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The Weight I Carry

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Weight I Carry

#31

Post by bko »

jemfinch wrote: post #25
bko wrote: post #13

I found this study from 1973 interesting where an extremely obese individual performed a supervised fast for about a year and dropped from 456 to 180 pounds. > A 27-year-old male patient fasted under supervision for 382 days and has subsequently maintained his normal weight. Blood glucose concentrations around 30 mg/100 ml were recorded consistently during the last 8 months, although the patient was ambulant and atte…

> I don't know why I haven't seen more studies where extremely obese individuals just stop eating. Primarily because it's not considered medically safe, and a study along those lines would be too dangerous to the patients to be permitted. In this particular case, the 27yo male patient informed the doctors of his plan and said, "This is what I'm doing, you can monitor me or not." They didn't propose the study themselv…

It may be dangerous. But I imagine being 400+ pounds is even more dangerous, especially at an advanced age. Experimental treatments that may be more risky should be encouraged. Otherwise being that size is a death sentence.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#32

Post by wenc »

jki275 wrote: post #9
paulcole wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that no matter how much we try, exercising and eating less won't work Definitely disagree here. These are the only things that work. How else can you lose weight other than by moving more and eating less?

The key is that people actually don't eat less. They feel more hungry when they exercise, which drives them to eat more , which pushes the vicious cycle even further.

There's one way out of this vicious cycle.

I substituted the prodigious amounts of refined carbs I used to eat (pasta, rice) with meat, vegetables and a reduced amount of carbs. The proteins definitely helped with the hunger (and being a carnivore, it didn't take much to convince me to eat more meat -- though for me it's mostly white meat and eggs). I actually ended up eating more

I also started lifting weights. Exercising increases appetite for sure, but proteins satiates it.

I didn't lose that much weight (10 lbs), but I managed to convert what used to be flab to muscle.

Exercise + protein/vegetable diet (even if eating more) = body shape change.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#33

Post by mtgx »

zachruss92 wrote: post #21

I feel for the author. I have also struggled with my weight my entire life. At my heaviest, I was 265lbs. I definitely struggled, and continue to struggle with body issues. I was definitely addicted to food and was an emotional eater. I literally had a term called "stress cheeseburgers" as when I was stressed that's what I'd do. I finally decided to make a significant change last year. It started with me doing meal p…

Magnesium is known to be depleted when stressed. You should consider adding that as a supplement.

Also high stress = high cortisol = high glucose production (even from fat/gluconeogenesis) = high insulin = increased rate of fat storage and insulin resistance/diabetes

https://idmprogram.com/closer-look-cortisol-hormonal-obesity...

Re: The Weight I Carry

#34

Post by vanderZwan »

bko wrote: post #13

I found this study from 1973 interesting where an extremely obese individual performed a supervised fast for about a year and dropped from 456 to 180 pounds. > A 27-year-old male patient fasted under supervision for 382 days and has subsequently maintained his normal weight. Blood glucose concentrations around 30 mg/100 ml were recorded consistently during the last 8 months, although the patient was ambulant and atte…

While not this obese, I have gone through a similar experience in the last couple of years where medication almost completely suppressed my hunger trigger. As a result I kind of "accidentally" did intermittent fasting for over a year. My BMI went from 31 to 24 in the span of half a year, at which point my colleagues were getting worried because of the rapid weight loss and I started to rationally force myself to eat during lunchtime.

Since a couple of months the hunger suppression is no longer an issue, but it has been surprisingly easy to maintain a healthy weight and healthy eating habits since.

I suspect one part of the problem is that the body takes a long time to adjust to what it considers a new "normal" weight, which is why diets often don't work. Maybe if they were specifically oriented towards staying at a certain weight for an extended period of time?

Re: The Weight I Carry

#35

Post by guitarbill »

johnkpaul wrote: post #2

I've been 400 pounds most of my life. I empathize with every single sentence in this article and cannot imagine making myself write something like this. The vulnerability is incredible. I'm really glad that exercise is being called out as useless to treat obesity more and more. I hope that trend continues and things like Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaigns never happen again. Carbohydrate addiction is no joke, ev…

> Carbohydrate addiction is no joke

Completely believe it, although I think it depends on an individual's metabolism, which is why it's so tricky.

I stop having an insatiatable hunger after dropping carbs; my hunger feeling is more muted and in turn more managable. I have often wondered if "normal" people simply always feel that way, and so portion control is easier for them. I'd do keto more, but it isn't great for one's social life.

The other thing that helps me was Firas Zahabi's advice on Joe Rogan, that consistency and flow are key (to excercise), not intensity. I think his advice generalises to almost everything, how I became good at programming, playing an instrument, and also how I became fat. None of these happened overnight.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#36

Post by graeme »

chrisseaton wrote: post #6
amriksohata wrote: post #3

Watch the Fed up documentary, explains it so well that no matter how much we try, exercising and eating less wont work. Our environment is saturated with products now which almost all have added sugar, only way is to look at ingredients and change your environment, dont bring these things home and instead bring better stuff home thats not got added sugar.

> no matter how much we try, exercising and eating less won't work How can that be? If you burn more calories and you take in less calories, then surely at some point your body must start to lose mass. At very least is the equation that you're breathing out carbon and you're not getting that mass back from anything apart from what you eat.

Because all of this is regulated by hunger. If you move more, you get hungrier.

The issue in the case of most overweight people is that their body is trying to maintain a set point at a high level of body fat. Hunger serves to maintain this weight set point.

The way to sustainable weight loss is to eat in such a way that the body starts to target a lower set point and decreases hunger.

Obviously this also results in less calories taken than expended, but if it were as simple as a math formula most people would have six packs.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#37

Post by rjkennedy98 »

"No matter where you stood, you were no more than 10 feet from fried chicken."

I'm sorry but I just can't relate to this, which is probably why everyone in my family is thin. I can't even remember the last time I ate fried chicken. Maybe its a cultural thing (my parents were European), but there is no reason to bring fried chicken into your house. None. This is the kind of decisions that lead to being 460 pounds.

Growing up, for dinner, we would have a bowl of broccoli, a plate of asparagus, and bowl of roasted vegetables like sweet potato, carrot, parsnips, ect. We would always would have a mixed green salad. And we would have a meat dish like grilled chicken and mushrooms. No matter how much of that you ate, it would be very difficult to get fat.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#38

Post by vanderZwan »

johnkpaul wrote: post #17
bko wrote: post #13

I found this study from 1973 interesting where an extremely obese individual performed a supervised fast for about a year and dropped from 456 to 180 pounds. > A 27-year-old male patient fasted under supervision for 382 days and has subsequently maintained his normal weight. Blood glucose concentrations around 30 mg/100 ml were recorded consistently during the last 8 months, although the patient was ambulant and atte…

Because 1) doctors are typically against this 2) when eating carbohydrates regular this is extremely extremely difficult today. I have discussed it many many times with my doctors and they have all talked about "starvation mode" and all of these things. I currently intermittently fast very frequently and that has helped immensely with my weight. I have never done more than a 5 day fast, but even that much can do grea…

Hey John! You probably don't remember me, but we met in Malmö a couple of years back when you gave a very nice talk. I remember you being very nervous about Douglas Crockford attending it, haha.

I was being grumpy about the death of Google Reader, and you said that that's what you use Twitter for. So you're basically the reason I'm now on Twitter actually.

Glad to hear the intermittent fasting is working well for you! Hope you'll have to buy a new wardrobe for yourself soon ;)

Re: The Weight I Carry

#39

Post by addicted »

Jtsummers wrote: post #10
johnkpaul wrote: post #2

I've been 400 pounds most of my life. I empathize with every single sentence in this article and cannot imagine making myself write something like this. The vulnerability is incredible. I'm really glad that exercise is being called out as useless to treat obesity more and more. I hope that trend continues and things like Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaigns never happen again. Carbohydrate addiction is no joke, ev…

I'm curious what the problem with the "Let's Move" effort was. I was only aware of it (I wasn't part of it, and never set out to read about it, just caught reports on news or random articles), but it seemed to emphasize two things: eating healthy (which got a lot of flak from conservative commentators for some reason) and exercise (the "move" in the name). If it only focused on the latter, I'd agree with you. But nea…

I am not sure if the person heard a caricature of the program, but it focused on exercise, healthy diets, reduction of empty calories like soda, and public policy efforts such as introducing healthy meals to school.

As an example, here is a PDF with 5 ideas for kids:

https://letsmove.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/letsmove...

1) Exercise 2) Try new fruits and veggies 3) Deink plenty of water 4) Break up TV time with jumping jacks 5) Help make dinner.

Those are headlines, but when you look st the details for exercise, for example, these are the benefits it points to, in order:

Feel less stressed. • Feel better about yourself. • Feel more ready to learn in school. • Keep a healthy weight. 1 • Build and keep healthy bones, muscles and joints. • sleep better at night.

Only the 4th out of 6 benefits of exercise mentions weight.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#40

Post by Carlton87 »

amriksohata wrote: post #3

Watch the Fed up documentary, explains it so well that no matter how much we try, exercising and eating less wont work. Our environment is saturated with products now which almost all have added sugar, only way is to look at ingredients and change your environment, dont bring these things home and instead bring better stuff home thats not got added sugar.

Exercising and eating less is the only thing that works for losing weight. For the most part an individual is personally responsible for calories in and calories out. Being morbidly obese is a choice and it will kill you.
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