People judge - that's just "reality" - BULL****!

Scott613

You have to figure out what works best for your body type and metabolism, for your stage in life, and go from there. That, to me, is the biggest battle in the weight loss game....figuring out what your body does best and how to work with it.

It's that simple!!!! Finding out how your body responds to what you do is key. Some people take longer than others to figure it out and some never do. Everybody is different

sequoialea

It's more complicated than just insulin.
There are a whole load of hormones that regulate bodyweight, normal people remain the same age ajusted weight year in year out despite changes in eating, activity and so on because the body knows how much fat it wants to have around and will actively adjust intake and expenditure.

Obesity is not one single thing, it can be caused by defects in any of the many hormones that regulate metabolism, leptin, ghrelin, insulin, adiponectin etc

But yeah I agree. The whole attitude of "those fat lazy *kitten* just need to try harder" is not fair, we have a drive to eat which is just as strong as the drive to breath or go to the toilet, just that with eating we can "hold it" for longer, and some people who are miserable from constantly battling their panicking hungry bodies get angry at the people who they think aren't working as hard as them because they feel deprived. That's what I reckon.

I look at my family, "morbidly" obese dad, overweight mum, gran had type II diabetes, brother (in his early 20s!) has type II diabetes... I hear about how only 1% of dieters manage to keep the weight off over 2 years and the ones that do, do so by continuing calorie restriction to below "normal" levels (that's right! They didn't go back up to a reasonable 2000 calories, they stayed on 1400 for the rest of their life) while still exercising significant amounts - and most of all they all were psychologically quite obsessive about it and frightened of regaining the weight to a degree that in a thinner person would be a mark of an eating disorder. THAT is the facts!

Does it mean it's impossible to lose weight? I don't think so, moderate amounts of weightloss can be achieved reasonably easily by most people (the above scenario is for loss of 50-100 lbs). Beyond that, we're all learning more and more about the hormonal control of metabolism, I honestly believe we can have a breakthrough on this soon.

There was a kid who lacked a functional gene to code for leptin, and while he was massively obese he was also suffering all the metabolic symptoms of starvation, his body thought he was not just semi-starving but starving. Then they supplemented leptin and he lost all the weight, lost the extreme appetite he had, and became like a normal kid.

But people will say that's "excuses" or that only incredibly rare cases of obesity are caused by "real" problems, everyone else is a lazy fat gluttonous slob. Science ain't on your side.

Yet I am still going to diet... even though I know it might mean I gain back even more when I get old and tired of policing every single morsel, but dammit I want a few years where I get to be pretty (and I want to be slightly calorifically deprived when I conceive my children because of the positive epigenetic effects that can have on the following generation, or the one after that).

Thank you for hearing me. You are absolutely right that there is more involved than insulin. Other hormones and genes, and environmental factors like a drastic change in diet spurred by a famine or sudden shift in location, etc. all play into it.

tross0924

If you don't understand the "why" then how can you truly understand how to correct the problem?

I would encourage you to dig deeper than the why it's harder to lose weight right now because of Insulin / Carb sensitivity, and look at the "why" you got that way to begin with. And I would encourage you to take the lions share of the responsibility instead of believing that you are the victim in the scenario. Blaming the government for their poor diet recommendations, and blaming carbs and insulin for locking you into growth mode, is not as healthy as facing the hard truth about how you are the one actually perpetrating the crime against yourself.

cmriverside

If you don't understand the "why" then how can you truly understand how to correct the problem?

I would encourage you to dig deeper than the why it's harder to lose weight right now because of Insulin / Carb sensitivity, and look at the "why" you got that way to begin with. And I would encourage you to take the lions share of the responsibility instead of believing that you are the victim in the scenario. Blaming the government for their poor diet recommendations, and blaming carbs and insulin for locking you into growth mode, is not as healthy as facing the hard truth about how you are the one actually perpetrating the crime against yourself.

THIS!!!!!!!!!! THIS ^^^^^.

kjergens

And what did you do? Did you in any way cut the amount of carbohydrates and/or sugars from your diet? If so, then I am sure that helped. And I am working on this - I am losing weight - so if that is the criticism of me, then it is unfounded.

If you are referring to my post...I am not in any way criticizing you. I am simply saying...it's not as easy as people want to make it. Everybody's body responds differently. And if you figured out how your body responds by cutting your carbs/sugars, then good for you. Yes, that's what i had to do. Diabetes runs in my family, and at my age/weight, I was a prime candidate for being prediabetic. Plus you add the fact that I am premenopausal to the deal and on birth control, and boom, losing weight is an all out war. It is a winnable war, but it takes alot of diligence and cutting out things that most people can have in moderation with no problems. My body does not respond to sugars/carbs well...so I have to monitor it and make sure that I have the right balance. It's alot of freakin work, but it's worth it.

I was not in anyway criticizing you. I just wanted to say to everyone...don't judge...everyone's different and their body is different!

kjergens

You have to figure out what works best for your body type and metabolism, for your stage in life, and go from there. That, to me, is the biggest battle in the weight loss game....figuring out what your body does best and how to work with it.

It's that simple!!!! Finding out how your body responds to what you do is key. Some people take longer than others to figure it out and some never do. Everybody is different

Haha, I wouldn't say it's been 'that simple' at all. The last three years have been fraught with frustration at trying diets, exercising myself blue in the face, all to have the scale move .25 pounds a week, and then move back the next week. I diligently tracked, I diligently exercised...and around me people were losing weight and cheating on their diets!! But, I kept looking, researching, and finally found out that hey....my body doesn't process sugars and high GI carbs very well. I hate that it took that long, but the important thing is...I kept at it

Scott613

You have to figure out what works best for your body type and metabolism, for your stage in life, and go from there. That, to me, is the biggest battle in the weight loss game....figuring out what your body does best and how to work with it.

It's that simple!!!! Finding out how your body responds to what you do is key. Some people take longer than others to figure it out and some never do. Everybody is different

Haha, I wouldn't say it's been 'that simple' at all. The last three years have been fraught with frustration at trying diets, exercising myself blue in the face, all to have the scale move .25 pounds a week, and then move back the next week. I diligently tracked, I diligently exercised...and around me people were losing weight and cheating on their diets!! But, I kept looking, researching, and finally found out that hey....my body doesn't process sugars and high GI carbs very well. I hate that it took that long, but the important thing is...I kept at it

Like I said it takes some people longer than others to figure it out for themselves. Once you do it's simple because you found the answer so just stick to what works!

marie_2454

I enjoyed reading your post, but I don't agree with it.

Ditto.

Same here...

MsEmmy

Well agree or don't agree, can you tell me how fat accumulates in the body? Other than the simplistic answer of calories in/calories out? Can you offer another hypothesis?

As far as trying, I am and I'm losing! I just refuse to take things at face value. I want to know why, how, what. Anyway, like I said, this site is set up with the calories in/calories out idea as its basis so I didn't expect a whole lot of support for my ideas.

If you are interested in at least understanding where I am coming from, here are a couple of links:

http://youtu.be/M6vpFV6Wkl4

http://www.garytaubes.com/blog/

And sorry for being judgmental of those who are judgmental - that's hypocritical of me.

The (very simplistic) way I see it is that everyone has the same amount of fat cells, but if you eat tons of fatty food then you fill those cells up. If you reduce the amount of fat/ work out to burn it off, you reduce the size of the cells.

I have only been doing this for a couple of months. I used to look at people who could run and think they had a different body to me, one that allowed them to run and made it harder for me. Then I started C25K and you know what? I can run. And soon I will be able to run further. Same with weight loss. I could blame my family for being big and say it's harder for me. I could look at my husband and say it's unfair that he can eat ANYTHING and never put weight on. But what made the difference was making sure I used more calories than I eat.

HMonsterX

People will judge. We know this. Be it rightly or wrongly, it happens.

MOST overweight people, myself included, got that way due to eating too much crap and not exercising. Therefore, when you see anyone fat, the most logically conclusion, based on the statistical numbers, is that they just need to cut the cals and get off the couch, as this is the cause for most of them.

Sure, for some it may not be that simple, but for the vast majority, it is. People always look for other reasons, other excuses, anything, rather than admit THEY are the ones to blame due to their lifestyle, nothing else.

It's hard to admit what you are doing is the cause. But, once you do, its just up from there. I used to eat far too much crap, and barely left my computer. Its blindingly obvious to me NOW, but then, i just never really thought about it.

So, to sum up...reality is majority. It may not be the reality of an individual case, but since we always go with the majority, its a reasonable judgement to assume a fat person is fat due to overeating and lack of exercise.

chevy88grl

It's more complicated than just insulin.
There are a whole load of hormones that regulate bodyweight, normal people remain the same age ajusted weight year in year out despite changes in eating, activity and so on because the body knows how much fat it wants to have around and will actively adjust intake and expenditure.

Obesity is not one single thing, it can be caused by defects in any of the many hormones that regulate metabolism, leptin, ghrelin, insulin, adiponectin etc

But yeah I agree. The whole attitude of "those fat lazy *kitten* just need to try harder" is not fair, we have a drive to eat which is just as strong as the drive to breath or go to the toilet, just that with eating we can "hold it" for longer, and some people who are miserable from constantly battling their panicking hungry bodies get angry at the people who they think aren't working as hard as them because they feel deprived. That's what I reckon.

I look at my family, "morbidly" obese dad, overweight mum, gran had type II diabetes, brother (in his early 20s!) has type II diabetes... I hear about how only 1% of dieters manage to keep the weight off over 2 years and the ones that do, do so by continuing calorie restriction to below "normal" levels (that's right! They didn't go back up to a reasonable 2000 calories, they stayed on 1400 for the rest of their life) while still exercising significant amounts - and most of all they all were psychologically quite obsessive about it and frightened of regaining the weight to a degree that in a thinner person would be a mark of an eating disorder. THAT is the facts!

Does it mean it's impossible to lose weight? I don't think so, moderate amounts of weightloss can be achieved reasonably easily by most people (the above scenario is for loss of 50-100 lbs). Beyond that, we're all learning more and more about the hormonal control of metabolism, I honestly believe we can have a breakthrough on this soon.

There was a kid who lacked a functional gene to code for leptin, and while he was massively obese he was also suffering all the metabolic symptoms of starvation, his body thought he was not just semi-starving but starving. Then they supplemented leptin and he lost all the weight, lost the extreme appetite he had, and became like a normal kid.

But people will say that's "excuses" or that only incredibly rare cases of obesity are caused by "real" problems, everyone else is a lazy fat gluttonous slob. Science ain't on your side.

Yet I am still going to diet... even though I know it might mean I gain back even more when I get old and tired of policing every single morsel, but dammit I want a few years where I get to be pretty (and I want to be slightly calorifically deprived when I conceive my children because of the positive epigenetic effects that can have on the following generation, or the one after that).

I do not severely restrict my calories anymore. I know how many calories I need to eat and I eat them (and it is between 2200-2500 NET calories - definitely NOT restricted there!). I exercise 3 days a week (sometimes less if work and life get in the way). I've been at my original goal weight since Sept 2010. So, almost 1 year. I go to the gym not because I feel like I HAVE to go - I actually enjoy it now.

I've learned what my body likes and doesn't like as I've traveled through this journey of weight loss. The weight will never come back because I know how to keep it off. I've learned (which is what this is supposed to be about - LEARNING what is best for you and your body!).

tigersword

If it's too much insulin, and not poor diet/inactivity that causes obesity, how do you explain the diabetics whose bodies can't make insulin becoming obese?

The entire original post really set a tone of "I'm fat, I'm genetically predisposed to be fat, so I'm just going to keep being fat." I don't judge people for being overweight, I judge people who make excuses about it and don't do anything about it.

PANZERIA

I can understand the reason for the post, but I don't agree how personal you're taking the comments.

The thing with western culture is that no one wants to take responsibility for their own actions, and books and people who tell you 'it's not your fault, it's this hormone, that organ, this drug, etc. etc.' It's the same as an alcoholic blaming their parents' divorce thirty years ago or someone who is addicted to a debilitating drug blaming other people for their problem and their choices.

I think the books have misled you, but that's just my opinion.

And, honestly, there is nothing you can do about people judging you. Everyone judges, and obesity is, unfortunately, something that is kindof easy to spot. Everyone gets judged, though. Women are judged automatically while driving, and there are plenty of people who judge based on race and religion. It's human nature, and it's something that everyone has to live with in some form or another. It sucks, but if you don't like it, then change it. *shrug*

Sublog

99% of the population is fat because they are eating too much food, and that same % can lose weight.

In simple, you can argue that you don't believe in gravity, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

As someone who was FAT their entire life.. from birth to adulthood, I can say beyond a doubt that I was simply eating too much food and in denial.

You Are Not Different

All over the internet, on forums dedicated to everything from weight loss to muscle gain, people will loudly argue that they are different. “My metabolism is different.”, “My nervous system is different”, “My muscles are different”, things of that sort. Everyone is a unique and delicate flower, just like their mom told them.

This usually follows them explaining why the good advice that others have used can’t possibly work for them. They are also usually the ones making no progress who won’t even consider trying something else. THEY. ARE. DIFFERENT.

In short: you can’t beat thermodynamics anymore than anything else in the universe. You. Are. Not. Different. You can’t gain bodymass unless your energy intake exceeds your energy output because you can’t make something out of nothing (muscle or fat). And you can’t lose bodymass unless your energy intake is less than your energy ouput. These are rules that every system in the universe has to follow, including the human body. Nature’s rules, not mine to quote the all-knowing Mr. Miyagi. We may not like them, but we have to live by them anyway.

sequoialea

If you don't understand the "why" then how can you truly understand how to correct the problem?

I would encourage you to dig deeper than the why it's harder to lose weight right now because of Insulin / Carb sensitivity, and look at the "why" you got that way to begin with. And I would encourage you to take the lions share of the responsibility instead of believing that you are the victim in the scenario. Blaming the government for their poor diet recommendations, and blaming carbs and insulin for locking you into growth mode, is not as healthy as facing the hard truth about how you are the one actually perpetrating the crime against yourself.

Dude, you totally aren't getting it. I am taking responsibility. I am working hard to correct this problem. I am also diligently trying to understand the why. They are not mutually exclusive.

sequoialea

And what did you do? Did you in any way cut the amount of carbohydrates and/or sugars from your diet? If so, then I am sure that helped. And I am working on this - I am losing weight - so if that is the criticism of me, then it is unfounded.

If you are referring to my post...I am not in any way criticizing you. I am simply saying...it's not as easy as people want to make it. Everybody's body responds differently. And if you figured out how your body responds by cutting your carbs/sugars, then good for you. Yes, that's what i had to do. Diabetes runs in my family, and at my age/weight, I was a prime candidate for being prediabetic. Plus you add the fact that I am premenopausal to the deal and on birth control, and boom, losing weight is an all out war. It is a winnable war, but it takes alot of diligence and cutting out things that most people can have in moderation with no problems. My body does not respond to sugars/carbs well...so I have to monitor it and make sure that I have the right balance. It's alot of freakin work, but it's worth it.

I was not in anyway criticizing you. I just wanted to say to everyone...don't judge...everyone's different and their body is different!

Thanks for the clarification. Diabetes runs heavy in my family as well. So, maybe there is a connection between these two things, in fact I am sure there is.

Annie5859

Wow! You really hit a nerve with this post! The bottom line is we all don't like to be judged because our primal desire is to be accepted. We are very social creatures. Being judged puts up our defences pushing ourselves to ask, "What is wrong with me? Why don't you like me?" Unfortunately being overweight is an easy attribute to judge because that's one of the first things others notice about ourselves. We are taught at a young age to make sure we make a good first impression and so we look "extra nice" and we act "extra pleasant". We also have been taught at an early age what physical characteristics are more desirable simply due to what we see on tv, movies and magazines etc. In some parts of the world, a voluptuous figure is quite desirable! But not where we live. Judging ones appearance can go the other way too. Look at newlywed Princess Kate. She's on every tabloid because she looks to be too thin. Bottom line is, we are a very judgmental society and although it's not a good societal trait, it is what it is. As an individual, you need to be happy with yourself and your own physical appearance. If you are content in your own skin, great! If you are not, then you need to do something about it and I think that's why we are all hear on MFP. We want to make a change.

Txnurse97

Im fat and I take responsibility for what I put into my body. Science didnt do me in, stuffing my face did.

Exactly. Me too.

bobbybdoe

So, I am keenly aware of the fact that people judge me for being obese. I have a thick skin for this judging at this point. However, where the bull**** factor comes in is when someone tells me "that's just reality". Oh really? So it is "reality" for people to be hateful, stupid, and just plain misinformed?

Yes.

anubis609

*kitten* are like opinions. Everybody has one.

That's just my own coming from being one.

A great one.

That is all.

Carry on.