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Being fat is a trap

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Re: Being fat is a trap

#231

Post by titusjohnson »

maketheman wrote: post #189
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is correct. I eat whatever I want, snack a lot, etc. Never been fat because I just don't eat that much in aggregate.

I averaged 4,000+ calories per day in high school through the first couple years of college. Almost all junk food—pizza, chips, crackers, eggo waffles, french fries, that kind of thing. Enormous amounts of soda. Milk shakes. Cappuchinos and mochas, in the later years. All I did for activity was ride bikes some and lift weights a little, plus usual kid stuff, no serious sports or training. I had visible ab muscles and…

> I truly have no idea where all that energy was going.

Growing your body. I was the same in my late teens and early 20's. Family called it the POW Aesthetic. 6'1" & 150lbs, couldn't put an lb more on. I was strong as shit though, in a practical sense. No issue throwing 100lb feed bags over a shoulder and walking it up some stairs into storage, things like that. I was both doing active things all the time, and finishing growing my body. The summer I got my last growth spurt was agony, my bones hurt every night and I was a bottomless void of hunger.

Also, do not underestimate this bit:

> All I did for activity was ride bikes some and lift weights a little, plus usual kid stuff, no serious sports or training.

Specifically I believe the "usual kid stuff" part was doing a lot for you, I know it was for me. Looking back I now realize that my "usual kid stuff" was me being very, very active. I was pounding out 20k+ steps a day just moving around the family farm, miles on a bike (often on grass too), and then maybe an hour of pick-up soccer in the evening. This was just normal activity for me back then, I would not have considered any of it Intentional Exercise. Today I'd have to intentionally train for an ironman to even start approaching that level of activity.

I gained 15lbs the _summer_ I got my first desk job, that was entirely because I replaced 8 hours of walking around and doing things with 8 hours of sitting in a chair, and about 30 minutes of walking for breaks and lunch.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#232

Post by j_w »

maketheman wrote: post #172
knighthack wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Science disagrees. On an individual level, yes, "try harder" is all we personally can do (well, until GLP-1 agonists, LOL). So, sure, it's "good advice" in that it's all there is. On a policy level? As far as medical intervention efficacy? It's entirely useless. Even crazy-expensive interventions involving several hours of professionals' time per week, for months on end, are wildly less effective than one might think…

On a micro level you can change your environment easily - stop buying foods that are bad for you at the store. Don't go down the chip and candy aisle. If you are not the one who shops for food in your household, inform the one who is that for your health they need to not purchase snacks.

In my anecdotal experience, fat people grossly underestimate how much they eat or lack the understand of how calorically dense the foods they consume are.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#233

Post by insane_dreamer »

ericmay wrote: post #222

One of the pillars of weight loss is "eating right" as we all undoubtedly know. It's eating whole foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and lean meat, and all that good stuff. If you ever go to a nutritionist they'll tell you that, and they may even give you recipes! But this is mostly an exercise in futility. Why? Because going to McDonalds tastes better. So people will revert and not solve their problem. Diets do…

> Because going to McDonalds tastes better.

this is a problem for a some people

however for many more people, the issue is affordability

unhealthy food is cheap and widely available

healthy food is more expensive and in some neighborhoods unavailable -- so there's the cost and effort of going somewhere where you can actually get it; food deserts are a real thing, while soda and chips vending machines are ubiquitous

this is why there are much higher rates of obesity among lower income populations

it's a solvable problem (not entirely, but it's possible to greatly reduce levels of obesity), but there seems to be very little social willpower to fix it

Re: Being fat is a trap

#234

Post by [deleted] »

ffsm8 wrote: post #229
ericmay wrote: post #222

One of the pillars of weight loss is "eating right" as we all undoubtedly know. It's eating whole foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and lean meat, and all that good stuff. If you ever go to a nutritionist they'll tell you that, and they may even give you recipes! But this is mostly an exercise in futility. Why? Because going to McDonalds tastes better. So people will revert and not solve their problem. Diets do…

As a single almost 40yo overweight man I've gotta disagree. McDonald's doesn't taste better, it tastes worse, but what working adult has the time next to their day job to eat healthy? You have to be either 1. Rich enough to be able to spend a premium at restaurants for most of the week 2. Be rich enough to have a partner that doesn't have to work a 40-50h work week 3. Be rich enough to have a personal cook 4. Not wor…

[deleted]

Re: Being fat is a trap

#235

Post by nradov »

chneu wrote: post #216
xnx wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people mentioning willpower but not as much attention is given to the fact that everything in our millions of years evolutionary design is biased toward heavy reward for caloric foods, and within the past 100 years we are suddenly in an environment where those cravings can be fulfilled in abundance.

A modern diet is a restrictive diet. We live in a time when half of our produced food is thrown away. That's why veganism makes so much sense nowadays. Nothing about the modern diet is "natural" for most people. Meat was awesome when calories were sparse/intermittent. Now it's just excess for the sake of a status symbol. Same can be said about a lot of our foods.

Meat is awesome when you need an optimal mix of nutrients — not just empty calories. Of course it's certainly possible to get the right proportions of macronutrients and sufficient micronutrients on a vegan diet but it takes a lot more planning and attention to detail.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#236

Post by eigenspace »

sarchertech wrote: post #152
mcosta wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Most of the rest of the world is where the US was 20-30 years ago when the US certainly had an “obesity pandemic”. There are 127 countries with an obesity rate higher than 20% (roughly what the US was at 30 years ago). In nearly every country in the world, your ancestors from 30 years ago would call you fat. The US is just ahead of the curve for some reason.

Depending on the coutnry, this is somewhat overstated.

For example, here in Europe it's rather clear just by eye (but also borne out in the data) that the increase in obesity here is actually just an increase in age.

Older people (up to a point) tend to be plumper than young people. The rapidly increasing average age in Europe then causes an average increase in obesity.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#237

Post by netdevphoenix »

narnarpapadaddy wrote: post #90
netdevphoenix wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to abstain. You can either eat less or simply eat more low caloric food (greens, potatoes, lentils, etc)

The point is that black and white, all or nothing is easier for many to stick to. It’s easier to not be tempted by a cigarette if you never see one or hang out with someone who smokes. With food, you can’t take approach.

That is fair but you can't pretend all food is bad when that's not true. That is what I took issue with. You can eat as many greens and lentils as you want. No such thing with cigs

Re: Being fat is a trap

#238

Post by netdevphoenix »

doix wrote: post #72
netdevphoenix wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to abstain. You can either eat less or simply eat more low caloric food (greens, potatoes, lentils, etc)

Except stopping is much harder than not starting. I can relate, I can go weeks/months without drinking. But then I have a beer and it turns into 10+ before the night is over. I'm lucky I don't have the problem with food, because you cannot just avoid it like other "bad habits".

"You don't need to abstain". This is the beginning of my message

Re: Being fat is a trap

#239

Post by j_w »

ffsm8 wrote: post #229
ericmay wrote: post #222

One of the pillars of weight loss is "eating right" as we all undoubtedly know. It's eating whole foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and lean meat, and all that good stuff. If you ever go to a nutritionist they'll tell you that, and they may even give you recipes! But this is mostly an exercise in futility. Why? Because going to McDonalds tastes better. So people will revert and not solve their problem. Diets do…

As a single almost 40yo overweight man I've gotta disagree. McDonald's doesn't taste better, it tastes worse, but what working adult has the time next to their day job to eat healthy? You have to be either 1. Rich enough to be able to spend a premium at restaurants for most of the week 2. Be rich enough to have a partner that doesn't have to work a 40-50h work week 3. Be rich enough to have a personal cook 4. Not wor…

People who say that they cannot cook on a 40h work week are just inefficient at cooking. It sucks to take a long time to prepare meals, but you will get faster.

When you first start cooking for yourself you'll easily double the times online recipes say. As you get better at prep and more of an understanding you'll eventually reach their times. Dishes afterwards are included in this: most recipes have downtime that you can entirely clean up during.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#240

Post by ponector »

oarfish wrote: post #161
knighthack wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Not really. genetics play a huge role in satiety signaling, and you can't just willpower your way out of it the way someone who simply lacka discipline can.

Not genetics is forcing people to order a whole pizza instead of a bowl of soup for a lunch?

And a can of coke (30+g of pure sugar) on top to make sure they'll get diabetes later.

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