Obesity in the "Body" of Christ

[Sepharad]

CAT,

I hear a lot of what you said! From a spiritual point of view, I found that as a religious Jew, reflecting on keeping kosher enabled me to also say “no” to foods that were bad for me. I reasoned that if I could keep kosher, and “say no” to foods that were forbidden by Jewish Law, I could certainly find the willpower to ALSO “say no” to unhealthy foods, or foods in too large a quantity. So you are right about the principle of abstinence!

And you are SO RIGHT that simply BEING fat is not the health issue so much as ACTIVITY level and having good genes. I’m still regarded as “overweight” despite losing as much as I did, BUT all my bloodwork and other tests which my dr does annually (I had my most recent physical 2 months ago) are 100% perfect. In fact my dr (who is a fitness nut himself) said my bloodwork “is better than mine!” And I am heavier than him! What I believe made my health so good is not really the weight loss, but HOW I lost it–becoming physically active. But the interesting thing is: I always had annual physicals even when I was over 300 lbs…yet my bloodwork was always within normal range, and so was my BP. So for me anyway, it seems that losing all that weight really did not do anything for me, health-wise.

I do 60 mins, 5 days/wk in intense aerobics, plus 30 mins/2 days per week with strength training. I’ve done this without even taking one week off, for the past 8 years. I decided 8 years ago that I would continue this way the rest of my life. I have a very low resting heart rate (which is a sign of very high physical fitness), and my BP, blood sugar, chol, etc is normal as well.Yet I’m still “overweight”!

Studies have shown (by the Cooper Aerobics Center of Dallas, among others) that a fat person who is physically active and eats right will live 7 years longer than a thin person who is not physically active or eating right. So its not the weight as much as the lifestyle.

 

[blessedtoo]

CAT,

And you are SO RIGHT that simply BEING fat is not the health issue so much as ACTIVITY level and having good genes. I’m still regarded as “overweight” despite losing as much as I did, BUT all my bloodwork and other tests which my dr does annually (I had my most recent physical 2 months ago) are 100% perfect. In fact my dr (who is a fitness nut himself) said my bloodwork “is better than mine!” And I am heavier than him! What I believe made my health so good is not really the weight loss, but HOW I lost it–becoming physically active. But the interesting thing is: I always had annual physicals even when I was over 300 lbs…yet my bloodwork was always within normal range, and so was my BP. So for me anyway, it seems that losing all that weight really did not do anything for me, health-wise.

.

Just wanted to add that blood work is most definitely NOT the only measurement of the good health benefits one reaps from exercise and weight loss. High cholesterol, for example, can strike both thin and fat and is recently found to be related more to genetics than diet in many people. But universally, the health benefits of exercise are unsurpassable. Discerning the impact of physical activity through stress tests, echocardiograms, etc., is the better measurement. So you have probably effected your heart, lungs, bones, etc., in a dramatic way with regualr exercise! Keep it up!

 

[Sepharad]

Just wanted to add that blood work is most definitely NOT the only measurement of the good health benefits one reaps from exercise and weight loss. High cholesterol, for example, can strike both thin and fat and is recently found to be related more to genetics than diet in many people. But universally, the health benefits of exercise are unsurpassable. Discerning the impact of physical activity through stress tests, echocardiograms, etc., is the better measurement. So you have probably effected your heart, lungs, bones, etc., in a dramatic way with regualr exercise! Keep it up!

Yes, you’re very right! In fact (I should have mentioned this, but did in another thread)…a couple of months ago, during my annual physical, my dr said he heard a heart murmur. I freaked out, because my mom had one, and in her case it had been caused by a valve problem she was born with (aortic stenosis). He ordered an echocardiogram, and while I waited to get it, I was freaking.

I got online and researched all the possible causes, and learned of something called athletic heart syndrome, which is a heart murmur that athletic people sometimes get from working out TOO much. I thought, “Oh no, don’t tell me I did myself in when all I was doing was trying to be healthier!”

I also have a problem called ‘white coat hypertension’, where my BP is normal to low everywhere else but when the dr takes it (at home its low, at the Red Cross when I donate blood every couple months its low, etc…but at his office, its higher.) He said an echocardiogram would determine if I truly have hypertension or not also, as well as figure out what the murmur is from.

Well…they did a nuclear exercise stress test, plus an echocardiogram. Both tests found my heart, valves and arteries are in excellent shape, and no murmur was found! Turns out my dr must have thought he heard one, but didn’t.

Also, the left ventricle showed no signs of thickening at all (which it would have shown if I had true hypertension). My dr was amazed because he said the 20 years or so that I was very obese should have caused at least some thickening of the heart (due to the stress of carrying around all that extra weight)…yet it didn’t. I consider myself very fortunate because I’m 49 and he said I have the heart of a much younger person.

 

[mercygate]

I think that what probably helps me more than anything is the principle of abstinence, a very Christian principle.

This may be different for everyone. For me, it means only drinking two sugar sodas a day instead of six. (Today will not be an abstinent day, as it is the 4th of July.)

For others, abstinence may mean no sodas at all, or diet sodas only.

Also, for me, abstinence means a workout at the gym. (Because of my foot and my knee, I am not able to walk more than a few blocks, so I am limited to swimming or the elliptical machine. Unfortunately, I don’t have either an elliptical machine or a pool in my home, so I must go to the gym to work out.)

When I first joined the Catholic Church, I lost about 30 pounds because for the first time in my life, I said “No” to various foods and “Yes” to a regular workout. I practiced this “abstinence” as a spiritual discipline, something that was quite new to me.

The idea of "spiritual disciplines"is really difficult for evangelicals, who have a hard time accepting that these are not “works-based salvation.” Evangelicals are very wary of anything that looks like we are trying to “work” to earn salvation or sanctity. It’s GOD’S job to make us holy, not ours! If you try to “add works” to what Jesus has done for us, you insult His finished work on the cross and demonstrate a lack of faith in His ability to completely save and sanctify us.

Yes, evangelicals accept that Christians will be holy. But where do you draw the line between good works that come from Jesus, and good works that you do in your own strength?! It’s a tricky call for them.

(This is one of the things I love about Catholicism, BTW! We are free to do good works! No “lines” exist–we are working out our salvation with Jesus beside us–He actually likes it when we try to “add” to the treasury of merit! He doesn’t consider it a “lack of faith” to try to be good.)

A lot of evangelicals avoid things that “defile the temple of God,” e.g., alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, drugs of any kind other than for prescribed medical purposes (I know Christians who won’t take aspirin for a headache), etc.

But food–ah, that’s a different story! I have a fun book that has a whole chapter devoted to the Lutheran “hot dish suppers.”

The problem is that everyone’s body handles food differently. Some ladies can devour large slices of the “Pig Pickin’ Cake” and drink cup after cup of lemonade at the Annual Evangelical Women’s Summer Tea Party," and they’re still skinny as sticks! Meanwhile other women walk into the banquet hall and look at the Pig Pickin’ Cake and lemonade and gain five pounds!

That’s what makes it so hard for people to be abstinent! It is really, REALLY hard to sit and munch on broccoli (not carrot sticks–they have a high glycemic index!), while your skinny pals are chowing down chips and dips!

Same for exercise. Some people work out for six weeks and look like the Terminator, while others work out for six months and lose less than an inch!

At least one person mentioned in this thread that a lot of obese people eat very healthy foods in normal sized portions. I would agree with this. I eat one of the healthiest diets in my workplace and I’m fat. Meanwhile the thinnest lady in our department eats donuts and coffee for breakfast and a diet that is almost all carbohyrdrates, no fresh fruit or vegetables (the only vege she likes is corn, which technically isn’t a vegetable), and very little protein.

Yes, she’s thin, but I KNOW that even with my hundred pounds of extra weight, I’m healthier than she is. A few months ago, at my annual physical, my lab tests were all normal, in spite of my fat. OTOH, this poor lady was rushed to the emergency room a year ago and spent a week in the hospital–diagnosis–congestive heart failure.

So thin isn’t always healthy.

My feeling is that obesity is one of those things that God asks some of us to “suffer” so that we can offer this up to Him. He wants us to work throughout our lives towards abstinences and detachment from food and sloth, and to glorify God in our bodies. It will not be easy for us and we will have to struggle not only with the fat, but with envy against our thin friends who seem to have no trouble remaining thin. Iit’s like St. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” The Lord leaves the obesity struggle with us so that we will rely on HIM, not ourselves. Our weakness is made perfect by HIS strength.

I think Catholics have to be careful not to adapt the “health and wealth gospel” that states that Christians have a right to “have it all,” including a beautiful, healthy, thin body on this earth. Like I said, we should glorify God in our bodies, but that doesn’t mean that they have to look a certain way. Remember John Paul II near the end of his life–his body was a wreck, but his soul was strong and beautiful.

I’m laughin’ and cryin’ and clappin’ and chokin’ as I read this. Everything you say is so apt.

I, too, have a secretary who is “fat” (not morbidly so, just “size XL”). She eats like an olympic gymnast: healthy food, small portions, exercises, walks, does all the right stuff – and just stays heavy. Her lipids, blood pressure, sugar levels, etc. are all fine. Her energy level is through the roof. What can you say? She does the right stuff and she is very healthy. Her weight is NOT a problem. Again: she is not morbidly obese.

 

[puzzleannie]

In my experience, Priests (and to a lesser degree all Religious) regularly receive gifts of food. Most of the time the gifts are baked goods, or foods that are high in fat/calories. In short, it’s mostly junk food. At most social gatherings the food is also

. . .
I’m not condemning the moderation of these foods, but it’s fairly obvious that our Religious and the Laity are overweight. .

and you have statistics to bear out your statement? I think not. Why not land on the parishioners who make inappropriate gifts, rather than the recipients who graciously receive them (and who 90% of the time pass them on to the needy in my experience).

 

[peary]

**‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal 3:28)…neither fat nor thin, I may add. **

 

[peary]

I’m laughin’ and cryin’ and clappin’ and chokin’ as I read this. Everything you say is so apt.

I, too, have a secretary who is “fat” (not morbidly so, just “size XL”). She eats like an olympic gymnast: healthy food, small portions, exercises, walks, does all the right stuff – and just stays heavy. Her lipids, blood pressure, sugar levels, etc. are all fine. Her energy level is through the roof. What can you say? She does the right stuff and she is very healthy. Her weight is NOT a problem. Again: she is not morbidly obese.

**To paraphrase Eric from South Park - She’s just “big boned” **

 

[francesca_gen]

This is definitely a topic I’ve been thinking about. Not so much the priest issue – I only know, personally, a couple of priests who are at all heavy, and no obese ones. Most of the priests I see on a regular basis are either quite slim or just of average build.

I, OTOH, have struggled with weight all my life. Most of the women in my family are big, so I know I’m genetically as well as environmentally pre-disposed to it. As I get older (just turned 41), it’s becoming worse and worse. I am technically obese, although people say I look smaller than my weight would indicate. (And as I’ve always said, “I’m just fat; I’m not weak.” I can lift and carry quite heavy things, that sort of thing.) It’s always been a very emotional and depressing issue for me, and now it’s becoming more of a physical one as well.

I do love to cook, and to eat. I think that my (clinical) depression has factored in, as sometimes a good meal is the only (humanly speaking) cheering thing in my day. And, as someone mentioned, years of dieting (I went on my first diet at 10), has definitely slowed my metabolism.

Do I eat too much? Yes. Do I eat the wrong things? Yes, although not fast food so much as things like bread and cheese. Am I too sedentary? Yes… I love to swim but other than that, exercise makes me hot, swollen, and cranky, and my lower back cramps up quite painfully, and so I have to force myself to do it.

I don’t like being one of those typical fat Americans, but I am.

I had a frustrating incident with my doctor the other day. My left hip has been hurting me for a year. Last year she just told me to take analgesics. This year I made an issue of it. She said to lose weight. I said it hurt so much I can’t use my left foot to step up from a curb, so it was just making me more sedentary. She reluctantly ordered an X-ray. Sigh. Not very helpful.

I’ve tried to use spiritual discipline here, but I know deep in my heart that I have the ulterior motive of being less unattractive and more comfortable. Maybe it’s a vestige of my Protestant upbringing that I can’t meld all those motives together.

No point, I suppose, but prayers would be appreciated! I am really trying to be more active. I have decided to go out into nature more, since walking in the woods or parks is much more pleasant, and just bought some binoculars for bird-watching. Maybe I can trick myself into some exercise.

Francesca

 

[blessedtoo]

I do love to cook, and to eat. I think that my (clinical) depression has factored in, as sometimes a good meal is the only (humanly speaking) cheering thing in my day. And, as someone mentioned, years of dieting (I went on my first diet at 10), has definitely slowed my metabolism.

Do I eat too much? Yes. Do I eat the wrong things? Yes, although not fast food so much as things like bread and cheese. Am I too sedentary? Yes… I love to swim but other than that, exercise makes me hot, swollen, and cranky, and my lower back cramps up quite painfully, and so I have to force myself to do it.

I hope you don’t mind me commenting on your touching post. Your frustration really emanates in your words.

I’ve struggled with severe digestive disorders and an eating disorder all my life (at this point, in remission) and, as is the often the case, decided to become a professional cook (the industry is RIDDLED with eating disorders). My love affair with food was tranformed from eating to appreciation. It taught me to view food in a completely different way - with a great deal of respect and reverence. It was no longer acceptable to just pop any old thing into my mouth without any thought behind it.

After my reversion to Catholicism, food has taken on even more meaning. When I eat a peach today, I can actually PICTURE the moment God made it - and how I am certain He invisioned me eating it! It makes me giddy to think He made such a brilliant fruit for my enjoyment! When I work with ingredients, I think about where they came from, how best to treat them, and how to glorify God’s handiwork with each dish. Now, I realize the home cook doesn’t often have such a luxury, BUT just taking an extra moment to really THINK about the food you create, and the CREATOR, can go a long way in staying thoughtful about our consumption.

A natural offshoot of this hightened consciousness becomes a deeper respect for what we choose to eat. A grey, faux meat patty slapped into a bun with mystery sauce makes me sad, more than anything else. Knowing that “science” has manipulated a perfect food product into something unrecognizable to sell it to the masses makes me angry and depressed. I feel it’s disrepectful to God and other humans and can’t, in good conscience, participate in any way.

I probably sound a little nutty. :whacky: It’s hard for me to observe the eating habits of the typical American and not feel outrage. But you’ve already got a jump on many people because you love to cook. For me, it’s a spiritual experience and if I view the preparation of food with reverence, then the eating of food will be thoughtful and mindful as well.

 

[francesca_gen]

After my reversion to Catholicism, food has taken on even more meaning. When I eat a peach today, I can actually PICTURE the moment God made it - and how I am certain He invisioned me eating it! It makes me giddy to think He made such a brilliant fruit for my enjoyment! When I work with ingredients, I think about where they came from, how best to treat them, and how to glorify God’s handiwork with each dish. Now, I realize the home cook doesn’t often have such a luxury, BUT just taking an extra moment to really THINK about the food you create, and the CREATOR, can go a long way in staying thoughtful about our consumption.

A natural offshoot of this hightened consciousness becomes a deeper respect for what we choose to eat. A grey, faux meat patty slapped into a bun with mystery sauce makes me sad, more than anything else. Knowing that “science” has manipulated a perfect food product into something unrecognizable to sell it to the masses makes me angry and depressed. I feel it’s disrepectful to God and other humans and can’t, in good conscience, participate in any way.

I probably sound a little nutty. :whacky: It’s hard for me to observe the eating habits of the typical American and not feel outrage. But you’ve already got a jump on many people because you love to cook. For me, it’s a spiritual experience and if I view the preparation of food with reverence, then the eating of food will be thoughtful and mindful as well.

I don’t think you sound nutty at all. Your example of the peach and of your sort of meditative cooking resonates much more to me than trying to make my “eating life” ascetic for ostensibly spiritual reasons when I *know *I’ve got mixed motives!

Tonight’s dinner is going to be salmon, salad, rice… pretty healthful actually, if I can manage to only eat a reasonable portion of it. But I’m going to try your suggestion out and see how it goes!

Thank you.

Francesca

 

[blessedtoo]

I don’t think you sound nutty at all. Your example of the peach and of your sort of meditative cooking resonates much more to me than trying to make my “eating life” ascetic for ostensibly spiritual reasons when I *know *I’ve got mixed motives!

Tonight’s dinner is going to be salmon, salad, rice… pretty healthful actually, if I can manage to only eat a reasonable portion of it. But I’m going to try your suggestion out and see how it goes!

Thank you.

Francesca

What time is dinner?

 

[francesca_gen]

What time is dinner?

Hmm, I see you’re in Seattle. If you can get a flight to Oakland that gets you here around 6, we can work it out.

I do love to cook for other folks!!

Francesca

 

[francesca_gen]

I do have to second the poster who said that the Greeks and Italians eat everything, but moderately, with my experience in France. We were served the most delicious array of food (and much of it NOT low-calorie, though none of it was “junk”), but in small-to-American-eyes portions. However, it was so good, that we took our time savoring it and the portions were enough.

A good lesson to relearn.

So maybe if one wanted to bring their priest (or friends, family, or co-workers) a tasty treat, a small but delicious item would be a good choice.

I love to bake on Sunday afternoons, and being only one person, I will often bring things to work on Monday. I have one friend at work who is watching his food intake for health reasons. So, for instance, I will give him a 1/4 of a slice – more just a bite – of banana bread, rather than a chunk, to have with his coffee.

Now if I can learn to do that for myself!!

Francesca

 

[Sepharad]

You know, for the past few years (which is about 6 years after I lost all the weight), I have not lost anymore, even though my exercise amount is the same and my eating habits are the same. Is this my body just settling down to its natural set point, or could something else be going on? I’m 49 and just went through menopause (it came early), so could that be it? I don’t care if I don’t lose anymore, but I want to be sure not to gain back any I did lose 8 years ago (if for no other reason than I’d have to buy new clothes and I hate doing that!)

On the spiritual end of things: I noticed that some here referred to obesity as a cross they have to bear, and something to “offer up”. I wonder if this might be a possible reason why obesity/healthy eating seems to be less of a concern among many Catholics than other religious groups?

In the NT, it says: (3 John 1-4)

"The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."

So that could be an incentive for some to at least get active and eat right, even if they do not lose weight from it (though you most surely will!) What seems is being said here is that your body should be in good shape, as well as your soul!

BTW to those who said they have noticed lots of priests who are heavy, I’ve also noticed a lot that smoke, too…which is just as bad if not worse. (I live in a heavily Catholic area, and right near a Catholic hospital too, so I get to see a lot of priests!)

 

[mercygate]

This is definitely a topic I’ve been thinking about. Not so much the priest issue – I only know, personally, a couple of priests who are at all heavy, and no obese ones. Most of the priests I see on a regular basis are either quite slim or just of average build.

I, OTOH, have struggled with weight all my life. Most of the women in my family are big, so I know I’m genetically as well as environmentally pre-disposed to it. As I get older (just turned 41), it’s becoming worse and worse. I am technically obese, although people say I look smaller than my weight would indicate. (And as I’ve always said, “I’m just fat; I’m not weak.” I can lift and carry quite heavy things, that sort of thing.) It’s always been a very emotional and depressing issue for me, and now it’s becoming more of a physical one as well.

I do love to cook, and to eat. I think that my (clinical) depression has factored in, as sometimes a good meal is the only (humanly speaking) cheering thing in my day. And, as someone mentioned, years of dieting (I went on my first diet at 10), has definitely slowed my metabolism.

Do I eat too much? Yes. Do I eat the wrong things? Yes, although not fast food so much as things like bread and cheese. Am I too sedentary? Yes… I love to swim but other than that, exercise makes me hot, swollen, and cranky, and my lower back cramps up quite painfully, and so I have to force myself to do it.

I don’t like being one of those typical fat Americans, but I am.

I had a frustrating incident with my doctor the other day. My left hip has been hurting me for a year. Last year she just told me to take analgesics. This year I made an issue of it. She said to lose weight. I said it hurt so much I can’t use my left foot to step up from a curb, so it was just making me more sedentary. She reluctantly ordered an X-ray. Sigh. Not very helpful.

I’ve tried to use spiritual discipline here, but I know deep in my heart that I have the ulterior motive of being less unattractive and more comfortable. Maybe it’s a vestige of my Protestant upbringing that I can’t meld all those motives together.

No point, I suppose, but prayers would be appreciated! I am really trying to be more active. I have decided to go out into nature more, since walking in the woods or parks is much more pleasant, and just bought some binoculars for bird-watching. Maybe I can trick myself into some exercise.

Francesca

I think depression feeds into the things that made me gain wait (depression, sloth, gluttony, stress . . . ). But it’s depression that kept me without the will to put myself back into feel-good mode.

I don’t know what finally kicked my backside into motion and made me get serious about wanting to feel good again but it happened - thank God. I DO know that when I was heavy, I felt “old” – everything hurt: hips, knees, feet, neck. There was nothing wrong with me at all except the stress that the extra weight put on my poor bones. NOTHING hurts any more. Nothing.

Ya gotta love yourself enough to WANT to feel good, really good, and not just “while I eat this ice cream.” It helps to have a cheering section. I didn’t.

I didn’t lose the weight for ‘religious’ reasons either. I didn’t pray about it. I just made a deal with myself: RUTHLESS adherence to a strict calorie count (750/day). NO whining. No excuses. No saying “It’s just a little bit.” NEVER used the “D” word. Left myself with a 1000-1500 calorie deficit on the week going into the weekend so I could have a glass of wine and a dessert . . . Weighed myself twice a day and wrote it down on the calendar.

I didn’t exercise either, unless you count needlepoint. Had I exercised, I am sure it would have been much better.

 

[mercygate]

I don’t think you sound nutty at all. Your example of the peach and of your sort of meditative cooking resonates much more to me than trying to make my “eating life” ascetic for ostensibly spiritual reasons when I *know *I’ve got mixed motives!

Tonight’s dinner is going to be salmon, salad, rice… pretty healthful actually, if I can manage to only eat a reasonable portion of it. But I’m going to try your suggestion out and see how it goes!

Thank you.

Francesca

You go, Girl! You hit the nail on the head with this one: PORTION control! Ya gotta stop when you hit the objective target, not the subjective one.

 

[Sepharad]

Mercygate, I think I need to explain some things, if you don’t mind.

750 cals a day is WAY too low for health…if you do that too long, you will actually stop losing because your body sees itself as being in starvation mode (your body does not know you are trying to lose fat; it thinks its being starved and will hold onto fat.)

Also, not exercising while reducing portions/cutting cals is bad news…what will happen is if you ever do gain weight back, you will gain it back as fat and not muscle. Whereas if you build muscle while losing fat, you are better off. Muscle burns cals even when you are just sitting there!

This practice of cutting cals and not also working out is why so many fat ppl, when they go off a diet, actually end up fatter…because when you cut cals, you lose fat but also you do lose SOME muscle (which is why you need to also simultaneously work out, so you can replace the muscle dieting makes you lose!) But when you go off the diet, it ALL comes back as fat.

The minimum for a woman to lose weight and still stay healthy is 1200 per day in cals, not less than. I lost 130 lbs 8 years ago, and none of it ever came back (and I’m 49, so I started losing it when most women find it hard to lose/keep off: I was 41!) The reason why it worked for me is because I exercise also.

 

[mercygate]

You know, for the past few years (which is about 6 years after I lost all the weight), I have not lost anymore, even though my exercise amount is the same and my eating habits are the same. Is this my body just settling down to its natural set point, or could something else be going on? I’m 49 and just went through menopause (it came early), so could that be it? I don’t care if I don’t lose anymore, but I want to be sure not to gain back any I did lose 8 years ago (if for no other reason than I’d have to buy new clothes and I hate doing that!)

On the spiritual end of things: I noticed that some here referred to obesity as a cross they have to bear, and something to “offer up”. I wonder if this might be a possible reason why obesity/healthy eating seems to be less of a concern among many Catholics than other religious groups?

In the NT, it says: (3 John 1-4)

"The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."

So that could be an incentive for some to at least get active and eat right, even if they do not lose weight from it (though you most surely will!) What seems is being said here is that your body should be in good shape, as well as your soul!

BTW to those who said they have noticed lots of priests who are heavy, I’ve also noticed a lot that smoke, too…which is just as bad if not worse. (I live in a heavily Catholic area, and right near a Catholic hospital too, so I get to see a lot of priests!)

People feed their priests. and the guys have to be polite – right?

As for “spirituality”, I’m going to get creamed for saying this but I am a member of a group whose rule of life requires fasting (one meal in the day) twice a week, eating in moderation at all other times, and never taking anything between meals. You would think we would all be walking sticks. But our retreat master looked around the room and said, “I know you fast all the time, but nobody could tell.” From what I saw on the trays in the dining room, the definition of “fasting” was pretty loose. Downright embarrassing. People create their own reality about this.

You are phenomenal for having lost 150 pounds and for keeping it off for so many years. Perhaps even a strict rabbi, who defines surgery as an “act of violence,” and cosmetic surgery as an unnecessary act of violence, might concur that taking care of the skin folds, would be restoring something to its intended condition.

My nickname at Bellevue was “Padre” but the Jewish doctors called me “Rabbi.”

 

[blessedtoo]

Mercygate, I think I need to explain some things, if you don’t mind.

750 cals a day is WAY too low for health…if you do that too long, you will actually stop losing because your body sees itself as being in starvation mode (your body does not know you are trying to lose fat; it thinks its being starved and will hold onto fat.)

Also, not exercising while reducing portions/cutting cals is bad news…what will happen is if you ever do gain weight back, you will gain it back as fat and not muscle. Whereas if you build muscle while losing fat, you are better off. Muscle burns cals even when you are just sitting there!

This practice of cutting cals and not also working out is why so many fat ppl, when they go off a diet, actually end up fatter…because when you cut cals, you lose fat but also you do lose SOME muscle (which is why you need to also simultaneously work out, so you can replace the muscle dieting makes you lose!) But when you go off the diet, it ALL comes back as fat.

The minimum for a woman to lose weight and still stay healthy is 1200 per day in cals, not less than. I lost 130 lbs 8 years ago, and none of it ever came back (and I’m 49, so I started losing it when most women find it hard to lose/keep off: I was 41!) The reason why it worked for me is because I exercise also.

Excellent points. A sustainable and healthy daily calorie intake is well above 750-1000. Unless you are 4 years old. Just my 2 cents.

 

[blessedtoo]

You know, for the past few years (which is about 6 years after I lost all the weight), I have not lost anymore, even though my exercise amount is the same and my eating habits are the same. Is this my body just settling down to its natural set point, or could something else be going on?** I’m 49 and just went through menopause (it came early), so could that be it?** I don’t care if I don’t lose anymore, but I want to be sure not to gain back any I did lose 8 years ago (if for no other reason than I’d have to buy new clothes and I hate doing that!))

You bet! Menopause will wreak havoc with the metabolism. It may require some adjustment to your daily meal planning and exercise routine IF you want to continue to lose.

Or you could just have finally reached the weight you are meant to be. What does your doc say?

For me, living in terror of gaining weight kept me from truly enjoying food. I really believe that most Americans do not actually ENJOY their food (grey, room temperature meat?). And I believe this is what leads to inappropriate eating habits like large portions and unhealthy snacking. When you thoroughly enjoy and appreciate a meal, you are satisfied and don’t crave more, more, more.