i'm fat, i'll have a go at this ...

>> ^kulpims:

i'm fat, i'll have a go at this ...


If you are, then I can only think the munchies must be to blame

All in one part

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Added alternate embed code for this video - backup requested by eric3579.

incredibly stupid tabloid science. i'm amazed that there're still people who can differentiate between cause and correlation. fat parents are having fat kids, is it genetics? no, it's because whatever the reason for your bad eating habits, you pass them down to your kids. what to you expect from your kids when you only eat junk? they'll eat it too. either because they mimic you or because you're the one who feeds them! congratulations, now you have perfect excuses: what once were "heavy bones" now are "hunger hormones" and genetics. this "documentation" didn't provide any hard facts, just hormones with names in quotation marks and similar snake oil stuff.

Step 1: stop doing sports, eat more junk and surprise! you'll become overweight. Step 2: catch up on exercising and change your diet and surprise again! your weight will drop. it's common sense. and this comes from someone who's still perfecting step 1... ;-)

Getting fat is like filling a bathtub with water. If you run the spigot faster than the drain, it fills up. Now THAT is heavy science. Burn more calories than you eat = weight loss.

>> ^conan:

incredibly stupid tabloid science. i'm amazed that there're still people who can differentiate between cause and correlation. fat parents are having fat kids, is it genetics? no, it's because whatever the reason for your bad eating habits, you pass them down to your kids. what to you expect from your kids when you only eat junk? they'll eat it too. either because they mimic you or because you're the one who feeds them! congratulations, now you have perfect excuses: what once were "heavy bones" now are "hunger hormones" and genetics. this "documentation" didn't provide any hard facts, just hormones with names in quotation marks and similar snake oil stuff.
Step 1: stop doing sports, eat more junk and surprise! you'll become overweight. Step 2: catch up on exercising and change your diet and surprise again! your weight will drop. it's common sense. and this comes from someone who's still perfecting step 1... ;-)


I think you're misunderstanding the point of it. Everything you say is correct to a degree. I didn't hear them say that the sole cause of obesity is hormonal, not once. I'd be surprised if you watched it all the way through. The way you feed your children and the habits you give them is absolutely the root cause, at least I would say so. Then society/culture, marketing, advertising fast food. The cheapest foods are junk, that also plays a part.

But what they're saying here, is that the reason some people end up getting wildy overweight and not just a bit chunky is because there isn't the same hormone to tell them they're full. The amount some fat people eat would make a regular sized person sick, in just one meal.

I don't believe obesity is genetic either, I am one of those people who inherited my mothers shitty eating habits, was overweight as a child and now have to suffer the consequences of that. However my sister was fed the same way, offered the same things, but was always skinny because she ate like a bird (one years she would only eat bread rolls, haha). My children are two very different types, too. My daughter can eat more than the average adult, you know that old saying, hollow legs? But she puts weight on if I let her eat the wrong things or every time she feels hungry, so over the years I've had to very much restrict her. Now she tends to make the right choices so hopefully that will go through to adult life with her and I've not passed down the same bad habits, however she would eat every half hour if she listened to her belly. My son is just the opposite. If he's not hungry I could offer him his favourite anything and he'd turn it down. Lucky bugger!

Then there's the thing where my sister all of a sudden in her late teens became overweight. That didn't make much sense. But her eating habits had very much changed. The bit in this doc where they were testing identical twins where one was overweight and one wasn't was fascinating and tied things up much neater.


>> ^snoozedoctor:

Getting fat is like filling a bathtub with water. If you run the spigot faster than the drain, it fills up. Now THAT is heavy science. Burn more calories than you eat = weight loss.


You're talking about how to lose weight, a science we all understand This is talking about the reasons some of us gain. It's always pissed me off when bigger people rather than just admit they stuff their faces, try and pass it off as big bones (eh?) or genetics. I'm even rather cynical of people who say they love their weight and being big is beautiful and they want to be like that. I think rather they know how bloody difficult dieting is, not just the losing weight but keeping it off, also I think those people, and bless them for it, accept that they don't want to go through the endless bullshit of dieting and gaining and embrace it. Or they've got some chubby chasers paying them top dollar to watch them eat and balloon to 400 lbs. Food is very very addictive once you've learnt the pleasures of it, just like a drug. It's very hard for anyone who doesn't have a weight issue to understand it, especially since you've been listening to people make endless excuses for it over the years. I think that's what is putting the blinkers on you now when you watch anything with alternative reasons for obesity, you just see it as an excuse.

This is exciting, because what they're saying is if they can recreate these hormones they will be able to find a way of replacing them, which will make the whole dieting process much much easier.

To a large extent, no pun intended, obese people want to find out why they are a "victim" of obesity. The explosion of obesity, especially in the USA, is rather easily explained if you use some common sense. What has evolution designed us for, in terms of our metabolism? Humans have had to work for what they eat, and that food has always been relatively unprocessed and calorie deficient. Now we are sedentary, programmed to eat a certain amount until we feel "full" and that food is VERY calorie dense. Presto, an epidemic of obesity. I mean really, is it that hard to understand? Yes, some people are more prone to become obese. We all know people with a "hollow leg" that seem to eat incredible amounts of food, and yet they don't get obese. So, your body type does influence it.
I'm all for science that makes it easier to lose weight. We know people have a hard time fighting their compulsions, whether it be tobacco, alcohol, drugs, or food. But, all those things are choices. A cheeseburger doesn't just jump down your throat. There is no "I can't lose weight." Yes you can, if your willpower is greater than your compulsion, and if you go back to the habits that evolution designed you for. One reason obesity rates are greater in the US is the average person's caloric expenditure is less here. Americans walk about 1/3 as much distance per year as compared to Europeans. American cities are sprawling and walking is not an efficient means of getting stuff done. Plus, there are now scooters in every Walmart now, so the obese can walk even less.
I do strenuous exercise several times a week and I try to eat reasonably. Frankly, I don't like exercise that much. I don't get any "high" from it. But I know it's good for me, actually, THE MOST important thing I can do to benefit my health. It's a choice. Everyone has choice, except I guess the kids that grow up in homes where parents ply them with calorie dense foods. The parents don't have to, but they do. Every time they go to the grocery, they have choice. The pop tarts don't jump off the shelve and into their carts.
I just get tired of the "victim" mentality, that's more prominent in the US than anywhere I know.

By the way, I work on the morbidly obese every day. The place I work is designated a "Center of Excellence" for Bariatric surgery. Yes, doing bariatric surgery helps prevent a lot of complications down the road, like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc. With the US struggling to provide even basic health care needs to the poor, do I get a little miffed with all the health care dollars consumed because of self-induced diseases, like smoking and over-eating? I freely admit I do.

>> ^snoozedoctor:

By the way, I work on the morbidly obese every day. The place I work is designated a "Center of Excellence" for Bariatric surgery. Yes, doing bariatric surgery helps prevent a lot of complications down the road, like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc. With the US struggling to provide even basic health care needs to the poor, do I get a little miffed with all the health care dollars consumed because of self-induced diseases, like smoking and over-eating? I freely admit I do.


And so you should, you have reason to feel like that. I cringe when I think how much obese people are costing the NHS and how if I'm not careful I will become one of those people whose weight will cause me health problems. I have on and off dieted most of my adult life, I am very much not content with my weight for a variety of reasons. And I am fully aware exactly what I have to do and what will work. The problem is and I imagine it's the same for most fat people, it's harder to give up on something you can't completely avoid. There is literally no way to take away the temptation when food is required to live.

And of course you work with it and you hear day after day, excuses as to why they can't lose weight, and you think there is NO such thing as can't. Well that's true, but it's like telling someone who has a smoking habit they can't quit, "well you shouldn't have started in the first place." It's too friggin late, the damage is done! And like we were saying, getting obese often isn't something you have had any control over, it started off in childhood. And then, you are stuck with the life long struggle of trying to beat an addiction. It's not like drugs, where if you stay away from it long enough and get it out of your system, you only have a mental addiction to contend with. You've got to eat. Willpower isn't something you can just switch on, if ONLY it was.

And then there's the exercise thing. Such a simple thing to do, burn off more calories than you're consuming. No one can argue that is the ONLY automatic guarantee you will lose weight. But consider that for someone fat and the bigger they are the worse it is, exercise is probably twice if not more times as difficult to do. It hurts, there's pressure on your joints, you're out of breath within a couple of minutes, you ache for hours afterwards because you aren't necessarily flexible enough to stretch out properly. Really we should all go swimming, it's the best thing, has always worked for me, but at certain weights I imagine getting into a swimming cossie is the last thing they want to do, people stare and pull faces. So yeah, it's very easy to give up when every solution is miles harder than for the people telling you what you should be doing. None of this is excuses, I hope you have garnered from what I've said that I entirely understand where thin people or health professionals are coming from. But without actually having had a weight problem themselves, that completely dismissive attitude and oversimplification is thoughtless at best and fucking arrogant at worst.

I completely understand that it's tough once you get there. Like you say, strenuous exercise can be very difficult and you can easily injure yourself pushing it too hard. Walking is still good though, it doesn't take a lot to ramp up the metabolism a bit.
I disagree, willpower is something you can switch on. No one quits smoking until they decide to. If you truly want to lose weight, count calories. Set a limit at whatever, say 2,000 cal/day. Then stop when you get there. Anyone CAN do it, if they want to bad enough. I just don't buy fatalistic attitudes. It's hard, it's not easy, it's not comfortable, but anyone CAN do it.

You must be outside the US too, because you mention the NHS. I think Americans, in general, have a poorer attitude about responsibility for their own health. They expect doctors to fix their years of neglect with the miracles of medicine, and it's just not possible.

>> ^snoozedoctor:

I completely understand that it's tough once you get there. Like you say, strenuous exercise can be very difficult and you can easily injure yourself pushing it too hard. Walking is still good though, it doesn't take a lot to ramp up the metabolism a bit.
I disagree, willpower is something you can switch on. No one quits smoking until they decide to. If you truly want to lose weight, count calories. Set a limit at whatever, say 2,000 cal/day. Then stop when you get there. Anyone CAN do it, if they want to bad enough. I just don't buy fatalistic attitudes. It's hard, it's not easy, it's not comfortable, but anyone CAN do it.


Yeah, like the only times I've succeeded in dropping loads of weight is when there has been a good reason for it, for instance I'll be getting married in the next couple of years and I have zero intention of being a fat bride so I'm not even worried about it because I know it's possible and much easier with the right motivation. The problem is for most of us who lose weight is once you get to where you want to be, it's SO easy to fall off the wagon and it's almost like every time you do it, you lose some respect for yourself and you just make it harder the next time, because you're fully aware of how difficult it was to achieve in the first place. Sigh... all I'm saying is it's not as simple as people seem quick to make it out to be. But anyone who says they can't is just lying to themselves and I find it just as pathetic as you clearly do.

>> ^snoozedoctor:

You must be outside the US too, because you mention the NHS. I think Americans, in general, have a poorer attitude about responsibility for their own health. They expect doctors to fix their years of neglect with the miracles of medicine, and it's just not possible.


I am in the UK. You know what, that's just weird to me, it doesn't make much sense, although I completely believe you. But you'd think people would be more inclined to expect a quick fix when they have no financial consequence.

Trust me, you folks across the pond are light-years ahead of Americans when it comes to reasonable expectations from the health-care system. A mistake many people make when dieting is losing weight too quickly. It's very easy to relapse because the change in eating habits has not been established. I find the apps for calorie counting very helpful. You can scan bar codes and import all the nutritional info. It's definitely more work entering home cooked meals though. Don't pay attention to all the fad diets, low carb, etc. Calorie counting is the most effective and sustainable way to lose weight and keep it off. Good luck. Never underestimate the power of your own mind.

>> ^snoozedoctor:

Trust me, you folks across the pond are light-years ahead of Americans when it comes to reasonable expectations from the health-care system. A mistake many people make when dieting is losing weight too quickly. It's very easy to relapse because the change in eating habits has not been established. I find the apps for calorie counting very helpful. You can scan bar codes and import all the nutritional info. It's definitely more work entering home cooked meals though. Don't pay attention to all the fad diets, low carb, etc. Calorie counting is the most effective and sustainable way to lose weight and keep it off. Good luck. Never underestimate the power of your own mind.


I've been looking for a valid reason to justify getting a smartphone, thanks