"You need to eat more"

[Ron 10]

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Just be sure you know that they're doing nothing about it before passing judgement.

Oh I do...when someone bitches to me about something as soon as they finish I ask, "What are you doing about it?"

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Education is the only tool that will help people lose weight. Its getting better, now we only need to get people to listen.

Not to be an ass, but how much more info do you need to know that supersized value meals and sitting on the couch watching TV are bad for you, and salids and going for walks are good for you?

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[Kris 0]

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You all assume to know when someone's trying to change. Like, if you don't already know their habits or actually see them ON THE TREADMILL, they must not work out. Sorry, but it's a tough pill to swallow, and one many of you can't possibly understand.

Oy Vey... I finally got my sweet Nishiki Colorado mountain bike in fighting trim, as I've lost enough weight to start riding it again. So I roll into work this morning with the bike on it's car carrier and some asshat in the parking lot start telling me that his fad diet is better than working out at my size. Ummm, dude, you weigh like 120...piss off.

Yes, I'm a larger guy, but I also have a resting pulse of 63, perfect blood pressure, a cholesterol level around 112-115, and I can play racquetball for almost two hours and barely break a sweat.

Just because I look like a couch potato doesn't mean I spend my time on the couch or that I don't want to lose weight.

*ready to bounce a diet mt. dew can off of a mofo's head*

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[mailin 0]

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Not to be an ass, but how much more info do you need to know that supersized value meals and sitting on the couch watching TV are bad for you, and salids and going for walks are good for you?

It's not that black & white.

When I turned 20 I was told by doctors that I couldn't do any form of exercise for the rest of my life. Needless to say I put on some weight - the reason? I continued to eat as I usually did minus the gym part of it. I didn't necessarily put two and two together.

So after gaining weight I joined weight watchers where they have to count points. I became obsessed with the supermarket - where it got worse.

Butterscotch... with a HUGE "fat free!" label on it. Must be good if its fat free right? HELLLOOOO???!! It's 100% sugar! it has no fat!

But people will buy it thinking its better for them than something else - cause it says fat free...

Thats where more education comes into play. I'm still trying to learn the affects of sugars (in all its forms) on the body. Think fruit is good for you? Think again.

There is so much hidden in foods that people never know - clever packaging and the like.

It's a scary world out there when it comes to foods. Fat free or sugar free items are not helping at all - if anything they are causing people to gain even more weight. But they're still trying, they're buying something fat free after all.


Jen

Arianna Frances

[Lindsey 0]

Think fruit is good for you? Think again.

Fresh fruit is VERY good for you. Eat it. The sugar in fruit is not sugar that drives your blood insulin to sky-hi levels, causes you to store fat, and makes you want to eat more (via drop in inuslin later). Fresh fruits and vegetables are some of the most healthy food you can eat. Eat LOTS of it.... Now fruit JUICES are a different story. Going to the grocery store for a can of orange juice is bad juju.... You get lots of glucose in fruit juices, and they DO do all of those things....

linz

--
A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[mailin 0]

Yep - same with prunes and raisins.

I wish they made this stuff more available to people - I had to do 4 years of diet programs to learn most of the stuff that will help me keep this weight off...

it shouldn't be like that.


Jen

Arianna Frances

[AndyMan 7]

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I wish they made this stuff more available to people

"They" do. The Southbeach diet is very similar to what you've described.

Craichead and I are both on it. I've lost 15 pounds and she's lost 10 in the last 3 monthes.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1579546463/qid=1116449290/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-3858493-3529649?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

The weightloss industry is certainly an example of "buyer beware". There's a lot of crap out there...

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[mattjw916 2]

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Not to be an ass, but how much more info do you need to know that supersized value meals and sitting on the couch watching TV are bad for you, and salids and going for walks are good for you?

It's not that black & white.

In the end, it really is! If you eat more calories then you burn, whether sitting on the couch or running 5 miles a day, you will gain weight, period. All the research in the world won't overcome this fact. I have to agree with Ron here *gasp*. American society is breeding whiners and excuse-makers when it comes to eating, exercise, etc.

Case in point, while I see a lot of overweight people at the gym, I rarely see them exerting themselves in the smallest way. They tend to plod along at 3mph or less on the treadmill watching tv or reading. I'm not expecting anyone to kill themselves in a full sprint for 3 miles, but come on, let's try and get the heart rate over 80 m'kay?

I am certainly no gym-rat either but I do eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, and try not to veg out in front of the TV or fast-food myself to death.

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[AndyMan 7]

It's not black and white, because some people just don't know how to lose weight.

Turn on your TV late at night, and you'll see hundreds of ads for "weight loss products". Some people fall for these scams, and are trying to lose weight by buying magic pills.

Other people turn to the government, pick up a copy of the Food Pyramid, eat exactly what they're told they should, and still gain weight. Thankfully the government updated it, but it still needs work, and it still will make people fat if they follow it to the letter.

Another group of people buy products that make them ill, like the ephedrine products. When they have a heart attack, sometimes they're smart enough to quit taking the product, at which point they put back on every pound they lost, plus interest.

Another group listens to all the media reports, tries to be smart about it, and decides "a low fat diet should work!", and proceeds to go grocery shopping for every "low fat" product they can find, most of which are all very high in sugar. Again, they find themselves putting on weight.

Another group decides that instead of changing their diet, they'll try going to the gym. So they start lifting all these weights, and find that instead of loosing weight they're gaining weight. They're smart, so they understand that this weight gain is all muscle, so they should stick with it. Finally they notice that even though they've gained all this muscle, their waistline has not gotten smaller, but they're heavier and bigger. They finally give up, and all that muscle they gained slowly turns back to fat. In the end they're bigger than when they started.

The fact is that America has a serious problem with obesity for a reason. There's so much bad advice out there that I can completely understand how someond can get frustrated and give up. I also understand how someone who's tried 18 different ways to lose weight and failed at each of them (for perfectly natural reasons) will get depressed.

Thin people complaining that they're not running fast enough is simply not going to help.

It's too easy to blame it all on Fast Food, or laziness, or living in the 'burbs, or the car culture, or lack of education, or depression. Addressing a serious weight issue usually means addressing at least 3 of these, not just one.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[ladyskydiver 0]

Just being picky....

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...all that muscle they gained slowly turns back to fat...

Is not accurate. Muscle and fat are two different things.

Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

[wmw999 2,587]

Very few of us can do everything to everyone's satisfaction. And something that's easy for one person might be really hard for someone else, for reasons that escape us.

Yes, the facts are there. So are the facts that if you spend more than you earn you'll end up in credit trouble -- and there are plenty of threads on dz.com about how much debt people are in.

Or people who start college and don't finish -- how stupid is that? Or who are less effective because they're incapable of communicating politely with others without calling them stupid fuckers (or whatever).

Yes, there are lazy people out there who want an easy answer. I'll bet each and every one of us is that lazy person in some aspect of our life. Either that, or some of us have lives that are severely limited by what we can master completely -- I at least don't want that.

Just because it's easy or supremely important to one person doesn't make it so to someone else.

On the other hand, yes, there are rude people out there, who figure it's OK to take up 2 airline seats while paying for one, or require a whole lot of extra attention because of "food issues." But that doesn't make all of them so.

Who here is a lazy skydiver because they don't invest all their time and money into becoming a world-champion level? After all, we all have arms, legs, and heads -- that means we can all do it.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[craichead 0]

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Case in point, while I see a lot of overweight people at the gym, I rarely see them exerting themselves in the smallest way. They tend to plod along at 3mph or less on the treadmill watching tv or reading. I'm not expecting anyone to kill themselves in a full sprint for 3 miles, but come on, let's try and get the heart rate over 80 m'kay?

Um, 3mph for 1 hour...burns approximately 360 calories if you weigh 200lbs. That's not bad. If overweight people are doing that in addition to reducing daily caloric intake, they can lose a lot of weight at a healthy rate. Who cares if they're watching TV or reading while they're exercising? At least they're exercising.

I'm planning on walking home from work today. It's about 3 miles, and I walk at a low-medium brisk rate. I'm not sure what the exact speed is, but it probably varies between 3-4.5mph. My heart rate always gets above 80 at that pace. I'm not horribly out of shape, either. I've been doing about 20-30 minutes of cardio every other day in addition to weight training.

_Pm

__
"Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

[Steel 0]

It's NOT that simple and easy to just get to the gym and drop pounds. It can be excruciatingly embarrassing and discouraging. I'm speaking from experience, and I'm only a little overweight (10-15 lbs).
==============================
I will agree that its not as simple and easy as just going to the gym and dropping a few pounds, but not for the reason you're citing.
If somebody can't get past the embarrassment then that is their problem. Still loosing weight is about having a caloric deficit, meaning taking in less calories than you burn. People all to often think this is simple and they have it figured out when indeed they don't. I will give you and example of some numbers I have worked with in the past. Take a male 31 years old 5'9" weight 200 pounds. Maintain weight for light activity is about 2447 calories daily. (You would be surprised if you actually counted everything you ate, because indeed everything counts with no exceptions) anyway you would be suprised how likely you are to be going over in excess.
Now back to the example. This guy is eating his maintain but wants to loose 10 pounds. Now he takes the most calorie burning exercise he could find, jumping rope. He just for 10 minutes with, no breaks at all. He just burned 150 calories. Say he does 50 minutes a day, thats 750 calories. Mind you 50 minutes a day is a lot. Its extremely exhausting and I highly doubt that most people would subject themselves to that kind of torture. At this rate every 5 days this person will loose 1 pound. But the reality is that this person will probably think he is doing good and then at work he will treat himself to 1 crispy cream donut (over 300). Hell even going home he might think he can do another one. Now he only has a 150 calorie deficit which means he will only be loosing 1 pound every 23 days. But since he is not counting his calories he forgot about that bagel with cream cheese he had for breakfast, which was more than 150 calories. Now he is actually with a surplus of 50 calories daily and is gaining weight so slowly that he actually thinks his is maintaining but he is actually gaining one pound every 70 days.
Bottomline it is not that simple. There does not exist a professional body builder that is not on a controlled diet. There is definately not a professional bodybuilder that relies on exercise to make up for a poor diet. It just doesn't work.

If I could make a wish, I think I'd pass.
Can't think of anything I need
No cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no sound.
Nothing to eat, no books to read.

[wmw999 2,587]

Good post. If it doesn't come somewhat naturally, then it's harder work than it is for people to whom it does come naturally to pay attention.

And if you grew up using food for reward, comfort, etc, then it's harder than it is for other people.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[mailin 0]

yep, you just summed up what I was going to say! Thats exactly the problem!

My mom crushed a vertebrae in her back a few years back - spent 14 months in bed. She put on weight and was very frustrated by it - don't blame her! She asked the doctor what she should do, and he told her to stay in bed In reality she should have seen a nutritionist at the least. Who are we supposed to believe? One source says Atkins is good - another says its bad. One says weight watchers is great, yet it never worked for me. I asked my doctor what I can do - eat less. duh!

Standardization would help - but our capatalistic society is not condusive to that...

Jen

Arianna Frances

[wmw999 2,587]

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Standardization would help - but our capatalistic society is not condusive to that...

Not sure it would. I have a feeling that people are different enough in their physical, cultural, social, and emotional makeups that widely different approaches are needed.

Starting with good raising by the parents -- that's seriously missing there days for a lot of kids. Who here ate a lot of chips with lunches, and who gives their kids chocolate milk because at least they're drinking milk that way? Well, it's OK for some kids, but for others it probably acclimates them to always wanting sugar. People are really complex, and very nonstandard.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[mattjw916 2]

Loosing weight is not rocket science... the ONLY way to loose weight is to enact a lifestyle change and get some exercise. Food journals do wonders for those who can't maintain self control.

If ones life consists of waking up late, rushing to work, eating 2 donuts and 4 cups of coffee for breakfast, followed by snacks all day until lunch, which is fast food, followed by collapsing on the couch after a heavy dinner full of starches and fatty foods smothered in butter, gravy, etc then topped off with half-a-pint of Ben and Jerry's you will be a heifer in no time.

What makes me really cringe are the people I see at the grocery store whose carts are full of fatty foods, Hungry Man dinners, little/no vegetables or fruits, and a case of "Diet" Coke. Basically 90% of people that shop at Wal-Mart.

To paraphrase an old Army quote, "What's the maximum effective range of an excuse? 0 meters." Put down the fudgesicle, shut off the TV, and go walk, run, rollerblade, bicycle, or SOMETHING. The last thing I want is my very hard-earned tax dollars subsidizing some fatty's weight loss program because he/she's not smart enought to read the label of the blue cheese dressing he/she's smothering their salad with because they are on a diet.

Hell, I bet a lot of people here that complain about their weight would best be served by shutting off the computer too and going for a light jog or walk (those with medical issues can see the medic for a profile).

My $0.02.

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[mailin 0]

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The last thing I want is my very hard-earned tax dollars subsidizing some fatty's weight loss program because he/she's not smart enought to read the label of the blue cheese dressing he/she's smothering their salad with because they are on a diet.

What are you talking about??

Arianna Frances

[mattjw916 2]

The growing movement to classify obesity as an "illness" or a "disease".

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[mailin 0]

And how does your tax dollars affect that?

If your talking about governement funded social programs - trust me, if your money wasn't spent that way they would surely find other ways to spend it - you'll never get that money back so it might as well be spent on something that can benefit the most amount of people... and based on this current 'epidemic', it'll help lots of people if spent on weight control/management strategies.


Jen

Arianna Frances

[Lindsey 0]

...and people can get so overwhelmed by the task of losing weight. At an adolescent weight-loss clinic that I worked at a few years ago, the doctor would first not focus on weight with the kids, but on getting them off of cokes, and onto diet drinks or (better) water. Lots of folks will put away 4 or 5 regular cokes in a day, and that's 500 calories! It's amazing how much weight people can lose just by changing what they drink! Same with beer and wine. Hard liquor doesn't make you fat

Peace~
linz

[mailin 0]

Very true. I remember reading a study that said that just by switching to diet cola you would lose 23 lbs. in one year. Thats an amazing amount of sugar

The biggest learning curve for me was processed flour products. I couldn't have any type of 'bread' for 7 months (it was already in the shakes I was using) - now I know that I can do without them. Learning has been the biggest step for me. Now I just need to learn to start liking the way I look now that I'm healthy, which will never happen


Jen

Arianna Frances

[RoysPlayThing 0]

Good for you! It goes both ways people.

_______________________________________________
My mind is like a parachute...it functions only when open.

[mattjw916 2]

How about not taking the money in the first place!

I'll be more than happy to have my tax dollars used to subsidize alternative fuels, enhance inner city schools, pay teachers more, family planning, or any number of other "social programs". What I won't abide is paying people to NOT EAT.

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[Steel 0]

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...and people can get so overwhelmed by the task of losing weight. At an adolescent weight-loss clinic that I worked at a few years ago, the doctor would first not focus on weight with the kids, but on getting them off of cokes, and onto diet drinks or (better) water. Lots of folks will put away 4 or 5 regular cokes in a day, and that's 500 calories! It's amazing how much weight people can lose just by changing what they drink! Same with beer and wine. Hard liquor doesn't make you fat

Peace~
linz

That is the right idea. However, people still need to remember that a 500 calorie deficit daily will equal 1 pound per week. That means that you will be lucky if you notice a significant loss after a month (at that rate). When people have unrealistic expectations the give up before they have had a chance to fail.

If I could make a wish, I think I'd pass.
Can't think of anything I need
No cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no sound.
Nothing to eat, no books to read.

[Lindsey 0]

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The growing movement to classify obesity as an "illness" or a "disease".

Some people may classify obesity as a disease. I don't. And if you bill an insurance company for it (there is a code), you're not likely to get paid.

However, metabolic syndrome, which many MANY obese people have, is billable, and you'll almost always get paid, if you have the right credentials. It's a combination of cardiovascular risk factors including central obesity, high triglycerides and low HDL, hypertension. A person who thinks that those are not a serious combination of symptoms is not very well-informed.

linz