Just how Fat are we going to get!

[Rogue]

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/causes.html

Excuses.

Just quit eating too much, quit watching too much TV and too much surfing the Internet, playing online video games, and instead, exercise a bit.  That's as simple as it gets!  

Ride your bicycle to the store down the street instead of driving the damn SUV/minivan.  MAKE your kids walk the one block and one hill to school.  Quit fighting for the closest parking spot at the local shopping mall just so your (not you kneescrubber) FATASS don't have to walk the 50 extra feet to the front door of the mall.  Walk INTO the restaurant and quit using the drive thru you lazy fat bastards!    

[Rogue]

Worked for Hurley.

Who is this fat guy?

[cbsnbiker]

Educate yourselves.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/causes.html

Good posting.  

When faced with facts, many people would rather cling tightly to their prejudices.  

[Rogue]

I'll tell you what, in this context the prejudice applies 99% of the time.

Yes our world has changed.  Yet there are also many people who have adjusted to the change and stayed healthy.

So.....  

[cbsnbiker]

I'll tell you what, in this context the prejudice applies 99% of the time.

Yes our world has changed.  Yet there are also many people who have adjusted to the change and stayed healthy.

So.....  

Or is that your prejudice clouding your judgment?

[misanthropist]

Good posting.  

When faced with facts, many people would rather cling tightly to their prejudices.  

The VERY FIRST ITEM in that linked reference:

The same amount of energy IN and energy OUT over time = weight stays the same
More energy IN than energy OUT over time = weight gain
More energy OUT than energy IN over time = weight loss

I.E. If you are gaining weight, you are eating more than you are burning.  There are no other real options.  If you want to lose weight, burn more than you eat.  You can do that by burning more calories through exercise, or eating less.

If you got fat, you ate too much for a long time.  That is the ONLY explanation.  Maybe you ate too much because your hormones were crazy and made you want to eat all the time.  Maybe you had some ultra-rare condition where your hunger impulse would not shut off.  It doesn't matter.  You ate too much!

If you have gas pouring out the top of your tank, you overfilled it.  Maybe it's because you were distracted.  Maybe it's because the pump was malfunctioning.  Maybe it's because the gas came out faster than you expected.  Same issue...it doesn't matter if you have a good excuse for why you overfilled your bike.  It's overfull and that's why gas is coming out of the filler tube.

If your bike is soaking in gas every day because you always overfill it, STOP OVERFILLING YOUR BIKE EVERY DAY.  You can either burn more or put less in, but you can't keep putting too much fuel in your bike unless you don't care that it's always soaked in gas.


You know why people overeat?  Because they can.

You know why people didn't overeat back in the 50s?  Social pressure to stay thin.  If you were 40 pounds overweight in the 50s, you looked like an absolute embarrassment and your friends were appalled.  If you're 40 pounds overweight today you're an average American, or Canadian, and you probably think you're fine and healthy and have the body of a "real woman" or "real man" instead of a model.

No, you're fat.  Our standards of what "fat" looks like have just been skewed so much that most people don't recognize when they're fat.


I say this as a guy who dropped 50 pounds three years ago because I took a look at myself and realized, "holy shit, I got fat".  Now I run my body between 11-15% body fat depending on what activities I'm focusing on physically at that time.

And hey, you know how I dropped 50 pounds?  I stopped eating so much.  It's not rocket science.  Nobody's got a gun to your head.  You want to put down the fork?  Put it down.  Or stay fat, of course...but don't whine to me about being fat.  Tried it, didn't like it, fixed it.

[Fourstring]

Related-

It's my kid's 2nd birthday today, so we took him out for ice cream and I ordered a small malt.  'Small' apparently now means the size of a beer pitcher.

Came home and looked it up- turns out that 'small' malt was my ENTIRE intake for the day. Feeling a bit queasy, and all I can think is that they also come in 'large' and 'super'.  Which people regularly buy.

[stromgal]

Clothing manufacturers have 'upgraded' sizing as well, in both men's and women's clothes. Think you're still fitting into your college size? Reality is, it's two sizes larger than 20 years ago.

[Fourstring]

Clothing manufacturers have 'upgraded' sizing as well, in both men's and women's clothes. Think you're still fitting into your college size? Reality is, it's two sizes larger than 20 years ago.

This.

"Slim" and "Fitted" cuts are in this year, which is impossible to find any other year.  The reality is that fitted shirts are still freaking tents on me.  The only difference is the tag.

[06_wi_vfr]

Hard to have sympathy for people who "do it to themselves" so to speak. This goes for morbidly obese, alcoholics, smoker's hack, bullet holes, etc. Problem is you can't tell by just looking when it's self inflicted or deserved, or when it's just the miraculous fucking randomness of the world at play. I work in healthcare too - specifically in nutrition, and I see all kinds of lardo's who won't help themselves save their own lives; but also that morbidly obese person whose pathological and physiological decks are just stacked against them.

Me? I just don't each much that comes out of a package or can or bottle (beer, wine and liquor obvious exceptions). I also work out a lot cuz hell, I'm practically 50.  Overall people just make craptacular decisions regarding their health out of convenience and society's footing the bill.  The worst part? They smell bad.

[Kneescrubber]

You know why people overeat?  Because they can.

 



But what you eat plays a big part as well.

[cbsnbiker]

The VERY FIRST ITEM in that linked reference:

The same amount of energy IN and energy OUT over time = weight stays the same
More energy IN than energy OUT over time = weight gain
More energy OUT than energy IN over time = weight loss

I.E. If you are gaining weight, you are eating more than you are burning.  There are no other real options.  If you want to lose weight, burn more than you eat.  You can do that by burning more calories through exercise, or eating less.

If you got fat, you ate too much for a long time.  That is the ONLY explanation.  Maybe you ate too much because your hormones were crazy and made you want to eat all the time.  Maybe you had some ultra-rare condition where your hunger impulse would not shut off.  It doesn't matter.  You ate too much!

If you have gas pouring out the top of your tank, you overfilled it.  Maybe it's because you were distracted.  Maybe it's because the pump was malfunctioning.  Maybe it's because the gas came out faster than you expected.  Same issue...it doesn't matter if you have a good excuse for why you overfilled your bike.  It's overfull and that's why gas is coming out of the filler tube.

If your bike is soaking in gas every day because you always overfill it, STOP OVERFILLING YOUR BIKE EVERY DAY.  You can either burn more or put less in, but you can't keep putting too much fuel in your bike unless you don't care that it's always soaked in gas.


You know why people overeat?  Because they can.

You know why people didn't overeat back in the 50s?  Social pressure to stay thin.  If you were 40 pounds overweight in the 50s, you looked like an absolute embarrassment and your friends were appalled.  If you're 40 pounds overweight today you're an average American, or Canadian, and you probably think you're fine and healthy and have the body of a "real woman" or "real man" instead of a model.

No, you're fat.  Our standards of what "fat" looks like have just been skewed so much that most people don't recognize when they're fat.


I say this as a guy who dropped 50 pounds three years ago because I took a look at myself and realized, "holy shit, I got fat".  Now I run my body between 11-15% body fat depending on what activities I'm focusing on physically at that time.

And hey, you know how I dropped 50 pounds?  I stopped eating so much.  It's not rocket science.  Nobody's got a gun to your head.  You want to put down the fork?  Put it down.  Or stay fat, of course...but don't whine to me about being fat.  Tried it, didn't like it, fixed it.

You make some valid points.

Now let's run with one of your analogies.

Let's say you overfill your gas tank because the pump has malfunctioned.

Okay, that sucks.

But what if the gas station, and the pump manufacturer, and the oil company, and the customers, all deny that the pump was malfunctioning. Instead, the companies blamed the customers, and the customers didn't know what to think.

And what if those overfilled tanks led to everything from cosmetic flaws to the finish, to mechanical damage to the bike, to fires and explosions that destroy the bike and maim or kill the customer?

And what if this happens over and over again because nobody will acknowledge the real cause for the problem?

That is the flaw in automatically assuming that people who pump gas -- or who are obese -- are automatically at fault.

Often it is the case. But the assumption that it always -- or even 95 or 99% of the time, as others have suggested -- is the case is flawed and counterproductive.

And even if it is the case, what else is there to the story? And what can be done to help the country-wide problem?

[Cablebandit]

You must be obese. You're spending way to much energy on helping people shirk personal responsibility.

[cbsnbiker]

You must be obese. You're spending way to much energy on helping people shirk personal responsibility.

Ah, you have no good argument to answer mine, so you stoop to an ad homenim attack.  

It's a pity for you that I'm not obese, since it makes your narrative fail.

[misanthropist]

You make some valid points.

Now let's run with one of your analogies.

Let's say you overfill your gas tank because the pump has malfunctioned.

Okay, that sucks.

But what if the gas station, and the pump manufacturer, and the oil company, and the customers, all deny that the pump was malfunctioning. Instead, the companies blamed the customers, and the customers didn't know what to think.

And what if those overfilled tanks led to everything from cosmetic flaws to the finish, to mechanical damage to the bike, to fires and explosions that destroy the bike and maim or kill the customer?

And what if this happens over and over again because nobody will acknowledge the real cause for the problem?

That is the flaw in automatically assuming that people who pump gas -- or who are obese -- are automatically at fault.

Often it is the case. But the assumption that it always -- or even 95 or 99% of the time, as others have suggested -- is the case is flawed and counterproductive.

And even if it is the case, what else is there to the story? And what can be done to help the country-wide problem?

If your tank is over full, STOP FILLING YOUR TANK.  If you overfill it once, fine.  If you overfill it for a month, fine.  If you overfill it for six months, wake up.

If you overfill it year after year after year and you can't figure out why your tank has gas pouring out, I don't care what the gas company tells you, figure it the fuck out.  You clearly do not need as much gas as you're putting in.

The bottom line is this: you don't get twenty or fifty or a hundred pounds overweight by surprise.  It takes time.  I know - I did it!  It wasn't quick.  You have to consciously make dumb food decisions day after day for months, or years, at a time.

If you're gaining weight for a few months, and you choose to ignore it, that's fine by me.  If you are gaining weight for your entire life and choose to ignore it, hey, it's your life.

But do not pretend that this is some kind of surprise...eat too much, get fat.  Eat too little, get skinny.

What you eat matters...but not as much as people think.  Fat is basically a numbers game until you get down to your last few percentage points.  If you eat a lot of processed carbs it's very hard to cut off your last bit of belly fat, even if you are underfueling yourself.  Your body will cannibalize muscle tissue at that point.

You know who needs to know that?  People like me, now, not people like me, three years ago.  If I want a sixpack, I have to think about WHAT I eat.

For an average overweight person, you can eat practically whatever you like...just eat 500 calories less of it than you burn every day and you will drop fifty pounds a year.  Is it better to eat healthy foods?  Hell yes.  But if your concern is fat loss, as opposed to specifically improving all the facets of your health, you can do that just by eating the same garbage you always eat, only a lot less of it.

You know why more people don't do that?  Because it isn't fun.  You're often hungry and you don't binge on junk food and soda like a normal person.

And if you are too weak to deal with those inconveniences, you will be fat.  That is why there tends to be moral judgement applied to fat people: they are people who won't sacrifice daily pleasures in exchange for a healthy human body.

Frankly I think that's something that SHOULD be judged.  I think the problem we've run in to as a society is that nobody wants to get called on to the carpet, and everybody wants everything to be someone else's fault.   We think there is something intrinsically wrong with judging people for their personal failures.

Well, fuck that.  Being fat is not a choice...but it is the result of repeatedly making stupid choices for a very long time.

And I have absolutely no problem judging people for making stupid choices, particularly when they do it over and over and over.

And ESPECIALLY when I have been there, made the stupid decisions, noticed the results, corrected the mistakes, and dealt with the problem.

[Windblown]

Fat people should take up smoking. It curbs the appetite.

[coho]

Fat people should take up smoking. It curbs the appetite.

Depends on what they're smoking.

[JSharp]

If your tank is over full, STOP FILLING YOUR TANK.  If you overfill it once, fine.  If you overfill it for a month, fine.  If you overfill it for six months, wake up.

If you overfill it year after year after year and you can't figure out why your tank has gas pouring out, I don't care what the gas company tells you, figure it the fuck out.  You clearly do not need as much gas as you're putting in.

The bottom line is this: you don't get twenty or fifty or a hundred pounds overweight by surprise.  It takes time.  I know - I did it!  It wasn't quick.  You have to consciously make dumb food decisions day after day for months, or years, at a time.

If you're gaining weight for a few months, and you choose to ignore it, that's fine by me.  If you are gaining weight for your entire life and choose to ignore it, hey, it's your life.

But do not pretend that this is some kind of surprise...eat too much, get fat.  Eat too little, get skinny.

What you eat matters...but not as much as people think.  Fat is basically a numbers game until you get down to your last few percentage points.  If you eat a lot of processed carbs it's very hard to cut off your last bit of belly fat, even if you are underfueling yourself.  Your body will cannibalize muscle tissue at that point.

You know who needs to know that?  People like me, now, not people like me, three years ago.  If I want a sixpack, I have to think about WHAT I eat.

For an average overweight person, you can eat practically whatever you like...just eat 500 calories less of it than you burn every day and you will drop fifty pounds a year.  Is it better to eat healthy foods?  Hell yes.  But if your concern is fat loss, as opposed to specifically improving all the facets of your health, you can do that just by eating the same garbage you always eat, only a lot less of it.

You know why more people don't do that?  Because it isn't fun.  You're often hungry and you don't binge on junk food and soda like a normal person.

And if you are too weak to deal with those inconveniences, you will be fat.  That is why there tends to be moral judgement applied to fat people: they are people who won't sacrifice daily pleasures in exchange for a healthy human body.

Frankly I think that's something that SHOULD be judged.  I think the problem we've run in to as a society is that nobody wants to get called on to the carpet, and everybody wants everything to be someone else's fault.   We think there is something intrinsically wrong with judging people for their personal failures.

Well, fuck that.  Being fat is not a choice...but it is the result of repeatedly making stupid choices for a very long time.

And I have absolutely no problem judging people for making stupid choices, particularly when they do it over and over and over.

And ESPECIALLY when I have been there, made the stupid decisions, noticed the results, corrected the mistakes, and dealt with the problem.

+1 from my own direct experience with being fat and being very much less so. But, personal responsibility is so out of date. Isn't there someone else I can blame?  

[Rogue]

I have to agree with what Misanthropist said.  I too....been there done that.  Made bad lifestyle choices for over 15 years and paid for it.  So yeah, I know what it's like to be on the other end of the scale.  I blame myself 100%, not the restaurants, not the corporations, not the chemicals in my body, just me.  

We're all in control of our own destiny, especially when it comes to our lifestyle choices.  

[Rogue]

What you eat matters...but not as much as people think.  Fat is basically a numbers game until you get down to your last few percentage points.  If you eat a lot of processed carbs it's very hard to cut off your last bit of belly fat, even if you are underfueling yourself.  Your body will cannibalize muscle tissue at that point.


You know why more people don't do that?  Because it isn't fun.  You're often hungry and you don't binge on junk food and soda like a normal person.

I find that eating healthy snacks works well at preventing being hungry all the time.  Snack between meals and once before bedtime.