Fat (topic du jour)

Me too!

Recent research seems to suggest that exercise is good for your health - so can have a tangential affect on weight loss but, cannot, of itself reduce your weight www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/19/exercise-dieting-public-health

Exercise also builds up muscle, which weighs more than fat. This is why BMI is nonsense as a way of measuring obesity. most serious and professional rugby players have a BMI way above the recommended rate, because of the amount of muscle they have, ditto boxers, weight lifters etc etc.

I’ve been clinically obese (not morbidly) since the age of four, when it was decided that to take me into hospital to lose weight would be psychologically damaging. Each round of loss involved a greater gain. With the constant flip-flopping of dietry advice, I’ve long held the view that it is better to eat a little of what you fancy and absolutely will not give up whole milk to drink or on cereal. I have tea with skimmed milk because that is the way I like it, and ditto Country Life ’butter’ spread with about 48% rape seed oil. My taste for goodies and chocolate is much diminished from times when I absolutely had to eat them all because they were in the house. All main meals are served on 8inch plates and I rarely get through those without feeling too full to finish but the weight stays on. (Exercise is difficult because I have mobility problems.)
People who live active and healthy lives also die early but the difficulty with scientific modelling is that no-one can know whether overweight people would have died at a given point regardless of their weight, healthy or otherwise. (I’m not talking about morbidly obese people). Leading to another curiosity - how do bedbound by morbid obesity maintain their weight if they cannot get themselves up? Is it that carers feed them excess calories and literally kill them with what they perceive as kindness.

Whitewavemark2

I have been thinking about weight loss and exercise.

I walk the dog for approx, 2 hours a day. It makes no difference to my weight.

My son throughout the winter when he has little exercise puts on about a stone.

Throughout the “dry” season - no mud, he mountain bikes over the South and North Downs, cycling anything up to 60 miles+ in a day. He loses all the weight he had put on the previous winter. His diet doesn’t change.

So I think that to lose weight by exercise only, you really have to go some?

Apparently you have to burn 3500 calories to lose a pound in weight and walking briskly for a mile burns 100 calories for a 180 pound person and 65 calories for a 120 pound person. This is a generalisation of course but it does give a picture of how much exercise is needed to lose weight. High intensity exercise is the best way to lose weight which is probably why your son manages to lose so much weight.

My brother begun losing weight a few years ago. All good, everyone thought. A lot of the family are on the larger side, so good that he was slimming down. We all put it down to the amount of exercise he got (between 2 & 3 hours a day walking) and his healthy diet (which he'd always had).

No. Uncontrolled diabetes. Type 1. We have a family history of it.

He's lucky to be alive.

Namsnanny

sazz1

Totally disagree with this as very heavy weight leads to diabetes, heart problems, joint problems, and premature death.
There are very few obese people who live into their 90s. OH is obese and borderline diabetic with knee and hip arthritis.

Studies show with regards to diabetes, the percentage of average weight people suffering from it is increasing annually.
The percentage of overweight people who have diabetes is higher in that group, but not bu a great deal.
So is weight really an accurate indicator of increased chance of developing diabetes?

Sugar especially in the form of fructose seems to be the issue.

In type 2 diabetes, the enemy seems to be carbs. My partner was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and struggled to regulate his blood sugar. We cut out all added sugar and he continued to eat carbs and fruit. By elimination we worked out that carbs were to blame because if you don’t use them they turn to sugar. During the winter months when he’s less active, he continues to eat protein, fresh fruit and veg, and has drastically reduced bread, pasta and potatoes, and his blood sugar is down significantly. Now that the better weather is here and he is more active in the garden and out and about, he’s increased carbs bit by bit and blood sugar is steady. I think if you have type 2 diabetes and you’re not physically active, carbs will likely be the problem.

SporeRB

I am size 12, weighs 9.5 stone but I got diabetes and high blood pressure. One of my female colleagues is healthy despite being obese.

Right now I am on 24 hour fasting due to religious reasons, been doing that for the last three weeks and so far has only lost 1 kg!

Cook every night, don’t eat readymade meals or processed food and rarely have takeaways. My main weakness is snacking, I blame my husband for this because he is the one who buy biscuits, doughnuts and chocolates.

Start taking fish oil because there is a strong correlation between the lack of Vitamin D to all sort of illness including diabetes. Hope this helps me lose more weight. I need to lose 3kg roughly 1/2 stone.

My daughter has just returned from a holiday In Albania, she said the Albanians are all slim, they don’t have fast food restaurants there not even Macdonald’s.

You say you don’t eat processed food but you snack on foods you blame your husband for buying. Biscuits, donuts and chocolate are all processed foods !!

I’m at least a stone overweight. When I’ve mentioned it to doctors and nurses, I’ve been told that perhaps I don’t actually eat enough, so my body goes into starvation mode, or that I’m not really overweight, and lately by my GP “Better that way that if you lost weight unintentionally “!

Daftbag1 I quite understand that some people have medical problems that cause obesity and medication can also be a major contribution to weight gain.

Daftbag1

I should add that yes I am obese. And as usual, I'm reading all the usual posts. Apparently my obesity is due to my own choice, I'm apparently choosing to gorge on unhealthy processed food, so it's my fault!

What people don't allow for is all the other causes of obesity. In my case it's down to medication. I gained 3 stone within the first month of starting one drug, and I'm on 7 different medications that cause weight gain.

I put on two stone on a certain medication Daftbag.
I'd rather keep taking it than the alternative ?

I don't live on a diet of processed foods.

I am size 12, weighs 9.5 stone but I got diabetes and high blood pressure. One of my female colleagues is healthy despite being obese.

Right now I am on 24 hour fasting due to religious reasons, been doing that for the last three weeks and so far has only lost 1 kg!

Cook every night, don’t eat readymade meals or processed food and rarely have takeaways. My main weakness is snacking, I blame my husband for this because he is the one who buy biscuits, doughnuts and chocolates.

Start taking fish oil because there is a strong correlation between the lack of Vitamin D to all sort of illness including diabetes. Hope this helps me lose more weight. I need to lose 3kg roughly 1/2 stone.

My daughter has just returned from a holiday In Albania, she said the Albanians are all slim, they don’t have fast food restaurants there not even Macdonald’s.

Daftbag1 quite a few reasons.
It must be very hard, if you are on multiple medications you may fall into more than one of these categories.
I suppose, in the ‘olden days’ not only did we not have such a preponderance of highly processed food we also had less exposure to many of the medications that cause weight gain.

I should add that yes I am obese. And as usual, I'm reading all the usual posts. Apparently my obesity is due to my own choice, I'm apparently choosing to gorge on unhealthy processed food, so it's my fault!

What people don't allow for is all the other causes of obesity. In my case it's down to medication. I gained 3 stone within the first month of starting one drug, and I'm on 7 different medications that cause weight gain.

I'm fat, and unhealthy; diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, falls, strokes, blood clots the works.

I was a skinny'ish individual, and that's when the above began. Interestingly, my mother had the same diagnosis, as do my sister's, my son, and daughter. Diet? Generally considered to be healthy!

What does all that mean?

karmalady

when I was young, women and men were slim and so were children, I did not know anyone who was fat, then processed foods and fizzy pop came in and later fast food. Slowly the uk population became fat to obese and people drove around in cars, never walking to the shops or schools. Alcohol intake increased drastically. No wonder there is an obesity epidemic. Snacking foods are easily available, highly processed, fat-laden and designed to make people want that satisfaction in their mouths

Insulin control is poor in the majority, constant eating, especially carbs and sugars, keeps insulin high and leads to diabetes

Keeping to a healthy weight is a lifestyle change not a quick fix. A good start is to get rid of snack edibles, sugary items and so on because temptation will strike.

I totally agree with you. Also with all the streaming services on TV and fast food ads there is temptation everywhere.
However we all have free will and can choose to not eat for the sake of it. I know that sometimes seeing a food ad makes me want the food even though I am not hungry.

Exactly what I said MOnica

I lost weight successfully a while back going from nearly 11 stone to 9st 7lbs but am back up to just over 10 st which is borderline overweight for my height. I succeeded with portion control and cutting out the snacking.

Most of my meals are unprocessed - fresh fruit and veg, fish, very little meat BUT I do sometimes crave cakes and crisps. I don't think I'll ever stop wanting them and this is part of the problem of emotional eating for me. Being good all the time can feel pretty joyless and I get fed up having to prepare yet another meal. I loved cooking about 30-odd years ago but I've gone off it now and can't be alone in this.

when I was young, women and men were slim and so were children, I did not know anyone who was fat, then processed foods and fizzy pop came in and later fast food. Slowly the uk population became fat to obese and people drove around in cars, never walking to the shops or schools. Alcohol intake increased drastically. No wonder there is an obesity epidemic. Snacking foods are easily available, highly processed, fat-laden and designed to make people want that satisfaction in their mouths

Insulin control is poor in the majority, constant eating, especially carbs and sugars, keeps insulin high and leads to diabetes

Keeping to a healthy weight is a lifestyle change not a quick fix. A good start is to get rid of snack edibles, sugary items and so on because temptation will strike.

Madwoman11 Everyone has a choice and the presence of lots of junk food is no excuse for being overweight. There is also a far wider and enjoyable selection of fresh and healthy alternatives than there used to be.

If you do not normally eat highly processed foods, you soon find that your palate develops and on the rare ocasions you do eat them you usually find them unpalatable

No I disagree with this post. The amount of junk food available now compared to 50 or 60 years ago in my opinion is the cause of so many people being obese. Also the lack of exercise due to families having cars or multiple cars. Take aways popping up on every high street too.
As individuals we are responsible for our own health and healthy food is fuel and essential for general health. As for exercise use it or lose it.
I know as we get older maintaining a healthy weight becomes a challenge and we all enjoy a treat, but the problem can be too many treats combined with inactivity.
Some people (not all) just make excuses for being overweight because they can't be bothered to cook healthy meals or move their bodies.

lizzypopbottle i completely agree with you. I too have lost weight on the 5:2 diet - and kept it off.

Keeping it off has got nothing to do with how you lose weight. It s accepting that if you go back to the eating pattern that made you fat, it will make you fat again. You need to develop a different eating pattern that you enjoy and keeps your weight steady. I now go to meetings and sit with a plate of chocolate digestive biscuits in front of me and do not feel the slightest inclination to eat one. No self sacrifice or will power, I just do not want to clag my mouth up with a factory manufactured biscuit mix, all E numbers, emulsifiers, sweetness enhancers, preservatives, palm oil, and heaven knows what else that leaves a nasty taste in your mouth for hours.

And still.off!

I've tried all diets over many decades. The best explanation of why diets don't work is in the book The Dukan Diet (or some such) by Dr Dukan. It's the diet that the Duchess of Cambridge and her mum do. The easy bit is losing the weight, as any fule no. What Dukan explains is why people put all the weight and more back on. He then goes on to explain how to.keep it off, which is the difficult part. Reader, I did it, three stone kept off for seven.years.

Your thyroid health can have a big impact on weight gain/ loss. I call myself the incredible expanding and shrinking woman! I have had an overactive thyroid and down to size ten and had to continuously eat a lot of calories to prevent losing more weight. Now my thyroid is getting back to normal and I have a big belly even though eat small meals and no biscuits cakes or treats! I am interested in the intermittent fasting mentioned and will give it a go. I have so many lovely clothes that I can’t wear at the moment.

Interesting article. Not sure I agree with it. I stick to three meals a day, no snacking in between and lots of walking. I'm about half a stone overweight, but I don't worry about that.