Smugly overweight??

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  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,022 Member
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    Mickey, it is absolutely possible to be both obese and malnourished.

    Malnourished means missing in nourishment or nutrients.

    As a basic example, someone could get very obese eating nothing but huge portions of bread, pasta,cakes ( nothing wrong with those things in moderation, of course) but that person could also have scurvy, from lack of fruit or vegetables.
    They could also be anaemic from lack of iron.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    I'm sure I'd love to visit your house and get a lovely meal

    adding butter just to make something shiny, IMO is unnecessary if you're trying to lose weight. I have never ever, even at a restaurant, cared whether a sauce is shiny or not. If it tastes good, it tastes good. I get that presentation is important for dinner parties and restaurants, but if you're adding high calorie ingredients just to make it look good then it's going to add up over time and make it harder to eat at a deficit. That said, successful weight loss is about what you can sustain for life, there's no need to give up any of your home cooking to lose weight, there are ways to adjust recipes to remove unnecessary calories, plus you can adjust the portion sizes to fit your calorie goal.


    In terms of smugness, it doesn't really matter where the excess fat comes from, because it's going to have the same effect on your body regardless. But in terms of nutritional quality, then maybe your homecooked food has more nutrients for the number of calories. So it's good from that point of view. But overeating (i.e. eating more than your body needs) is overeating and the excess is stored as fat regardless whether it was the finest caviar or McDonalds dollar menu that you overate on.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    Mickey, it is absolutely possible to be both obese and malnourished.

    Malnourished means missing in nourishment or nutrients.

    As a basic example, someone could get very obese eating nothing but huge portions of bread, pasta,cakes ( nothing wrong with those things in moderation, of course) but that person could also have scurvy, from lack of fruit or vegetables.
    They could also be anaemic from lack of iron.

    ^^^ this is true

    also malnutrition = bad nutrition. Obesity *is* an illness of malnutrition, because eating too much of some nutrients can be bad for health, not just eating too little. Obesity is the result of an unbalanced diet, just as kwashiorkor and scurvy are. And someone can be obese and still have all kinds of vitamin or mineral deficiency. Also normal weight obesity (where someone's BMI is "normal" but their body fat percentage is in the obese range) is a combination of being underweight in terms of muscle mass and bone density, but overweight in terms of excess body fat, this is caused by alternating between eating way too little so muscle mass is lost and bone density is lowered, and between overeating so fat is stored. It's the result of yo-yo dieting or binge/starve cycles. And all of this is malnutrition.
  • darkrose20
    darkrose20 Posts: 1,139 Member
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    You're not crazy. You ate too much. Eat less, move more, good luck!
  • FitFunLosAngeles
    FitFunLosAngeles Posts: 36 Member
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    This is an eye-opening thread and I think you got some great advice, which I learned from as well.
    Let me first say that I don't think you are crazy. But I do think you have to face some facts. I've been struggling with this too, so I understand.
    I was a smug vegetarian/part-time vegan who was 40+ pounds overweight! (now 32+ pounds). One day in January it dawned on me -- no matter how "well" I gained the weight, I did gain it, through a biological process that is real and obvious and not imaginary and which certainly, inarguably lowers my health and well-being.
    Sometimes it seems "unfair" that gained all this weight eating way too many mixed nuts and homemade soup. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I sometimes have to curb my feelings of resentment when I read some success stories that follow this script: "For years I ate fast food 4 times a day and was obese! One day I started eating a little better and lost 12 pounds a month and in 3 months I became Skinny Minnie." This seems unfair to me, because for the most part I didn't become overweight by eating fast food or Lunchables or Cheetos or gummy bears. I gained it from eating twice as much dressing as I should have had on salads and making homemade desserts a daily pastime instead of a weekly treat.
    The beauty of tracking your food on MFP is you can see for yourself, with nutritional parameters that you set, where you are overdoing it. It is a factual reference to judge your food intake. It is a good way for us to learn where we are going wrong. One of my biggest realizations in the first couple weeks of tracking was how much I was overdoing it on the hummus! Yes, hummus! I was eating HUNDREDS of calories (and way too much fat) from eating tons of hummus every...single...day!
    I have also come to terms that I will have to be happy eating ONE amazing home-made goodie (or just 2 tablespoons of hummus) instead of eating the whole plate. If you want to continue eating the way you are eating, portion control might become your best friend in losing weight!
    Also, as others have mentioned - the recipe builder in MFP is wonderful and makes it pretty easy to count calories for homemade stuff. Try it! Once the recipe is in there, it's in there for good so it's really easy to pull up next time you make that item.
    You also have to ask yourself, as I did, how much do you REALLY want to lose this weight? Do you want it enough to stop making really buttery sauces? For me I had to ask myself the question: Do I like weighing less more than I DON'T like working out? (I was really sedentary before January).
    Wishing you the best of luck and hoping we both overcome our rationalizing!!
  • BfromdaVille
    BfromdaVille Posts: 15 Member
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    Look up Michel Guerard. 3-Michelin star chef.

    Founder of Cuisine Minceur -- think of cooking like a chef at a spa. He would use pureed vegetables to make sauces richer/thicker (in place of butter/cream). He is well-known for making a 500 calorie tasting menu.

    You just need to think of it as an extra challenge -- cooking good tasting food that is healthy.

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