finally separate them from proteins. Carbs are not evil, but need separated from all other foods. If you do not do this, no diet works.

FatGeeks.com - Most overweight people tend to be lazy. What is the true to key to motivating them?

Most people follow their parents suit. They eat and act like them. Most overwieght people became lazier as they fattened. All overweight people grow more active as they lose. What I do is review your current habits and separate your foods into appropriate meal patterns so you give nothing up, do not cut back at all and start seeing fat loss immediately. Exercise or not..

FatGeeks.com - Who is healthier:

Arnold Schwartzenegger or Maria Shriver? Maria
Regis Philbin or David Letterman? Regis
Richard Simmons or Don Lemmon? Don
Meat Loaf or Calista Flockhart? Whichever one is working most.

FatGeeks.com - Are you any relation to Jack Lemmon?

Yes

FatGeeks.com - Who would win in a fight?

The Rock vs. Rocky? Rocky, it would sell better
Stallone vs. Schwartzenegger? Stallone, he can actually fight.
Maria Shriver vs. Ted Kennedy? Maria. Ted would be drunk.
Meat Loaf vs. Calista Flockhart? Definitely Calista. Did you see Fight Club?

FatGeeks.com - What is the first step for a FatGeek to become a skinny geek?

Write down his meal to meal eating habits, see whats missing then whats being eaten that shouldnt be and next separate foods into appropriate meals. Drink more water and if time permits, start exercising. See donlemmon.com

FatGeeks.com - To what do you attribute the trend that caused society to find beauty in ultra-thin women instead of the "healthy and robust" sized women of the past?

Change. Each era has a different marketing scheme. That's all. They do this not to be even remotely confused with the last marketing campaign. Tyra Banks for instance is NO waif. In fact she's a little tubby at times. By healthy and robust you would mean boobs too. Youd be surprised how many in the 40's and 50's had implants. The sixties had wide hips and the colonial ages had slobs. I do not know what it was for sure but society also misinterprets as much as they translate. Sometimes I believe the reason they were robust was that those were the only ones who were trampy enough to undress for the artists.

FatGeeks.com - What do you think about the Atkins diet? I've heard a lot of good and bad things about it. The good things tend to be "I lost weight" and the bad things tend to be "It is very unhealthy!" I can't imagine how cutting out carbs and eating all kinds of greasy meat could possibly be healthy on your heart. Where do you stand?

The body requires some grease. Fats regulate hormones. I can always spot a nonfat dieter by their loose skin. Fat tightens it up. A low carb diet does this too. By eating carbs you will tighten up. The problem obviously is then that you need both but cant digest both. So eat them. But eat them separate. It's laid out biochemically in the book. Plug.

FatGeeks.com - Your plan asks us to work out 3 times one week and 2 the next and to only do cardio for 20 minutes at a time. I've read/heard in the past that in order for your heart to become physcially fit, you need to work out 3 - 4 times a week and you need to reach your target heart rate for 20 minutes at a time. What is your reasoning for recommending this lesser path? And will it effect my health to work out this often?

If you train hard, even if hard to you isnt hard to someone else, even with weights, your heart rate will be UP to where you want it and 20 minuts with weights and 10 minutes to cool down on a bike is really all you need. Remember, the studies you have read were done on slobs and people on other diets. On my diet you require 5 sessions every two weeks. From Ms Fitness to Mr America and Mr and Mrs Jones at home, the only difference is the amount of work they percieve as sufficient inthose 5 sessions. One benches 50 punds and can barely do 12 reps and another 450 for reps. Both have worked as hard as THEY can, and thats all it takes. I have worked with them all and this is definitely suffice. Throw out the old school.

FatGeeks.com - I like that your plan incorporates the mind, body and spirit. It is a very Eastern way of looking at things. Where did you pick this up from and how did you start incorporating this thought process into your daily life?

Conditioning. Mind set. Habit. Like bad habits. It just becomes second nature to be considerate and thoughtful. I am brash but I am that way because everyone else is so pampering and that fails.

FatGeeks.com - I've read of a lot of diets and hear people talking about how to become healthy and how to lose weight. In your opinion, why is it that our species has existed for thousands of years eating whatever we can get our hands on but now we come up with four food groups or your twelve food groups and counting calories, etc?

We exist yes, but we die fast too. We are alotted 120 years by God. All religions say this, but we never make it. We are living longer these days than ever before but we are heavily medicated and can't wipe our own butts. That isnt survival. Being old, crippled etc isnt the way to be. I have met MANY people who were in their 100's and still walking, riding, gardening, eating good, happy, thoughtful, and besides, way back when doesnt count. We really dont know what they did. We werent there. All goes back to media. We only know what we know first hand not what some school book or television show offers.

FatGeeks.com - Why, in your opinion, within the past hundred years are we suddenly coming up with diets for health that have no historical basis and obviously were of no consequence in the past?

I will say this. The sandwich comes from laborers having to eat fast both bread and the day's meat kill together with dirty hands. To keep from dirtying the meat, they held it in bread. Wallah, bad food combining. Way back when, people would garden the days the men were resting and would prepare potatoes and fruits and thats what would be eaten all day. When the men went hunting they would eat beef jerky they sun dried all day and the next, the kill they brought home. They separated foods. In the Bible, they ate fish and bread but people werent given both, one or the other. It's in historical text but it is obscure as diet wasnt the focus. It was just fact put on paper. No need back then to have hidden meaning. Now though, we all have something to sell. Sure, I do too, but at least my plan works.

FatGeeks.com - So what makes your program so unique?

I have had over 3000 case studies performed on its effectiveness prior to it's public release. All the kinks were worked out. I am not fat like my competitors are and I do not have heart problems like Atkin's does.

FatGeeks.com - Tell us about you and your site.

My site averages several hundred thousand monthly visitors. I have a newsletter that reaches 100,000 households. I have sold all my books online and 50,000 have been purchased in the past 2 years. I have produced 3 exercise videos featuring the winners of major fitness and bodybuilding as well as martial arts competitions. I am completing a new book for book stores. I started in 1988 and have not only information for fat loss but bodybuilders, weight gain, exercise, supplements, my celebrity interview section, the newsletters, Q&A, I offer it all.

FatGeeks.com - Word association. We say a word. You tell us the first thing that comes to mind.

Richard Simmons = Fat little man
Susan Powter = Had plastic surgery
Tony Little = Fat bigger man
Larry North = Who?

For more information about Don Lemmon, check out his site!