Why Are People Overweight?

In My Humble Opinion
41

We treat our material possesions better than we treat ourselves. We have folks who know more about viscosity rating on oil, but no zippo about nutrition. I have obese friends who lost their minds when I gave table food to their dog. He only eat “Snob Mix Dog Food”.

Excuse me for not taking the Richard Simmons approach. While their are medical conditions that make staying lean more difficult than for others, the simple fact for fat america is that they lack:

  1. knowledge of nutrition
  2. desire/will power
    I know fat people who have diabetes, and have eye sight problems and other health problems associated with obesity. They are eating themselves out of kidneys and eye sight.

A high school friend engaged a diebetic girl who chose to be an obese diabetic and gradually lost her vision to her poor diet.

How powerful is the desire to eat and eat? People are willing to be blind for it…or DEAD.

Sorry, I’m not Oprah…I’m telling it straight. 99% of the reasons people are fat amount to nothing more than cheezey excuses. If you want to be obese - god bless you. If you want to be in shape, and make excuses, don’t cry around me.

42

Neptune has it down. I don’t eat until I am “stuffed” or anything, but any time I try and eat a sensible diet my body and mind compel me to eat hot dogs, burgers, bean burritos, fried egg and cheese sandwiches…

It sucks, in a way. It isn’t like I have or don’t have control over it, if I don’t eat meat at least once in a day I feel very strange and unpleasant. I can get away with substituting meat for eggs, usually, but I don’t think I’m actually gaining anything by doing that.

Right now I am trying to put small portions of meat into an otherwise tolerable diet and am having mixed success.

I am also a total carbohydrate junkie. I get shakey if I don’t have a good helping of bread or rice throughout my day. Ugh.

43

Don’t forget, Why do people buy white cars?

Back to the op, 'Why are people overweight?

Well, in my case it’s because I like beer, pizza, burrito’s and other tasty foods.
I also don’t exercise as I used to, I blew out an achilles tendon playing basketball, and couldn’t run for a few months, and never really got backinto it.
I don’t coach basketball anymore(where I would do drills with my players) and have become a bit less concerned about how much I eat.

I also could give a rats ass what other people thought about how I looked.
There is no corrlelation between my weight and how smart I am, or caring, loving or sensitive I may be. My weight has no bearing on how I think of others.

To paraphrase something a man once said in the name of love ‘Judge me on the content of my character, not on my big belly’.

44

Aside from medical problems, medications, genetic predisposition and the effects of aging, I think that a lot of being overweight starts in people’s heads. After all, if people know the risks of being overweight, and they still are, something much more powerful than logic is at work, no?

I became overweight because I ate a lot fattening food, a lot of the time, for a lot of bad reasons. I didn’t learn good eating habits growing up, and among my bad habits was eating for emotional reasons. Stuffing myself with food when I felt bad, or was under stress, or bored, was taking its toll.

I’m starting to unlearn a lot of that now. For me, it’s a matter of no longer allowing the acquisition, preparation (where applicable, 'cause I don’t really cook much) and consumption of food to be a mindless process. When I decide to go for a bite to eat, I have to stop and ask myself if I am really hungry, just to make sure. I have found that, a lot of times, I really wasn’t. So then I go and tackle the real problem and eat later. And when I crave something, I have to ask myself if I wouldn’t be satisfied with a substitute that has less sugar and/or fat. And when I shop, I consciously try to buy healthy food. After all, if I’m in the house and hungry and don’t wanna go out, I’ll eat what’s there. If “what’s there” is good stuff, I’m good.

Just doing this stuff has made me healthier. I have more energy and I’ve dropped a couple of clothing sizes. But it took a couple of years for me to really get into doing it. Bad habits don’t go away overnight, and I still slip up and eat junk, but that happens less often now.

Now if I could just haul my carcass to the Y…

45

I am like brainychick.

The shrink i saw, in all her wisdom called it “eating your emotions” duh!!! wow i was so so so shocked by that diagnosis… OK fine lady, WHAT DO I DO NOW??? How do i stop this syndrome or whatever you call it, well she said you have to be aware of it, when do you have your urges, how do you feel when you do, control the outcome… blah blah blah…

Mind you not that she was wrong but i needed something a little bit more concrete… so i pushed myself (on a bet) to go to the gym and being extremely proud… there is no way i would loose that bet… but OH MY GOD i started to feel good at the gym, slowly i started to breath a little easier when i went up a flight of stairs and my food intake became a bit more healthy. It’s a slow process but better one than yo-yo dieting…

The struggle is still there and maybe always will be, the urges are still there, but not as loud… that voice (the same as Neptune) sometimes can be a whisper… but when it’s too loud well i give in have one piece a cake… And that’s all… better than waiting and eating the entire cake…

I hopefully will make it this time… :rolleyes:

46

I think the last 2 posters have hit the nail on the head.

I work for Weight Watchers. I show people an eating plan that will enable them to lose weight.

Yet many of them do not succeed.

Often it is because they are using food in more ways than just fuel for survival.

Too many of us find pleasure in food, and substitute that pleasure for other spots in our lives - whether it’s low self-esteem, lack of attention, whatever.

Add to that the bounty of food that we have access to, and the sheer convenience of life that allows us to sit on our asses to do most everything…well, that’s a recipe for weight gain.

While heredity, metabolism, medications, and medical problems DO have something to do with weight gain, it does so in a minority of cases.

And speaking as someone who’s been keeping off 28 pounds for almost 5 years, it continues to be a struggle to eat properly and not give in to temptations all the time. But since it’s a matter of good health & life, I find it to personally be worth it. YMMV.