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The Weight I Carry

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Weight I Carry

#61

Post by aldoushuxley001 »

_jal wrote: post #53
bko wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One can imagine what one likes, of course. I personally prefer to base medical decisions on, well, medical advice than on mental meanderings. And the medical advice leans the other direction[1]. > Otherwise being that size is a death sentence. Being any size is a death sentence. Balancing tradeoffs more or less well determines the appeals process length. [1] People quibble with for all sorts of reasons, some of them…

It's quite ironic that your citation for medical advice is just a mental meandering that you were so dismissive of... maybe don't be so arrogant if you're also unwilling to cite the literature.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#62

Post by zachruss92 »

guitarbill wrote: post #46
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…

For me, with keto, I have much less of a hunger feeling, making things more manageable (As I've said in another thread). Agree with the mental clarity also. How did you stick with it though? I can do the diet, but find it hard to do with social stuff. For me, doing keto was quite a lonely thing.

Yea hunger is completely more manageable, from what I understand it's related to not having severe insulin fluctuations. I'm only ~6 months in, so I can't speak from a point of authority here, but my partner has been doing keto with me which definitely helped get me over the initial hump. Now, I just look at how far I've come and know that if I revert to my old ways I'll thwart the progress I've worked so hard to achieve. Honestly, right now it isn't hard to stick with.

I purposefully broke keto once (for my birthday). I had Pho and some cake. It was deliberate and delicious, and the next day I felt like complete garbage. That also helps motivate me as I like feeling good :)

Re: The Weight I Carry

#63

Post by bloak »

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…

That patient did (of course) receive vitamins during the fast.

I read somewhere that people who go on hunger strike, consuming nothing but water, die without becoming completely emaciated: they don't look like chronically underfed people at the end. There are plenty of well-known examples of prisoners dying while on hunger strike: they seem to last about 60 days. If you lost weight for 60 days at a constant rate taken from the 1973 case then you would lose about (456-180)/382*60 =~ 43 pounds. I would guess that most people could survive losing that much weight. But unless your aim is to kill yourself then I would advise not doing it with a hunger strike.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#64

Post by zachruss92 »

johnkpaul wrote: post #58
guitarbill wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, with keto, I have much less of a hunger feeling, making things more manageable (As I've said in another thread). Agree with the mental clarity also. How did you stick with it though? I can do the diet, but find it hard to do with social stuff. For me, doing keto was quite a lonely thing.

What social stuff? I have vodka sodas if I need to drink. Almost every restaurant will give plain foods with butter on the side (usually for free).

I agree with vodka sodas, I will also occasionally have a Michelob Ultra (2.4g carbs per bottle). I don't have any issues eating out either.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#65

Post by rgoodwintx »

misiti3780 wrote: post #59
guitarbill wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, with keto, I have much less of a hunger feeling, making things more manageable (As I've said in another thread). Agree with the mental clarity also. How did you stick with it though? I can do the diet, but find it hard to do with social stuff. For me, doing keto was quite a lonely thing.

how long did it take you to go into ketosis - im on day 10 and still havnt not gone in (im not really overweight)

Rule of thumb (Keto for mostly 15+ yrs, from 300lbs to 180) is 2-3 days, and at least Atkins version is those 2-3 days at "Being in ketosis" is hard to track; the urine test strips are helpful but not always accurate. Someone came up with a breath analyzer at some point but I lost track of the project.

Some recent stuff has shown that a 24-36hr fast can "kick start" ketosis as well; anecdotally it seems to work for me, but again I have to kind of go by feel. (Or if I note that I suddenly drop the 3-5 lbs of water weight that came on when out of ketosis.)

Re: The Weight I Carry

#66

Post by zachruss92 »

mtgx wrote: post #33
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...

Agreed, there are electrolyte depletion issues with keto. I take a magnesium supplement daily. I eat enough greens & salt that sodium and potassium aren't an issue for me.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#67

Post by sys_64738 »

rjkennedy98 wrote: post #37

"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. Gro…

I stopped all fried food in my life about 15 years ago. I will maybe eat fried fish once a month when in Manhattan but otherwise no fried stuff.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#68

Post by [deleted] »

graeme wrote: post #36
chrisseaton wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

[deleted]

Re: The Weight I Carry

#69

Post by bko »

_jal wrote: post #53
bko wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One can imagine what one likes, of course. I personally prefer to base medical decisions on, well, medical advice than on mental meanderings. And the medical advice leans the other direction[1]. > Otherwise being that size is a death sentence. Being any size is a death sentence. Balancing tradeoffs more or less well determines the appeals process length. [1] People quibble with for all sorts of reasons, some of them…

Body mass index (BMI) is associated with a reduce lifespan.

Compared to a normal-weight BMI, a BMI of:

40-44.9 leads to a loss of life of 6.5 years

45-49.9 leads to a loss of life of 8.9 years

50-54.9 leads to a loss of life of 9.8 years

55-59.9 leads to a loss of life of 13.7 years

Assuming a 445 pounds at 6 feet tall is a BMI of about 60, at about the top of the highest range. I think extreme obesity is a big enough health risk that it should be studied with more experimental treatments

[0] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jo...

Re: The Weight I Carry

#70

Post by chrisseaton »

kazinator wrote: post #52
Carlton87 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would say that this is true in cases when neglecting to exercise and eat appropriately is the cause of excess weight in a normally functioning body. In severe cases of obesity, something else may be going on. In a nutshell, the bodies of some of these sufferers could be on some sort of fat storage rampage. The fat cells extract an "energy tax" and store it; the body then has to do with what is left. If there is a b…

Then how come in famine situations there is nobody for whom the restricted calorie intake and exercise does not cause weight loss? Nobody in those situations stays overweight due to 'some sort of fat storage rampage' do they?
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