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The Weight I Carry

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Weight I Carry

#91

Post by metabagel »

cflewis wrote: post #18
neaden wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree exercise isn't very effective to treat obesity, it is still healthy for you to exercise, even if it's not going to help you lose weight. There are a lot of people who are overweight who have healthier hearts and lungs then normal weight people due to exercise.

I can not give you more +1s. If your goal is to be healthy, and not necessarily be pretty, exercise is integral. You can be skinny and be unhealthy. You can be overweight and be heart-healthy, if you exercise. I am obese according to the BMI, but I run 3 times a week and my resting heart rate grazes into the "athlete" territory. My doctor is very happy. But I don't look it, that's for sure. I do not like running. I s…

I recommend swimming laps, if you have a place where you can do that. It's a fantastic workout, and easier on the body.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#92

Post by hsnewman »

I began reducing the carbs in my diet due to what I believe is gluten intolerance. I'm basically doing a Paleo diet. I've lost 25 lbs in the past 3 months, and feel great. I have no cravings. I'm done eating sugar and any high carb food (pizza, etc). My wife feels that I'm very regimented but my intolerance to gluten makes me so. I feel better and hope to have a longer life as a result.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#93

Post by metabagel »

I feel like one of the best things you can do if you're trying to lose weight is to consciously avoid the urge to finish everything on your plate. Try to habitually leave some food on your plate. I call it leaving an offering to the food gods. I think this leads to better mindfulness about what and how much we are eating.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#94

Post by parthdesai »

DanBC wrote: post #76
hombre_fatal wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I exercise, it puts me on a health-minded path every day that snowballs into other good decisions. It's like how they say making your bed in the morning helps put you on task the rest of the day. I find your line of thought unconvincing. The thing in common among everyone I know who is overweight is that they don't even work out at all. The amount of people I know who don't do anything is astonishing. The proble…

> The thing in common among everyone I know who is overweight is that they don't even work out at all Exercise does not help people lose weight, and it may make it harder for people to lose weight. Exercise is important, and we need to help more people exercise, but we should avoid suggesting that exercise helps weight loss. It does not.

Do you have any sources to back you up? I was never obese, but i definitely was on the "healthier" side back in the day (~182 pounds at 5'8"). Going to gym and running or working out gives you a perspective of how much work you need to do to burn even 100 calories. Iirc, A can of coke contains ~160 calories, two oreo cookies contain around that amount as well. Once you start thinking about how many calories you need to burn to eat those things, your diet becomes significantly healthier. And before someone says anything about not being able to control themselves, i will still finish an entire pack of cookies in one sitting if i buy them. What has helped me is not to buy them outright itself.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#95

Post by metabagel »

addicted wrote: post #43
jki275 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe this isn’t common, but I find that exercising indeed leads to me eating less. Further, after exercising, my tastes very obviously gravitate towards more protein and fiber rich foods, and away from sugary chocolates and sweets. I find that when I am inactive, I am constantly hungry. Part of this I think is exercise helps me sleep better, and better sleep reduces my appetite.

I agree that exercise can be helpful for appetite suppression. Although, it appears that this effect varies by type of exercise and other factors.

https://health.usnews.com/wellness/fitness/articles/2017-07-...

Re: The Weight I Carry

#96

Post by TheDauthi »

Naltrexone and Bupropion. It doesn't make the other parts of losing weight unnecessary, but it does make it easier to handle cravings. I don't care that I'm getting some willpower in a bottle - I'd simply like to weigh less.

Two years ago, I was ~300. I had been constantly gaining weight since I started taking Seroquel. I also had ankle surgery (unrelated to my weight), and was completely bedridden for 6 months, then in PT for another 5. After that, my doctor put me on those two medications.

I still had to be careful about what I ate, but the occasional snack was occasional; I could eat something bad for me once a week and not lost much progress. After a while the exercise was more pleasant, too.

I hit 220 a few months ago. When I switched jobs and stopped taking the two medications (doctor and I just wanted to see if the weight would stay off without them), my weight jumped back up to 250, but stabilized there. A good bit less than the 300. I started taking the two medications again, and now I'm losing it again.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#97

Post by davio »

metabagel wrote: post #93

I feel like one of the best things you can do if you're trying to lose weight is to consciously avoid the urge to finish everything on your plate. Try to habitually leave some food on your plate. I call it leaving an offering to the food gods. I think this leads to better mindfulness about what and how much we are eating.

This is deeply engrained in our culture. I honestly cringe when I see my nephews leaving food on their plate.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#98

Post by Qwertystop »

metabagel wrote: post #93

I feel like one of the best things you can do if you're trying to lose weight is to consciously avoid the urge to finish everything on your plate. Try to habitually leave some food on your plate. I call it leaving an offering to the food gods. I think this leads to better mindfulness about what and how much we are eating.

While it might help with eating less, it does mean you're deliberately wasting food (unless you collect all the scraps into leftovers for a later meal), which is... not good.

Try deliberately reducing your serving size instead.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#99

Post by WhompingWindows »

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…

Hey, thanks for posting. I have a few people close to me who struggle with the same issue, I really feel for them and I truly don't understand their daily battle. I want to help but I don't know what (if anything) I could say or do to help.

Re: The Weight I Carry

#100

Post by tracker1 »

This guy sounds a lot like me at my heaviest (468# at 6'1" tall). I have a lot of correlated health issues, the bad knees predate the extreme obesity, and recently discovered via elimination diet that I am allergic to legumes and have trouble with grains in general. I went keto last year (mostly eggs, meat, greens and sometimes nuts and cheese).

Without trying much I dropped to under 380... where I've hovered mostly for the past year. When I'm strict and track I get closer to 350#, but getting below that has been incredibly hard.

Everything I've read and understand leads me to believe that longer fasting periods are what I need to do to break through this. But I tend to get fidgety around day 5 and stop early. I also do pretty consistently when I only eat one meal a day.

I don't think it's for everyone, and it isn't magic. More fat is more sating, and a lot of disinformation starting in the 60's has now been disproven. I do think that the majority of human kind was keto for significant portions of the year for most of human history. I feel that refined sugars are the single biggest factor in terms of obesity, followed by refined grains and vegetable oils.

In general, low fat and lots of sugar has spun society into obesity. Not understanding the role of hormones, or underestimating their effects are another compounding issue. Doctors need to start testing against resting insulin levels as part of a regular checkup. They need to push for changes in diet over supplemental insulin. And absolutely need to convey the message of why refined sugars (mostly the fructose component) are bad for you.

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