Posted on 08/13/2006 11:49:02 AM PDT by neverdem
In the 30-plus years that Richard Atkinson has been studying obesity, he has always maintained that overeating doesn’t really explain it all. His epiphany came early in his career, when he was a medical fellow at U.C.L.A. engaged in a study of people who weighed more than 300 pounds and had come in for obesity surgery. “The general thought at the time was that fat people ate too much,” Atkinson, now at Virginia Commonwealth University, told me recently. “And we documented that fat people do eat too much — our subjects ate an average of 6,700 calories a day. But what was so impressive to me was the fact that not all fat people eat too much.”
One of Atkinson’s most memorable patients was Janet S., a bright, funny 25-year-old who weighed 348 pounds when she finally made her way to U.C.L.A. in 1975. In exchange for agreeing to be hospitalized for three months so scientists could study them, Janet and the other obese research subjects (30 in all) each received a free intestinal bypass. During the three months of presurgical study, the dietitian on the research team calculated how many calories it should take for a 5-foot-6-inch woman like Janet to maintain a weight of 348. They fed her exactly that many calories — no more, no less. She dutifully ate what she was told, and she gained 12 pounds in two weeks — almost a pound a day.
“I don’t think I’d ever gained that much weight that quickly,” recalled Janet, who asked me not to use her full name because she didn’t want people to know how fat she had once been. The doctors accused her of sneaking snacks into the hospital. “But I told them, ‘I’m gaining weight because you’re feeding me a tremendous amount...’”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Don't eat very much, and weigh yourself every day. That's it, I'm writing a diet book. I'm tired of working every day, and I want to be amazingly rich. My book will be called, "Don't eat much and weigh yourself every day." Who wants to publish my book? I lost 100 pounds, I have great before and after pictures, and I'm ready to move on this.
Lift weights
I was a gymnast who put muscle weight on fairly easily.
In college my teammates were pretty similar to me in height, weight, and muscle mass.
Our coach told us we were officially "overweight"- but after awhile she decided to have our bodyfat tested through underwater weighing.
Our percentages ranged from 7% to 13%.
To this day I ignore the official charts and go by pinching bodyfat, and how my clothes are fitting me.
Congratulations for losing 100 lbs! You're exactly right. I weigh myself every day too, and it's all about DEPRIVATION. I don't buy ice cream, potato chips, cookies, cakes, bagels, potatoes, candy, etc. (I just fantasize about them.) LOL
I basically don't eat a lot all week, and then on Saturday I have McDonald's or something. I've kept it off for a year now. I don't ever want to be overweight again.
That's quite an achievement.
I always said that my body was designed to carry big rocks up the sides of mountains while not being fed. That's when I look and feel my best!!!
It sucks!!
Thank you....I'm a woman....who has always been strong and active, with good sized (and well developed) thigh muscles....and while I'm not over the BMI amount, I always seemed more close than I thought I should be.....but, I have more muscles than the average woman.....guess it's the German stock in me. I see skinny women, who seem fatter than me on the other hand (they have rolls where I don't.)
link has the whole thing. The liver function to process bad stuff was touched on too briefly, as was metabolism.
???
The liver function to process bad stuff was touched on too briefly, as was metabolism.
That was covered indirectly when she mentioned the 50 odd human genes involved with obesity.
Every study I've seen where they lock up fat people who "just can't lose weight" and control their caloric intake shows that they're just eating too much when left to their own devices.
Why the U.S. Has Not Stemmed HIV
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
I have to agree with you 100%. I have found the BMI is suited for very thin wristed French men.
I am not think by an measure but I am not fat either. According to BMI, I am obese. I have big shoulders and big legs. I lift weights and play hockey 3 days a week. I find that if I was at my BMI weight I would be a lizard.
I believe this to be true, at least it works for me.
As part of a long-term antibiotic protocol to cure auto-immune disease, a lot of the participants have indeed lost weight, and find it much easier to keep the weight off. See www.marshalprotocol.com.
I lost 40 pounds. Now my bf% is 13. And I bench more than I weigh.
I also do about an hour of cardio every day.
THIS IS A GREAT THREAD.
thanks for the ping! great stuff.
Sylvester Stallone (5-9, 228 pounds, BMI of 34) and Mel Gibson (5-9, 214 pounds, BMI of 32) are also "obese." So was Mark McGwire (6-5, 250 pounds, BMI of 30) the year he hit 70 home runs. And if politics is your thing, you'll be interested to know that the new governor of California (6-2, 257 pounds, BMI of 33) is obese, too.
Stallone 34
Gibson 32
McGwire 30
Arnold 33
It's not just full-blown obesity that has been bungled by numerical hocus-pocus. 39 million Americans went to sleep one night in 1998 at a government-approved weight, and woke up "overweight" the next morning, thanks to a change in the government's definition. That group includes presently "overweight" (BMI greater than or equal to 25) movie stars like Will Smith (6-2, 210 pounds, BMI of 27) and Pierce Brosnan (6-2, 211 pounds, BMI of 27). Michael Jordan (6-6, 216 pounds, BMI of 25) and Cal Ripken Jr. (6-4, 220 pounds, BMI of 27) were also "overweight" at the height of their athletic powers. And so is our ultra-fit President Bush (6-0, 194 pounds, BMI of 26). Moreover, the standard that we abandoned in 1998 had the virtue of distinguishing between men and women--something we now do not even attempt to do.
So what does Tom Cruise's imaginary swordplay mishap have to do with obesity? Chalk it up to more bad statistics. The regularly recycled factoid that excess weight causes 300,000 deaths a year bizarrely assumes that if you die while overweight, you die because of that excess weight. As insane as it sounds, if Cruise were to kick the bucket for any reason, his death would count toward the mythical 300,000 total.
The respected New England Journal of Medicine
great article. first one who invents the anti-fat vaccine pounds Bill Gates into the sand....
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