15 ms·

The Weight I Carry

103 points by danso 8y ago

amriksohata 8y ago
Watch the Fed up documentary, explains it so well that no matter how much we try, exercising and eating less wont work. Our environment is saturated with products now which almost all have added sugar, only way is to look at ingredients and change your environment, dont bring these things home and instead bring better stuff home thats not got added sugar.
- chrisseaton 8y ago
  > no matter how much we try, exercising and eating less won't work How can that be? If you burn more calories and you take in less calories, then surely at some point your body must start to lose mass. At very least is the equation that you're breathing out carbon and you're not getting that mass back from anything apart from what you eat.
  - rhcom2 8y ago
    Logically it's the answer, just like drug addiction is solved by stopping the use of drugs but of course knowing that alone doesn't really help.
  - danans 8y ago
    > How can that be? All else equal, you are right, but practically, for most people who aren't young, or athletes, hard endurance physical exercise triggers eating behavior that overcompensates for the number of calories burned. Sure, if you force exercise upon and deny the extra calories to someone, they will lose weight, but that's not a desirable solution for most, sustainable for the individual, or scalable in today's society. Solutions that acknowledge the existence of and work with human eating behaviors are needed. IMO that would involve reconfiguring our society to enable people to have quotidian implicit forms of exercise (vs dedicated gym sessions), like walking as part of their commutes, or gardening, and of course reducing the amount of sugar in the food environment. But that's a challenge because the current environment that most people inhabit is configured to encourage the opposite. There certainly appears to be a statistical correlation between car based commute frequency and obesity rates in a given area: https://www.fastcompany.com/1679157/mapping-the-link-between-obesity-and-car-driving https://www.fastcompany.com/1679157/mapping-the-link-between...
  - graeme 8y ago
    Because all of this is regulated by hunger. If you move more, you get hungrier. The issue in the case of most overweight people is that their body is trying to maintain a set point at a high level of body fat. Hunger serves to maintain this weight set point. The way to sustainable weight loss is to eat in such a way that the body starts to target a lower set point and decreases hunger. Obviously this also results in less calories taken than expended, but if it were as simple as a math formula most people would have six packs.
    - deleted 8y ago
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  - aantix 8y ago
    I think weight loss is less of the issue - you're right, that is solved. Long term weight loss is the big issue. Let's be honest, anything that you have to maintain indefinitely - relationship, business, health/weight/muscle mass, finances - will eventually fail at some point. And food does have that unique component of that it can't be totally avoided. You can't just cut it out of your life to become healthier (unlike say alcohol). They're all hamster wheels. And then we die.
  - amriksohata 8y ago
    I'm taking about sustainable living not crash dieting as one offs which most people can't maintain
- paulcole 8y ago
  > that no matter how much we try, exercising and eating less won't work Definitely disagree here. These are the only things that work. How else can you lose weight other than by moving more and eating less?
  - jki275 8y ago
    The key is that people actually don't eat less. They feel more hungry when they exercise, which drives them to eat more, which pushes the vicious cycle even further.
    - paulcole 8y ago
      That's like saying, "Cars don't work on roads" but conveniently forgetting to add, "...if you don't step on the gas." I am speaking as someone who has lost about 75-100 pounds (no clue I was too ashamed to step on a scale) and kept it off for 10+ years. I can guarantee you that exercising more and eating less works even if it's not what anyone wants to hear.
    - crysin 8y ago
      There's also eating less and actually eating less. You can eat less food, but if the food you're eating is higher in calories then you're not going to lose weight. Part of the problem with eating less, is the size / portion of what you eat matters just as much as what you are actually eating. As an extreme example: The size of a slice of cheesecake is roughly equivalent to the size of a breast of chicken however eating the slice of cheesecake is eating a lot "more" than eating that breast of chicken.
      - SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
        That's why if you're going to lose weight you gotta focus on the information and know that what you just ate was x calories / x% of your daily intake and act upon that knowledge.
    - wenc 8y ago
      There's one way out of this vicious cycle. I substituted the prodigious amounts of refined carbs I used to eat (pasta, rice) with meat, vegetables and a reduced amount of carbs. The proteins definitely helped with the hunger (and being a carnivore, it didn't take much to convince me to eat more meat -- though for me it's mostly white meat and eggs). I actually ended up eating more I also started lifting weights. Exercising increases appetite for sure, but proteins satiates it. I didn't lose that much weight (10 lbs), but I managed to convert what used to be flab to muscle. Exercise + protein/vegetable diet (even if eating more) = body shape change.
- Carlton87 8y ago
  Exercising and eating less is the only thing that works for losing weight. For the most part an individual is personally responsible for calories in and calories out. Being morbidly obese is a choice and it will kill you.
  - kazinator 8y ago
    I would say that this is true in cases when neglecting to exercise and eat appropriately is the cause of excess weight in a normally functioning body. In severe cases of obesity, something else may be going on. In a nutshell, the bodies of some of these sufferers could be on some sort of fat storage rampage. The fat cells extract an "energy tax" and store it; the body then has to do with what is left. If there is a broken, runaway fat storage mechanism at play, such that a percentage of your intake is stored as fat, and not easily released again, it will be difficult to overcome the accumulation of fat with diet and exercise. But, yeah, diet and exercise work for many people. And in many cases when they are reported as not working, they weren't given the proper effort. Excercise that works is probably 2-3X more voluminous and intense than exercise people think ought to work, damn it! And sane eating plans have to be adhered to forever, not just for a couple of weeks. If you stick with exercise and become a long-term dedicated athlete, it will change how the body works. You have to change your self-image into one that includes you as an athlete. A durable, self-image that persists even if you take a break from sport which gives you confidence to get back into the game.
    - chrisseaton 8y ago
      Then how come in famine situations there is nobody for whom the restricted calorie intake and exercise does not cause weight loss? Nobody in those situations stays overweight due to 'some sort of fat storage rampage' do they?
      - kazinator 8y ago
        Well, firstly, "famine" isn't the same thing as "diet and exercise regime" Even if famine does work, and does so for everyone, that still plausibly leaves regular diet and exercise not equally effective for everyone. > Nobody in those situations stays overweight due to 'some sort of fat storage rampage' do they? I actually have no idea. Does there exist anyone who died at close to zero fat and muscle in a death camp, or due to famine, who had been confirmed to have been a 450 pounder? It's imaginable that in such a predicament, such an obese person will die of starvation long before losing the fat; that it simply won't be metabolically available to sustain them. Without any actual data, "nobody came out fat out of Auschwitz" is just a dumb Internet meme. There are cases of incredible body transformation from people quite severely obese to basically skin-over-muscle; yet that doesn't prove it's possible for everyone.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  Totally agree. We have to start with better quality of food. Most Americans eat basically only crap with a lot of sugar, carbs and other stuff.
johnkpaul 8y ago
I've been 400 pounds most of my life. I empathize with every single sentence in this article and cannot imagine making myself write something like this. The vulnerability is incredible. I'm really glad that exercise is being called out as useless to treat obesity more and more. I hope that trend continues and things like Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaigns never happen again. Carbohydrate addiction is no joke, even though most don't believe it exists.
- neaden 8y ago
  While I agree exercise isn't very effective to treat obesity, it is still healthy for you to exercise, even if it's not going to help you lose weight. There are a lot of people who are overweight who have healthier hearts and lungs then normal weight people due to exercise.
  - cflewis 8y ago
    I can not give you more +1s. If your goal is to be healthy, and not necessarily be pretty, exercise is integral. You can be skinny and be unhealthy. You can be overweight and be heart-healthy, if you exercise. I am obese according to the BMI, but I run 3 times a week and my resting heart rate grazes into the "athlete" territory. My doctor is very happy. But I don't look it, that's for sure. I do not like running. I see it like brushing my teeth. I don't like it, but I do it because I have to if I want to maintain my body.
    - adrianN 8y ago
      Are you concerned about your joints? Running is pretty hard on the knees even for skinny people.
      - ashtonbaker 8y ago
        I have always felt that this is a myth or misconception. Humans probably evolved as distance-running specialists [1] so it would be pretty strange if our knees were some sort of exhaustible resource as seems to be the popular idea. If people have trouble with their knees, I think there are lots of potential explanations, for example running too far or too fast before building fitness, which includes conditioning of stabilizer muscles in the knees, or poor running form caused by lack of fitness or encouraged by modern running shoes. I'm a bit biased, but I don't like to see the sport of running blamed for these things. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis
nxc18 8y ago
Being significantly overweight is really tough. Body issues and shame make it so much harder. I wish people would understand that better. There’s a pretty nasty cycle of looking in the mirror, feeling like shit, eating to not feel like shit (the key problem step - note that it never actually works), looking and feeling like shit because you eat too much. I’ve lost 70 pounds in the last ~7 months. 50 pounds to go. I’m successful for the first time because I’ve gotten over my image issues, I’ve accepted that losing weight necessarily involves being hungry at least some of the time, and I had a ‘spiritual’ experience. They’re damn right that it gets harder to lose weight every time you do. My metabolism is miraculously “efficient”. The insight is that you have to accept that and eat to the amount that hits your goals, not try to find some miracle diet. Also, IME, exercise makes me hungry for more calories than I burn. Exercise to get healthy, treat the metabolism boost as a bonus. Exercise does not cancel out foods (this is speaking to fat people like me - if you’ve been skinny your whole life your body probably works differently).
- neaden 8y ago
  I think exercise for weight loss/management isn't going to be a good idea for the vast majority of people. As you said, you get hungrier when you burn those calories and it's very easy to spend five minutes and eat all the calories you burned working out for an hour.
  - hombre_fatal 8y ago
    When I exercise, it puts me on a health-minded path every day that snowballs into other good decisions. It's like how they say making your bed in the morning helps put you on task the rest of the day. I find your line of thought unconvincing. The thing in common among everyone I know who is overweight is that they don't even work out at all. The amount of people I know who don't do anything is astonishing. The problem people have with exercise is that they don't build the habit at all. That's where they fail, long before your hypothesis could even be tested. "Better not exercise so I don't overeat!" sounds like every other self-sabotaging bargaining we do to avoid effort, like not jogging because you can't yet afford nice running shoes. This seems like the last excuse that we need to be peddling to people trying to turn their life around.
bko 8y ago
I found this study from 1973 interesting where an extremely obese individual performed a supervised fast for about a year and dropped from 456 to 180 pounds. > A 27-year-old male patient fasted under supervision for 382 days and has subsequently maintained his normal weight. Blood glucose concentrations around 30 mg/100 ml were recorded consistently during the last 8 months, although the patient was ambulant and attending as an out-patient. Responses to glucose and tolbutamide tolerance tests remained normal. The hyperglycaemic response to glucagon was reduced and latterly absent, but promptly returned to normal during carbohydrate refeeding. After an initial decrease was corrected, plasma potassium levels remained normal without supplementation. A temporary period of hypercalcaemia occurred towards the end of the fast. Decreased plasma magnesium concentrations were a consistent feature from the first month onwards. After 100 days of fasting there was a marked and persistent increase in the excretion of urinary cations and inorganic phosphate, which until then had been minimal. These increases may be due to dissolution of excessive soft tissue and skeletal mass. Prolonged fasting in this patient had no ill-effects. > During the 382 days of the fast, the patient's weight decreased from 456 to 180 lb. Five years after undertaking the fast, Mr A.B.'s weight remains around 196 lb. I don't know why I haven't seen more studies where extremely obese individuals just stop eating. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/postmedj00315-0056.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/pos...
- johnkpaul 8y ago
  Because 1) doctors are typically against this 2) when eating carbohydrates regular this is extremely extremely difficult today. I have discussed it many many times with my doctors and they have all talked about "starvation mode" and all of these things. I currently intermittently fast very frequently and that has helped immensely with my weight. I have never done more than a 5 day fast, but even that much can do great things in combination with almost-0-carb.
  - vanderZwan 8y ago
    Hey John! You probably don't remember me, but we met in Malmö a couple of years back when you gave a very nice talk. I remember you being very nervous about Douglas Crockford attending it, haha. I was being grumpy about the death of Google Reader, and you said that that's what you use Twitter for. So you're basically the reason I'm now on Twitter actually. Glad to hear the intermittent fasting is working well for you! Hope you'll have to buy a new wardrobe for yourself soon ;)
citizen_e 8y ago
blah blah, fatty is sad. Why don't we have such sympathy for smokers, who are targeted with something which is at least as addictive, and more deadly? It's because we recognize it's something indulgent and destructive, you reap what you sow and all that. This guy deserves to die early.
- citizen_e 8y ago
  screw the downvoters, I'm right.
- sctb 8y ago
  We've banned this account.
hombre_fatal 8y ago
I found one of his fears interesting: > I’ve never been anything but fat. Is there something in the fat version of me that also makes me likable and creative and a decent human being? Are the best parts of me all knotted up with the worst? Is there some way to untangle it and keep just the good stuff? Most of the time I think of my fat as a husk—something I have to shed so the best part of me can come out. But sometimes I wonder if I’m more like the shells you find on the beach, where the outer part is the attraction, and the animal inside is dull and shapeless.
- notus 8y ago
  I think this observation can resonate with anyone who has struggled with changing a of themselves that is so big it is part of their identity. For example people who are chronically depressed sometimes believe (including myself in the past) that taking pills to not be depressed will remove their intellectual edge and prevent them from having the insight of an outsider. It's objectively false, you actually get smarter since the depression isn't interfering with pursuing intellectual interests anymore.
zachruss92 8y ago
I feel for the author. I have also struggled with my weight my entire life. At my heaviest, I was 265lbs. I definitely struggled, and continue to struggle with body issues. I was definitely addicted to food and was an emotional eater. I literally had a term called "stress cheeseburgers" as when I was stressed that's what I'd do. I finally decided to make a significant change last year. It started with me doing meal prep for my lunches. Previously I would eat out for lunch every day, and I would never make good choices. I was able to lose about 35lbs by just doing that and making no other changes in my life. In August, I decided to start the keto diet. I started not for the weight loss reasons, but for the lifting of the "brain fog". I didn't realize how much carbs controlled my life until then. Eating keto 100% changed my life for the better: * My relationship with food has completely changed. I am now concerned about what I'm eating, nutritionally speaking, instead of just quantity and taste. I am eating a lot more whole foods. * My overall pain level has gone down significantly (I have back problems). * I literally crave vegetables. My first couple of weeks I ate nothing but bacon and other unhealthy meats. After a while, all I wanted was a big plate of broccoli! * I have much more energy and mental clarity. I also noticed my recovery time from working out is lessened. As of this morning, I weigh 196lbs. I don't know how long keto is sustainable for, but I plan on sticking to this for the long term. If I do stop, I will definitely apply the lessons I've learned from going keto: mostly eat whole foods and carbohydrates that have nutritional value.
- mtgx 8y ago
  Magnesium is known to be depleted when stressed. You should consider adding that as a supplement. Also high stress = high cortisol = high glucose production (even from fat/gluconeogenesis) = high insulin = increased rate of fat storage and insulin resistance/diabetes https://idmprogram.com/closer-look-cortisol-hormonal-obesity-xxxx/ https://idmprogram.com/closer-look-cortisol-hormonal-obesity...
  - zachruss92 8y ago
    Agreed, there are electrolyte depletion issues with keto. I take a magnesium supplement daily. I eat enough greens & salt that sodium and potassium aren't an issue for me.
rjkennedy98 8y ago
"No matter where you stood, you were no more than 10 feet from fried chicken." I'm sorry but I just can't relate to this, which is probably why everyone in my family is thin. I can't even remember the last time I ate fried chicken. Maybe its a cultural thing (my parents were European), but there is no reason to bring fried chicken into your house. None. This is the kind of decisions that lead to being 460 pounds. Growing up, for dinner, we would have a bowl of broccoli, a plate of asparagus, and bowl of roasted vegetables like sweet potato, carrot, parsnips, ect. We would always would have a mixed green salad. And we would have a meat dish like grilled chicken and mushrooms. No matter how much of that you ate, it would be very difficult to get fat.
- sys_64738 8y ago
  I stopped all fried food in my life about 15 years ago. I will maybe eat fried fish once a month when in Manhattan but otherwise no fried stuff.
- Someone1234 8y ago
  Did you post this to let us know how superior you and your family are to the author of the article? > This is the kind of decisions that lead to being 460 pounds. And this kind of over-simplification of a complex neurological and physiological disease isn't constructive.
- frogpelt 8y ago
  Are you from the South? The author was from Georgia. Believe me, we have plenty of fried chicken around here. It gives us a break from the barbecue.
- RealityVoid 8y ago
  > but there is no reason to bring fried chicken into your house There obviously is. It's frigging' delicious for once (might sound easily dismissed, but pleasant things are worth being experienced) . And eating a portion is obviously not going to lead you to have 460 pounds. Your dismissal of "fried chicken" is all the more puzzling considering that 100g of the stuff has 246 calories [1] whereas the 100g "grilled chicken" has 226 calories [2]. Sure, it's a bit less calorie dense, contains more protein, so it is a bit better but by no means the astronomic difference you seem to suggest. The man obviously has problems, but your dismissal, lack of empathy and misplaced sense of superiority are really not called for. [1] https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&q=fried+chicken+calories https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&q=fried+ch... [2] https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&ei=Du84XPTSL8qSaqG9oKAD&q=grilled+chicken++calories&oq=grilled+chicken++calories&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i7i30j0i67j0i7i30l8.2406.2406..2583...0.0..0.145.145.0j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71.R4puyTKYeXU https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&ei=Du84XPT...
drakonka 8y ago
I have always been underweight before putting on more muscle just a few years ago. While I logically understand the challenges of being overweight or obese, nothing I've heard or read really drove just how much it weighs on you not just physically but emotionally quite like this article.
tengbretson 8y ago
I really hope that we start putting some social pressure on parents of very young obese children. It's obvious to me that getting your child obese and getting them set in the habits that will keep them that way is miles worse than things we have already weeded out with social pressure, like smoking in the car with children in it.
bradenb 8y ago
I've been way too close to 300 pounds for all of my adult life. This article really hits home hard. I can completely empathize with every statement the author made. I have realized his same struggles with weight loss and how hard it is to keep the weight off. I've had some success with Keto, but I seem to love eating carbs way too much to stick to it for longer than 3 months. I've told myself I'm trying a similar approach to the author: trying to do just enough to reduce slowly, but honestly to me it feels like a cop out. A way I can say that if I mess up then it's OK because most days I'm doing right. Hopefully some day I can finally snap myself into a life-changing mindset.
metabagel 8y ago
It's hard to lose weight.
- frogpelt 8y ago
  And even harder to not find it again.
bproven 8y ago
It is a complete lifestyle change (nutrition and exercise)...plain and simple. Any other approach sets you up for failure (I need to lose x pounds for new years, I need to lose this for an event, etc). It is also very much discipline (not motivation..) and hard work to get started and maintain for a while. Like pretty much anything. But after a few years of feeling great you will wonder why you ever lived your previous life. At least in my experience :)
- metabagel 8y ago
  It might be discipline, but it can't come from a feeling of depriving yourself. It has to be associated with positive feelings, or most people can't stick with it.
hsnewman 8y ago
I began reducing the carbs in my diet due to what I believe is gluten intolerance. I'm basically doing a Paleo diet. I've lost 25 lbs in the past 3 months, and feel great. I have no cravings. I'm done eating sugar and any high carb food (pizza, etc). My wife feels that I'm very regimented but my intolerance to gluten makes me so. I feel better and hope to have a longer life as a result.
metabagel 8y ago
I feel like one of the best things you can do if you're trying to lose weight is to consciously avoid the urge to finish everything on your plate. Try to habitually leave some food on your plate. I call it leaving an offering to the food gods. I think this leads to better mindfulness about what and how much we are eating.
- davio 8y ago
  This is deeply engrained in our culture. I honestly cringe when I see my nephews leaving food on their plate.
- Qwertystop 8y ago
  While it might help with eating less, it does mean you're deliberately wasting food (unless you collect all the scraps into leftovers for a later meal), which is... not good. Try deliberately reducing your serving size instead.
  - metabagel 8y ago
    Yes, you should do that. But, many times you will end up with too much food anyway. When possible, save food, rather than throwing it away, but it's better to waste food than to add to a weight problem.
TheDauthi 8y ago
Naltrexone and Bupropion. It doesn't make the other parts of losing weight unnecessary, but it does make it easier to handle cravings. I don't care that I'm getting some willpower in a bottle - I'd simply like to weigh less. Two years ago, I was ~300. I had been constantly gaining weight since I started taking Seroquel. I also had ankle surgery (unrelated to my weight), and was completely bedridden for 6 months, then in PT for another 5. After that, my doctor put me on those two medications. I still had to be careful about what I ate, but the occasional snack was occasional; I could eat something bad for me once a week and not lost much progress. After a while the exercise was more pleasant, too. I hit 220 a few months ago. When I switched jobs and stopped taking the two medications (doctor and I just wanted to see if the weight would stay off without them), my weight jumped back up to 250, but stabilized there. A good bit less than the 300. I started taking the two medications again, and now I'm losing it again.
- willsun 8y ago
  Out of curiosity - when you stopped taking the meds, do you feel like there was some residual craving-preventive effect that remained? I'm surprised medications like this aren't prescribed more frequently, and my assumption is that payers / doctors aren't keen on having their patients use it indefinitely (which I'm not sure is necessarily a bad thing, if there are no side effects)
tracker1 8y ago
This guy sounds a lot like me at my heaviest (468# at 6'1" tall). I have a lot of correlated health issues, the bad knees predate the extreme obesity, and recently discovered via elimination diet that I am allergic to legumes and have trouble with grains in general. I went keto last year (mostly eggs, meat, greens and sometimes nuts and cheese). Without trying much I dropped to under 380... where I've hovered mostly for the past year. When I'm strict and track I get closer to 350#, but getting below that has been incredibly hard. Everything I've read and understand leads me to believe that longer fasting periods are what I need to do to break through this. But I tend to get fidgety around day 5 and stop early. I also do pretty consistently when I only eat one meal a day. I don't think it's for everyone, and it isn't magic. More fat is more sating, and a lot of disinformation starting in the 60's has now been disproven. I do think that the majority of human kind was keto for significant portions of the year for most of human history. I feel that refined sugars are the single biggest factor in terms of obesity, followed by refined grains and vegetable oils. In general, low fat and lots of sugar has spun society into obesity. Not understanding the role of hormones, or underestimating their effects are another compounding issue. Doctors need to start testing against resting insulin levels as part of a regular checkup. They need to push for changes in diet over supplemental insulin. And absolutely need to convey the message of why refined sugars (mostly the fructose component) are bad for you.
kerrsclyde 8y ago
We've all be gamed by the food industry for years. We should be eating mainly vegetables, some fruit and a little meat. Hardly anyone eats lots of veg because they taste bland compared to the other processed treats we are sold. It suits the food industry to sell us processed food because it is cheap, it has a long shelf life and they know it tastes so good we will eat loads of it. I'm not blaming them, they are businesses with a profit to make, but somehow doesn't feel like a fair fight.
notus 8y ago
I personally enjoyed this article and I wish more people would write things like this. Just reading someone eloquently list their thoughts and anxieties about a certain issue really makes you feel not alone if you are going through the same thing. There was a paragraph where he questioned whether he would lose the good parts of himself by losing weight and I've had that same type of thinking applied to so many other aspects of my life, not necessarily weight, but mental illnesses that I sometimes believe give me insight I wouldn't otherwise have.
- danso 8y ago
  I was a bit astonished by how the article started: that this was the first time the author had confronted his weight problem in writing. This is someone who has had a long award-winning writing career in newspapers and online, who has had no problem writing about many other subjects. Just goes to show how deep the personal shame he has felt his whole life.
woodandsteel 8y ago
Here's my understanding, based on a fair amount of reading and thought. First of all, condemning someone for being fat is rarely if ever useful. In terms of what is useful the first thing is that people need to be eating a diet that is very low in processed carbohydrates, with lots of fiber and moderately low calorie foods, and they should eat until they are full, instead of counting calories. Now people's bodies are different, so this won't work for everyone, but for most people it will. If someone isn't eating this way, it is either because they don't know that is the way to go, or they do but they have other problems, like psychological issues, so they need to try to deal with them, if possible. That's pretty much it.
- RealityVoid 8y ago
  > and they should eat until they are full, instead of counting calories. I am curious why you say this. In my experience counting calories works great to put into perspective the caloric cost of everything you consume. You don't have to always do it, but do it for a while and you can eyeball pretty well if you can or cannot handle something in your diet.
  - woodandsteel 8y ago
    Be aware of calorie content of different foods is essential for choosing a healthy diet. But what people usually mean by counting calories is setting a goal for how many calories you eat a day, and then eating only that much, even if it leaves you hungry. That does not work over the long term for most people. What does work much more often is focusing on eating foods that are filling but low or moderate in calories, and eating when hungry.
maerF0x0 8y ago
I think we need to start treating extreme obesity as an addiction. No one in their right mind tells an alcoholic to "just moderate yourself". I think the decisions of food need to be taken out of the hands of the obese. Eat what you're allotted, we promise its enough, and nothing else. I recommend people lose weight via fasting until they're "normal" weight. Best done with doctor's supervision, but it basically boils down to eat nothing, drink only 0 calorie drinks and take a daily dose of multivitamins and get some sodium + potassium. Barbieri took vitamins on various occasions throughout the fast, including potassium and sodium supplements. He was allowed to drink coffee, tea, and sparkling water, all of which are naturally calorie-free. He said there was the occasional time that he'd have a touch of sugar or milk in tea, especially in his final few weeks of fasting. At the end of his ordeal, Barbieri tipped the scales at 180 pounds. Five years later, he'd still kept almost all the weight he'd lost off, weighing in at 196 (89 kg). https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-survived-without-any-food-for-382-days https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-sur...

103 points by danso 8y ago

Watch the Fed up documentary, explains it so well that no matter how much we try, exercising and eating less wont work. Our environment is saturated with products now which almost all have added sugar, only way is to look at ingredients and change your environment, dont bring these things home and instead bring better stuff home thats not got added sugar.

chrisseaton 8y ago
> no matter how much we try, exercising and eating less won't work How can that be? If you burn more calories and you take in less calories, then surely at some point your body must start to lose mass. At very least is the equation that you're breathing out carbon and you're not getting that mass back from anything apart from what you eat.
- rhcom2 8y ago
  Logically it's the answer, just like drug addiction is solved by stopping the use of drugs but of course knowing that alone doesn't really help.
- danans 8y ago
  > How can that be? All else equal, you are right, but practically, for most people who aren't young, or athletes, hard endurance physical exercise triggers eating behavior that overcompensates for the number of calories burned. Sure, if you force exercise upon and deny the extra calories to someone, they will lose weight, but that's not a desirable solution for most, sustainable for the individual, or scalable in today's society. Solutions that acknowledge the existence of and work with human eating behaviors are needed. IMO that would involve reconfiguring our society to enable people to have quotidian implicit forms of exercise (vs dedicated gym sessions), like walking as part of their commutes, or gardening, and of course reducing the amount of sugar in the food environment. But that's a challenge because the current environment that most people inhabit is configured to encourage the opposite. There certainly appears to be a statistical correlation between car based commute frequency and obesity rates in a given area: https://www.fastcompany.com/1679157/mapping-the-link-between-obesity-and-car-driving https://www.fastcompany.com/1679157/mapping-the-link-between...
- graeme 8y ago
  Because all of this is regulated by hunger. If you move more, you get hungrier. The issue in the case of most overweight people is that their body is trying to maintain a set point at a high level of body fat. Hunger serves to maintain this weight set point. The way to sustainable weight loss is to eat in such a way that the body starts to target a lower set point and decreases hunger. Obviously this also results in less calories taken than expended, but if it were as simple as a math formula most people would have six packs.
  - deleted 8y ago
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- aantix 8y ago
  I think weight loss is less of the issue - you're right, that is solved. Long term weight loss is the big issue. Let's be honest, anything that you have to maintain indefinitely - relationship, business, health/weight/muscle mass, finances - will eventually fail at some point. And food does have that unique component of that it can't be totally avoided. You can't just cut it out of your life to become healthier (unlike say alcohol). They're all hamster wheels. And then we die.
- amriksohata 8y ago
  I'm taking about sustainable living not crash dieting as one offs which most people can't maintain
paulcole 8y ago
> that no matter how much we try, exercising and eating less won't work Definitely disagree here. These are the only things that work. How else can you lose weight other than by moving more and eating less?
- jki275 8y ago
  The key is that people actually don't eat less. They feel more hungry when they exercise, which drives them to eat more, which pushes the vicious cycle even further.
  - paulcole 8y ago
    That's like saying, "Cars don't work on roads" but conveniently forgetting to add, "...if you don't step on the gas." I am speaking as someone who has lost about 75-100 pounds (no clue I was too ashamed to step on a scale) and kept it off for 10+ years. I can guarantee you that exercising more and eating less works even if it's not what anyone wants to hear.
  - crysin 8y ago
    There's also eating less and actually eating less. You can eat less food, but if the food you're eating is higher in calories then you're not going to lose weight. Part of the problem with eating less, is the size / portion of what you eat matters just as much as what you are actually eating. As an extreme example: The size of a slice of cheesecake is roughly equivalent to the size of a breast of chicken however eating the slice of cheesecake is eating a lot "more" than eating that breast of chicken.
    - SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
      That's why if you're going to lose weight you gotta focus on the information and know that what you just ate was x calories / x% of your daily intake and act upon that knowledge.
  - wenc 8y ago
    There's one way out of this vicious cycle. I substituted the prodigious amounts of refined carbs I used to eat (pasta, rice) with meat, vegetables and a reduced amount of carbs. The proteins definitely helped with the hunger (and being a carnivore, it didn't take much to convince me to eat more meat -- though for me it's mostly white meat and eggs). I actually ended up eating more I also started lifting weights. Exercising increases appetite for sure, but proteins satiates it. I didn't lose that much weight (10 lbs), but I managed to convert what used to be flab to muscle. Exercise + protein/vegetable diet (even if eating more) = body shape change.
Carlton87 8y ago
Exercising and eating less is the only thing that works for losing weight. For the most part an individual is personally responsible for calories in and calories out. Being morbidly obese is a choice and it will kill you.
- kazinator 8y ago
  I would say that this is true in cases when neglecting to exercise and eat appropriately is the cause of excess weight in a normally functioning body. In severe cases of obesity, something else may be going on. In a nutshell, the bodies of some of these sufferers could be on some sort of fat storage rampage. The fat cells extract an "energy tax" and store it; the body then has to do with what is left. If there is a broken, runaway fat storage mechanism at play, such that a percentage of your intake is stored as fat, and not easily released again, it will be difficult to overcome the accumulation of fat with diet and exercise. But, yeah, diet and exercise work for many people. And in many cases when they are reported as not working, they weren't given the proper effort. Excercise that works is probably 2-3X more voluminous and intense than exercise people think ought to work, damn it! And sane eating plans have to be adhered to forever, not just for a couple of weeks. If you stick with exercise and become a long-term dedicated athlete, it will change how the body works. You have to change your self-image into one that includes you as an athlete. A durable, self-image that persists even if you take a break from sport which gives you confidence to get back into the game.
  - chrisseaton 8y ago
    Then how come in famine situations there is nobody for whom the restricted calorie intake and exercise does not cause weight loss? Nobody in those situations stays overweight due to 'some sort of fat storage rampage' do they?
    - kazinator 8y ago
      Well, firstly, "famine" isn't the same thing as "diet and exercise regime" Even if famine does work, and does so for everyone, that still plausibly leaves regular diet and exercise not equally effective for everyone. > Nobody in those situations stays overweight due to 'some sort of fat storage rampage' do they? I actually have no idea. Does there exist anyone who died at close to zero fat and muscle in a death camp, or due to famine, who had been confirmed to have been a 450 pounder? It's imaginable that in such a predicament, such an obese person will die of starvation long before losing the fat; that it simply won't be metabolically available to sustain them. Without any actual data, "nobody came out fat out of Auschwitz" is just a dumb Internet meme. There are cases of incredible body transformation from people quite severely obese to basically skin-over-muscle; yet that doesn't prove it's possible for everyone.
maxxxxx 8y ago
Totally agree. We have to start with better quality of food. Most Americans eat basically only crap with a lot of sugar, carbs and other stuff.

johnkpaul 8y ago

I've been 400 pounds most of my life. I empathize with every single sentence in this article and cannot imagine making myself write something like this. The vulnerability is incredible. I'm really glad that exercise is being called out as useless to treat obesity more and more. I hope that trend continues and things like Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaigns never happen again. Carbohydrate addiction is no joke, even though most don't believe it exists.

neaden 8y ago
While I agree exercise isn't very effective to treat obesity, it is still healthy for you to exercise, even if it's not going to help you lose weight. There are a lot of people who are overweight who have healthier hearts and lungs then normal weight people due to exercise.
- cflewis 8y ago
  I can not give you more +1s. If your goal is to be healthy, and not necessarily be pretty, exercise is integral. You can be skinny and be unhealthy. You can be overweight and be heart-healthy, if you exercise. I am obese according to the BMI, but I run 3 times a week and my resting heart rate grazes into the "athlete" territory. My doctor is very happy. But I don't look it, that's for sure. I do not like running. I see it like brushing my teeth. I don't like it, but I do it because I have to if I want to maintain my body.
  - adrianN 8y ago
    Are you concerned about your joints? Running is pretty hard on the knees even for skinny people.
    - ashtonbaker 8y ago
      I have always felt that this is a myth or misconception. Humans probably evolved as distance-running specialists [1] so it would be pretty strange if our knees were some sort of exhaustible resource as seems to be the popular idea. If people have trouble with their knees, I think there are lots of potential explanations, for example running too far or too fast before building fitness, which includes conditioning of stabilizer muscles in the knees, or poor running form caused by lack of fitness or encouraged by modern running shoes. I'm a bit biased, but I don't like to see the sport of running blamed for these things. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis

nxc18 8y ago

Being significantly overweight is really tough. Body issues and shame make it so much harder. I wish people would understand that better. There’s a pretty nasty cycle of looking in the mirror, feeling like shit, eating to not feel like shit (the key problem step - note that it never actually works), looking and feeling like shit because you eat too much. I’ve lost 70 pounds in the last ~7 months. 50 pounds to go. I’m successful for the first time because I’ve gotten over my image issues, I’ve accepted that losing weight necessarily involves being hungry at least some of the time, and I had a ‘spiritual’ experience. They’re damn right that it gets harder to lose weight every time you do. My metabolism is miraculously “efficient”. The insight is that you have to accept that and eat to the amount that hits your goals, not try to find some miracle diet. Also, IME, exercise makes me hungry for more calories than I burn. Exercise to get healthy, treat the metabolism boost as a bonus. Exercise does not cancel out foods (this is speaking to fat people like me - if you’ve been skinny your whole life your body probably works differently).

neaden 8y ago
I think exercise for weight loss/management isn't going to be a good idea for the vast majority of people. As you said, you get hungrier when you burn those calories and it's very easy to spend five minutes and eat all the calories you burned working out for an hour.
- hombre_fatal 8y ago
  When I exercise, it puts me on a health-minded path every day that snowballs into other good decisions. It's like how they say making your bed in the morning helps put you on task the rest of the day. I find your line of thought unconvincing. The thing in common among everyone I know who is overweight is that they don't even work out at all. The amount of people I know who don't do anything is astonishing. The problem people have with exercise is that they don't build the habit at all. That's where they fail, long before your hypothesis could even be tested. "Better not exercise so I don't overeat!" sounds like every other self-sabotaging bargaining we do to avoid effort, like not jogging because you can't yet afford nice running shoes. This seems like the last excuse that we need to be peddling to people trying to turn their life around.

bko 8y ago

I found this study from 1973 interesting where an extremely obese individual performed a supervised fast for about a year and dropped from 456 to 180 pounds. > A 27-year-old male patient fasted under supervision for 382 days and has subsequently maintained his normal weight. Blood glucose concentrations around 30 mg/100 ml were recorded consistently during the last 8 months, although the patient was ambulant and attending as an out-patient. Responses to glucose and tolbutamide tolerance tests remained normal. The hyperglycaemic response to glucagon was reduced and latterly absent, but promptly returned to normal during carbohydrate refeeding. After an initial decrease was corrected, plasma potassium levels remained normal without supplementation. A temporary period of hypercalcaemia occurred towards the end of the fast. Decreased plasma magnesium concentrations were a consistent feature from the first month onwards. After 100 days of fasting there was a marked and persistent increase in the excretion of urinary cations and inorganic phosphate, which until then had been minimal. These increases may be due to dissolution of excessive soft tissue and skeletal mass. Prolonged fasting in this patient had no ill-effects. > During the 382 days of the fast, the patient's weight decreased from 456 to 180 lb. Five years after undertaking the fast, Mr A.B.'s weight remains around 196 lb. I don't know why I haven't seen more studies where extremely obese individuals just stop eating. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/postmedj00315-0056.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/pos...

johnkpaul 8y ago
Because 1) doctors are typically against this 2) when eating carbohydrates regular this is extremely extremely difficult today. I have discussed it many many times with my doctors and they have all talked about "starvation mode" and all of these things. I currently intermittently fast very frequently and that has helped immensely with my weight. I have never done more than a 5 day fast, but even that much can do great things in combination with almost-0-carb.
- vanderZwan 8y ago
  Hey John! You probably don't remember me, but we met in Malmö a couple of years back when you gave a very nice talk. I remember you being very nervous about Douglas Crockford attending it, haha. I was being grumpy about the death of Google Reader, and you said that that's what you use Twitter for. So you're basically the reason I'm now on Twitter actually. Glad to hear the intermittent fasting is working well for you! Hope you'll have to buy a new wardrobe for yourself soon ;)

citizen_e 8y ago

blah blah, fatty is sad. Why don't we have such sympathy for smokers, who are targeted with something which is at least as addictive, and more deadly? It's because we recognize it's something indulgent and destructive, you reap what you sow and all that. This guy deserves to die early.

citizen_e 8y ago
screw the downvoters, I'm right.
sctb 8y ago
We've banned this account.

hombre_fatal 8y ago

I found one of his fears interesting: > I’ve never been anything but fat. Is there something in the fat version of me that also makes me likable and creative and a decent human being? Are the best parts of me all knotted up with the worst? Is there some way to untangle it and keep just the good stuff? Most of the time I think of my fat as a husk—something I have to shed so the best part of me can come out. But sometimes I wonder if I’m more like the shells you find on the beach, where the outer part is the attraction, and the animal inside is dull and shapeless.

notus 8y ago
I think this observation can resonate with anyone who has struggled with changing a of themselves that is so big it is part of their identity. For example people who are chronically depressed sometimes believe (including myself in the past) that taking pills to not be depressed will remove their intellectual edge and prevent them from having the insight of an outsider. It's objectively false, you actually get smarter since the depression isn't interfering with pursuing intellectual interests anymore.

zachruss92 8y ago

I feel for the author. I have also struggled with my weight my entire life. At my heaviest, I was 265lbs. I definitely struggled, and continue to struggle with body issues. I was definitely addicted to food and was an emotional eater. I literally had a term called "stress cheeseburgers" as when I was stressed that's what I'd do. I finally decided to make a significant change last year. It started with me doing meal prep for my lunches. Previously I would eat out for lunch every day, and I would never make good choices. I was able to lose about 35lbs by just doing that and making no other changes in my life. In August, I decided to start the keto diet. I started not for the weight loss reasons, but for the lifting of the "brain fog". I didn't realize how much carbs controlled my life until then. Eating keto 100% changed my life for the better: * My relationship with food has completely changed. I am now concerned about what I'm eating, nutritionally speaking, instead of just quantity and taste. I am eating a lot more whole foods. * My overall pain level has gone down significantly (I have back problems). * I literally crave vegetables. My first couple of weeks I ate nothing but bacon and other unhealthy meats. After a while, all I wanted was a big plate of broccoli! * I have much more energy and mental clarity. I also noticed my recovery time from working out is lessened. As of this morning, I weigh 196lbs. I don't know how long keto is sustainable for, but I plan on sticking to this for the long term. If I do stop, I will definitely apply the lessons I've learned from going keto: mostly eat whole foods and carbohydrates that have nutritional value.

mtgx 8y ago
Magnesium is known to be depleted when stressed. You should consider adding that as a supplement. Also high stress = high cortisol = high glucose production (even from fat/gluconeogenesis) = high insulin = increased rate of fat storage and insulin resistance/diabetes https://idmprogram.com/closer-look-cortisol-hormonal-obesity-xxxx/ https://idmprogram.com/closer-look-cortisol-hormonal-obesity...
- zachruss92 8y ago
  Agreed, there are electrolyte depletion issues with keto. I take a magnesium supplement daily. I eat enough greens & salt that sodium and potassium aren't an issue for me.

rjkennedy98 8y ago

"No matter where you stood, you were no more than 10 feet from fried chicken." I'm sorry but I just can't relate to this, which is probably why everyone in my family is thin. I can't even remember the last time I ate fried chicken. Maybe its a cultural thing (my parents were European), but there is no reason to bring fried chicken into your house. None. This is the kind of decisions that lead to being 460 pounds. Growing up, for dinner, we would have a bowl of broccoli, a plate of asparagus, and bowl of roasted vegetables like sweet potato, carrot, parsnips, ect. We would always would have a mixed green salad. And we would have a meat dish like grilled chicken and mushrooms. No matter how much of that you ate, it would be very difficult to get fat.

sys_64738 8y ago
I stopped all fried food in my life about 15 years ago. I will maybe eat fried fish once a month when in Manhattan but otherwise no fried stuff.
Someone1234 8y ago
Did you post this to let us know how superior you and your family are to the author of the article? > This is the kind of decisions that lead to being 460 pounds. And this kind of over-simplification of a complex neurological and physiological disease isn't constructive.
frogpelt 8y ago
Are you from the South? The author was from Georgia. Believe me, we have plenty of fried chicken around here. It gives us a break from the barbecue.
RealityVoid 8y ago
> but there is no reason to bring fried chicken into your house There obviously is. It's frigging' delicious for once (might sound easily dismissed, but pleasant things are worth being experienced) . And eating a portion is obviously not going to lead you to have 460 pounds. Your dismissal of "fried chicken" is all the more puzzling considering that 100g of the stuff has 246 calories [1] whereas the 100g "grilled chicken" has 226 calories [2]. Sure, it's a bit less calorie dense, contains more protein, so it is a bit better but by no means the astronomic difference you seem to suggest. The man obviously has problems, but your dismissal, lack of empathy and misplaced sense of superiority are really not called for. [1] https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&q=fried+chicken+calories https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&q=fried+ch... [2] https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&ei=Du84XPTSL8qSaqG9oKAD&q=grilled+chicken++calories&oq=grilled+chicken++calories&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i7i30j0i67j0i7i30l8.2406.2406..2583...0.0..0.145.145.0j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71.R4puyTKYeXU https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&ei=Du84XPT...

drakonka 8y ago

I have always been underweight before putting on more muscle just a few years ago. While I logically understand the challenges of being overweight or obese, nothing I've heard or read really drove just how much it weighs on you not just physically but emotionally quite like this article.

tengbretson 8y ago

I really hope that we start putting some social pressure on parents of very young obese children. It's obvious to me that getting your child obese and getting them set in the habits that will keep them that way is miles worse than things we have already weeded out with social pressure, like smoking in the car with children in it.

bradenb 8y ago

I've been way too close to 300 pounds for all of my adult life. This article really hits home hard. I can completely empathize with every statement the author made. I have realized his same struggles with weight loss and how hard it is to keep the weight off. I've had some success with Keto, but I seem to love eating carbs way too much to stick to it for longer than 3 months. I've told myself I'm trying a similar approach to the author: trying to do just enough to reduce slowly, but honestly to me it feels like a cop out. A way I can say that if I mess up then it's OK because most days I'm doing right. Hopefully some day I can finally snap myself into a life-changing mindset.

metabagel 8y ago

It's hard to lose weight.

frogpelt 8y ago
And even harder to not find it again.

bproven 8y ago

It is a complete lifestyle change (nutrition and exercise)...plain and simple. Any other approach sets you up for failure (I need to lose x pounds for new years, I need to lose this for an event, etc). It is also very much discipline (not motivation..) and hard work to get started and maintain for a while. Like pretty much anything. But after a few years of feeling great you will wonder why you ever lived your previous life. At least in my experience :)

metabagel 8y ago
It might be discipline, but it can't come from a feeling of depriving yourself. It has to be associated with positive feelings, or most people can't stick with it.

hsnewman 8y ago

I began reducing the carbs in my diet due to what I believe is gluten intolerance. I'm basically doing a Paleo diet. I've lost 25 lbs in the past 3 months, and feel great. I have no cravings. I'm done eating sugar and any high carb food (pizza, etc). My wife feels that I'm very regimented but my intolerance to gluten makes me so. I feel better and hope to have a longer life as a result.

metabagel 8y ago

I feel like one of the best things you can do if you're trying to lose weight is to consciously avoid the urge to finish everything on your plate. Try to habitually leave some food on your plate. I call it leaving an offering to the food gods. I think this leads to better mindfulness about what and how much we are eating.

davio 8y ago
This is deeply engrained in our culture. I honestly cringe when I see my nephews leaving food on their plate.
Qwertystop 8y ago
While it might help with eating less, it does mean you're deliberately wasting food (unless you collect all the scraps into leftovers for a later meal), which is... not good. Try deliberately reducing your serving size instead.
- metabagel 8y ago
  Yes, you should do that. But, many times you will end up with too much food anyway. When possible, save food, rather than throwing it away, but it's better to waste food than to add to a weight problem.

TheDauthi 8y ago

Naltrexone and Bupropion. It doesn't make the other parts of losing weight unnecessary, but it does make it easier to handle cravings. I don't care that I'm getting some willpower in a bottle - I'd simply like to weigh less. Two years ago, I was ~300. I had been constantly gaining weight since I started taking Seroquel. I also had ankle surgery (unrelated to my weight), and was completely bedridden for 6 months, then in PT for another 5. After that, my doctor put me on those two medications. I still had to be careful about what I ate, but the occasional snack was occasional; I could eat something bad for me once a week and not lost much progress. After a while the exercise was more pleasant, too. I hit 220 a few months ago. When I switched jobs and stopped taking the two medications (doctor and I just wanted to see if the weight would stay off without them), my weight jumped back up to 250, but stabilized there. A good bit less than the 300. I started taking the two medications again, and now I'm losing it again.

willsun 8y ago
Out of curiosity - when you stopped taking the meds, do you feel like there was some residual craving-preventive effect that remained? I'm surprised medications like this aren't prescribed more frequently, and my assumption is that payers / doctors aren't keen on having their patients use it indefinitely (which I'm not sure is necessarily a bad thing, if there are no side effects)

tracker1 8y ago

This guy sounds a lot like me at my heaviest (468# at 6'1" tall). I have a lot of correlated health issues, the bad knees predate the extreme obesity, and recently discovered via elimination diet that I am allergic to legumes and have trouble with grains in general. I went keto last year (mostly eggs, meat, greens and sometimes nuts and cheese). Without trying much I dropped to under 380... where I've hovered mostly for the past year. When I'm strict and track I get closer to 350#, but getting below that has been incredibly hard. Everything I've read and understand leads me to believe that longer fasting periods are what I need to do to break through this. But I tend to get fidgety around day 5 and stop early. I also do pretty consistently when I only eat one meal a day. I don't think it's for everyone, and it isn't magic. More fat is more sating, and a lot of disinformation starting in the 60's has now been disproven. I do think that the majority of human kind was keto for significant portions of the year for most of human history. I feel that refined sugars are the single biggest factor in terms of obesity, followed by refined grains and vegetable oils. In general, low fat and lots of sugar has spun society into obesity. Not understanding the role of hormones, or underestimating their effects are another compounding issue. Doctors need to start testing against resting insulin levels as part of a regular checkup. They need to push for changes in diet over supplemental insulin. And absolutely need to convey the message of why refined sugars (mostly the fructose component) are bad for you.

kerrsclyde 8y ago

We've all be gamed by the food industry for years. We should be eating mainly vegetables, some fruit and a little meat. Hardly anyone eats lots of veg because they taste bland compared to the other processed treats we are sold. It suits the food industry to sell us processed food because it is cheap, it has a long shelf life and they know it tastes so good we will eat loads of it. I'm not blaming them, they are businesses with a profit to make, but somehow doesn't feel like a fair fight.

notus 8y ago

I personally enjoyed this article and I wish more people would write things like this. Just reading someone eloquently list their thoughts and anxieties about a certain issue really makes you feel not alone if you are going through the same thing. There was a paragraph where he questioned whether he would lose the good parts of himself by losing weight and I've had that same type of thinking applied to so many other aspects of my life, not necessarily weight, but mental illnesses that I sometimes believe give me insight I wouldn't otherwise have.

danso 8y ago
I was a bit astonished by how the article started: that this was the first time the author had confronted his weight problem in writing. This is someone who has had a long award-winning writing career in newspapers and online, who has had no problem writing about many other subjects. Just goes to show how deep the personal shame he has felt his whole life.

woodandsteel 8y ago

Here's my understanding, based on a fair amount of reading and thought. First of all, condemning someone for being fat is rarely if ever useful. In terms of what is useful the first thing is that people need to be eating a diet that is very low in processed carbohydrates, with lots of fiber and moderately low calorie foods, and they should eat until they are full, instead of counting calories. Now people's bodies are different, so this won't work for everyone, but for most people it will. If someone isn't eating this way, it is either because they don't know that is the way to go, or they do but they have other problems, like psychological issues, so they need to try to deal with them, if possible. That's pretty much it.

RealityVoid 8y ago
> and they should eat until they are full, instead of counting calories. I am curious why you say this. In my experience counting calories works great to put into perspective the caloric cost of everything you consume. You don't have to always do it, but do it for a while and you can eyeball pretty well if you can or cannot handle something in your diet.
- woodandsteel 8y ago
  Be aware of calorie content of different foods is essential for choosing a healthy diet. But what people usually mean by counting calories is setting a goal for how many calories you eat a day, and then eating only that much, even if it leaves you hungry. That does not work over the long term for most people. What does work much more often is focusing on eating foods that are filling but low or moderate in calories, and eating when hungry.

maerF0x0 8y ago

I think we need to start treating extreme obesity as an addiction. No one in their right mind tells an alcoholic to "just moderate yourself". I think the decisions of food need to be taken out of the hands of the obese. Eat what you're allotted, we promise its enough, and nothing else. I recommend people lose weight via fasting until they're "normal" weight. Best done with doctor's supervision, but it basically boils down to eat nothing, drink only 0 calorie drinks and take a daily dose of multivitamins and get some sodium + potassium. Barbieri took vitamins on various occasions throughout the fast, including potassium and sodium supplements. He was allowed to drink coffee, tea, and sparkling water, all of which are naturally calorie-free. He said there was the occasional time that he'd have a touch of sugar or milk in tea, especially in his final few weeks of fasting. At the end of his ordeal, Barbieri tipped the scales at 180 pounds. Five years later, he'd still kept almost all the weight he'd lost off, weighing in at 196 (89 kg). https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-survived-without-any-food-for-382-days https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-sur...