Biggest argument you get in with friends about diet

My dad continuously argues that there are no calories in alcohol! That's why alcoholics are always slim! I wish there were no calories in it, then I might not be here in the first place!

Bizarre. Has he not heard of "beer belly"? Does he think that comes from drinking ginger beer?

This misconception cracks me up. Alcohol is MADE from sugar. I am an alcoholic, before I started recovery I was 40 pounds heavier and a size 9/10. After I stopped drinking I lost 20 lbs, just from that. It took diet and exercise to get the last 20 off but I am here to tell you that alcohol WILL make you fat.

Oh, trust me I know about alcohol calories but it's so frustrating arguing with him about it. He diets and loses weight but that is because he eats an apple in the morning, a salad for lunch then drinks alcohol from 4pm to about 2am! There is no telling him any different. He has a dependancy on alcohol, but I wish he wouldn't put me and my mum down for not drinking so much. In his words cutting down alcohol is nothing to be proud of!

Well I AM proud of my control and how far I've come. I've just stopped arguing about it. Everytime he says wow you've lost more weight I just shrug and say the only thing I'm doing is cutting down alcohol, strange huh! (he doesn't need to know about me counting calories and excercising my butt off :laugh:

By the way well done on your recovery x

[/quote]

That diet isn't starvation. It is a regular regiment of what you need to eat daily. When I hear people say they are "going on a diet" and stop eating, I am quick to correct and say that they need to start a more "healthy diet".

I argue with my friends about whether or not I'm going to stall my weightloss by eating 1200 calories and go into starvation mode and whether my hair will fall out and whether my organs will shut down and whether I will die and...... oh wait, that's not my friends I argue with about that, it's the arrogant know it alls on myfitnesspal.

i don't argue with my friends about diet at all.

This!! I don't argue with my friends at all; I don't understand how any of you put up with other people telling you what to eat or not eat. Occasionally I get told I'm too thin, but I really don't get into a back-and-forth over it. It's just not worth it.

I argue all the time the whole eat more to weigh less because so many people I know are starving themselves by not eating enough. I also argue everything in moderation a lot of my friends try to cut out all sweets and don't understand that you can still enjoy them in moderation!

Actually, it does:

Alcohol is metabolized differently than other foods and beverages. Under normal conditions, your body gets its energy from the calories in carbohydrates, fats and proteins, which are slowly digested and absorbed within the gastrointestinal system. However, this digestive process changes when alcohol is present. When you drink alcohol, it gets immediate attention (because it is viewed by the body as a toxin) and needs no digestion.

On an empty stomach, the alcohol molecules diffuse through the stomach wall quickly and can reach the brain and liver in minutes. This process is slower when you have food in your stomach, but as soon as that food enters the small intestine, the alcohol grabs first priority and is absorbed quickly into the bloodstream.

As the alcohol reaches the liver for processing, the liver places all of its attention on the alcohol. If you drink very slowly, all the alcohol is collected by the liver and processed immediately—avoiding all other body systems. If you drink more quickly, the liver cannot keep up with the processing needs and the alcohol continues to circulate in the body until the liver is available to process it. That's why drinking large amounts of alcohol (or drinking alcohol quickly) affect the brain centers involved with speech, vision, reasoning and judgment.

When the body is focused on processing alcohol, it is not able to properly break down foods containing carbohydrates and fat. Therefore, these calories are converted into body fat and are carried away for permanent storage on your body.

OK- I am not going to argue against your below point. I was responding to a post that stated alcohol causes weight gain. That is like saying fat causes weight gain, carbs cause weight gain, etc.

We are all on MFP because we all understand that weight gain is caused by eating more calories than we burn and weight loss is eating less calories than burn, and not by a single type of food. Alcohol in general (for the vast majority of people that drink it in far less quantities than the below quote) does not cause fatness. Eating more calories (alcohol, sugar, fat, protein, whatever) than you burn causes fatness.

My brother is/was/will forever be, a raging alcoholic. Two years ago, he nearly died from it. He had to be put into a medically induced detox coma for 3 weeks as his body withdrew. The alcohol had affected his liver, which caused a back up of fluids, which caused weight gain. He also had to be intubated and tube fed. He lost 95 lbs (not his idea of a great diet, but it was that or death)

So, even though alcohol does not "turn people fat", it definitely causes bloating in cases where the liver is no longer functioning properly.

I think there is a connection between stopping drinking and weight loss, but more because of the fluid drain than anything else.

Just because alcohol is made from sugar, it is not sugar. Alcohol has 2 carbons, 6 hydrogens and 1 oxygen molecule. It is difficult for your liver to transform this small molecule into a fat molecule having more than 10 carbon atoms long, and over 30 hydrogen atoms.

Sugar (for example Sucrose) has 12 carbons, 22 hydrogens and 11 oxygens. Sucrose is a far easier conversion to fat than a small alcohol molecule.

If you lost weight by not drinking- you must have also stopped eating a lot of food along with that alcohol.

Please don't kill the messenger if you do not like the above facts-sorry.

My dad continuously argues that there are no calories in alcohol! That's why alcoholics are always slim! I wish there were no calories in it, then I might not be here in the first place!

Bizarre. Has he not heard of "beer belly"? Does he think that comes from drinking ginger beer?

This misconception cracks me up. Alcohol is MADE from sugar. I am an alcoholic, before I started recovery I was 40 pounds heavier and a size 9/10. After I stopped drinking I lost 20 lbs, just from that. It took diet and exercise to get the last 20 off but I am here to tell you that alcohol WILL make you fat.

I don't argue with anyone about it or really talk about it unless someone specifically asks me. My mum and dad have been genuinely interested (I had an eating disorder for a few years as a teenager and slightly beyond so anything 'diety' used to be off limits as it hit a raw nerve and panicked them I think, which I understand) and are very supportive. They can see that it is gradual, that I'm still happy and full of energy and if I go round for my tea one night my mum will ask what I'd like and make sure there's plenty of veg in there too. These kind of reactions are awesome and I love my parents for being that way. My friends are the same, they're keen to hear about it and are very supportive. However, one person who I just cannot have a conversation about weight loss with is my husband's Auntie. My god she would drive you round the bend if you let it get to you! I just listen to the rammel she spouts and don't say anything, it's easier, she would never listen, never believe she could be wrong and nothing I say would change that so why bother wasting my time and effort? Here are some gems from her....

* You shouldn't exercise as it makes you put on weight (I'm not talking in the way it is discussed here, but as in all exercise should be avoided as it will make you put on weight full stop, no benefits from it whatsoever.)

* I know what I'm talking about I've been doing this for years trust me you should/shouldn't do/eat this, I've been doing this much longer than you and you should really listen to me on this (she is no lighter now than she was when I first met my husband 10 years ago) If anything she is heavier, she has yo-yo'd around the same 7-10lb loss and gain)

* She is a WW veteran, so before WW made all fruit and veg 'free' when it still had a points value - just think of all the points you have for stuff if you don't have that apple/brocolli etc. That apple is 1.5 points you know?? why are you eating that?? you could have a packet of crisps on that?!

* MAke sure on weigh in day you don't eat anything at all and don't drink after 9am (weigh in was 7:30pm and I had to work a 10-12 hour shift on my feet running around all day beforehand).

* Oooh I couldn't be doing with calorie counting it's far too much faff and silly how complicated it is (coming from the woman who has to get her WW calc out for every item before it goes in her shopping trolley and type in the fat/protein/fibre/carbs etc before knowing how many pts it is and whether she could have it!!!!)

I could go on and on, it's the kind of material a stand-up comedian would dream of having honestly! So I sit and say nothing, I don't care, as long as I don't think the same way I really couldn't care less, I'll lose weight, get fit and get healthy this way and that's all I'm bothered about, her opinion means naff all to me lol.

well lets see...

I low carb..... gasp...that's bad for your heart.... but being 200 lbs overweight isn't????? no point in trying to show them studies that show low carbing properly leads to healthier heart levels....... sighs....

I drink diet coke.... GASP????? that stuff makes you gain weight... it's full of cancer causing agents.... it's just EVILLLLLLLLLLL:mad:

I don't work out...... what??????????? I'm basically lazy by nature.... so I keep moving all day instead of having to sweat and feel exhausted for part of it.......

DANCE SO YOU CAN FLY PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the diet coke thing kills me every time. there is no scientific proof that the actual ingredients in diet soda CAUSE weight gain. cancer is a naturally occurring mutation - nothing specifically CAUSES cancer, things just contribute to cancers mutations. my father has been drinking diet coke since 1988 and has not gained weight because of it, has not developed diet coke-caused cancer, and has not turned evil (yet lol).

i stopped drinking diet coke for three weeks and didn't lose any weight. so obviously, the diet coke wasn't what was making me fat

Two weeks later, I got called into her office to review the bloodwork. Everything came back stellar except for the cholesterol numbers. LDL 4.4 mol, HDL1.8 mol, total cholesterol 6.2 mol. Yes, LDL was high - but this was a remarkable improvement over my numbers from 2 years ago - LDL 3.8 mol, HDL 0.8 mol - total chol 4.6 mol. Needless to say - she didn't see it the same way I did and threatened to put me on Statins if I didn't change my diet.
"You can write a script for them 'til your arm goes numb. There is no f

---

way in hell I will take them." We argued for about 10 minutes - I'll spare you the details other than to say that I really question a lot of the "bro-science research" that has gone on around cholesterol and high fat diets.

I'm not sure whether it's the way you worded your post, but you start off with saying the results were "LDL 4.4 mol, HDL1.8 mol, total cholesterol 6.2 mol." Then you said this was improvement over two years ago, but the results you posted then(presumably from two years ago, for comparison?) are not the worse results - they are better - LDL is bad cholesterol and HDL is good cholesterol, so if your LDL was lower 2 years ago than now, it's worse now, not better. The ration of HDL to LDL is better, but the overall LDL category is high:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol-levels/CL00001

Ideally, you want to keep your HDL where it is while bringing your LDL down to 3.3 or below and your total cholesterol below 5.2.
I keep reading Paleo articles and anti-Paleo articles. Since you call your Dr.'s opinions "bro-science" I think you and I have read some of the same pro-Paleo stuff - in case you haven't read enough of the other side: http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2012nl/jun/paleo2.htm

lol This is a good one.

A friend of mine had LIPOSUCTION at the age of 21. She weighed about 140, and is about 5'6" and really could have maybe just used a bit of toning up.

She claimed to have done EVERYTHING possible before getting the surgery, but whenever we were together, (which was a lot) she'd be eating candy, drinking juices, etc and admitting to not exercising.

Now she's super confident in herself but it just boggles my mind because *not to be a douche* but I don't see really any change in her bod. Her tummy maybe, but not in the other areas...And she posts everyday on facebook about the crap she eats. Then she questions how "little" I eat or says that I'm ridiculous because I work out "so much."

Oy. There's no easy way out and I tried to tell her that before she went and did this.

Didnt read the thread. I get in no arguments with friends about diet. What I eat or how much is none of their business. Stop blabbing and people won't tell you what they think about what you are doing.

You should read, turns out there are people in the world who don't understand the phrase "no, thank you."

I don't bother arguing with anyone over diet, its just not worth it. I tell them what I am doing and answer any questions but don't comment on what they are doing. My mother in law is certain that anything Dr Oz says is true, so every week there is a new diet or supplement or cleanse that she is on and she is still the same size as when I met her 6 years ago. She will never believe that this is the best way to lose weight and keep it off.

Mine is "Oh you can't eat this, it's not on your diet" No biotch I can eat what I want to eat, I'm not on a damn diet!!!

Love your expressions!I think your handling," Auntie ", just fine!