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Being fat is a trap

federicopereiro.com

111–120 of 373 posts

Re: Being fat is a trap

#111

I am going to be blunt here. Why is everyone using time as an excuse? In fact, it should be easier to lose weight if you are truly busy, because the only thing that will make you lose weight is eating less. This whole idea about exercising to lose weight is unhelpful when the truth is that no amount of exercise is going to compensate for eating more calories than you have to. And yes, you will go to bed slightly hung…

Somewhat on/off topic, but I'd also wager that a lot of folks who call themselves "busy" are really just bad at time management. They're not so much "busy" as they are wasting a ton of time and then using that lost time as an excuse to not have to do things.

So they are busy but it's because of a lack of time management which then plays into their inability to make good dietary choices. Being "busy" is their excuse and they make it happen by not managing their time.

Things like having to hit up starbucks before work, which wastes 10-15 minutes. Then going to grab lunch instead of bringing it from home, which wastes 45 minutes. Then they spend a large amount of time doing their outfit for the day, which wastes time in the morning. 30 minutes on social media before/after bed. Etc. These things add up to hours every day. And then "I'm too busy to eat healthy" comes out.

I say this cuz I know plenty of people who are "busy" but still manage to make great choices. I've noticed it has more to do with how people manage their time and the priorities they make throughout that time management. Time management is a skill that needs to be worked on. When one avoids managing their time well then of course they're going to be so inefficient that things get difficult.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#112

I think is just simply to diet and culture take this quick video as example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg3Y3tCmBWo the different portion size is ridiculous and now you compare it to serving size from asian country, you would find it very hard to get fat at this places and I mean it, even if you get fat its nowhere near american fat

Except portion size in a lot of Asian countries is LARGER. It is WHAT they're portions of, and how satiating it is that matters.

For example a popular Asian Fast-Food dish might be a huge bowl of udon noodles, with assorted veggies (e.g. bok choy, carrots, mushrooms), a little meat/tofu, in a salty broth. 500~ calories total. Then add on a Green Tea/Thai/Jasmine/Oolong Tea at an additional 100~ calories or less.

A McDonalds large french fry is also 500 calories alone for comparison. A Big Mac is another 580 calories on top, and a Medium Coke is 200 calories. So we're at 1280 calories for McDonald's most popular meal in the US.

I'd put it to people that the udon bowl is more satiating ("filling") than the Big Mac meal by a lot. It is also a large portion. You'll be full most of the day, whereas on the carb/fat/sugar explosion from McDonald's you'll need a snack when you crash late-afternoon.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#113
post #57

Stop eating junk food. It's as simple as that.

It’s not as simple as that. All people don’t get fat for the same reasons. I never eat junk food, and yet I still got fat during the pandemic.

For me the issue was that I stopped exercising during the lock down, but continued to eat the same amount out of habit. This led to me putting on a bunch of fat without realizing it.

To fix the issue, I primarily scaled back the quantity of food I ate without changing its composition too much.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#114

I have extremely lucky genes and have managed to stay just within the green BMI range despite eating all the carbs and fats you can imagine and at times consuming 200-300g of milk chocolate a day. Some of my friends are obese despite exercising heavily every day. Finding ways you enjoy to keep an active lifestyle is a great idea, probably the highest impact thing you can do for your long term well being (for people i…

I had an overweight BMI when I could run a sub 3-hour marathon, I’ve concluded my body just doesn’t match the normal range.

Since BMI can't differentiate between fat and muscle, it breaks down for people who are very muscular. That said, most people are sedentary and hardly even exercise, so BMI is a good approximation. The people who are very muscular are probably well informed about this caveat that no buff bodybuilder thinks they're the same as an overweight person just because their BMI is the same.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#115
post #79

I am going to be blunt here. Why is everyone using time as an excuse? In fact, it should be easier to lose weight if you are truly busy, because the only thing that will make you lose weight is eating less. This whole idea about exercising to lose weight is unhelpful when the truth is that no amount of exercise is going to compensate for eating more calories than you have to. And yes, you will go to bed slightly hung…

The less time you have, the harder it is to make healthy choices. You're more likely to grab fast food or something that is easy to throw together in the microwave. It's not just time, but also energy. The more you work and the harder your job, the less energy you have to expend on preparing food. Add in mental health issues and/or chronic illness, and you have even less energy. Usually, when I say I don't have time,…

It takes the same amount of time to quit all sugary drinks and alcohol and only drink water for the rest of your life. It’s an extreme, but just doing that alone will save you a couple thousand calories a month.

Fast food doesn’t necessarily mean high calorie either. Almost all fast food places have meals for under 600 calories, yes even McDonald’s.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#116
post #76
post #44

> but you have the choice to step out of the fat trap. People should also talk about the volition trap. I'm 40 and it feels like I've had more than a life's worth of people talking about how "you can do it if you just try!" > ... advertising signs that con / you into thinking you can do what's never been done / meantime life goes on all around you The sheer scope of the obesity pandemic should make it clear that we a…

I love Dr Jason Fung. His position is that our current system focuses on calories and not eating all the time, not avoiding processed foods, being insulin insensitive, and eating real food. Here's a good video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgmFEb0b0TI His hypothesis is that having high levels of insulin is the issue. People need to remember that being insulin resistant and being overweight are chronic conditions.…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzdwiOfW4b8&pp=ygURbGF5bmUgb...

Re: Being fat is a trap

#117
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if I were, I do think I'd try a GLP-1 agonist to get my weight down. Don't they only prescribe these for the morbidly obese? As someone "merely" overweight (BMI ~27) I'd like to try but I don't think I'm fat enough to get a prescription.

For better or worse, most of the online pharmacies like Ro or Hims will prescribe it to anyone with a pulse. Some insurance companies don't cover it unless your BMI is over like 40.

Pretty sure these aren’t available to me (in Germany), I will have to get an actual prescription.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#118
post #105
post #44

> but you have the choice to step out of the fat trap. People should also talk about the volition trap. I'm 40 and it feels like I've had more than a life's worth of people talking about how "you can do it if you just try!" > ... advertising signs that con / you into thinking you can do what's never been done / meantime life goes on all around you The sheer scope of the obesity pandemic should make it clear that we a…

> The sheer scope of the obesity pandemic should make it clear that we are not the problem The "obesity pandemic" is a very distinct trait of USA. The rest of the world does not have this problem at this magnitude.

The rest of the developed world is catching up.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#119

Absolutely all mental trap issues were resolved when my doctor finally approved Ozempic. Apparently, all this was caused by a tiny chemical disbalance in my neural circuits. Snap, instant cure. No side effects. I lost 26 kg (57 pounds) in 18 months. I finally eat normally. I am no longer prediabetic. My cholesterol is now fine. So, I constantly thank the researchers for making this wonder drug, and I hope the same su…

I've been on compound semaglutide for about 5 months and lost 40 pounds without really trying. Not because it's a magic cure that makes food calories disappear, but because it freed my brain from thinking about food all the time. I just got back from a two week trip without the medication and can feel how different things are when I am not on it. Without semaglutide, it feels like I need to have my stomach full all the time. As soon as my stomach empties at all, I get intense hunger pains and my stomach starts growling and grumbling. Even though I logically know that I don't need to eat yet, it feels like I do and it is all that I can think about. Meanwhile, when I am on semaglutide, I don't think about food until I am truly hungry.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#120

Losing weight is hard. Maintaining weight is easier, except that you have to do it forever. It was incredibly hard and took me a long time to lose 15 pounds as a always had been skinny person whose weight slowly crept up. I've never been obese and I'm sure it's super challenging to change, considering how hard loosing 15 lbs was for me. But if I were, I do think I'd try a GLP-1 agonist to get my weight down.

What's working for me now is just deciding what I want to weigh, but I couldn't do that for years. First I had to learn to actually control my eating, like not eating every time I felt like stuffing my face, getting enough sleep so I wasn't constantly fighting urges, and figuring out how much I need to walk to burn off extra calories.

'Just eat less and exercise more' never worked because I needed to learn how to do these smaller skills myself first. Once I learned what it actually takes to eat less and actually exercise more, that simple advice started becoming possible. It's still a work in progress.

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