Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

slate.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 77 posts

Re: A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

#31

Post by jere »

Thriptic wrote: post #15
mattmanser wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how did you get to be 300lb in the first place? Obviously it's not that simple is it. You had to dedicate a long and sustained effort to lose weight you didn't want! If it were simple it wouldn't have taken 50% extra body mass for you to act and learn how to lose weight. I really do congratulate you, but let's not pretend this is an easy problem, or it simply wouldn't exist!

> So how did you get to be 300lb in the first place? I never paid attention to what I ate, I ate until I was stuffed, I drank way too much beer, and I never exercised. Basically I was lazy and didn't give a shit. This was the normal lifestyle of most people I knew who were 16-22. The ramifications of being fat were not enough to overcome the perceptions of the difficulty of dieting and exercise I gleaned from most pe…

You obviously have a high metabolism and abundant energy and willpower. Otherwise you wouldn't say "dieting was not difficult" or it only takes "a bit of time each day." Not overeating requires willpower every waking moment... forever.

This is sort of like someone who makes $500,000 a year claiming that getting out of debt is easy because they were able to do it after they finally stopped buying mansions and sports cars left and right.

Re: A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

#32

Post by 3minus1 »

tomjen3 wrote: post #3

I sincerely don't understand people like that. Sure you can ignore your physical health, eat too much and become obese (I did so), you can stay obese even, although weightloss isn't that fucking difficult (spoiler-warning: track your food, stay within your calories limit and perhaps move a bit more). But grow to be 300, let alone 600 pounds? To the point where you can't even got to the bathroom so your mother can was…

When you look at historical data, obesity has been increasing steadily in the US for decades. To blame individuals seems small-minded. There are obviously larger things going on (no pun intended).

Re: A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

#33

Post by [deleted] »

jimmaswell wrote: post #23
Thriptic wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, that's kind of how metabolism works. If you run a caloric deficit, you will lose weight...

I counted calories for over a month with some intense exercise and nothing happened. Maybe because I had an extra burger one of those days and that ruined the whole thing, or I was absorbing calories through photosynthesis. If it takes even more than what I tried then I hardly believe it's even worth it. I'd rather live happily for one less year than never get to eat fulfillingly and live on a bootcamp exercise regim…

[deleted]

Re: A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

#34

Post by LeonRobrotsky »

jimmaswell wrote: post #23
Thriptic wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, that's kind of how metabolism works. If you run a caloric deficit, you will lose weight...

I counted calories for over a month with some intense exercise and nothing happened. Maybe because I had an extra burger one of those days and that ruined the whole thing, or I was absorbing calories through photosynthesis. If it takes even more than what I tried then I hardly believe it's even worth it. I'd rather live happily for one less year than never get to eat fulfillingly and live on a bootcamp exercise regim…

> I counted calories for over a month with some intense exercise and nothing happened.

I suggest re-learning to count.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUZaPCLJA3c

Re: A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

#35

Post by mercer »

yetanotherthrow wrote: post #8
cellshade wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such empathy. Do you feel the same way about people with a substance abuse problem? To get to that kind of weight, it's more than just being lazy and not tracking calories. It's a serious psychological or physical problem. It doesn't happen just by deciding not to skip dessert. I've always been thin, but I can still empathize with someone in that predicament. Do you think that he didn't want to lose weight and get so…

Calling him names wasn't necessary, but his point remains. You don't eat at McDonalds and drink DrPepper when you want to get thinner. This guy didn't want to get thinner. He didn't want it more than death. And so he died.

You're correct, but if this person wants death more than getting thinner, it obviously means he has mental issues. The solution to mental issues is not to point out that someone has them, but to find ways to 'fix' them.

It's like telling a paraplegic that he can't get up the stairs because his legs are fucking lame. It's technically true, but it doesn't help in any way.

Re: A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

#36

Post by SixSigma »

jere wrote: post #31
Thriptic wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So how did you get to be 300lb in the first place? I never paid attention to what I ate, I ate until I was stuffed, I drank way too much beer, and I never exercised. Basically I was lazy and didn't give a shit. This was the normal lifestyle of most people I knew who were 16-22. The ramifications of being fat were not enough to overcome the perceptions of the difficulty of dieting and exercise I gleaned from most pe…

You obviously have a high metabolism and abundant energy and willpower. Otherwise you wouldn't say "dieting was not difficult" or it only takes "a bit of time each day." Not overeating requires willpower every waking moment... forever. This is sort of like someone who makes $500,000 a year claiming that getting out of debt is easy because they were able to do it after they finally stopped buying mansions and sports c…

> You obviously have a high metabolism

such a tired excuse

96% of the population is in the range of 1680-2320kcal daily

http://examine.com/faq/does-metabolism-vary-between-two-peop...

Re: A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

#37

Post by BSousa »

Thriptic wrote: post #11

Personally, I feel like the media frequently tries to over complicate the issue of obesity and make excuses for people who can't lose weight. The individual depicted here clearly has underlying psychological and substance abuse problems, but in no way is he reflective of the general population of obese individuals. Baring psychological issues, it's really not hard at all to pick a diet and adhere to it. It literally…

It really isn't and I say this as someone that never went over 180 pounds and is usually around 12% body fat.

Just the 'lifting 3 times a week' will take out a lot of the working population out of the picture. Why? If include commute to gym, working out time and shower/etc, we are looking at least 6 hours per week. Add the gym costs/going to the gym costs and you have maybe 100 bucks a month as a cost. We are fortunate we can spend that time/money on ourselves, but seriously, a lot of people can't. Heck, if you take 80% of the comments here in HN how they work 60+ hours a week in their startups, I doubt even us techies will have the time to do so.

In my country (and I think the USA as well) obesity is highly correlated with low income.

Then you have the psychological aspects to it. Stress is a major contribution to over eating. If everyday you are worried if you have enough at the end of the month for rent, you wont stop, go online, get a recipe, go to the grocery store to get fresh vegetables, come on, cook for an hour to have a nice healthy meal... You most likely will pick up a microwavable lasagna and be done with it.

I don't disagree with you that losing weight is easy, it is, basically "eat less than what you need", but being able to do that, based on many many factors isn't as easy.

(congrats on the weight loss)

Re: A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

#38

Post by mkr-hn »

maxerickson wrote: post #22
riffraff wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean that very little is done to actually face the problem. I probably should have said "underestimated", please forgive a foreign speaker :)

I don't think that fits either, at least not in the US. It's true that there are not tight regulations about what foods people can buy, but there are extensive programs working to inform people, and to improve their choices and the like. There is even some evidence that suggests it might be working: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/07/news/la-heb-obesity-... ("Might be" because of In a news conference that was th…

The new nutrition information boxes on the front of most things has helped me a lot. I still buy the same stuff, but being able to see at a glance what's in it helps moderate intake.

Re: A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

#39

Post by [deleted] »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #12
tomjen3 wrote: post #3

I sincerely don't understand people like that. Sure you can ignore your physical health, eat too much and become obese (I did so), you can stay obese even, although weightloss isn't that fucking difficult (spoiler-warning: track your food, stay within your calories limit and perhaps move a bit more). But grow to be 300, let alone 600 pounds? To the point where you can't even got to the bathroom so your mother can was…

>I sincerely don't understand people like that. Go through US cities and realize how much absolute garbage food is produced and made available in place of healthy meals. Then look at the portion size that most places serve. Then realize that obesity and overweight rates are higher the lower you go down the income ladder. It would be another thing if we had loads of great food and meals being produced with almost no f…

[deleted]

Re: A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity

#40

Post by BSousa »

jimmaswell wrote: post #23
Thriptic wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, that's kind of how metabolism works. If you run a caloric deficit, you will lose weight...

I counted calories for over a month with some intense exercise and nothing happened. Maybe because I had an extra burger one of those days and that ruined the whole thing, or I was absorbing calories through photosynthesis. If it takes even more than what I tried then I hardly believe it's even worth it. I'd rather live happily for one less year than never get to eat fulfillingly and live on a bootcamp exercise regim…

Hi Jim

One of the main problems people have with counting calories is accurately being able to do so. While I don't think counting calories is for everyone, if you do try again, try to weight everything you eat. Don't forget the teaspoon of olive oil in the salad and those kinds of small things that add up. Research has shown that comparing food logs of people that say they have a slow metabolism and that they count calories, when subjected to something I think is called, reverse isotope water (or similar), shows that they are not accounting for a lot of the things they eat.

Also, a month isn't a long time to notice changes even on the scale. It isn't uncommon to not drop weight due to water retention during a few weeks (depending where you start) when starting a diet.

Post reply on HN