Gross Obesity 100 lbs+ overweight

C

Christopher3

BLINDED BY SCIENCE
Registered Senior Member
I have a friend who just had the gastric bypass surgery, he looks great and lost a ton of weight in 2 yeras. I have another friend at work, she needs the surgery, but won't get it, I try to help her to join the local gym, but she dosn't find the time....

Question #1 is are these 2 people were very althletic and football stars, and slender and model like as younger adults, now in the 40's they became huge... What causes this... Is it genetics? Emotional Prolems? Slow Metabolism? I know they booth enjoy/ed buffet style dining?

And #2 Why can't they stop the process when they see its gotten so out of hand??? I struggle with losing 10 ilbs at the gym all the time, but I would rather wire my mouth shut and eat liquids for 3 months than loss my health and body like that??
 
1) It's natural to put on a few pounds after high school. My best guess is that its a negative feedback loop- ie, they gained a few pounds and lost the motivation to stay a healthy weight.

2) Because they're addicted to this pattern of behaviour. It might surprise to learn that most people don't consider the consequences of their actions.
 
Metabolism is more complicated than the calorie tables show. Some people burn more calories than the activities they perform account for. And (this is my reasoned opinion for which I have very little authoritative material to back me up) some people have inefficient digestions that don't metabolize all the calories they eat.

I'm a desk jockey. I exercise three times a week for half an hour, at a sane pace for my age (62 shortly). Other than that about all I do is walk, and my total walking is not measured in the tens of miles per week that the fanatics log. Yet I typically eat 3,000 calories a day. (I haven't measured it in years, perhaps I've dropped off a bit as I got older but ask anyone, I eat like a pig.) And my weight has been stable for decades.

I have a lot of nervous energy. My muscles are tight; my wife laments that if she holds hands with me for more than a few minutes it cuts off the circulation in her fingers. I get muscle spasms in my back and neck that are so painful they're practically incapacitating--and remember that your back muscles are strong enough to support about half a ton so keeping them tense uses a lot of energy.

This can change over the years. People who once had a lot of nervous energy may mellow and their bodies need fewer calories.

Another thing that ruins people is yo-yo dieting. On the evolutionary time scale we are only a few moments away from our hunter-gatherer ancestors. If our food intake suddenly decreases dramatically, our bodies think there's a famine or at least a lean winter coming, so they become more efficient at making the most of the food they get. Again this is a bit controversial but as far as I'm concerned the evidence for the phenomenon is irrefutable even if the biology is not yet understood. When people then go back from their 900 calorie diet to their normal 2500 calorie diet, their bodies may think hey, let's continue to work at a high efficiency level and store as much of this bounty as we can in fat cells, because the next famine may not be far off. You put your body through that diet-splurge-diet-splurge cycle a few times and it's convinced that it's doing the right thing. It doesn't know that you are no longer dependent on hunting rhinoceroses and gathering berries to feed it.

Whatever the reason, it is just not so easy to "stop the process whey they see it's gotten out of hand." I've watched people go on 1200 calorie diets for bloody MONTHS and not lose more than a few pounds total. Most of the people I've met who have lost a lot of weight and kept it off for a long time have had to ration themselves down to 1200 calories--or even less--per day FOREVER to avoid gaining any back. And based on the calorie charts there's no way that amount of food should be able to support their level of physical activity.

Now add to all this the factor of instinct--remembering again that for all intents and purposes we still are Neolithic hunter-gatherers. If there is a bounty of food (such as a place called America where even our poorest people are often obese) every nerve in our body screams EAT IT, NEXT WEEK THERE MIGHT NOT BE ANY!

Look at the history of civilization. Right up through the nineteenth century, there was absolutely no onus on being fat. The word "overweight" did not exist. A fat person was regarded as a successful person, one who had earned enough income to be able to eat all he wanted. Starvation was one of the most common causes of death among the poor. It's only in the last few generations and only in the developed world that obesity became a word and a medical condition.

Then add the factor that unlike drug addictions, food is not something you can just go cold turkey on. Once you haven't smoked a cigarette or shot heroin for a couple of years, you sort of forget what it was like and the craving abates. You can't do that with food. With every meal your entire body and brain remember how good it tastes, how satisfying it feels, how much it assuages your fears and anxieties. You never get a break from it.

Also, people who quit smoking or heroin avoid hanging out with smokers and heroin users. But everyone has to socialize with people who eat food.

We simply do not have the psychology to cut back on food. It goes against our evolution, our history, our instincts, and our culture.

Give your friends a break. They're facing one of the most horribly difficult challenges a human can face.

If you want to see a good perspective on the subject, rent the 1980s movie "Fatso" starring Dom DeLuise. It's hilarious but it also provides good insight into the world in which the overweight are forced to live.
 
Last edited:
Fraggle,

The body determines whether or not to store the food as fat depending on the type of food, not #calories. Eating 3000 calories of junkfood a day will DEFINATELY make you gain weight.
 
Food is the cause of overweight people and stopping eating after it becomes a way of life is very difficult and really needs professional help to stop eating. Sometimes even with professional help they can't stop and then the bypass is used. Having bypass surgery is very dangerous and sometimes the person dies when having that operation performed. I believe it's something like a 50 percent death rate when having the surgery done but check with the doctor to be certain of that number.
 
Xerxes said:
Fraggle, The body determines whether or not to store the food as fat depending on the type of food, not #calories. Eating 3000 calories of junkfood a day will DEFINITELY make you gain weight.
Click to expand...
Been there done that, and no it didn't. And I know people who have gotten fat by eating 1,500 calories of food that the Surgeon General would approve.

Still I don't disagree that it's not just the number of calories that matters.
 
To eat food is our Primary instinct, You eat and drink then look for somewhere to survive (shelter) if you can do that then reproduction might evan be on the cards, well that was then before food was over abundant, but today we have drive thru and guess what people technically you should not consume anything from a supermarket NOTHING! Humans are supposed to eat Meat, fruit, nuts, berries, vegetables, and thats about it, whats more if we are not hunting for it or breaking our backs growing it then we need to adapt our eating to suit but how do you counteract lifes oldest and most primal instinct, you don't you can lose weight buy eating as much as you want but it has to be the right foods, most weight gain happens from excess of sugar not fat, as fat is a complex molecule and take quit allot of work to break down however there is sugar in everything, some people don't want to lose weight, or could not be bothered or drink stupid weight loss drinks, thats not the way. Fat is a store of sugar and lots of it, If you eat: Lean meats, Fish, fruit, vegies, nuts, water, water, water and a little bred, brownrice doesn't hurt then you can lose weight, and exercise
 
Severly fat people need to be shoken up by the collar bone, made to see their extreme gluttony and lack of physical movement can and will cause their demise sooner or later... case in point John Candy...join the gym and stop the procrastination, I'm tired of all the BS! And your always stuffing your mouths with the garbage that made you like this,,, Just STOP it! Whats more I need to hit the gym cause im in such fear of every getting out of control like that!
 
Last edited:
It's a little presumptuous to second-guess people like John Candy. Eating gives some people so much pleasure that there's nothing you could offer them in trade that would make them want to cut back. How would you react if someone told you that if you didn't give up your wife/child/music/whatever matters to you that you'd die before you're fifty but you could live to be ninety if you give them up? That's what food is for some people. It's not like drugs, you can't just fix some misprogrammed chemical receptors or get some intense psychotherapy or get reconditioned. Everybody's got to eat.
 
American are predominately fat becasue we have very large portions eat alot of fast foods and dont walk/excercise enough,,,, In China it is differnet, they bike/walk alot, and in the rural areas eat alot of resh vegtables, tofu and not alot of high fat and protein. also in France they eat alot of meat and cheese, wine, high in fat and protein, but dont eat fast foods much, and the portions are more smaller casue they are more satisfying. These countries also have less heart disease than in America. Processed foods in America, high fat fast foods, soda, sugar in everything and these so called low fat foods at the supermarket is what makes us FAT. The low fat foods are loaded with sugar and starches which turn to fat faster than fat in food does, plus hydrogenated oils are detrimental to health, it is a fake fat and clogs arteries, we being a rich country put hydrogenateds oils and sugar in a lot of products at the supermarket, stick to the outside ailes, meats fruits vegs, milk, whole grains and you will loss weight and excercise guarentted!
 
Christopher: I repeat, I have known plenty of people who got nice and fat by eating NOTHING LIKE THAT. They ate meat and potatoes and fruits and vegetables and bread and cereal and some of them didn't even particularly like desserts.

Back in the 1950s when my father got fat the kinds of fast foods and processed foods that you're talking about weren't even widely available. He ate the food my mother made from fresh ingredients.

Our facile explanations of why people are fat simply don't hold water. I don't think we have a clue about obesity and we should stop telling fat people that we understand their problem. It's insulting.
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
I don't think we have a clue about obesity and we should stop telling fat people that we understand their problem. It's insulting.
Click to expand...

I beg your pardon! We certainly DO know why people get fat/obese ...they eat more calories than they use up. It IS as simple as that ...there ain't no bullshit or fast-food explanation neccesary.

Fat people eat too much. Is that so freakin' hard to understand?

But here we are ...trying to place the blame on ANYTHING except the fat people!! ..just like the post above ...."...it's insulting."???? It's not insulting, it's the fuckin' truth ....and some people can't take the truth.

Baron Max
 
Yes, but why do people eat so much? It's a subtle form of masochism. The reason people get fat is because they eat during times of stress when the body releases insulin, thus eating more and *absorbing* the extra calories as fat.

This can be avoided by eating while calm or having a relaxing cup of tea afterwards. It's also important to relieve stress with exercise.
 
Xerxes said:
Yes, but why do people eat so much?
Click to expand...

See? That's just deflecting the real issue!! It's an attempt to place the blame on something or someone else. Fat people eat too fuckin' much. That's plain, that's simple, that's a fact.

Why they do it is an entirely different issue!! I, for one, think it's because they wnat to eat, like to eat, and don't give a fuck. Besides, people all over the place are so perfectly willing to forgive it and, worse, to find someone or something else to blame ......so the fat people don't have to accept the responsibility for their own actions.

People in Somalia and Sudan have stress, too, but you don't see high instances of obesity, do you? Why not?

I think it's time that we start making people take responsibility for their own actions!! ...and not make fuckin' excuses.

Baron Max
 
Unless one understands why one is overeating, one will be unable to stop overeating. Or, when stopping by force, they might develop a new addiction.
People tend to overeat in order to satisfy some other need, or to comfort stress and frustration.

The body has a natural pace to determine how much food is enough, and it signals it, you get a nice feeling of being full, but not heavy or stiff. Whatever people eat past this signal, is too much.
But in an overeating person, this natural signal is overlooked.

Eating makes us comfortable, and this feeling of comfort is what overeaters seek. Only that the comfort they get from eating will not appease what they are actually seeking to comfort -- stress or frustration. Eating only temporarily numbs the person to the experience of stress and frustration.
Other, primarily cognitive means are needed to learn to cope with stress and frustration.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top