# Some fat people are their own worst enemies **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 22, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118 "2003-07-22T11:52:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/381 "2003-07-27T19:51:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lord Ashtar \* > \*\*There’s a difference between eating until you are satisfied and eating until you can’t eat another bite. \*\* And you know what? I didn’t do that. Eat until I couldn’t eat another bite, that is. Yet I became morbidly obese. As I’ve said, the reasons I got fat were: 1. metabolism change with pregnancy (and a pretty ill pregnancy spent lying down for the most part) 2. SSRI antidepressants 3. sedentary lifestyle I never gorged myself on food, and I didn’t eat nothing but donuts and cookies, either. Once the weight was on it became very, very hard (and painful) to take it back off. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/382 "2003-07-27T20:02:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gary Kumquat \* > \*\*Would you like me to apologise for agreeing with CanvasShoes that music is a great exercise aid without explicitly stating that some people may prefer to exercise to the television, or indeed in complete sensory isolation? \*\* No, no, no, no. I didn’t mean it in that way. The way she phrased it was that it was the best way. While I’m sure she didn’t mean to say it that way, I was just pointing out that some people – namely me – find something that works better. It’s all good. ---
**Author:** ![Morrigoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Morrigoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrigoon)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/383 "2003-07-27T20:39:45Z")
This may not be everyone’s thing, but I found ice hockey to be an amazing form of exercise (unfortunately, it’s also an expensive one, or I’d still be doing it!). I once read in a health book that ice hockey and lacrosse burn 900 calories/hour, whereas running burns 800. (Hockey is a complete upper and lower body workout, and is both aerobic and anerobic in their turn). It’s not the cheapest sport to take up, but there are many benefits: 1. Air conditioning! (big for those of us who get hot easily) 2. Constantly filtered air (big for asthmatics, courtesy of the a/c) 3. Team obligation (easier to commit to exercise when you owe it to others and not just yourself) 4. Air conditioning! 5. 3 minutes on the ice is a LONG time in hockey, so your exercise keeps coming in relatively short bursts - this also encourages drinking water in between, and we all know water is good for weight loss Back when I worked at an ice rink, I’d skate public session 6-7 times a week, just casually going around. Plus I had hockey class twice a week and a game once a week. Once your body gets used to skating, public sessions are nothing, almost doesn’t feel like you’re exercising if you just casually skate around like you’re strolling. So only the two classes and team games/practices felt like actual exercise. …But I could eat _anything_ and still get thinner! The whole two years I only lost 5 pounds, but my waist shrunk significantly. Won’t work for me right now, but perhaps the advice will help someone who just can’t stand the thought of a hot sweaty gym. ---
**Author:** ![nisosbar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@nisosbar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nisosbar)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/384 "2003-07-28T00:15:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tdn \* > \*\*That’s great! > > Can you be more specific? What’s a grain product? Can you have wheat bread, potatoes, any kind of pasta or rice, or corn? What starches are aloud? And what’s wrong with fruit? \*\* Well, speaking as someone who’s strictly an amateur and not a doctor (with whom you really should consult before changing your diet or doing Atkins): A grain product means anything processed from wheat, corn, barley, rice, rye, etc. That would be things like tortillas, bread, beer, things made from flour, etc. As others have noted, Atkins recommends no more than 20 grams of carbs per day during the first two weeks of Induction. Potatoes are simply carbohydrates, so one would not be able to have those in any large quantity, if at all, and still lose weight. Rice, ditto. Corn, ditto - for some reason, people seem to think that corn is an especially bad grain for human consumption, though I’m not sure exactly why. Pasta is a no-no on Atkins. Fruit has carbohydrates in abundance - fiber (which is a carb), fructose (fruit sugar, which, in your system, breaks down into the same type of things that regular table sugar does), and another thing which I can’t remember right now. Some fruits are rated higher on the glycemic index than others which is something like a measure of how fast it takes the sugar in the fruit to be absorbed into your system - bananas, oranges, watermelons seem to be particularly high glycemically. Berries are low glycemically. Peaches seems to be in the middle. To get an accurate carb count, google can point you in the right direction or simply read Atkins’ New Diet Revolution. Atkins advises that dieters drink 6 8oz. glasses of water every day, since you lose a lot of water on this diet, apparently. Now, I’ve modified the strictness of the diet, since I don’t really need to lose much weight, simply excising milk (a carbohydrate), sugar and white flour/grain products. I have been drinking a lot of water, and I must say, on the one hand, I have more energy, but at the same time, I’m a little light-headed. So, I repeat, I really wouldn’t advise that anyone do it unless they have spoken with their doctor about it, but if you are cleared for it, it seems to be a really sure way of taking off a little weight. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/385 "2003-07-28T00:33:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tarantula \* > \*\*In short - sometimes cutting through the nicely-nicely works. \*\* And I have no doubt that quite a bit more often it just increases the self-loathing and depression of the person it’s directed at, and ultimately makes everything worse. I know that when I’m depressed (I’m bipolar and on medication, btw, which is another reason I gained weight) there is no way that I’m going to make good food decisions or whatever… and quite a bit of likelyhood that I’m going to upend a bottle of pills into my throat to end the pain. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/386 "2003-07-28T00:36:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Now riddle me this Batman - You think it is just as easy to regulate your serotonin production, as it is to not put a hamburger in your mouth ?? Come the fuck on ! They are vastly different. Yeah or what about just _not_ cutting up my arms when I’m deep in depression? Why can’t I just knock that off? And what is up with crying? It takes more muscles to cry than not to, after all! ---
**Author:** ![UperCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c0e974/32.png) [@UperCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UperCow)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/387 "2003-07-28T01:17:18Z")
> [@](#): > > quote: Now riddle me this Batman - You think it is just as easy to regulate your serotonin production, as it is to not put a hamburger in your mouth ?? Come the fuck on ! They are vastly different. > [@](#): > > Yeah or what about just _not_ cutting up my arms when I’m deep in depression? It isn’t vastly different and you will never be able to realize that just like someone who has never cut doesn’t realize you CAN NOT stop. I was put on anti-psychotic medication to try to make me able to stop cutting and even that didn’t work. Eating/Overeating works the same way it is impossible to stop but no one who has gone through that experience (or another addictive behavior) will even begin to imagine what it feels like ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/388 "2003-07-28T02:40:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by A Monkey With a Gun \* > \*\*But see, that’s still because you ate too much. You ate too much _for the sedentary lifestyle you were leading_. **Tarantula** was merely aknowledging simple thermodynamics. If the energy coming in is more than the energy going out, the person will gain weight. If someone is suddenly unable to exercise, their normal energy input becomes “too much” because it is no longer balanced by their energy output. > > Sometimes I am suprised at the rationalizations people will go through in order to ignore the basic thermodynamics of this. \*\* _sigh_ I didn’t realize this was going to be a pathetic semantics debate. If eating 3/4 of a PB&J sandwich as the only food you eat in a day is considered overeating in your world, you’re a nutjob. The issue is the sendentary lifestyle, not the amount of food. Anyone with an ounce of brains would be able to figure out what is meant here. Would you actually say that I should have cut down my food intake? I doubt it. You would have said to increase my activity. Unless you are the aforementioned nutjob, of course. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/389 "2003-07-28T02:43:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UperCow \* > \*\*It isn’t vastly different and you will never be able to realize that just like someone who has never cut doesn’t realize you CAN NOT stop. I was put on anti-psychotic medication to try to make me able to stop cutting and even that didn’t work. Eating/Overeating works the same way it is impossible to stop but no one who has gone through that experience (or another addictive behavior) will even begin to imagine what it feels like \*\* Errr… this was the point I was making. (Speaking as someone who has both cut and been morbidly obese, I feel that I speak from experience as to the stupidity of the “just stop” mentality.) ---
**Author:** ![UperCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c0e974/32.png) [@UperCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UperCow)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/390 "2003-07-28T03:29:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Errr… this was the point I was making. errrr…i know that. i am sorry if i emotionally upset you with agreeing ans sharing my experiences ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/391 "2003-07-28T03:30:52Z")
> [@](#): > > **OpalCat** : Opal, who is now 87lbs lighter than she was last November. Yo! That is fantastic! You must feel like a different person! Do people have trouble recognizing you? I’ve never cut but I thought about it a couple of times. I was able to let it go. But I can certainly understand the compulsion. If someone has never had a dead on serious compulsion, I can understand why they aren’t able to grasp it. **CanvasShoes** , you are so right about that music! I made a tape of music that I like that sets my pace and lasts the right amount of time. I even have warm up music and cool down music. I think my favorite one is the Carly Simon song from _Working Girl_. _Let the River Run_ perhaps? Thanks for your suggestions. **Scylla** , I think we have a meeting of the minds! I realized as I was reading your post that I was hoping you would say yoga. I also love the big rubber bands and learned how to use them in physical therapy. But I keep breaking them! Do they do that because they are old or because I need to move up a level? I think I’ve shared this before, but it was a high point for me in my weight loss. My husband and I wanted to go to Washington, D.C. because he had never been. That was when I weighed 300 and I would have had to do it in a wheel chair. (At that time I couldn’t make it across one level in a department store without using a cane/chair combination and stopping three or four times.) A year or so after having the gastric bypass, I walked up all of those steps at the Lincoln Memorial without stopping and without a bannister. I felt like Rocky! What an appropriate place to celebrate my new-found freedom! ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/392 "2003-07-28T03:43:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UperCow \* > \*\*errrr…i know that. i am sorry if i emotionally upset you with agreeing ans sharing my experiences \*\* Ahh… I thought you were taking my sarcasm at face value or something, and directing the “you” in this to me: _“It isn’t vastly different and you will never be able to realize…”_ Sorry 🙂 Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/393 "2003-07-28T03:44:46Z")
Zoe: one of the neighbors, whose daughter sometimes babysits Dominic, saw me in the parking lot and thought I was a new person who had just moved in. Heh. I love that. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/394 "2003-07-28T03:58:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Smokinjbc \* > \*\*For some reason it won’t let me edit my post but its 20 carbs per DAY on the Induction period, not per week. \*\* It won’t let you edit your post because the administration has post editing turned off for this board. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/395 "2003-07-28T05:05:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tdn \* > \*\*No, no, no, no. I didn’t mean it in that way. The way she phrased it was that it was the best way. While I’m sure she didn’t mean to say it that way, I was just pointing out that some people – namely me – find something that works better. It’s all good. \*\* [Scooby doo]rrrUUUUUUUuuuuUUH???[/Scooby doo] Sorry **tdn** I really didn’t phrase it as if it were “the best way”. I specifically put TWO references in my tip stating it was my opinion. The first was IMO, and the second was “ME?, I gotta have it” etc. And insofar as music as an assistance? It HAS been shown to elevate people’s moods, and increase their rate of activity and motivation, even in factories with assembly lines etc. So that part of it’s NOT just “my opinion”. But, honestly? For cardio, you need to get your heartrate up to a certain level (well above moderate) in order to burn fat. I’ve seen so many people who’ve gone to the gym for a year and have made absolutely no change at all in their physique. They get on the treadmill or stairmaster and trudge away with a magazine, or the news station in front of them. If you can kick it into high gear with a movie on the set? More power to ya! But a lot of people are satisfied with that moderate level, and then wonder why they aren’t losing fat, or getting a stronger cardiovascular system. My tip, as should have been evidenced by the next ones in the post, were aimed at beginners and those feeling “draggy”. And was meant as a “for optimal assistance (and I’m sure there are other ways to optimize) for kicking into high gear try this”, NOT meaning “this is the only way to get a hard workout”. ---
**Author:** ![BooksWoods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@BooksWoods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BooksWoods)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/396 "2003-07-28T08:26:31Z")
Opalcat: > [@](#): > > So for ME I was fat because I was sedentary, not because I ate a lot. My body just hoarded what it took in. > –Opal, who is now 87lbs lighter than she was last November. > [@](#): > > If eating 3/4 of a PB&J sandwich as the only food you eat in a day is considered overeating in your world, you’re a nutjob. The issue is the sendentary lifestyle, not the amount of food. Opal, didn’t you lose all this weight by having gastric bypass surgery? Doesn’t that address overeating? If you were eating so little all ready, why did this work for you? I’m not arguing - just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Tarantula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e274bd/32.png) [@Tarantula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarantula)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/397 "2003-07-28T09:38:38Z")
**Opalcal** - since you seem to have missed my point entirely, even though I made it about a fucking million times, sedentary lifestyle _is_ the problem. If you are eating more calories than you are using, then you are eating “too much”. It’s not an absolute thing. Of course you put on weight if you sat on your ass all day!! What ? You think the flab’s just gonna _fall_ off ??? Jeez… And before we get waaay off the issue, being depressed is not the problem. Whatever the reasons for inactivity, it is the inactivity that causes the problem. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/398 "2003-07-28T10:31:20Z")
Tarantula: Please answer this simple yes or no question: Is a person who _only_ eats 3/4 of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich **A DAY** (that’s all they eat, that’s it) “eating too much”? Yes or no. Is that “too much food” for one person to consume in a _day_? Yes, or no? Simple question. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/399 "2003-07-28T10:35:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yosemitebabe \* > \*\*Tarantula: Please answer this simple yes or no question: > > Is a person who _only_ eats 3/4 of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich **A DAY** (that’s all they eat, that’s it) “eating too much”? > > Yes or no. Is that “too much food” for one person to consume in a _day_? > > Yes, or no? Simple question. \*\* But that would be straightforward, simple, and thoroughly against his goal of becoming the most massive asshole the boards have ever seen! ---
**Author:** ![Tarantula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e274bd/32.png) [@Tarantula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarantula)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/400 "2003-07-28T10:42:00Z")
If the person has the metabolism of a hibernating squirrel, and never moves, yeah, it’s probably too much. And yes, it’s sad. And no, it’s not fair. That’s life. cf. i) Said fatbody who doesn’t move. ii) My friend from College, born without any fingers. iii) Me - used to be fat, now okay. Otherwise happy and functioning ? Now what do you notice about the above 3 ??? They are not equal. Life is cold, and shitty, and unfair -ask the poor people living in Africa, or SE Asia, or Iraq. You play with the hand you’re dealt. Why ? You have no choice. People with weight problems need to realise that on the greater scale of things they are rally lucky. They should pull their heads out of their asses and lose weight. It’s not fucking Nobel-prize winning physics. Nobodys asking them to learn to fly. Just **eat less calories than they use**. Jesus, all the fucking fuss they make… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118.md?page=21)