We're all getting fat

[AClaire11]

If more communities were made more walkable, that would go a long way to solve our obesity problem.

Right now, in most American suburbs, it is downright dangerous to walk to get anywhere due to the lack of sidewalks.

The really walkable, nice neighborhoods are usually so expensive, too.

 

[Crucesignatus]

Just another part in the degeneration of the West.

 

[mikekle]

There is an agenda here, just take a look at the current portion sizes in many fast food places, cup sizes have grown drastically in a very short time, just 10-15 yrs ago a 32 oz drink would have been super size large, now a 32oz is a small or medium and 44oz, 52oz or even 64 oz is the new large.

If the sizes keep growing at the same rate, we will see it be the norm to have 70, 80, 90oz drink sizes in the near future!

Whats really strange about the drink size thing, for the most part, the cost is about the same, so its not a case of the restaurants trying to increase sales or profit.

 

[exnihilo]

I’ve struggled with my weight since I got out of high school. I went from being able to eat all that I wanted to suddenly putting on pounds. When I was younger I could exercise away the weight but that has gotten harder to do.

My biggest problem has been snacking late at night. I eat reasonably sized and healthy meals throughout the day. But just before I go to bed I really want a snack. It isn’t even necessarily an unhealthy snack, other than the portion size.

I wonder if one of the causes of the societal weight gain was the anti fat messages. People substituted higher calorie carbs to replace all the fat they were avoiding. For anyone like me this increased your hunger as I find fat more satiating.

It’s all about Calories In vs Calories Out. People eat more now and are less active.

Starbucks and Fast Food were not pervasive in the 70’s.

A Big Mac meal with just med fries and drink is ~1,000 calories. If you get a large shake and fries, you are approaching 2,000 calories.

Your typical man shouldn’t go over 2k calories a day.

I believe studies have shown people actually exercise a good deal more now then they did in the past. So while it probably is true we are less active in that we drive more places and have less physical jobs I’m not sure we are in total less active. It might be we are eating more then we exercise off. The focus on exercise for weight loss was always dangerous because for a lot of people exercise can increase hunger. If it makes your appetite then you can quickly undo all the work your exercise accomplished.

 

[Sarcelle]

The really walkable, nice neighborhoods are usually so expensive, too.

Obesity is often more of a problem for the poor than for the rich.

They are caught between unhealthy but cheap food and a forced dependence on the car.

 

[Sarcelle]

I’ve struggled with my weight since I got out of high school. I went from being able to eat all that I wanted to suddenly putting on pounds. When I was younger I could exercise away the weight but that has gotten harder to do.

My biggest problem has been snacking late at night. I eat reasonably sized and healthy meals throughout the day. But just before I go to bed I really want a snack. It isn’t even necessarily an unhealthy snack, other than the portion size.

I wonder if one of the causes of the societal weight gain was the anti fat messages. People substituted higher calorie carbs to replace all the fat they were avoiding. For anyone like me this increased your hunger as I find fat more satiating.

I believe studies have shown people actually exercise a good deal more now then they did in the past. So while it probably is true we are less active in that we drive more places and have less physical jobs I’m not sure we are in total less active. It might be we are eating more then we exercise off. The focus on exercise for weight loss was always dangerous because for a lot of people exercise can increase hunger. If it makes your appetite then you can quickly undo all the work your exercise accomplished.

I went back to my childhood way of eating when I was effortlessly slim.

This means no snacks whatsoever and fruit not pastries for dessert. I also avoid sugary drinks even fruit juices. It’s back to three meals a day. During Lent, I fast by skipping breakfast.

I do allow myself an occasional treat but only during the weekend.

 

[mikekle]

Obesity is often more of a problem for the poor than for the rich.

I think that is an old myth, In my experience, Ive not seen that to be accurate, I know plenty of wealthy and poor folks who are obese. Its like drug abuse, it does not discriminate, effects people from all walks of life.

 

[exnihilo]

I went back to my childhood way of eating when I was effortlessly slim.

This means no snacks whatsoever and fruit not pastries for dessert. I also avoid sugary drinks even fruit juices. It’s back to three meals a day. During Lent, I fast by skipping breakfast.

I do allow myself an occasional treat but only during the weekend.

By childhood what exact age do you mean? For me in my junior or senior year of high school I’d eat three large bowls of cereal with whole milk when I got home. I’d probably eat something like half a package of cookies or a good portion of ice cream after supper. I’d have eaten three meals plus a midday snack of two sausage biscuits. I was slim for me in high school but also 190. When younger I would eat lots of cookies, cake, and ice cream.

I stopped eating breakfast a few years ago. I found, after mental acclimation, I can manage that fairly easily even if I have to do physical work. But it was very hard at first.

I think avoiding fruit juices is wise. They are a lot of calories and most fruit juices are mostly apple juice anyway.

Your discipline regarding treats is commendable. I find for me that willpower to be fleeting.

 

[Theo520]

I’ve struggled with my weight since I got out of high school. I went from being able to eat all that I wanted to suddenly putting on pounds. When I was younger I could exercise away the weight but that has gotten harder to do.

My biggest problem has been snacking late at night. I eat reasonably sized and healthy meals throughout the day. But just before I go to bed I really want a snack. It isn’t even necessarily an unhealthy snack, other than the portion size.

I wonder if one of the causes of the societal weight gain was the anti fat messages. People substituted higher calorie carbs to replace all the fat they were avoiding. For anyone like me this increased your hunger as I find fat more satiating.

When younger I expect we both had a faster metabolism that gave more freedom to eat what we wanted.

When you are overweight the only non-surgical answer is to start eating fewer calories than you are burning through the day. After I started tracking calories in then it became easier to grab a glass of water or a low cal healthy snack when I feel hungry, instead of the Doritos. You need to rewire your brain/response that feeling some hunger doesn’t mean you must eat.

Most people have no idea how many calories they are eating vs what they are burning. Also most exercise activity burns far fewer calories than people think. Walking a couple miles won’t burn off the calories in a typical candy bar.

I believe studies have shown people actually exercise a good deal more now then they did in the past. So while it probably is true we are less active in that we drive more places and have less physical jobs I’m not sure we are in total less active. It might be we are eating more then we exercise off. The focus on exercise for weight loss was always dangerous because for a lot of people exercise can increase hunger. If it makes your appetite then you can quickly undo all the work your exercise accomplished.

Yes people go to gyms more than in the 70’s but they are also more sedentary through the rest of their day. Most people now do little walking and sit behind a desk all day.

 

[Sarcelle]

By childhood what exact age do you mean? For me in my junior or senior year of high school I’d eat three large bowls of cereal with whole milk when I got home. I’d probably eat something like half a package of cookies or a good portion of ice cream after supper. I’d have eaten three meals plus a midday snack of two sausage biscuits. I was slim for me in high school but also 190. When younger I would eat lots of cookies, cake, and ice cream.

I stopped eating breakfast a few years ago. I found, after mental acclimation, I can manage that fairly easily even if I have to do physical work. But it was very hard at first.

I think avoiding fruit juices is wise. They are a lot of calories and most fruit juices are mostly apple juice anyway.

Your discipline regarding treats is commendable. I find for me that willpower to be fleeting.

I pretty much did the three meals, no snacks, desserts only for special occasions routine from infancy to high school senior.

I started the snacking habit when I started University and gained a bunch of weight.

 

[Sarcelle]

By childhood what exact age do you mean? For me in my junior or senior year of high school I’d eat three large bowls of cereal with whole milk when I got home. I’d probably eat something like half a package of cookies or a good portion of ice cream after supper. I’d have eaten three meals plus a midday snack of two sausage biscuits. I was slim for me in high school but also 190. When younger I would eat lots of cookies, cake, and ice cream.

I stopped eating breakfast a few years ago. I found, after mental acclimation, I can manage that fairly easily even if I have to do physical work. But it was very hard at first.

I think avoiding fruit juices is wise. They are a lot of calories and most fruit juices are mostly apple juice anyway.

Your discipline regarding treats is commendable. I find for me that willpower to be fleeting.

I actually like rationing out treats. This way I enjoy it even more and I get to indulge occasionally without the accompanying guilt. Best of both worlds.

It did take willpower at first but it gets a lot easier over time.

 

[Lea101]

By childhood what exact age do you mean? For me in my junior or senior year of high school I’d eat three large bowls of cereal with whole milk when I got home. I’d probably eat something like half a package of cookies or a good portion of ice cream after supper. I’d have eaten three meals plus a midday snack of two sausage biscuits. I was slim for me in high school but also 190. When younger I would eat lots of cookies, cake, and ice cream.

I stopped eating breakfast a few years ago. I found, after mental acclimation, I can manage that fairly easily even if I have to do physical work. But it was very hard at first.

I think avoiding fruit juices is wise. They are a lot of calories and most fruit juices are mostly apple juice anyway.

Your discipline regarding treats is commendable. I find for me that willpower to be fleeting.

Hope I don’t sound rude, but have you ever reflected on why you are eating a certain amount. When I was in my early teens, I used to eat a lot. Then I realized that I was fat and i started to restrict food and developed an exercise addiction. It gotten so bad to the point where I was more or less a bag of bones. I remember passing out right before receiving the Eucharist. People thought I was possessed, probably. Lol!

Anyway…looking back I realized that I snacked a lot because of many reasons. Eating while I do something created an association between the activity and the food. For example, I kept eating chips while watching TV. And when I stopped, i just had these crazy cravings. My mind was conditioned to expect snacks while watching TV. To get rid of it, I had to force myself to eat something less fattening for a while until there is this new association.

Sugar is as addictive as a drug, which explains why we just have to have it. The only way I stopped is to simply stop buying it. The reason why you eat certain foods could also be due to your childhood. “Comfort” foods, basically. It’s a desperate and subconscious way to make yourself feel some sort of pleasure. Once i went on a diet, I realised how sad I was. It was like everything had risen up to the surface.

I can’t tell you how to treat that because I’m still a sad person, I just switched to another terrible coping mechanism.

I think cutting back on food will be a lot more effective if one addresses the issues he or she is facing. Or else it’s just a sad battle (willpower) or one switches to another unhealthy way of coping

 

[Reuben_J]

Hope I don’t sound rude, but have you ever reflected on why you are eating a certain amount. When I was in my early teens, I used to eat a lot. Then I realized that I was fat and i started to restrict food and developed an exercise addiction. It gotten so bad to the point where I was more or less a bag of bones. I remember passing out right before receiving the Eucharist. People thought I was possessed, probably. Lol!

Anyway…looking back I realized that I snacked a lot because of many reasons. Eating while I do something created an association between the activity and the food. For example, I kept eating chips while watching TV. And when I stopped, i just had these crazy cravings. My mind was conditioned to expect snacks while watching TV. To get rid of it, I had to force myself to eat something less fattening for a while until there is this new association.

Sugar is as addictive as a drug, which explains why we just have to have it. The only way I stopped is to simply stop buying it. The reason why you eat certain foods could also be due to your childhood. “Comfort” foods, basically. It’s a desperate and subconscious way to make yourself feel some sort of pleasure. Once i went on a diet, I realised how sad I was. It was like everything had risen up to the surface.

I can’t tell you how to treat that because I’m still a sad person, I just switched to another terrible coping mechanism.

I think cutting back on food will be a lot more effective if one addresses the issues he or she is facing. Or else it’s just a sad battle (willpower) or one switches to another unhealthy way of coping

My experience was just the opposite. As a youth, we were rather improvised to an extent that food was a luxury. We never had excess.

When I was richer, life was good, I tend to eat more and put on weigh, which made my doctor very unhappy. Then it became a challenge to restrict the diet once it was set as habit. Good food and good dinner became once too often. It has become very difficult to eat less.

It was through sheer power of the will to reduce food intake and sometimes fasting seems to be motivated more by wanting to eat less rather than the spiritual reason for it. But at the end if the day, food is poison that will cause more harm than good to our body if taken more than necessary, and that should be deterrent enough to stop eating unnecessarily.

 

[tomarin]

My experience was just the opposite. As a youth, we were rather improvised to an extent that food was a luxury. We never had excess.

When I was richer, life was good, I tend to eat more and put on weigh, which made my doctor very unhappy. Then it became a challenge to restrict the diet once it was set as habit. Good food and good dinner became once too often. It has become very difficult to eat less.

It was through sheer power of the will to reduce food intake and sometimes fasting seems to be motivated more by wanting to eat less rather than the spiritual reason for it. But at the end if the day, food is poison that will cause more harm than good to our body if taken more than necessary, and that should be deterrent enough to stop eating unnecessarily.

It’s quite the conundrum what you describe because, ultimately, diet or no diet we all have to eat something to power our bodies through the day.

 

[Reuben_J]

It’s quite the conundrum what you describe because, ultimately, diet or no diet we all have to eat something to power our bodies through the day.

Healthy food and correct amount and frequency, enough to power our body and not more.

Edit:
as one ages, the need to power the body become very much less. It is only for the maintenance.

 

[Sarcelle]

Healthy food and correct amount and frequency, enough to power our body and not more.

True.

Anything more and we gain weight.

The trick is finding out how much and then sticking to it. Easier said than done especially on the sticking to it part.

 

[DaveBj]

When younger I expect we both had a faster metabolism that gave more freedom to eat what we wanted.

snip

That was certainly my experience. When I hit my mid-20s, it was like somebody turned the thermostat WA-A-AY down

 

[Theo520]

Has anyone watched “My 600-lb Life” on TLC?

 

[Sarcelle]

Has anyone watched “My 600-lb Life” on TLC?

Yes.

 

[Theo520]

Changing this is under our control, it’s not caused by outside forces

Average Obese Woman Gets 1 Hour of Exercise a Year
**Obese men don’t do much better, breaking a sweat only 3.6 hours annually, researchers say
**
The findings startled the researchers, whose main focus was finding better ways to measure how much exercise people get.

“They’re living their lives from one chair to another,” said Edward Archer, a research fellow with the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “We didn’t realize we were that sedentary. There are some people who are vigorously active, but it’s offset by the huge number of individuals who are inactive.”
…