Wesley Clark, there are other health problems caused or exacerbated by obesity. (Believe me, I know.)
Excess weight puts significant stress on the musculoskeletal system. Many people who suffer from osteoarthritis would benefit greatly from weight loss to reduce that stress and reduce, if not eliminate, the pain.
Obesity is also implicated in respiratory problems like sleep apnea and Pickwickian syndrome.
The best solution to problems related to obesity is to lose the weight, not wait for some miracle advance.
I’m from Spain and my youngest brother asked to get his rice “without all that junk” at restaurants until he went to college (dorm food makes anything else taste like heaven).
Things like “white rice with tomato sauce” are tasty, easy to make and a lot more likely to go well with the kids - specially with kids who are used to thinking that fishes are rectangular and come frozen.
That certainly puts things in perperctive. And based on what these kids ate, it seems I should be surprised they only exceeded their recommended caloric intake by 1000 calories.
Do people really drink a Venti Starbucks Caramel Macchiato and eat a cinnamon roll and then go on to eat two more meals on a regular basis, though?
I dunno, carry around 50 extra pounds of fat 24x7, THEN say that being thin doesn’t help. You may not be living pain free, but I’d hazard a guess that being thin is actually helping you live with less pain than you would otherwise.
Plain tofu? :barf smiley: Definitely a way to make “healthy food tastes bad” come to life. Maybe they never heard of trying to find healthy foods that their family will enjoy. These are people who need to add the word “moderation” to their lexicon.
About a year ago, before I started actually paying attention to what I ate, I probably would have.
Here’s an example:
I just got back from jogging this morning. When I got back, I drank a 32oz. bottle of Powerade. Then, after a shower, I decided to have some breakfast. I decide to have a bowl of instant oatmeal and some scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs are kind of boring by themselves, so I decide to add a slice of cheese. And plain oatmeal is ugh (I’ve at LEAST got to have a little syrup or brown sugar or SOMETHING), but as I’m getting out the eggs, I see some of my grandma’s homemade strawberry jam in the refrigerator. Bingo.
So I pop a cup of oatmeal in the microwave, crack two eggs and scramble them up. I throw the cheese on top of the eggs, and the oatmeal’s done. I pull it out, stir in a couple tablespoons of the jam. It’s delicious!
It’s also about 870 calories, including the Powerade. Now I’ll probably either skip lunch or have a light one, but that’s about nearly half of the daily calories I allow myself right there.
(http://www.calorie-count.com provided the calorie estimates of the eggs and jam, I got the calories of the Powerade, oatmeal and cheese from their respective packaging)
It’s simple to overeat, especially if you’ve never looked at the amount of calories in things before. Here’s another example of an easy-to-miss 1,000 extra calories: Bag of M&Ms (or equivalent if you’re eating them out of a jar or something – I’d bet most people don’t pay much attention to how much they’re eating in scenarios like that, I tend not to) for a before-lunch snack at work or school, then in the afternoon, a bottle of Mountain Dew and a king-size Butterfinger. Or hey, lose the Butterfinger: Bottle of pop with lunch, bottle of pop and the M&Ms for an afternoon snack, and a bottle of pop with dinner, and there’s your 1,000 calories. Simple.
My wife did this yesterday. She had a lunch, then a caramel macchiato from Starbucks which she had with a muffin of some description. We had dinner a few hours later.
I’ve watched the show a couple of times, but their morphing to unhealthy age 40 is so ridiculous I can’t stand it. The women not only go through the weird hair/piercing/wacko look and the men end up going bald, but they all end up portrayed with ugly, discolored skin. I mean, come on. Gaining weight doesn’t mean looking like a walking advertisement for the need for a good dermatologist.
The concept of the show could be okay – if it was done more realistically, if they didn’t try to force too much too soon, if they did realistic age projection, and if the dietitian/host had more personality than a limp lettuce leaf. As it is, she puts me to sleep except when I want to throw things at her. Way to turn people off a healthy lifestyle, idiot.
I used to nearly every day. My breakfast at work every day for nearly 4 years was a venti caramel latte with whipped cream and a cranberry walnut muffin, about 750 calories and 50 grams of fat. I would eat pizza for lunch, M&Ms in the afternoon and pick up some Taco Bell on the way home. I ended up around 200 lbs before I made a change. It was no big mystery why I was fat, I ate terribly and didn’t exercise. I started eating better and exercising and lost nearly 70 lbs which I’ve kept off for nearly 18 months. No real trick to it, just hard work.
I watched about 15 minutes of that show before switching the channel. What an utter load of crap. Sensationalist and unrealistic and I’d be very surprised if any of the families were able to stick to the guidelines.
Good nutritious food can taste good. It’s not freaking rocket science. But if you’re working with people who live on pizza and soda you’re going to have to break them in gradually not have them eating brussels sprouts the first day. Heck I know vegetarians who hate brussels sprouts.
Just wait until you get You Are What You Eat with the obnoxious fake ‘scientist’ and liar “Dr” Gillian McKeith. You’ll be crying out for this program when you do.
When I am not on a “careful eating” kick for any particular reason, I probably average around 2500-3000 calories a day easy, and there’s the odd day where I exceed that and then some. A couple of weeks ago we threw a pre-graduation BBQ: I took out two hotdogs (plus buns and condiments), four cheeseburgers (again, buns and condiments), a decent sized drumstick, and about a dozen drinks (SoCo+sprite, heavy on the SoCo!) in under six hours. And I had had brunch earlier in the day. Of course, I’m relatively young, fairly active, and have a cooperative metabolism. I don’t expect to be able to do this my entire life, and even as is, I am currently restricting myself to 15-1800 calories a day while I lose everything that I’ve added over the last month.
But yeah, growing up in a house with a Greek mother who cooked heaping portions at all meals… a big breakfast, a light lunch, and a huge dinner, lots of calories and carbs, all portions much bigger than they should be… yeah. Lots of calories was pretty regular. It’s a miracle I’m as well off as I am. And I know a bunch of people who do similar amounts of eating with significantly less physical activity… with the predictable results.
I saw a bit of one show and that’s all I could take. As mentioned, the food substitutes were completely wrong for kids who’d grown up on junk. There is a lot of healthy food these kids could have eaten and enjoyed. You don’t just throw squid and brussel sprouts at them. I didn’t see the tofu with no sauce. That’s just cruel. Your meal shouldn’t have to suck to be good for you.
Plus, what was with asking the mother to quit smoking and give up caffeine all at once? Give up the cigarettes first, and then fight the battle with caffeine.
I didn’t see the exercise portion. Did they at least find some fun physical activities for the kids? I hope they didn’t go with the exercise equivalent of sauceless tofu and squid!
The episode I saw had all three girls sign up for cheerleading lessons. The two younger girls (something like 9 and 10, IIRC) were okay with this, but the 13 year old was not happy. And when she complained, instead of helping her find an alternative form of exercise, her jackass of a father yelled at her. Later on she did start to show more enthusiasm (like she had a choice), and the kids also started to spend more time outside bike riding, horseback riding, etc., but at the time I was like, WTF? Way to make her hate exercise, dude.
I’ve seen parts of several episodes. I don’t care to watch from start to finish.
Some of the changes are extreme. I imagine that a lot of the families have really bad caffeine withdrawals too if they’re used to having 3-4 Cokes a day. And the tofu? That’s harsh. There’s *normal *food that’s healthy. Grilled chicken or fish with steamed veggies would be much better than tofu.
What really caught my attention was when they were removing the bedroom tv’s and the 6-8 year old boy was dangling from the tv saying “noooo! NOOOO!” like someone was kidnapping his brother. :eek: *Dangling *from the TV!
I have to admit I watch the show alot. The scenarios posted here are a bit biased. The nutritionist does emphasize Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Fiber intake and fruits and vegetables. They always enroll the kids in some sort of excercise class like dance or swimming or boxing, they always take away TV’s in the kids rooms and limit screen time to an hour or two a day, they always make mom and dad quit smoking and cut way down on caffiene. Let’s face it, these kids are going to grow up with problems if they don’t pay more attention to what they eat and what they do. They are not going to have a heart attack at 50, they are going to be morbidly obese and be taken out of their bedrooms on a forklift thorough a hole in the wall. If bad computer ageing is what it takes…that’s what it takes. Their parents are competely oblivious until the nutritionist teaches them how to read labels and what is an appropriate level of each nutrient for the kids. I think they edit the meals to make them as bad as possible for ‘suspense’ of if the kids are going to buy into the new plan or not. I noticed that recently the meals have been soup, salads and sandwiches instead of paella and tofu scramble.
Yeah, same here. I think this show would be better if they did minor, gradual lifestyle changes. Something easy like switching to high fiber bread, walking a few hours a week and eating more fruit can do alot for a person’s health. But they just try to do a 180 overnight. And because I have moral objections to the concept of weight loss for cosmetic reasons I don’t really like one of the main premises of the show.
The age projection bothers me alot too. What would be fun is if they just do an age projection and instead have them morph into someone else like Osama Bin Ladin or Courtney Love. Then the Dr. can show up in a Nostradamus outfit and go into a story.
Parent: what the hell is that, why does he look like Bin Ladin?
Dr: In the year 2019 your son Michael will be in a Mcdonalds in North chicago where he will meet a woman named Sacy. She will tempt him with McChickens and anti-american propaganda until he abandons the US and moves to the Sudan to fight for the terrorists.
My nephew is obese. I saw him a few years ago at mom’s at Thanksgiving. My first thought was, ‘Hey, mom bought a Butterball!’ Not very nice, but day-am! :eek: He’s almost seven now. Last time my sister mentioned his weight (last year) it was over 100 lbs.
I’ve tried to reason with her. I’ve cajoled her. I’ve nagged her. I’ve warned her about diabetes and the chopping off of parts. I’ve told her how kids will make fun of him. She doesn’t want to hear it. She says it’s easier to give him what he wants than to listen to him whine. When a doctor tells her, ‘Well, he doesn’t need to gain any more weight’ she takes that as ‘His weight is fine.’ He likes mac’n’cheese. I tell her that that’s probably the worst thing she can feed him (all fat and carbohydrates). Saying anything more to her on the subject is futile. She knows. Any more warnings will not be listened to. She loves her son more than anything. I fear it will take a serious medical emergency before she can be shocked into looking after his nutrition.
