# 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:** 21
**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, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/401 "2003-07-28T10:43:21Z")
And Mockingbird, since this is the pit. Go fuck yourself. You’re just one more problem that people like me have to put up with in life. Cunt. ---
**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, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/402 "2003-07-28T10:57:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tarantula \* > \*\*And Mockingbird, since this is the pit. Go fuck yourself. You’re just one more problem that people like me have to put up with in life. > > Cunt. \*\* Ooooh. The misogynist… how he hurted me. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/403 "2003-07-28T10:59:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Ooooh. The misogynist… how he hurted me Nah, not misgynist, just Irish. The Irish/Ukers/ Kiwis/Ozzies use “cunt” like we use “asshole”–and yes, I already know the joke someone is going to make about the gay Dopers doing the reverse. ---
**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, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/404 "2003-07-28T11:35:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*Nah, not misgynist, just Irish. The Irish/Ukers/ Kiwis/Ozzies use “cunt” like we use “asshole”–and yes, I already know the joke someone is going to make about the gay Dopers doing the reverse. \*\* Nah… no joke necessary _wipes squished spider off the bottom of his shoe_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/405 "2003-07-28T12:18:17Z")
Alas, poor **Tarantula** - another scuttling thing crushed under **Lynn** ’s (jack)boots… :wally ---
**Author:** ![Creative\_Munster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Creative\_Munster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creative_Munster)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/406 "2003-07-28T12:26:21Z")
That was just 604 posts overdue. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/407 "2003-07-28T12:48:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CanvasShoes \* > \*\*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. \*\* Yeah, I got it. Sorry if I came off snarky or condescending. That is truly not how I meant it. Friends? What I just meant to say was that I prefer the TV, though commercials really suck. The reason I don’t like music is, well, because I love music. I’m a musician. And I think that the stuff they play in workout clubs, or anything with a beat appropriate to working out, is complete and utter shite. _waits to be pitted for that comment_ 🙂 Seriously, it’s not in my nature to enjoy upbeat dance music. And if I excercised to the music I like, with its more varied tempi, I’d either get nothing done or I’d have a freakin’ coronary. As to your comment regarding people reading magazines and not losing weight – its not the magazines. These people are clearly just going through the motions. Wasting their own time and taking up a machine. ---
**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, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/408 "2003-07-28T13:23:54Z")
Dear tdn, I wouldn’t pit you for your comment about music in gyms, (a good reason to bring a walkman most of the time), but I would consider it for your spelling of “exercise” as “excercise.” You’re in good company, though. Half the people on this message board seem to misspell that word. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/409 "2003-07-28T14:09:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tarantula \* > **eat less calories than they use** Behold! The mating call of the Irish Troll Spider! 😃 'Bout time someone put that fool out of our misery. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/410 "2003-07-28T14:27:18Z")
I have to admit that I’m having a problem with this 3/4 of a pbj sandwich thing. What exactly are we talking about here? I’m picturing a huge loaf of french bread cut in half and slathered with butter, then filled a cupple of cans of Jiff and a couple of cans of jelly. If we are talking about two slices of Wonderbread, and an average portion of peanut butter and Jelly, then we are talking about 500 calories max for the whole sandwich (and I’m being generous.) That means that we’re talking about gaining weight or sustaining weight on a 375 calorie per day diet. I feel confident in saying that that is a flat out impossible scenario. Again, one may fluctuate around for a couple of days on such a diet, but sustain it any longer than that and you are going to starve quickly, and shed weight at a prodigious rate. Either that or there’s a couple of gallons of soda pop or the equivalent being thrown into the mix with the PBJs ---
**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, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/411 "2003-07-28T14:38:03Z")
I’ve been thinking about that PB&J sandwich, too (Actually I wish I had one right now). What I was thinking was that people who eat _too little_ will often go into starvation mode and their bodies WILL hoard calories, making it difficult for them to lose weight. This is why Weight Watchers and some other programs warn participants not to lower their calorie intake too much. Part of a sandwich for a whole day, though… even if your body “hoarded” it, one would think one would lose weight. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/412 "2003-07-28T14:39:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoe \* > \*\* > > **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?\*\* Heh. I think you keep breaking them because they are designed to break so that you have to keep buying them. That’s why I mentioned the big thick surgical tubing. Get a roll. It’s basically indestructible. ---
**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, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/413 "2003-07-28T14:41:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BooksWoods \* > \*\*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. \*\* _bangs head on desk_ **No, I did not have gastric bypass** … most emphatically NO. I had the [duodenal switch](http://www.duodenalswitch.com) and yes there is a HUGE difference and I’ve been really really really trying to teach people that difference. The fact that I’ve explained what I DID have several times, several times mentioned that I did NOT have gastric bypass, and yet people still think I had gastric bypass is very upsetting to me, and makes me very sad. It’s as though I’d told everyone I had my appendix out and yet everyone assumed I’d had my gall bladder removed… it’s a completely different surgery. I can see maybe if I just said “I had weight loss surgery” all the time that then they might just assume that because it is the only one they know of… but I usually mention the surgery specifically by name, and also usually mention that it is NOT gastric bypass… See this [comparison chart](http://www.gr-ds.com/forpatients/Comparison_Html.html) for the differences. The procedure I had is both restrictive and malabsorbtive. So yes, it does address overeating, but that isn’t the only way it works. After a gastric bypass, a person can only eat tiny quantities of food and they have very strict restrictions on the types of food they can eat. I, on the other hand, can eat anything I want and in a tolerable quantity. I can eat two pieces of pizza at a sitting, for example. My point was that the amount of food I was eating was considerably less than probably most adults who weigh what they should, and the solution to my weight loss problem wouldn’t have been “eat less”. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/414 "2003-07-28T14:43:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BooksWoods \* > \*\*I’ve been thinking about that PB&J sandwich, too (Actually I wish I had one right now). What I was thinking was that people who eat _too little_ will often go into starvation mode and their bodies WILL hoard calories, making it difficult for them to lose weight. This is why Weight Watchers and some other programs warn participants not to lower their calorie intake too much. > Part of a sandwich for a whole day, though… even if your body “hoarded” it, one would think one would lose weight. \*\* 375 calories isn’t enough energy for basic metabolism. “Starvation mode” doesn’t matter at these levels. There ain’t anybody in this world (including comatose quadruple amputee dwarves) that makes it on 375 calories a day. ---
**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, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/415 "2003-07-28T14:52:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > **I have to admit that I’m having a problem with this 3/4 of a pbj sandwich thing.** Well I gave that as an example of a quantity of food that was not uncommon for me to eat in a day. I never meant to imply that was all I ate every single day. There were days when I wouldn’t eat anything… days when I’d eat a normal meal, days when all I’d eat would be a bowl of popcorn, whatever. I usually ate once a day. I couldn’t eat a lot though. I’d get full before I could finish the typical restaurant serving size, and my husband would finish it for me. I did, and do, eat a lot of carbs and fat, though. I eat a lot of pasta, breads, vegetables, beans, and a lot of cheese. A LOT OF CHEESE. In fact I’d say that cheese is probably my biggest source of protein. Mmmm… cheeeeese. My point in bringing up food quantity was simply to illustrate that not everyone who is fat eats huge amounts of food. I’m quite certain that my metabolism was almost nonexistant and that my body was often in starvation mode. This is a bad thing. I’m also not saying that it wasn’t my fault that I got fat, as Tarantula-the-Banned seems to have gathered. I could have stopped it by exercising regularly. Unfortunately, I’d never really had to worry or work to maintain my weight before, and by the time I realized things were going so wrong, it was already to the point where exercise was extremely painful, so I didn’t do it. ---
**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, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/416 "2003-07-28T14:54:32Z")
(oh, and I say “3/4” of a sandwich rather than the whole sandwich because I don’t eat the crusts. Isn’t that pathetic? I’m like a little kid…) ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/417 "2003-07-28T15:28:40Z")
Ok, got it. It was an example rather than a literal thing. No problemo. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/418 "2003-07-28T16:42:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OpalCat \* > \*\*Unfortunately, I’d never really had to worry or work to maintain my weight before, and by the time I realized things were going so wrong, it was already to the point where exercise was extremely painful, so I didn’t do it. \*\* Here’s my nickel’s worth of free advice, please take it for what it’s worth – or don’t take it at all: I think it was Covert Bailey once again who said (and I’m paraphrasing) exercise at a level where others will make fun of you. Can’t jog 10 miles? Then jog 5. Can’t do 5? Do 1. Can’t jog at all? Run in place. Can’t do that? Stand in place and lift your heels off the ground. Can’t do that? Sit down and lift a magazine over your head a few times. Can’t do that? See a doctor. Or a mortician. Point being, there is probably something you can do that isn’t horrifically painful, so do it. If you are Bonnie Grape, don’t try to run a marathon, do what you are capable of, and a tad more. And don’t worry about people laughing at you. Fuck 'em. (BTW **Opal** , this wasn’t necessarily directed at you, nor was it meant to be a judgement on anyone else, and keep in mind that I’m still an overweight lazy fatass – but I thought it was very sage advice.) ---
**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, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/419 "2003-07-28T19:56:57Z")
From the website OpalCat linked to: > [@](#): > > All weight loss surgeries work by making the stomach smaller (restrictive procedures) and/or creating changes in the digestive tract which do not permit the body to absorb all of the fats in the food you eat (called malabsorptive procedures).The DS is a combination restrictive and malabsorptive surgery. The stomach is made smaller and the intestines are rerouted so that you can’t absorb all the food you eat. I got the name of the procedure wrong, and I can see now that they are different surgeries. But from what I’m reading here, my point is the same. OC, the surgery you had appears to address eating too many calories/fats. Regardless, it appears to have worked for you. What kind of exercise program are you on now? ---
**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, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118/420 "2003-07-28T20:03:09Z")
From the website OpalCat linked to: > [@](#): > > All weight loss surgeries work by making the stomach smaller (restrictive procedures) and/or creating changes in the digestive tract which do not permit the body to absorb all of the fats in the food you eat (called malabsorptive procedures).The DS is a combination restrictive and malabsorptive surgery. The stomach is made smaller and the intestines are rerouted so that you can’t absorb all the food you eat. I got the name of the procedure wrong, and I can see now that they are different surgeries. But from what I’m reading here, my point is the same. OC, the surgery you had appears to address eating too many calories/fats. Regardless, it appears to have worked for you. What kind of exercise program are you on now? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118.md?page=20) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-fat-people-are-their-own-worst-enemies/190118.md?page=22)