"What You Don't Know About Fat" - New scientific understandings about body fat

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Think again. I’m short (5’ 6’’) and stocky. I weighed over 200 lbs. in college. I was destined for a life of being fat and out-of-shape.

But I didn’t want to be fat and out-of-shape. So I started eating less. And I started eating better. And I started an exercise program. That was 11 years ago, and I’ve kept at it. My weight now hovers between 150 and 160 lbs. I run 5 days a week, and I rarely eat fatty/fried food. I can’t even remember the last time I ate a French fry or a slice of pie.

Is it easy? Nope - it’s a daily struggle. I love greasy fatty food; I just don’t eat it. I also hate to exercise. But I do it anyway. I also get hungry between meals, but I don’t respond by stuffing my mouth with food. My typical dinner consists of steamed rice and steamed vegetables.

The formula for losing weight - and keeping it off - is extremely simple. The execution is the hard part. It requires a level of commitment and discipline most people can’t endure.

22

Some people are predisposed to a lot of things. My family tree is riddled with alcoholism. However, a genetic predisposition is not lifetime destiny. Those with a genetic predisposition to be overweight can control their weight the same way as anyone else. It may be harder for them but the approach is exactly the same.

Thank you Crafter_Man for your reply. It boggles the mind how anyone could disagree with what you are saying.

23

You’re exactly right. While many of us can work diligently toward a desired goal for some reason, when it comes to fat loss, we want it to be easy and we want it to be fast. Nothing worthwile comes easy. The things we work for the hardest are the most rewarding and the most soul-satisfying.

Zyada Thank you for an excellent post. I’d like to correct one statement. You said “when 1 kg of fat is converted to 1 kg of muscle” This is simply physically impossible. It would be more correct to say when 1 kg of fat is lost and 1 kg of muscle is gained or i kg of fat replaced by 1 kg of muscle. Muscle and fat are two different types of tissue and one never turns into the other.

That said, you made some excellent points that I’m going to share with others on the weight loss message board that I frequent.

24

People around Mediteranian sea drink small amount of olive oil before dinner.
And then of course wine is a must with the meal,meal itself is light years better than American cuisine. :eek:

25

I just wanted to say I thought Zyada’s mega-long post was one of the best I’ve ever seen on the Boards. The only downside was that it could potentially seem a little dispiriting to anyone who was contemplating trying to lose weight. I know Zyada didn’t mean it that way, and that it’s an excellent post, but I’m just saying it could come across that way.

Losing weight is easy if you look at it in a superficial way: eat better, exercise better. But actually implementing these ideas in real life is full of challenges and problems, and Zyada is right to point this out.

However, it CAN be done. I wrestled with my weight problem for 20 years. That’s how long it took me to get all the right information I needed to tackle it successfully - and there were plenty of false starts and failed attempts along the way.

26

What? Sorry, but I just don’t get this sentence.

And I agree with Zyada. We’ve had lots of weight loss threads lately, and there’s always someone who says it’s “easy” and to just eat less and exercise more, but in reality, it’s not that easy for everyone. Losing a lot of weight usually involves a major lifestyle change.

27

Sorry, I meant to say “you will lose weight if you burn more calories than you take in.” I think that I typed it the right way but my computer just screwed it up when I posted. :slight_smile:

I am the one advocating a major lifestyle change. Not that anyone in these threads advocated fad diets (thank god), but other suggestions such as starting a regimented workout routine are a minor version of the same thinking. These programs are not sustainable for the vast majority of overweight people. God bless the people that do stick with it for a long time but most people can’t. On the other hand, making a conscience effort to work other activities into your day such as a moderately long walk is sustainable. For some of these people, we are talking about another 50+ years of life that they need to maintain a healthy weight and a hard gym workout is just not practical looking at that timeframe.

I never said it was easy not even one time. I know how hard such things can be. I guess I am really mad at the companies that promote virtually any diet “program”. It leads overweight people to believe that an easy fix is just around the corner and they just have to wait for the right one to work.
When someone that actually knows what they are doing tells them what the real, healthy way to lose weight and keep it off is, they tend to choose the easy path. I liken it to get rich quit scams. A lot of people fall for them because they believe that they can become wealthy fast if they just find the right “trick”. In reality, those people just lose the money they used to buy into the scam and those that are disciplined and wise just invest money over time and watch it grow.

What I hear all the time and even in this thread is excuses and denial. For example, overweight people often say that they have a genetic predisposition to being overweight. They need to realize that this is just an excuse that they are using as a crutch so that they don’t have to make the changes that they need to make. They can lose weight the same way as anyone else, it just may be harder. Likewise, many overweight people claim that they don’t have time to work on their weight. If it is built naturally into your day, you really don’t need any extra time. I can see single mothers that cannot get to the gym regularly but we already discussed that you can add simple activities into your existing day (parking in the far back space of whatever parking lot you go to is but one of many examples). Likewise, it takes them same amount of time (or less) to make a simple healthy meal than it does to put together a butter and cheese saturated caserole.

If a person is overweight, they need to decide just how important it is to them to get down to a healthy weight. If they can live with it the way that they are, great. If they actually want to do something about it, work on a permanent change of lifestyle. Like all such programs, the should be well aware that the axiom “You can only get out of it what you put into it” has never rung more true in this case.

28

There’s little doubt that some people have genes that make it easier for them to get fat. First, there was an interesting study presented at this year’s ACSM conference. You can read about it here, but I’ve copied the description:

Second, there’s a somewhat famous article on the attempts to fight obesity in one of the hardest-hit groups in America that’s pretty much required reading for anyone who cares about the issue.

29

This is not true. Hunger, as Zyada pointed out, is your body’s way of telling you that you need to do something. When you allow yourself to get hungry, your blood sugar starts to dip. This can easily lead to overeating as you over compensate. You’ll actually lose more weight if you’re never hungry than if you’re always hungry; you should never go more than six waking hours without eating.

30

Personally, I think you all have it backwards. It’s exercise (preferably as inefficiently as possible), followed by eating better, then by eating less.

Starting out by eating less first is awful because it gives your body cues to process food more efficiently (which you’re already doing because you’re fat). Nope, you want to start burning more calories, and doing it by some sort of exercise your body is horrible at. (Everyone’s seen a chubby guy running, right? Chances are he eats well but his muscles have become very efficient at running, so he uses less calories than an absolute beginner. That guy would have to mix it up and do something that’s difficult for him in order to lose fat.

31

The order of importance is up for debate. In my opinion, eating less and eating better is more important than exercise. But again, that’s just my opinion.

If you study people who have lost weight and kept it off for a long period of time, you will find that most do all three (i.e. eat less, eat better, exercise). Why? Because they tend to go hand-in-hand: If you take up an exercise program, you will want to eat less and eat better. If you eat better, you will feel better and you will want to exercise. So invariability, people who lose weight and keep it off tend to do all three.

32

Exactly. About a year and half ago, I was very fat. After consulting with my doctor, I started on a certain diet and quickly lost about 25 pounds, but didn’t do much in the way of actual exercise other than short walks. Once I lost that first 25 pounds, I felt a lot better, and starting increasing the length of my walks. Then as I lost more weight, I got an exercise bike and added that in.
Today, I’m about 80 pounds lighter than when I started out, I’ve completely changed the way I eat, and when I go for a long walk, when I get back home, rather then feeling tired, I feel great. Invigorated, actually.

33

Sorry folks, this turned into a novel, but I really just wanted to contribute my personal story…

I am an American, and have been living in the UK for the last 3 years. I was a classic American, eating classic American food. I went to the gym intermittently, played soccer 2-3 times per week (full 90 minute games). I was pretty fit, but still weighed far too much (around 250 lbs when I left the US). I’m 6’4 and pretty muscular, but this was fat.

When I first moved to the UK, I thought it was strange how small portions were. Appetizers were really small, and full main entrees were what I was used to calling appetizers. I always found myself eating more than anyone else at the table when I went out with English or European friends, and then would often get home and still be hungry. I put on even more weight, cracking the scales at 275lbs at one point.

After a business trip back to the U.S., the penny dropped - Americans eat too damn much, and we mostly eat crap on a regular basis. Our appetizers are European main dishes. Our mains are minimum half again (and usually twice) as large as European main dishes. Everything is fried, with sauces based on cream and with melted cheese on top. Europeans don’t eat nearly as much fried food, although the English are quite close. They eat fresh foods, prepared well, not just fried and covered with thick creamy sauce.

I stopped eating like an American, and started eating like a European. I stopped looking for bigger portions and just ate what everyone else did. I didn’t eat anymore when I got home after dinner with friends, and I avoided any fast-food meals (pizza, Burger King, KFC, whatever – they are all awful).

This lifestyle change, plus more exercise including lots of cardio and strength training, and I now weigh only 200lbs, feel fantastic, have energy reserves I never knew existed, and can’t believe I ever looked and felt that bad.

The answers are easy, and have been repeated here several times – eat less, eat better, move more.

But here’s the real trick – it took me 9 months to get here. And it took discipline. And it took not doing things my body / brain wanted me to. It took cooking at home most nights. It took not getting food delivery late at night because I was too tired to cook something. It took 4 regular (but small) meals during the day, rather than 2 big ones (one right before bed, of course!). It took eating more fresh fruit and veg, and cutting out creamy sauces and melted cheese on things.

So here are my tips for seeing something similar in your life:
CAVEAT - I don’t promise anything with this. I just know it worked for me.

  1. EAT LESS!
    Let one plate be enough. Don’t get appetizers. Don’t eat dessert. Once a week, let the beast out and feed it, but the rest of the time be disciplined.
  2. EAT BETTER!
    Don’t eat out all the time. Eat fresh vegetables and fruits. Don’t eat anything processed – this means anything that doesn’t look like it was just taken from an animal or a plant should be avoided.
  3. MOVE MORE!
    Start really slowly – the first four weeks, starting from no exercise at all, you shouldn’t exercise more than 20 minutes steadily per day. Become more active in your everyday life. Walking up 4 flights of stairs is as much cardio activity as walking 1 mile. Walk to the corner store instead of driving. Ride your bike to work once a week if you can. Just keep moving! When you have a decent level of fitness to start with, then you can go to the gym and start getting the more intense workouts, but see a trainer for at least an orientation session. And try to keep variety in your exercise – doing the same thing, at the same time on the same day, every week, would just bore me to tears. (If you need a routine, ignore this last – just do what works for you).

But here’s a fourth one:
4. Set yourself realistic goals and milestones along the way!
You need to check your progress along the way, without depending on physical changes or the scale to tell you how you’re doing. My personal milestone was how fast I could run 5k (2.6 miles) on a course near my house. I went from 45 minutes (Sept ’03) to 25 minutes (now), but the trick was I timed myself every month. Now I run triathlons and am training for my first marathon in March.

And if anyone has a question about how good it can be, and how much you can achieve, I just completed the London Triathlon 2 weeks ago, my first one, in 3 hours and 20 minutes. This from a guy who couldn’t run 2 miles a year ago without having to stop…

Next stop is the London Marathon!

34

GomiBoy: It’s great to hear about your success. And you’ve validated everything we’ve been saying.

Unfortunately most overweight people won’t listen to us. They’ve been hoodwinked into believing weight loss is a “complex” issue, and that “different people have different needs.” My two favorites are “I have a medical condition” and “diet and exercise do not work for me.” :rolleyes: While it is true the rate of metabolism will vary from one person to the next, anyone can lose weight by following the ultra-simple formula of eating less, eating better, and exercising. For folks with slow metabolisms (such as me) it simply requires more discipline.

35

Losing weight is an incredible audacious and prone-to-failure attempt to correct a terrbile and brutal mistake that was made: gaining weight.

The fact that a person became obese is a predisposition to failure at trying both stop the gaining and then lose weight.

There is no ‘blame’ here.

The numbers are also hard to face. You need a paltry amount of calories to live. Some women can maintain their weight on 1500 per day, some men just 1800.

PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY: This is a terrible point of discussion, because it almost becomes philosophical - To what extent does anyone control ANY OF THEIR BEHAVIOR? Take aggression… If you cannot be held accountable for your obesity, then if we can demonstrate that similar and/or more powerful forces explain why people act out violently, then to what extent are they accountable?

Being fat/obese/overweight or whatever shouldn’t be criticized. The issues are well documented, and if you find yourself obese, you live with the risks as well as the rewards. Risk = health and rewards = instant pleasure.

I couldn’t stand to ever be obese, or to even start buying bigger clothes. To do so would be the end for me. This explains my 2000 calorie bank of calories I have every day. To see the failure rate of dieters is all I need. I won’t put myself into that category. Damn, maybe I am LUCKY to have a chemical composition that ALLLOWS me to resist food in many situations. Maybe I am lucky. Yes, I am lucky to be allowed by my body to succeed. Maybe I am fortunate to have the mental capacity to think about this fight every damn day. Am I not responsible for my success? If a 6’ 10" player slam dunks a basketball, is he not responsible for his slam dunk and two points? HE IS. Was Einstein repsonsible for the theories of relativity? Sure. Are terrorists responsible for blowing up people? Yes.

If you are obese, you are responsible for being obese. Are you responsible if you fail at something that is difficult? YES. Should you be teased, mocked, etc? Nope.

36

Interesting. Thank you.

37

Don’t mean to be quoting you yet again… :wink:

Yes, this one irritates me. I hate when people say “diet and exercise don’t work for me” as an excuse for being fat. I tried lots of diets (half-heartedly) and would give up. I finally found one that did.
There’s a woman at my pool who’s huge, I bet she’s 300 pounds at least, and all she does is eat, constantly. I heard her chatting with some friends one day and she was complaining about being so fat, but said regular diets don’t work for her. I don’t think she even realizes that she’s always eating; it seems like a nervous habit. It just goes on and on; snacks like chips and cookies from the cooler, or snacks like candy bars from the vending machine or something like burgers and fries from the snack bar, all washed down by a constant shower of giant sodas. It’s never-ending. I don’t know how she does it. My stomach would explode if I tried to eat like she does. I’ve seen her come back from the vending machine with three or four candy bars at a time and just wolf them all down, one right after another.
I feel like saying, “You know, if you’d just stop eating like that, you could lose weight. Why not get in the pool and swim a lap or two before eating that candy bar?”

38

Often, yeah. In some cases though, it indicates a refusal to get in shape, or a severe lack of effort. As with many things, there are many types of failure–some excusable, some not.

At the risk of incurring the anger of some SDMB readers, I think that sometimes there is room for blame.

As an extreme case, consider my ex-roommate. He weighed 333 lbs, and steadfastly refused to lose the weight. When confronted with this issue, he would invariably retort, “Nobody should ever have to change their eating habits! There is nothing wrong with weighing more! The human body is fully capable of adapting to a wide variety of circumstances. This is all prejudice and misinformation on your parts!”

I have no problem blaming that man for his unfortunate, self-inflicted condition.

If someone makes a serious, good-faith effort to get (or stay) in shape, then I don’t think there is room for reasonable blame. However, a good number of overweight people --especially the morbidly obese–do not fall into that category. If they are overweight, if they could have prevented this condition, and if they do not make a serious effort to lose that weight, then I think they are to blame for their circumstances.

That’s not to say that they should be mocked, or that they are undeserving of sympathy. Not at all. However, I also think it’s unfair to say that they should be absolved of all blame – and I say that as someone who has been pretty darned overweight in times past.

39

In almost every case, 100% of the blame belongs to the fat person. Exceptions include young children and severely disabled (mentally or physically) people.

40

I was trying to draw a distinction between blame and responsibility.

We blame people when something ‘bad’ happens.

If you are obese, you are accountable for the obesity…you are responsible (tiny % of exceptions noted).

When we get into ‘blaming’ people, then everyone goes into defensive mode. If obese people started to suck the earth dry of water and nutrients and I starved as a result, then I’d blame them.

When discussing obesity and such, people are personally accountable and responsible for the condition they find themselves in. Whether that condition is to be condemned or labeled as ‘bad’ is another thing for GD.

Amusing side note: As a 5’ 10" male, 37 y/o and weighing 178 lbs who weight trains 4-5 times a week, I still find that most of my un-solicited diet advice comes from obese women who found a new diet.