Yeah, the “fat gene” thing is just an excuse to not have to lose weight “the hard way”. Its absurd. And this is coming from a guy who has always been in various stages of overweight with the exception of 2 times when I had to work my ass off to drop a bunch of weight.
So, yes, I am the statistic of people who dropped significant weight (close to 80 pounds once, 45 the second time), and was unable to keep it off. This is because once I reached my goal weight, I stopped watching what I ate and exercised less. This time, I’m going to try harder to keep it off.
But resign myself to stop trying and blame it on genetics? Sounds like the mentality of a quitter if you ask me. Why bother trying, right? I’m bothering to try because staying thinner makes me look better, feel better, sleep better, more comfortable. Its completely worth it, no matter how many times I gain and lose weight, and eventually I’ll stabalize at a weight I can maintain in a lifestyle that makes me happy.
Maybe that “its a fat gene and you can’t help it” mentality is the reason there’s so many fatties these days without the proper discipline to lose the weight.
My goodness, I thought you were a guy all this time. Oops. And a size 12 is below the average, not that that disqualifies you for the thread or anything.
For me, it’s an emotional thing. Food is comfort and I am alone a lot so it is a companion and escape. I get high off it and keep needing it. I have no inclination to exercise and am low-energy anyway. I plan to get a sleep study to see if I have apnea because that could account for some it; if I have it and treatment works it could give me the energy to make some changes.
The surgery does require that you change your eating habits, right? Can’t you only eat the volume of an egg afterwards? I often think, how about just eating the volume of an egg and not getting the surgery. Would that create the same weight loss that the surgery does?
As far as skin stretching, on one of the plastic surgery shows it said if you lose weight gradually, the skin has time to reshape itself, vs. a quick loss. But I would think that there is only so far it can shrink back??
gigi - No problem about the gender issue - in one thread I described how a visiting priest once asked me if I was interested in becoming a priest. I don’t get it - I’m 5’1" and definitely have girly parts. I was wearing jeans and a big sweatshirt that day and my hair is short, though.
I think the problem with trying just to eat the egg without the surgery is that a person would be hungry all the time and tempted to eat anyway. I believe that most people are required to lose a certain amount of weight before the surgery to show commitment to the program.
The surgery is dangerous - I knew a man that worked for another company who I worked with. I talked to him the day before his surgery and wished him luck. I called his company the following day and found out he’d died during surgery.
Wasson, with all due respect susceptibility to obesity is very clearly a genetic trait. And to that extent the notion of a “fat gene” is not absurd at all. It’s actually right. I know you find the physiology weight loss “fascinating,” (it is) but maybe you should explore the genetics and neurobiology a bit too.
I’m of the conviction that people are actually *fatter * because they do not understand the biology of fat, and think that anytime somebody confronts them with information they actually need to make informed decsions, they’re just being “defeatist.”
Let me just give you one hint for future diets. If you’re going to yo-yo diet, whatever you do, do not bounce above your initial starting point on the rebound. It’s very easy to push your set point up that way, and once your set point is up, it’s not likely to come down. Your first priority should always be weight maintenance and not pushing that setpoint above whereever it is.
I’m sorry, but this is just flat wrong. Exercise isn’t just about burning calories and even if it were, low-intensity workouts like a nice walk could still serve this purpose. Even a little exercise can raise your metabolism, and if it’s muscle-building exercise the benefits to your metabolism are even greater.
So your statement about aerobic, high-intensity, long-period exercise being the only way is wrong in three ways - you can have good workouts that are anaerobic (eg sprints), low-intensity (eg walks, quiet laps in the pool) and short-period (a quick burst on a treadmill, a bike ride down to the shops).
Actually Suzeekay’s right a third time. I think you somewhat missed what she’s saying. She said it won’t help you *lose * weight. Not that it wasn’t good for you, etc. Here’s the National Institute of Health’s conclusion based on the evidence (bolding mine):
Of course you should exercise - my guess is it’s at least as important a contributor to good health as your weight - and if you do manage to lose weight a good exercise routine seems to help to keep it off, but it’s doesn’t appear to contribute much to the process of actually losing poundage. At least across a population. There may be people that it’s the most important thing they do, but as far as the evidence that is out there, Suzeekay’s statement is well-supported.
uglybeech, I don’t mean to be quarrelous, but my problem with your quote is the word “substantially”. That word is a little vague. According to this link there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. (This coincides with other sites I saw.) If you burn 150 extra calories a day by excercising, you will lose a lb of fat roughly every 24 days. That is 15 lbs a year. I am shooting to lose 30 lbs this year. That is half my goal which I consider to be substantial. (If we plug in the study’s numbers, that would be 7.5 lbs in 6 months, I am shooting to lose 15 lbs every 6 months - that is half my goal.)
I can see though, that many people would agree with your quote. 7.5 lbs in 6 months may not seem like much. But I think it is great.
Until this sentence, I wondered if you were talking about an amputation.
It seems to me that eating healthy and exercising, even if it doesn’t lead to weight loss, is going to be healthful; why not do it? I take about a third of that advice myself, even: I eat healthfully more often than not. My exercise routine sucks, though.
IMO, if you treat weight loss as a one-time activity – “Once I lose X pounds I’ll go off this diet” – you’re guaranteed to fail.
The proper mentality is to see it as weight control, a never-ending lifetime process. To (once again) steal from The Hacker’s Diet, if you have a tendency to eat more/gain weight, that essentially means your body’s feeding cycle is off-balance to some degree. Weight control is therefore a matter of (a) reaching a healthy weight, and (b) constantly monitoring your weight and eating habits to compensate for your off-balance-feeding cycle.
Just as people with bad eyesight need to wear glasses constantly to compensate for the problem, people with a bad feeding cycle need to perform weight control constantly to compensate for the problem. Despite the pessimistic hand-wringing of some folks in this thread, I’m fully confident that I won’t regain my weight in 5 or 10 years, because I’m now in the habit of monitoring my weight every day – and if my weight starts inching upwards again, I can compensate and shed them before it becomes a problem.
Okay, I’ve had it. You’re about the twelfth person to characterize information as pessimism. The term for this is willful ignorance. I don’t care what people do with information. But I joined this board because I DO care when people toss about factoids that are nearly 180 degrees wrong - and then nod at each other in content agreement having reinforced each other’s misconceptions. Honestly listening to people discuss fat is like listening to people discuss the heavenly spheres or the four humours. It’s not just the facts that are wrong, but the whole framework needs to go. Usually I can live with that, it’s only ignorance. But then Suezeekay made the mistake of posting information that actually resembled what’s in the literature and got lambasted for it.
If you find knowledge threatens your motivation, then by all means keep scrolling. But stop belittling people who come bearing facts.
Except that for every study that says that there is a fat gene, there is another study saying that diet and excercise cause weight loss. And for everyone who “can’t lose weight” there is someone who through diet and excercise lost weight.
If lifestyle didn’t matter, I would be fat like most of the rest of my family. If people who were born big, were big children and big adolescents and big adults were ‘destined’ to be big then I would be big. I am not big anymore because I changed my diet and excercise. Since I like the results, the way I look and the way I feel, and I am not excited about high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type II diabetes, and joint pain, I will never again let myself get up to 200#.
Furthermore, the OP didn’t ask if she was OK at her weight, she asked for support in losing weight. You are not helping by saying it is hopeless because you have a fat gene and OH MY GOD DON’T YO YO OR YOU’LL DIE!!!111!!!1!
You’re just projecting. No one said not to diet. No one said it’s hopeless and no one is wigging out but you. This is in your imagination. All I am trying to do here is correct misinformation. But if your opinion is that information is dangerous, then go with my blessing - you certainly live in the right country for it at the moment.
In defense of knowledge. When taking on a difficult challenge, knowledge has the virtue of helping you anticipate obstacles that might fuck you up if you don’t know about them. If we’re going to increase the success rate above 5% I really doubt it’ll be by making sure dieters are as stupid as possible. But you never know.
As to everything else you said, the answer is no. One or two half-truths, but otherwise, just - no. I’d go through it piece by piece, but I’m sensing you won’t receive it well.
Susceptibility, sure. I went from 195ish to 260ish in about 18 months when I lived with 2 of my best friends, drinking beer and eating Taco Bell and pizza every single day. They didn’t exercise any more than I did, and we ate and drank virtually the same things in the same amount for those 18 months we were roomies. I gained 65 pounds. Another guy gained 40. The third gained about 10. Whatever you want to call it… susceptibility to obesity or slower metabolism or whatever, I put on a lot more weight a lot faster than my buddies. My mom is obese. My sister is too. My buddies come from much thinner families. However, I would never use this as an excuse to not exercise or watch what I eat to become a “normal” size. Most people who are obese could diet and work themselves down to being simply “overweight”, but lack the discipline and would rather make excuses as to why they can’t. Genes, they’ll say.
Yep, I hear ya. When I went from 260 to 180ish, I always said I’d never go over 200 again. A couple years later I was involved in a serious relationship where she didn’t care if I was fat, I had a good job that occupied a bunch of my time, and I bounced back to about 225. I’ve never felt worse about myself in my life, letting myself slip up that much. It was because of that “well, my diet is over now” mentality. I’m back down to 185ish with about 10 pounds to go until I’m out of “loss” mode and into “maintenance” mode. I learned a lot to lose, now its time to learn how to maintain.
I haven’t read all the replies, so this may have been said already. If so, forgive me.
WLS is a last resort. I repeat A LAST RESORT. Most insurance companies will want to see evidence that you have tried many other avenues. You are young. Too young IMnsHO to take that drastic a step.
I am in my 40s. I have been thru AO, TOPS, WW, Medically supervisefd liquid diets, hypnosis, Slim Fast, OTC products like Dexatrim and that ilk. All had limited success for me. I have severe arthritis and prior to the surgery was more than 200 lbs overweight. Since then I’ve lost 20 and couildn’t be happier. But that’s me.
Weight Watchers is a good program. Can you and your mom join together and help each other along the way? TOPS is good, too. Basically any plan that re-teaches you how to eat is good. Quick fixes rarely have long term lasting results. Please explore other programs before persuing WLS.
