So this is why I'm fat !

[dtel]

No I take all the blame ! [:$] I love FOOD ![]

http://health.yahoo.com/news/178814

[oldbuckster]

More of you for your wife to love......Too many calories in.......not enough calories out, simple but true !!!!

[Islander]

The Governor called himself a "foodaholic". A pseudo-technical term like that makes it sound like it's not his fault that he's fat. What happened to the original word, "glutton"? Maybe people wouldn't like to see a headline that says "Popularity of Gluttony Threatens Health of Nation!"

People have to stop thinking it's necessary to stuff themselves at every meal. There's no famine here; they'll be eating again in a few hours...

[oscarsear]

Oldbuckster is dead correct.  More calories taken in than burned puts weight on and the opposite takes it off.  But many do not understand that they do not need to exert themselves to lose weight.  If you walk a mile you burn the exact same number of calories you do if you ran that mile in record time.  It just takes longer.  You do not get the same level of conditioning but you will burn the same number of calories.  So a person could watch their caloric intake and calmly walk off excess poundage.  Also, work done 1st thing in the morning on an empty stomach will burn body fat.  Because the body has gone without food overnight the energy used will come from catabolizing tissue fat.  People will lose weight quicker when they start exercising than after they've been at it awhile.  This is because the out-of-condition body is very inefficient with its use of energy...it will burn more calories because it will take more calories for any unit of work.  A conditioned body is more streamlined in how it gets work done.  So it will get the work done using less calories.  The upside is that the basal metabolism of a conditioned body is higher than for the out-of-conditioned body.  Think of it like the idle being set at a higher rate on a car.  It will burn more fuel doing nothing and so will a conditioned body.  

I think, too that the medical field is looking at obesity differently.  They accept heavier normals for older people.  There is obese seen with 50 to 70 pounds over and then there's the morbidly obese with people being 3,4 and 500 pounds.  The greatest failing is the overweight epidemic seen with children.   The food they're getting is to high in calories and they are participating in fewer physical activities.  Their health will be negatively impacted for the rest of their lives.  Little doubt that most of us could stand some weight loss.  I know I could.  But, right now the doctors don't even want me to walk.  The only thing I can do is cut way down on food.  I have lost about 12 pounds and have kept it off.  Gotta get my back fixed so I can ruin it again.

[dtel]

I was just kidding, I know why I weigh 265 I eat to much and at that weight for 6' 3" I am considered obese. I have been trying to cut back a little and have been exercising more than normal, but the older I get the harder it is to lose.

Also with the heat lately I have been inside more and doing less in the yard, I think that's my biggest problem right now. Six acres gives me a lot to do and all I have been doing is keeping the grass cut, and that's not hard with a 72" finishing mower sitting on my butt on a tractor .

Not really worried about it, just trying to slowly cut back, and stay busy.

[oldbuckster]

Dtel, I am by no means a doctor, but we should only eat when we are hungry. It's the in-between meals, and night time before you go to bed snacks that kills ya'. When it gets too hot, I don't like to eat....I have a feelin' Chirsty is a great cook, and it's hard not to eat alot........[]................I'm a brown-noser ..........EH !!!!!!!!!!

[BLSamuel]

Duh. I'm fat because I eat too much. My wife's a great cook and I can cook a few things that taste pretty good. Biggest problem, other than lack of exercise, is that we eat too much too late after the girls' games. Thankfully we avoid most fast food, but we do visit Taco Hell way too often and way too late.

Off to table tennis ... hopefully burn a few calories

[dtel]

I don't have a lack of exercise, just eat to much, not fast food though. If I didn't exercise and stay busy I would be 400 pounds the way I eat !

OB, your not a brown-nose, OK maby a little, but you just like to give me a hard time I know the truth ..........EH ! []

[picky]

Hah! You fellas wanna talk fat? Heck, I think I must have cornered the market! Most of you who know me also know I go well over 300 pounds. To put it bluntly; At 5' 10" I am morbidly obese. Furthermore, the same group of you also know that I suffered a pretty bad knee injury in early June: While working on some heavy landscaping work in my back yard with a week off from work, I proceeded to pull just about every tendon in both knees. This caused me to hobble around the Indy Klipsch Pilgrimage this year like the hunchback of Notre Dame! I've been wearing knee braces since early July and the specialist told me there is no permanent damage, He said I've got a great second chance!! He also spoke with me seriously about my weight. It was good advice and I took it to heart.

Since the middle of July, I have taken my knee injuries to be a huge wake-up call. Being only 55-years old, I refuse to become" a statistic"! I have been doing everything I can to work on getting back down to a normal weight; a sort of "Project, New Picky" if you will. How's it going? Well you be the judge!....

I used to have to wear this 56" belt in the first notch...I have lost 3 inches in my waist in the last 6 weeks and I am now using the 4th notch! ...and I'm just gettin' started! -Glenn

[dtel]

Good for you Picky, glad to see its working ! Keep it up , I know its very hard but your doing great for only 6 weeks !

Thats what I was thinking about, if I were to get hurt and not be able to get enough exercise with the amount I eat, I would be in real trouble !

[Islander]

Warning, lecture follows:

No disrespect is intended to you gentlemen, but sometimes it seems like popular culture looks at food in some upside-down backward way. "I eat this much, so I need to do this much exercise." What? How about, "I do this much work, so I need this much food."

I used to work at a really strenuous job where I had to eat five times a day to keep from losing weight. At a normal job, three meals a day would suffice, but on days off, two meals a day were enough. Now I'm retired, so it's two meals every day, slightly bigger ones on harder workout days, smaller ones on light days. I exercise seven days a week, before breakfast, and don't allow myself to turn on the stereo until I've finished my exercises. Wanting to hear my La Scalas every morning is one of my motivators. Little rules like that work for me. Other ones may work for you.

I've been the same weight since I was sixteen, 160lbs, and I'm 5-9. Age has nothing to do with weight. I'm 56. If you work less, you should eat less. That doesn't seem remarkable to me, but maybe I'm just too logical.

Eleven years ago, I sustained a spinal cord injury in a highway crash. When I was getting sized for my wheelchair, it was suggested I get a wider one, "for when your *** gets big". Instead, I got the correctly-sized chair and it still fits just fine. I simply eat less, now that I'm hardly walking anymore.

It's clear that it's really difficult to lose a lot of weight if you're really big, but it can be done. It's best to alter your diet when you notice two or three extra pounds, just by having smaller portions until it's back to ideal. That's pretty easy to do, just like it's easy to steer your car into its lane while you're still on the pavement. Get onto the soft shoulder (10-20 lbs overweight) and it's more work. Drive into the ditch and you've really got a challenge in front of you. Try to stay on track from the beginning, it's way easier.

Everyone is the size they choose to be. No-one else deserves the blame or the credit. Every day we do what it takes to be the size we are.

[dtel's wife]

Go Picky...go Picky....go Picky! Great job, you are going to feel a lot better in the long run!

[oldbuckster]

LOSE PICKY LOSE .............. You can do it, just cutting back on intake will show positive results ........ Get yourself a new belt, and have a cocktail with your MOM ...................... Say Hi to Miss Rose for me ...............LOSE PICKY LOSE ............

[picky]

Thanks dtel's and oldbuckster! Obviously, I am having far fewer cocktails with mom (Rose) these days. In fact, I rarely drink at all partially because I am taking Vicadin 24/7 for the knee pain. Also, I don't need (or want) the calories. But, when I do a plan to have drink or two, I make certain that I do not take my dosage of Vicadin just to make sure. That usually results in enough of an increase in pain that makes skipping the Vicadin to have a drink hardly worth it. My knee pain is still pretty intense these days, but my mobility seems to continue to improve weekly.

Islander: No offense taken, but I for one have never tried to blame anyone or anything but myself for the shape I am in. I am not on a traditional diet. I've simply made lifestyle changes that I can live with the rest of my life and it works. It's very simple: "If you don't want to be so freaking fat, don't eat so freaking much!" Period! - that's pretty easy to follow. And I don't have to join anything or pay anybody any money or undergo any surgery. There are no excuses: if I don't eat less and exercise regularly, then I will continue to stay fat by choice! There's no magic here! And I feel great now...except for the knees. My blood pressure is even lower.

Society does seem to treat people as if they are victims. They now reward all kids in school regards of how good or bad they do so nobody's feelings get hurt. If someone fails at something they need not take responsibility for it because it was the fault of something they had no control over. This is a bunch of who-ha! Now they are trying to tell us fatties that obesity is caused by a virus! GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK! Obesity is caused by what and how much you shove down your pie hole and how much sitting around you do on your keister!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

-Glenn

[Islander]

Glenn, you've got a very healthy attitude. You're in charge of yourself and you will succeed. Congratulations on your results so far.

As for my exercises, on four of the seven days, the "workout" is mostly stretches, but it all helps. The more flexible you are, the more you feel like being active.

You might want to try Glucosamine & Chondroitin for your knees. In my case, it eliminated the chronic neck pain I'd had for years.

[picky]

Islander: Thank you for your vote of confidence. i really do appreciate it.

I am currenlty working out at home 4 times a week on our Bowflex machine with a special concentration on my legs and knees to help strengthen them to better support the knee joints so this sort of injury doesn't happen so easily again. I have already noticed the swelling I used to get in my lower legs is gone and I am seeing lots of definition in the muscle groups. It's almost surprising to actually see what my legs are really supposed to look like after living through all of these years with two fat legs that resemble huge summer sausages! After my knees heal, I will add walking and some sort of cardio workout, most likely on our Nordic Trac machine because it is low impact and its already available to me.

Although I personally don't put faith in homeopathic remedies and health store-type supplements, I will try the glucosamine because I happen to have a jar on hand. Thanks for the suggestion! I do use mutiple vitamins and I do take supplements for certain minerals that my medications are known to deplete such as potassium. I do eat a lot of fruit now so I think I am receiving a fairly well-balanced intake and plenty of fiber. I also drink lots of tap water that we run through an inline filter at our house. The best part is; I can eat any darned thing I want! The difference is now I know how much is tolerable and when to stop. And to think I used to consume a daily minimum of at approximately 150 grams or more of total fat per day: What an unconcerned idiot I was! I'm just fortunate that I am making this change while I am still healthy. I have no chronic diseases such as diabetes, my fasting cholestral level is 170 and my blood pressure has always been well managed. This is truely a second chance from God! It's nice to know he doesn't hold grudges! LOL -Glenn

[pauln]

Some things to think about:

100 years ago the average adult in the US walked over 10 miles per day. Hard o believe that now days, and that is just average - some walked much more.This was normal and accepted as part of life. People walked to school, to work, to shop, and to visit friends. Most of Europe is still in the habit of social public walking each evening.

100 years ago the personal consumption of sugar in the US was 200 times less than today.

The real elevation change in the historical weight curve began in the early 70's when high fructose corn syrup began being added to processed foods to make them thicker and sweeter. Prior to that time it's primary use had been in hog feed, because it fattens them up nice and fast for market.

Most people in most places for most of time have employed a staple as their primary diet. This is potatos, rice, corn meal, pasta, and whaet bread... Over and over every meal. On rare occasions like a holiday special foods would be prepared. This holiday food is what you think of when someone says let's eat Mexican, or Italian, or Chinese. We now eat holiday food at most meals, especially eating out, whereas the originators of those foods ate them only once every month or so.

And finally, 100 years ago the ideal physical fashion image of a sucessful man was a pale and portly fellow with a bit of a belly. This was an indication of social financial success and liberation from physical labor. The tanned, thin, hard bodied muscle man of that time was not well thought of at all like today. His shape and tone was an indication of a lower class life of hard physical labor, much of it outdoors. Today this appearance is highly sought and sorely won while the chubby indoor folks are gently frowned upon.

[oldbuckster]

You'll be fine Picky, follow your plan.................The older you get, the pounds come on fast, and they come off slow......You must be careful with that knee also, an injury can set you back quick, I know that for a fact !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[picky]

You'll be fine Picky, follow your plan.................The older you get, the pounds come on fast, and they come off slow......You must be careful with that knee also, an injury can set you back quick, I know that for a fact !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't I know! These knee injuries have really been quite a liberating experience for me. I've never had a mobility problem before in my life experience. It's really humbled me to better appreciate what handicapped folks must endure on a daily basis. I no longer feel a tiny bit of animosity towards those "dang handicappers" for stealing all of the good parking places, as I've heard myself and so many other folks say. I now see how petty, childish and cold-hearted I'd been acting. So much for "people living in glass houses....". Guilty as charged, but no more for me! I think it's amazing to what great magnitude this setback has affected my life. It convinced me to not only take better care of my knees in the future, but to take better care of my entire body, too. And in doing so, getting off all of massive consumption of foods has unexpectedly given me much more clarity of thinking, thereby allowing me to examine the way I carry myself in many other ways including my system of values and from an emotional aspect. This experience is certainly becoming a complete "make-over" (for lack of a better term) for me. So yes, the knees have been a setback for me physically all summer long as I injured them the first week of June. But, in so many other ways, the injuries have been a "springboard" for so many more intense things! -Glenn

[Islander]

Life should be a learning experience. It's sounds like you're learning a lot. That has to be a good thing.

As for handicapped parking spaces, the worst is in the winter, when able-bodied types don't want to walk in the snow, so they park in the nearest spot, leaving the guy in the wheelchair to push through the snow and slush from the far end of the parking lot. Aggravating and unpleasant doesn't begin to describe that experience.