They custom make the clothes in India but only ship to the US? That’s hella messed up. :eek:
Do you have a cite for this? Because the fact of the matter is, that if you have a weekly dietary deficit of 3500 calories, you WILL lose 1 pound of body fat. Period. Simple math.
Think about this: If this notion that “diets don’t work” is true, than why is it that in the starvation camps of the holocaust, everyone became emaciated? Where were the ones who “can’t lose weight no matter how little they eat”? In the photos of the victims of those camps, I have never seen any chubby obese ones amongst the starvers. If “diets don’t work for everyone”, then how do you account for this?
Never mind.
:rolleyes: Well, if you read, oh, anything I wrote above and/or many of the links I included, you would see that I actually said that anyone can starve themselves (or be starved) into losing weight. The difference being, those who tend to be heavier need to permanently stay starving to keep at that thinner weight. Talk the ones who have stayed long term on a 800 calorie a day diet to see how well that worked for most of them. And yes, there are plenty of people who aren’t actually what we’d consider anorexic (distorted body image and such) who do that in the quest to be thin.
As for the first part, I phrased that badly. I should have said, “calories eaten - x amount of exercise = weight”. I don’t have time at the moment to dig up any actual scientific studies. But if you google “calories burned metabolism” you’ll see that even all of the pro-diet calorie calculator web sites reluctantly include a paragraph about how it’s not exact because people’s metabolism varies.
hand in the air
I swear, no-one agrees with me when it comes to clothing. I’ll dress up, think I look like the hottest piece of dynamite ever to leave the factory, and everybody else thinks I look kinda dorky. I’m beginning to think that my ideal woman is a genius long-distance runner who’s blind.
Yes, yes, yes, times a million. Whatever it is you’ve been doing until now, that put you where you are. If you start doing that again, you’ll end up back where you were. If you want to keep the weight off, you stick with the changes. Forever. You can’t diet and then go back to your old lifestyle, of course the weight will come back. You have to change your life.
If you don’t want to do that, more power to you. If you make the decision that it’s just too much work, fine. Make the decision, stand by it, and be honest about it. It’s like me and my ripped stomach. The thing about my ripped stomach is that it doesn’t exist. I’m thin and have abs of steel, but they’re hidden behind a bit of tummy flab. I know exactly what it would take to get visible abs, and it just isn’t worth it. I’d rather have this glass of wine here.
But the people making excuses (like that blogger someone linked to in the woman celebration thread) really get my goat. The truth is that you’re not prepared to do the work, so don’t pretend it’s anything else. There is no such thing as willpower, and consuming fewer calories while burning more calories works. Truly.
The point I took away from the doctor’s studies is that some people have to work not only harder than they do, but hella harder than other people, and that’s what the naturally thin folks don’t seem to grok. That’s what, as a fat person, it’s so disheartening to face. When I shed all this weight, it’s not that I can’t go back to eating like I did (I don’t want or need to do that), it’s that I can’t even switch to eating like you do. General not-fat “you”, of course. I don’t know how Priceguy eats, but I know how my thin friends eat, and it’s a lot more than me. I don’t know how much Priceguy exercises, but I know how much my thin friends do, and it’s not more than me. And yeah, that makes me feel like a three year old with a carob chip on my shoulder sometimes.
It’s like telling a dyslexic “Look, it’s really easy, just remember that a “p” has the little stick on the lower left and a “b” has it on the upper left!” Or telling a diabetic, “Oh, yeah, I used to get low blood sugar sometimes when I’d forget to eat. All you need to do is carry some peanuts in your pocket so you always have a snack on hand.” No, that’s all YOU needed to do, because you’re not a diabetic! “Eat a little less and move a little more” is all YOU need to do to stay thin because you’re not wired for obesity, but for a tiny bit of a spare tire! “Fewer” calories turns out to mean “far less than a naturally thin person forever” and “more” exercise turns out to mean “far more exercise than a naturally thin person forever”. Forgive me if it’s going to take me a while to come to grips with the inherent unfairness of that. And yeah, that’s a childish and whiny thing to say, I know, and life isn’t fair and all that…but sometimes I do feel childish and whiny about it.
It’d just be easier sometimes if skinny people acknowledged that it’s really fucking hard - harder than they imagine - for some of us to be skinny. And that we’re fat because of A) genetics and B) thinking that we can eat like those around us eat and move like those around us move and look like those around us look, NOT because we buy whole grain Cheerios to quench our pain at being molested.
Weight Watchers is right - it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change. But it’s not a lifestyle change to the lifestyle that thin people enjoy. It’s a commitment to a lifetime of starvation - literal, not figurative. That’s the message I don’t think is getting out there.
“pro-diet”?? 
As opposed to what?
Of course there are differences between individuals. One person may need to burn 3505 calories to shed a pound, another may only need to burn 3480. No one ever said everyone’s metabolism is identical. But in general a person need to burn about 3500 more calories than she eats in order to lose a pound of fat. True, it could be 3501 calories, or even 3499. But minor differences in metabolism aren’t going to change the overall big picture: a pound of fat contains about 3500 calories. Don’t eat those calories and you won’t gain that pound. Yes, it really is that simple.
Again, you didn’t address the issue that if “diets don’t work” and some people will be fat no matter how little they eat, then how do you account for the fact that there weren’t any obese folks in the holocaust camps?
Did you read the article **Risha **linked to? It’s not a difference of a few calories, it’s a difference of hundreds of calories.
And the observations of naturally thin people:
So, yeah. Wah.
I feel entitled (as much as I hate that word) to speak on the subject as I spent my entire life overweight until one day I started doing something about it. I spend three hours a week in the gym. I run over 50 kilometres a week. There is no such thing as a day when I don’t exercise for at least an hour. My calorie intake is lower than that of many friends of mine who’ve been thin their entire lives (but some of them are chunking up now that they’re hitting thirty; the sound you’re hearing is the song of sweet justice), I stay away from foods they wolf down indiscriminately, and I’ve spent a lot of time and energy learning about nutrition and experimenting with my body’s reaction to various foods.
I am in no way naturally thin. If there is such a thing as a person who has a harder time losing weight and keeping it off than others, I am it. Yet here I am, 167 centimetres and 60 kilograms. And there is nothing special about me. Anyone can do it. I freely admit that various aspects of my current life situation make this somewhat less work for me than for many others, but I still have to do the work. If it’s too much work for you, fine, like I said. I think no less of you for it, but I do have a problem with people claiming it’s down to winning the genetic lottery or whatever. I did hard work to get here and I do hard work to stay here, it’s my accomplishment, I’m damn proud of it, and no-one is taking it away from me.
There is no such thing as “naturally thin”. There are people who consume the correct number of calories to maintain a healthy weight and those who consume too many and become obese. No one in my family is fat. And it aint because we’re “natually thin”. It’s because we maintained a household where a) there was no junk food b) there was no such thing as “second helpings” c) we ate sensible portions and d) we were encouraged to be physically active. I had fat friends growing up; without exception their household did exactly the opposite of the above. That’s why they were fat. They were no more “naturally fat” than were were “naturally thin”. :rolleyes:
Oh grow up already. Here’s a clue: staying trim is really fucking hard. Deal with it. If I ate whatever I wanted and went back for seconds, I’d be fat too. It’s really fucking hard sometimes not to buy that candy bar or scarf that 3rd brownie. But you know what? That’s life. That’s maturity. That’s taking personal responsibility. All you’re really saying is that you’re not willing to put the work into it.
Sure there is. I, and most people in my mom’s family, are/were really thin growing up, despite pretty much never considering whether a brownie or a cookie was “too much.”
And I call bullshit on this as well. I’ve had quite a few fat friends and co-workers over the years. Without exception they did not “eat like those around them” ate. They ate huge servings. They ate junk food. They went back for seconds and thirds. They scarfed candy and soda and cupcakes. They sneaked food and hid the wrappers between the seats of their cars. I have NEVER met a fat person who ate like a normal-weight person. Ever.
BS. I am so sick of the skinny martyrs. I read the following book: Amazon.com and truly believe that for many obese people it is more of a struggle than the thin person will ever know. The person in the book downed whole bulk-sized bags of candy, several pounds at a time. But, for me, the thin person, that is a foreign thought; chocolate languishes in my cupboard since I genuinely do not want to eat more than a couple of bites at a time. So, do I have more self control than the author of the book? I don’t think so. The author of the book ascribes to the viewpoint that obesity is a disease in the same way that alcoholism is, and extreme measures must be taken to keep sufferers from the “trigger foods” (husband has to do shopping so she doesn’t even see foods in the grocery store, etc), and it makes a lot of sense. She does eventually lose all her weight, but she had to do it by virtual isolation from her trigger foods.
My therapist is the same way–she suffered from an ED (bulimia or COE) and has not eaten carbs for 17 years. That’s the kind of thinking that is totally alien for me. I can ignore bread in the bread basket. I can just be happy with fish and salad and ignore the fries on my plate, and have no temptation for dessert since I’m full. It doesn’t take me self control, I just listen to my body’s signals. IOW, I can watch what I eat, because eating isn’t such a big deal for me. My heart goes out to those struggling with food.
Right. That’s because “a brownie” or “a cookie” isn’t too much. But a whole box of them is.
Something tells me your family didn’t have a house crammed full of junk food, cook horribly fattening/unhealthy foods, pile your plates high and go back for 2nds and thirds at every meal. Or that it was considered ok or normal to sit in front of the TV and consume an entire box of Little Debbies. By yourself. This is the type of thing that went on at the homes of the fat kids I grew up around.
No, not so much, and I’ve always pretty much just stopped eating when I wasn’t hungry…I never really ate for comfort/if I was sad, quite the opposite, really. Plus, growing up I pretty much (outside of “gym” class) never did any sports or things like that, spent most of my free time reading/doing other similarly dorky things. Now, I do still eat a lot of junk food…I work out now and all but there’s pretty much never a day that goes by that I don’t have some form of chocolate, whether it’s in a chipwich form or in the form of a kitkat or some really decadent brownie. I’m sure there’s a lot of people for whom that would be really fattening.
Then you’ve met very few fat people. Sneaking food? Please. If I wanted to eat something, I would, and I wouldn’t bother to lie about it. I eat about what my skinny friends eat, on average. My countertop is currently littered with Halloween and Christmas candy that my mother-in-law will eat when she comes to visit, since if we haven’t bothered with it yet and I doubt that we will anytime soon.
Some people just don’t like having their worldview threatened. Try looking at the science and studies instead of what “everyone knows”.
And by the way:
I directly addressed this in my previous post. How about actually reading it.
Speaking of eating and compulsions, how about DNFTT?
I hadn’t actually noticed that he was a guest. Good point. 
Now don’t go gettin’ all pissy. Trolls are multi-taskers. They worry some more than others. You just have to wait until you catch one out in the open, then stomp the livin’ shit of them. Man style. I know you know what I’m talking about.
Please.
Never gave any credence to genetics and predispositions, huh? In my experience, genetics holds more sway to weight gain than overeating.
In order for my wife to lose weight, she had to cut her daily caloric intake down to around 1,000 - 1,200 calories. I, on the other hand, weigh 180 lbs, and eat well over 2,500 calories a day, and she still weighs a little more than me. I came from a family of thin, scrawny people… she, from very “robust” stock.
Overeating only exasperates the disadvantage of those predisposed to being overweight.
So, shut your BS.