The Dynamical Systems Health Center: A Mathematical Model of a Diet and Exercise Program

This paper began as a class assignment for Prof. James Sandefur's Discrete Dynamical Systems course at Georgetown University in Spring 1993. In an effort to encourage critical thinking and creativity among the students, Prof. Sandefur divided the class into groups and gave the assignment of developing a model of a diet. We were instructed to present the model as a brochure for a dieting center. With no additional instructions given, the groups came up with similar yet distinct models. This paper combines ideas from all the class models to present a reasonable first model for a diet and exercise program.