Aurora wrote:
To my knowledge the standard dietary advice for some time has been to follow a Mediterranean diet, i.e. fruit, veg, nuts and fish.
As for the 'addictive' nature of junk food, why not just stop at once? It's called 'cold turkey' and all it takes is will power together with a sense of personal responsibility.
Well, a lot of people are saying now that its the high carbohydrate content of our diet that is a big problem. Rather than the concept of cutting out fat which has been the main emphasis in the mainstream diet plans, that rarely seem to work. So the "food pyramid" that puts carbs as the "base" is now suggested as a major contributor to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Its still controversial but lots of support growing for this point of view. I think everyone still agrees that the Mediterannean diet you mention is good for you.
Cold turkey is possibly the only sure way of resolving the food addiction problem for many folk, with the right support (and motivation, granted). But probably easier first if people get eating the good stuff, which should help with much of the brain chemistry issues.
The post war scarcity of food in the early nineteen fifties meant that people ate less but what they did eat was natural and wholesome and few people, if any, were overweight.
Cold turkey with the right support?
If you want to remain slim and healthy - JUST DO IT! Surely that is all the motivation an individual requires.
I'm getting tired of the 'oh so PC way' we all dance around the elephant ( ) in the room.
Time to tell it like it is. If you're fat - stop eating so much and eat healthily.
Quite right Aurora, time for the super-fatties to suck it up
"Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools". Douglas Bader.
foodimista wrote:Thanks goslow. I'm not saying I'm in "famine-storage" mode, but I'm not saying I'm not either! May just be age-related slowing of metabolism (if that is something different) but I find it hard to shift, and keep off, the weight I have accumulated over the years. A lower carb/booze diet would no doubt help anyway.
Well, get hold of one of those books, give it a try. Good luck!
Aurora, all agreed for a healthy diet (if not a calorie constricted one) but I would not want you as my coach!
So, for the education of the ignorant in this thread.
Let me tell you about someone I know. She eats mostly only homecooked, natural foods, most of the time only as much as she needs to avoid blood sugar crashes. She has an active job, is on her feet a large portion of the day. She takes daily walks and has been studying yoga for several years, including Iyengar classes and daily practice whenever her joint problems and fatigue enable her to do so. She has a degree in biochemistry and has spent many, many hours researching into healthy eating and living and puts into practice what she learns.
She weighs 17 stone and is still gaining.
Does that fit your picture of the ready-meal and junk food stuffing slob who can't be bothered to take care of her health and doesn't deserve health care?
Yes, that is me. I have dealt with food addiction in the past but had it beaten and was healthy, happy and 9 stone for 3 years. Until I suddenly began to gain 2lbs a week, even when I ate less than before and was feling dizzy and weak from low blood sugar. I have not been able to lose weight consistantly. I was accused of "eating things I didn't know about" (eh?!) at a slimming club. Mind you better than an online friend of mine who was accused of lying about her food intake by her doctor, after she was the one who has gone to them asking for help with her weight.
I don't know why, but for some reason my body is in hyper-storage mode. I suspect I am leptin resistant as well. What I eat gets locked away as fat while I am having blood sugar crashes and running on empty. You can say eat less but if you have tried taking care of 4 kids or doing a job in special needs, whilst your blood sugar is on the floor, well you'd know that doesn't work. The body has multiple pathways to make sure we eat, battling them is far from easy and anyway, I am unconvinced that is a healthy solution.
I find on low carb my blood sugar is more stable (healthy real foods paleo diet, not atkins style, try Mark's Daily Apple website if you want to know more ), but I still can't lose significant weight. I have paid to have my thyroid tested, and investigated food intolerances, gut issues, adrenal problems and so on. But still no weight loss.
Yes, this is just my individual story, but every obese person has their own. Sure, there are probably some people who just choose to eat junk and sit around and don't care (though even then I suggest depression may be a factor- a healthy person doesn't want to eat junk and sit around). But for many, obesity is a metabolic disorder, not a character defect!
I am fortunate to have educated, thoughtful people around me who don't judge me for my weight, and thankfully my husband doesn't seem to find me any less attractive. But still, being this size is pretty dreadful and I struggle daily with joint problems, and as for finding decent work clothes, ugh! I'm certainly not this size by choice or because I can't be bothered to take care of myself.
And as for food addiction, well it is real. Do some googling and inform yourself. Google "sugar addiction opiates" or something like that. Read Bart Hoebel's work. Don't make a prat of yourself by spouting ignorance in public!
"From the age of the dinosaurs
Cars have run on gasoline
Where, where have they gone?
Now, it's nothing but flowers"
Talking Heads
screamifyouwanttogofaster wrote:So, for the education of the ignorant in this thread.
Let me tell you about someone I know. She eats mostly only homecooked, natural foods, most of the time only as much as she needs to avoid blood sugar crashes. She has an active job, is on her feet a large portion of the day. She takes daily walks and has been studying yoga for several years, including Iyengar classes and daily practice whenever her joint problems and fatigue enable her to do so. She has a degree in biochemistry and has spent many, many hours researching into healthy eating and living and puts into practice what she learns.
She weighs 17 stone and is still gaining.
The exception which merely proves a rule. Nothing to do with the junk food industry, crap food addiction or the quite obvious effect of simply eating far too much without working it off.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Haggis wrote:I've put some weight on in the last 3 weeks. My excuse is I'm recovering from surgery, not a gastric band. Soon as I'm back at work I'll be back to my normal weight.
I was watching the BBC and they were telling us that they had saved 100 or so people from type 2 diabetes. Thus saving the NHS from having to provide treatment for the illness.
Personally, the obese are just another tier above the infirm during a die-off situation.
Sorry to hear you've been laid up Haggis but no excuses I'm afraid. If you're unable to take exercise then eat less - your body doesn't need it.
Lord Beria3 wrote:Message to fatties - eat less, eat better and get more active!!!
Wow, thank you so much for your wise and insightful advice. I've spent 7 years trying to solve my weight problem and at last someone has given me the solution! Thank you so much for saving me!!!
"From the age of the dinosaurs
Cars have run on gasoline
Where, where have they gone?
Now, it's nothing but flowers"
Talking Heads
Haggis wrote:...the obese are just another tier above the infirm during a die-off situation.
Ironically, for most human history being obese was the best insurance there was against die-off situations. A high-status wife was a very fat wife. The skinny people die first in a famine.
I personally have the opposite problem, not that it is much of a problem. My body-mass index comes out as underweight. I'm 6'3" and weigh 10.5 stone. It makes not the slightest difference how much fat or carbohydrate I consume, or whether I walk ten miles every day or sit around for a week doing nothing, my weight never drops below 10 stone or exceeds 11.
I think I'm just lucky too. I don't gain or lose weight, whatever I do. Eat a lot or a little, exercise or no exercise, my weight stays 68 Kg. Just checked my body mass index. It is 21.2, for my height of 1.79 metres. The normal range for BMI is 18.5 to 24.9.
Oh bloody hell.. I was in the dog house with the mrs last night because I gave her flipping rice to eat (she's infected with this carbohydrate fear meme which is going around).. and now I come on here you lot have been talking about it for 3 pages as well!!
The worlds gone mad. Surely if you eat a reasonible amount of actual food not the junk / cardboard / space food which is usually on offer when you go into a local spa or whatever and most importantly you get excersise then surely you'll be ok?
Yes screamifyouwanttogofaster there are bound to be some people for whom this doesn't work and my sympathies for you. Hormonal problem or whatever it is.. a doctor I most certainly am not.
And UE yeah different people are just different shapes and sizes.. I've a mate like you.. literally lives on crap (I'm sure you don't) but he stay's skinny as a bean pole. Most of my family are what you'd describe as 'big boned' and it literally it is the bone structure.. I mean my Mum for example isn't fat but the bones in her wrists are probably the same dimensions as those in my girlfriends legs!! And they are all built that way and if they eat too much then yes they get fat.
Then emordnilap's comment about his chocolate eating vegan friend made me think of the mrs again.. who actually eat's chocolate for breakfast! I kid you not.. and then has a go at me for making her a risotto
And she's the opposite of a vegan - she's a brazilian! Still stay's skinny though.. there's no justice in the world! (and she thinks I'm trying to feed her up)
I think we just all have wildly different metabolic needs - and also activity needs - and we just need to work out what our own healthy balance is.
UE/UJ
Drink loads of beer, that'll put some fat on your heart.
MrG
I've a mate like you.. literally lives on crap (I'm sure you don't) but he stay's skinny as a bean pole.
Intestinal worms?
All
At the end of the day, energy in = energy out + energy stored
If you eat 2500 calories, and do 3000 calories of work, you will lose weight, or you are a perpetual energy machine.
If your body has decided its going to kill you if you increase your energy out or decrease your energy in, well, thats weird.
) in the room.
