Posted on 08/22/2007 12:31:35 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Being unhappy. Being happy. Friends who eat like a horse and never put on weight. Childhood admonishments to think of the starving in Africa.
These are some of the reasons the overweight give to explain their size because they are too ashamed to admit they simply eat too much, according to a study.
Researchers found there is such a stigma attached to being overweight that over-eaters are desperate to find something - or someone - else to blame.
The findings mirror comments by Hamish Meldrum, the head of the British Medical Association, who said patients were increasingly seeking weight-loss pills and surgery rather than trying to change their diet and do more exercise.
Karen Throsby of Warwick University questioned 35 patients who applied for such surgery on the NHS to discover why they felt it was the only solution.
She found there were three main types of excuses used by the overweight, according to a report published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.
The first was genetic, with many claiming they had a "fat gene" or that being big ran in their family. Others said they knew others who ate more than they did but never put on weight.
The second most common excuse was that the problem stemmed from their childhood. Many claimed relatives gave them food as a reward and others said their parents told them to eat up and think of the starving in Africa.
The third reason was that a stressful lifestyle had led to weight gain. Illness, divorce, bereavement and parenthood were all blamed for over-eating.
Women cited both happy and unhappy events as reasons for eating more and men said stressful occasions gave them a longing for beer, curry and fast food.
Miss Throsby said the excuses were the result of the way overweight people were pilloried by society.
"Those who become fat often find themselves needing to account for their size in order to refute the suggestion of moral failure that attaches itself easily to the fat body."
Colin Waine, chair of the National Obesity Forum, added: "Many patients seek explanations that absolve them, saying it's their genes or their glands. But in fact it's 99 per cent to do with food intake and lack of physical activity.
"Our genes haven't changed since before the Stone Age - yet obesity has escalated in the last 30 years."
you forgot to make that coke a diet, so you can watch your figure.
Did the author stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night?
There are legitimate hereditary factors that come into play regarding weight. If I were prone to gain weight I’d be huge with the way I eat, for example.
My wife, runs 7 to 10 miles every day or two and eats a low low low fat diet, yet her doctor had to prescribe medication for cholesteral that was well over 300. That IS hereditary, fwiw.
Your wife has all my admiration! I could never do that!
Smokers told the overweight that they were next in line. But the overweight picked up torches and led the mob against smokers anyway.
Wow that’s a nice article, really re-iterates what I’ve been telling people for years (once you successfully lose some weight everybody at work that caries a few extra pounds starts asking you questions). I don’t think it’s as little as 19 calories a day because I think they over simplified the math (my big question is one pound of what exactly is 3500 calories, human fat?), but small changes really can accomplish a lot.
One of the other things I drove home is you don’t have to eliminate anything, for me that was really important, I wanted to get rid of weight as a quality of life issue, but subsequently I wasn’t willing to lose other quality of life things. Basically while I wanted to get rid of weight I didn’t want to give up my kielbasas or even switch to low fat turkey kielbasas (had one once, blech), wanted to keep my beer and my ice cream and all those other foods I enjoy. So I cut back on everything and cut out nothing. Some really unhealthy foods like snack chips I cut back on A LOT, and I rediscovered the pleasure of fresh fruits. I actually had Carnegie Deli cheesecake for desert 3 times in one week, and still lost 3 pounds, of course my non-cheesecake portions were minuscule those days because I knew what was coming at the end of the day, but it does prove you can eat really tasty really unhealthy food and lose weight.
Now since I refused to be a counter of anything I can’t really tell you how many calories I cut from my diet, but I doubt it was more than 250 a day. Big changes in your life can be accomplished with small changes in your habits.
True enough, but when we're talking about digestion and nutrient absorption, we're not talking about "reactions", per se. Once the nutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) are past the gut lining and being transported to where they are needed, catalysis of reactions is in many instances needed, but that catalysis can then obvious take place because the nutrients and catalysts have both been absorbed and are ready for use, regardless of the source form which they were originaly obtained.
“2-litre of pop a day,”
That can’t be good for ya. :)
Probably so. Soon, I'll need some of those body detoxification pills and colon cleansers I heard about on Coast to Coast AM.
The thing about measuring weight loss is that it can rarely be accurate lesser than a minimum of 3-4 pounds. Body weight can fluctuate upto and sometimes beyond 4 pounds, within the same day, depending on how much water the person has consumed or lost, at the time of measuring.
Tracking weight loss over short periods(between months, for example) is tricky for this very reason. The closest you can get to making reasonable measurements just to indicate if you are tending towards the direction of weight loss, is to have very rigid, near-identical routines for each day.
To that, also add the confusion of weight gain due to the gain in muscle mass, brought on by exercise.
She is pretty amazing. She tore her achilles tendon in Feb of '06 and ran the Disney Marathon in Jan of this year. Ran 26.2 miles in 4 hours 37 minutes. I might be able to do that on a bicycle. Ha!
Or it’s just a pain to lose weight after five kids. I know I need to work out more. I went to an SCA event for four days and was constantly eating something, since people were making sure of it. I lost an inch off my waist. The amount of walking and work I did is not feasible in day to day life. I’m not morbidly obese, but the BMI charts would put me at just obese, plus I know I’ll never be a size 3 again.
Its processed food that is making us fat at least in part.
Peanut butter pie? Gotta recipe?
Do you work outside or have a physical job?
Gross...
Why are husbands like lawn mowers?
They’re hard to get started, emit foul odors, and don’t work half the time
What’s the difference between men and government bonds?
Bonds mature.
Five kids would, indeed, make it more difficult...but you can do it! :-D It would be fun to see you come back and say, “remember what I said about that size three?”
Leftovers became my absolute best friend while losing weight. They’re so instrumental in controlling portion size, sure they don’t taste as good the second time around but that’s just life. In the meantime it meant I spent a lot less money on food, and frees up time to go to the gym at lunch from work.
As for the hunger factor that’s tough but if you stick to it it ends. If you keep good control of your portion sizes eventually your stomach shrinks, of course your stomach doesn’t want to shrink so that will be a week of abject misery. But once it’s over the diet is pretty much self sustaining. You’ve got to make sure you don’t eat like you used to and restretch it, but by and large you’ll be full on a healthy quantity of food.
As for what’s manly that’s up to you. Personally I like having my options opened up when I go out to eat. If I go to a Mexican restaurant I can still get the big old chimichanga like I always used to, though now it will probably be two meals; or I can get the enchilada plate which I never did before because enchiladas are smaller but tasty.
A lot of people seem to have trouble understanding this one.
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