Fat patient in the blood lab center

[The_Tao_s_Revenge]

@Shot_From_Guns

(1) There’s such a thing as a nutritional label that actually tells you how much sugar, calories, etc. is in something, and (2) one’s ballooning weight would tend to be a tipoff even if you couldn’t or didn’t read the labels. Just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s not possible. People make bad food choices because they’re easy, but that doesn’t magically make them good choices.

Well they may not be good choices, but American food is so stacked to bad choices it really begs the question. I mean sure it’s choices, but it’s so easy to make bad choices without realizing it. The biggest part of the problem is ignorance. You can take in a bunch of calories without really realizing it.

Just for fun I took a survey of stuff around my house. FDA regulations allow rounding to the nearest 10s for calories. So anything with even tens will have a +/- range.

I had a cold last week with a nasty cough so I drank a lot of juice, 1 64 fl. oz. thing of V8 splash and used 20 or so cough drops at work.

Cough drops:
calories: 15 per cough drop x 20 = 300 calories

V8 splash fruit medially (only 10% juice, but advertised as “healthy”):
servings per container: 8
calories per serving 80 (+/- 5) x 8 = 600 to 680 for the container (little better then a 2-liter of Mountain Dew)

So there’s at least a third of an average person’s calories per day blown on seemingly healthy and inconsequential things like “juice” and cough drops, and I hadn’t even eaten yet.

I have a sunday night ritual of of some cheap popcorn shrimp and fish for a moral boost for making it through the weekend and for some brain food for the coming week of class. I’m not going to say what it was, just very bad. I should be a blimp apparently from that. >.< Freak’en shrimp.
Another thing is “energy bars” are advertised for working out, but calorie wise an energy bar is little better than a candy bar. People eat an energy bar thinking it’ll help them workout and lose weight when in fact they’d be just about as well off eating the candy bar, especially one with nuts in it, or even better a granola bar or something.

Not that is a bad thing. Even with a candy bar working out can bring real health benefits, but it has to be a prolonged effort. It isn’t calorie math, it’s building up your body and making it adapt to higher energy output.

However eating an energy bar then doing a half assed workout doesn’t do you much good, and prolly makes the problem worse. People don’t seem to get the idea that fat is your body storing energy.

When I was getting in shape by biking I used to have a candy bar in the middle of a 15 mile ride when I started to feel worn down. Those things are like nitros for your body. After awhile I stopped needing the candy bar. Now I can ride all day on water and a normal lunch if I want. The biggest problem now is time. I’m either working, doing homework, or in class usually. Luckily work is physically demanding so I still get my exercise.

That’s another problem people have. It’s bloody hard to make the time for a workout. So for some folks it’s either constant self denial, or expando powers activate!

Yes, food in America is fucked up, but there has to be **some **element of personal responsibility, unless someone’s being tied down and force-fed. Otherwise, we throw free will out the window, no one’s responsible for anything, and I might as well march out the door and put a bullet in the head of everybody who pisses me off today, because hey, society made me do it!

It’s not just bad it’s jacked up with misinformation, gimmics, and high fructose corn syrup. It’s a deeper cultural problem. I’m not saying an individual can’t over come it, but the American food culture needs a good adjustment. Dieting in America is like a character trying to change a tire with a pair of vice grips. Sure you could get the lug nuts off and do something about the spare tire but it won’t be easy.

Also the side note: yea whiners do suck.

[Guinastasia]

I go with fiber bars because they help me, um, keep things movin’, you know? But only one per day.
Cough drops have that many calories? That’s pretty depressing, especially when you’re sick and you freaking NEED the damned things.

My main problem seems to be that during the day, meh, my appetite’s pretty much okay, I’ll eat properly…but then I get hungry in the middle of the night. For sweets, too. Lord knows why.

[Stoid]

@Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake

Wouldn’t “taking in more calories that your body needs to run itself” imply that you are gaining weight, and not necessarily that you are fat?

rather than leaving McDonald’s and eating actual food.

I read an article about cooking and food recently that concluded that we’d all probably weigh less if we did ALL our own cooking for all of our meals, starting from completely unprepared foods, simply because of the time and effort involved.

[SteveG1]

@bri1600bv

I’m not an asshole at all. I don’t like being inconvenienced and forced to pay money for people or even looking at people, frankly, who are too distusting, passive and useless to control their eating/exercise habits.

If we want to move toward a more advanced/progressive society, we need to forcibly curb this behavior. The easiest way is to just not pay for it.

OK, and if that doesn’t work? Forced exercise and lawn drills? Forced marches for anyone over some arbitrary limit? Punishment? I’m thin and in very good shape for my age (56 and still can do 1 hand push ups etc). But, I am very curious what the forcibly curbing involves. How about starvation camps? :rolleyes:

[Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake]

@Stoid

I read an article about cooking and food recently that concluded that we’d all probably weigh less if we did ALL our own cooking for all of our meals, starting from completely unprepared foods, simply because of the time and effort involved.

More importantly, we’d probably be healthier.
I don’t know why, but I just remembered the best description of processed food I’ve ever heard. A guy I was at dinner with was saying, “…but you know, parenting is hard. We try to cook meals at home for our kids, and though it takes a lot of time, it’s worth it. Do you know what the alternative is? Lunchables. When I am walking through the grocery store with my Kindergartner, he wants Lunchables. So if I don’t make him a lunch to take to school, he gets Lunchables. All his friends want Lunchables, and so he wants Lunchables. But do you know what Lunchables are? Plastic. They are made from plastic. It’s not food, it’s plastic…”

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@The_Tao_s_Revenge

Also another point to consider is obesity rates by population. Americans have a much higher rate than other countries. Does that mean we happen to have a lot of personal failure, or does that mean the American food supply is suspect?

eta: good point Lynn, however dieting isn’t as simple as cutting out calories for some people either, particularly ones with specialized dietary needs. The woo woo fad diets some are driven to try can be dangerous for anyone, and obsessing over calories can lead to eating disorders such as bulimia, and anorexia.

Personally, I suspect that Americans are getting fatter because more of our food has high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in it these days. I think that we are also becoming more sedentary, as a nation, partially because we’re also more fearful, as a nation. When I was a kid, we had toys like the Thingmaker, which could and did burn any user who didn’t respect its heating unit. The Thingmaker was re-issued a few years back, but it had been reworked so that it was far less likely to burn any careless user. The average American just won’t take chances like we used to, except for those XTreme Sports nuts. Instead of going for a walk, we drive to gyms, or use a treadmill at home. I have to admit, I have and use an exercise machine at home, because on some days, I have problems walking (partly because of an old football injury, and partly because of arthritis), and I can get a cardio workout on my machine even when I can’t walk further than a few feet at a time.

You don’t need to tell ME about specialized dietary needs. I have inflammatory bowel disease. Sometimes, the only things that I can eat without triggering an attack are chicken broth, mashed potatoes, Slimfast, Cream of Wheat, and oatmeal. Sometimes this goes on for months at a time. I’m fat, and I’m diabetic, and this isn’t a great diet for me. But my doctor says that if that’s all I can eat without triggering an attack, then that’s what I should eat, and I should just try to keep my blood sugar at a reasonable level. Vegetables, particularly raw vegetables, are very likely to trigger an attack…so I usually eat only cooked veggies, and only if my digestive system isn’t in an uproar. If I’m eating out with my husband, though, anyone who looks at my plate is going to think that it’s no wonder that I’m fat…because I’m only eating my mashed potatoes. The truth of the matter is that’s the only thing that I’m able to digest on that particular day. Anyone looking at me is also not going to be able to tell that I’ve recently dropped a significant portion of my weight, too. I defy anyone to look at a stranger and be able to tell that that person has had a slow, steady weight loss over the past few years. It’s possible to tell if someone has had a sudden drastic weight loss recently, but a healthier rate of loss isn’t apparent.

[Imasquare]

@bri1600bv

In my opinion, you get that fat, fine, no health care for you. You’re not worth it you damn blimp. How many fatties like that did we have in the depression? Not many!

I think this sort of obesity is often a side effect of depression. Some people become compulsive over eaters when suffering from depression.

When I was depressed I would eat like an alcoholic drinks. I would eat so much that I would become short of breath. And I would still eat more. And I got really fat.

Since the start of this year my depression seems to have gone into remission all by itself and have been able to control my eating since. Consequently, I am no longer fat.

So should I have been denied health care?

[Stan_Shmenge]

@tumbleddown

She has a disability you peabrain. You said yourself that she walks with a walker. Guess what that means? That means that she’s fucking broken. Not lazy. Get a fucking clue.

Well, she is probably in a walker because she is so damn fat her knees wore out. When I see these Mobys in the supermarket, using the electric cart thingee, I always wonder, at some point doesn’t this person realize that enough is enough and to take the goddamn fork out of their mouth? “No, I’ll just keep on eating until I can’t even frigging walk anymore!”

That’s a sickness, folks, a mental illness. I am not exactly slender, and I do love to eat, but there is a limit, folks.

[Stan_Shmenge]

@Broomstick

If her fingers are too fat to dial a phone she uses a pencil to push the buttons - of course, such a job would mostly be receiving calls, not dialing out.

“To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the key pad with your palm now.”

[Stan_Shmenge]

@Guinastasia

No one is saying there’s no personal responsibility involved in alcoholicism or any other addiction. That doesn’t mean it’s NOT a disease, shithead.

Tell that to someone with cancer, shithead. Alcoholism is a behavior. It may be a difficult behavior to change, but so is the habit of cracking one’s knuckles. The diseasifcation of behaviors is popular, but totally wrong.

[Stoid]

@Stan_Shmenge

That’s a sickness, folks, a mental illness.

So you call her a Moby?

Do you have more sensitive and thoughtful nicknames for all types of mental disorders and problems?

Are the depressed “Mopy”?

Are the learning disabled “Dopey”?

[Stoid]

@Stan_Shmenge

Tell that to someone with cancer, shithead. Alcoholism is a behavior. It may be a difficult behavior to change, but so is the habit of cracking one’s knuckles. The diseasifcation of behaviors is popular, but totally wrong.

Thank you for that clarification, Doctor.

Speaking of which… a dear friend of mine had a host of “behaviors”: drinking, drug use, and gambling. He found stopping these behaviors and embracing life in a “normal” way so impossible, so intolerable, so painful, and continuing them so impossible, so intolerable, so painful, that he poured himself a drink, bundled up in the car, closed the garage door and let the engine run all night.

And when his wife and sister are torn apart by grief and guilt and anger, we all remind ourselves that we would never feel that way if he had been dying of cancer and had chosen to take himself out rather than face the continued pain of living with a disease he found impossible to cure and impossible to tolerate.

You may find your beliefs about behaviors compelling, but you are totally wrong.

[Stan_Shmenge]

@Stoid

Thank you for that clarification, Doctor.

Speaking of which… a dear friend of mine had a host of “behaviors”: drinking, drug use, and gambling. He found stopping these behaviors and embracing life in a “normal” way so impossible, so intolerable, so painful, and continuing them so impossible, so intolerable, so painful, that he poured himself a drink, bundled up in the car, closed the garage door and let the engine run all night.

And when his wife and sister are torn apart by grief and guilt and anger, we all remind ourselves that we would never feel that way if he had been dying of cancer and had chosen to take himself out rather than face the continued pain of living with a disease he found impossible to cure and impossible to tolerate.

You may find your beliefs about behaviors compelling, but you are totally wrong.

Sounds like your friend had other things going on besides drinking, drugs, and gambling. Depression maybe? People often use drinking and drugs and gambling to self medicate depression. Which *is *a disease.

[Stan_Shmenge]

@Stoid

Are the learning disabled “Dopey”?

Nah, they are just retards.

Look, fat people don’t get my sympathy, nor do drinkers or druggies. They have done it to themselves. Depressed people suffer from some kind of brain chemistry wierdness, and the developmentally disabled are just pretty much screwed. They have my sympathy. My dad suffered from depression, and he finally got medicated. I have to say, I liked him a whole lot better before the happy pills. He was himself, at least. After the pills he was some blissed out stranger. Maybe he felt better, but he didn’t seem better.

I am speaking as a person who has done more than his share of eating, drinking, and drugging. But ya gotta know when to call it a day and cut back or eliminate your vices, or you die. Simple as that. These gastropods in the electric carts… They have issues, but not my sympathy.

[Stoid]

@Stan_Shmenge

. These gastropods in the electric carts… They have issues, but not my sympathy.

Because of course, they are having a fabulous life and loving every minute of it.:rolleyes:

You obviously have issues of your own. And you do have my sympathy.

[Broomstick]

@Stoid

I read an article about cooking and food recently that concluded that we’d all probably weigh less if we did ALL our own cooking for all of our meals, starting from completely unprepared foods, simply because of the time and effort involved.

Some people pity me because I have food allergies and there are “so many” things I can’t have… but as a result of not being able to eat many pre-pared foods I wind up doing a lot of my own cooking, or having to assemble my own sandwich instead of grabbing one out of a refrigerator at the local stop n’ rob, and as a result I probably eat healthier than 90% of Americans these days. And while in the last 5 years or so I’ve had to cut back on quantity to keep my weight where it should be (darn that getting older thing) maintaining a healthy body weight has not been the struggle for me that it has been for many of my friends.

I certainly eat well and eat enough not to be hungry, but the food I make has less fat and salt in it than most commercially made versions. The one exceptions being my cookies, which I make with butter, but since I spend so much time cooking meals I don’t often make the cookies… so they are occasional treats, as they should be, and not regulars at the table.

[MeanOldLady]

@Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake

Your hyperbole misses the point. It’s not that (some) people don’t get fat from eating shit and being sedentary. It’s that eating shit and being sedentary is unhealthy, and that fat is just a distraction. But it’s easier, isn’t it? It’s easier for the skinny people at McDonald’s to look at the fat people at McDonald’s and think “at least I’m not them,” rather than leaving McDonald’s and eating actual food.

You seem to be saying, “Everyone eats bad food, but some people’s metabolisms are fast, and those are the ones who don’t get fat. They’re all unhealthy, though.”

That’s fine, and was never my point. I was waving a dismissive hand at the regular Fat Police here on the Dope who come into every thread where weight is mentioned, even if only briefly, to preach that being overweight has nothing to do with bad habits.

[MeanOldLady]

Shit, someone came over and wanted to discuss actual work stuff (the nerve!) so I got locked out of the edit window. Anyway, I also want to say America clearly has a food problem, but there are a lot of people who are healthy and not overweight because they’ve left McDonald’s and eat actual food. It’s also easy to sit in your kitchen, eating food you’ve prepared yourself and say, “At least I’m not them.” But we’ve digressed enough.

[LurkMeister]

McDonald’s and places like that have contributed little to my weight problem, as I generally only eat at them when they’re the only alternative available. I generally prefer to prepare my own meals because it’s cheaper, and when I do eat out my preference id a real sit-down restaurant where I can get something I’m not likely to fix for myself. Most of my problem is that I’m a grazer, and have to constantly remind myself that eating is not the default activity while I’m watching TV, reading, or reading message boards. And, of course, I don’t get nearly enough exercise. I’m working at correcting these issues, and have managed to drop a few of the thirty pounds I’d put on during the period of depression I went through after my wife died. Once I’ve done that, I’m going to work on the excess weight I’d put on during the twenty years before that.

[Crowbar_of_Irony_3]

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I’m not sure what the OP has done is a very good idea.