"From April 2003 to January 2004, I went from 304 pounds with a size 48 waist to 197 pounds with a size 34 waist."
Well done, indeed.
"It has been far more difficult keeping the weight off than I ever imagined...even as I walked 7-10 miles a day, I found that I could still easily gain the weight back if I didn't stick to a strict diet."
Okay, right there the "all obesity is due solely to overeating" theory falls flat on its face.
A person who exercises should be able to maintain his weight without sticking to "a strict diet." Some people can; some people can even overeat without getting fat. For others, a strict diet *and* exercise are both necessary.
Clearly, there is another factor at work. The sooner medical science stops patting itself on the back and gets to work finding that other factor, the sooner the "epidemic" of obesity will be brought under control.
By and large,obesity is a "disease" of affluence.I'll spare you a long-winded explanation as to why..but just think about our lifestyle today as compared to,say,30 years ago... or,better still,50 years ago.
A person who exercises should be able to maintain his weight without sticking to "a strict diet." Some people can; some people can even overeat without getting fat. For others, a strict diet *and* exercise are both necessary.
Clearly, there is another factor at work. The sooner medical science stops patting itself on the back and gets to work finding that other factor, the sooner the "epidemic" of obesity will be brought under control.
*****
While there may be a scientific approach to obesity, the majority of it is caused by eating crap food, pure and simple. There was no dramatic change to the human body in the last couple thousand years, expect that with the industrial revolution, came refined white flour, and sugar.
Did you know, before that, heart attacks were rare?
ALL food these days, unless it's fresh and cooked by yourself, is loaded with sugar, carbs, and highly refined fructose syrup, which acts like a sugar H-bomb to your blood sugar. Start reading food labels, and look at the percentages of sugars and fructose is in your food. Add in a sedentary lifestyle sitting on a couch or computer chair, and you get fat people.
It's really simple, yet everyone is quick to point out other things to blame, and seek the magic pill to cure it. I had a coworker insist she had a bad thyroid, and that's why she was obese (and said it eating a salad loaded with sugary dressing and croutons, drinking a Coke, and had eaten half the bread basket). I asked her if she'd been officially diagnosed with a bum thyroid. No. But it runs in her family! So, I asked, why not go get tested? It's fairly routine, your insurance will cover it, and it's treated fairly easily. Well...
Or you can have risky and very invasive surgery to control your eating, which, i hate to admit it,because it has worked for people, but it's pathetic. It's so very American - don't confront and change the behavior, just pop a pill, or cut someone's stomach in half, instead of dealing with WHY the person eats too much, WHAT they eat, and WHEN. Noooo, that's hard.
Some people have efficient metabolisms and blood chemistry, and eat within the safe zone where weight gain doesnt happen, or it's small increments. Someone who is obese generally has a blood chemistry completely out of whack (go study insulin resistance) and a shredded metabolism - they've tipped so far into the far, far end of the scale, even eating a normal, balanced meal will make them gain weight. I'd bet most of them don't know what "full" means anymore, and eat past it regularly.
I look at it as having already thrown the party, you now have to clean up, and it'll cost you the rest of your life. It's unfair that our bodies are created that way, but years of eating crap food, and large quantities of it, is what causes most obesity, and the only way to change that is to make drastic changes in your lifestyle, once you've gotten obese. Sure, once you lose the weight, you can have goodies once in a while, but the days of dessert with lunch anddinner, snacks all day, and pig outs on the weekends are over for good if you want to lose the weight and keep it off. Most people I know who try dietingget a little success - and go rightback to the eating that got them fat in the firstplace, then complain and snivel about how "diets don't work", or "My metabolism is bad" (not realizing metabolisms can be changed), or "I guess I'm MEANT to be fat..."
Bah.
Yes, there are people with eating disorders, with medical conditions, and some who are on drugs like Paxil that screw with your blood chemistry. But they are a distinct minority, the majority got fat because of what happened between the mouth and the hand, and a sedentary lifestyle.
I was one of them. I saw the light, and I changed it. I was in denial just like every fat person out there. It doesnt have to be that way. There's no magic pills, there's no easy way out, but doing it is worth so much, taking control of your life and your body is the best thing you can do, ever. It's worth it. The denial is hard to break. I have some sympathy for overweight folk, I was one of them, but I don't have much - you have to open your eyes and realize you're doing it to yourself, and I have NO sympathy for that.
I traded cake and cookies and candy and potatoes for goo dhealth and a longer life. That's the kind of commitment it takes, be it lo-carb, lo-fat, whatever. You have to DO IT, KEEP DOING IT, and NEVER STOP. You had your fun, now it's time to pay. It's hard, harder than anything you will ever do, andit will take time. But it's so worth it. You not only lose the weight, feel better, and decrease your chances of diseases like diabetes and highblood pressure, but you become a better person for it. But it's hard work, and let's be honest - it's easy to get fat. Path of least resistance wins out every time.
Or you can join those ridiculous Fat Acceptance people and die young, fat, and miserable. Blunt, cruel, but it's reailty. I'm in the school of tough love when it comes to obesity. Call me a meanyhead, a bastard, whatever. I had to kick myself in the ass to see the light, and lots of other people in this counrty need it, too - coddling them will only make them feel more comfortable haing no control, and will make them bigger victims of some unnamed disease, and demanding the government and drug companies solve their problems.