What if I am just meant to be fat?

When I was a kid in the '80s and a teenager in the '90s, an overweight child was a very, very, very rare sight. They existed, but they were the extreme exception.

You are right your body is fine with it. Everybody's body is fine with it. It's how we are built. You are not special in this regard.

However I disagree with some of the stuff being said here.

1. It doesn't matter what you eat just how much you eat.

Frankly this is technically correct and actually DEAD WRONG. If you eat nothing but microwave meals and sweets and calorie count you can indeed lose weight. But you will be constantly hungry for all the stuff that your body still needs. You will be miserable and unhealthy. When you are at a deficit you really should be making most of your calories count. I'm not saying you can't spend a bit on treats and stuff. But really most people will have a much easier time and be happier with their health and their body if they try to eat healthy food most of the time.

2. You can lose weight only in the kitchen. Exercise is unnecessary.

Once again technically correct and in practice outright dangerous. It tempts people into depriving diets that malnourish their bodies in all sorts of ways. And if you work hard in the gym you absolutely can afford to eat quite a bit more and still lose weight. Not only that but you will probably retain much more lean mass and suffer far less from micro nutrient deficiencies. You will be fitter healthier and just plain better looking and feeling when you finish. Plus exercise is a great way to distract yourself from boredom or depression based food cravings.

Personally I think it's wrong for a health and fitness site to condone the idea that exercise is optional and that nutritional quality doesn't matter. Weight loss is a wonderful thing. But it shouldn't be elevated above other less obvious aspects of bodily healthy.

I count every single thing. Even coffee creamer. I feel some people here are quick to judge and automatically assume I am overeating and not aware of it. I'm not a newbie to weight loss. I have been down this road before about 10 yrs ago. I hit 168 and freaked out. I started learning about nutrition and all that and did weight watchers along with 5 days a week in the gym. I lost maybe 4 pounds and knew something was wrong. I went to an endo and found out I was hypothyroid. I was put on the right medication and along with what I was already doing I lost 50 pounds and maintained that until about a year ago.I get my thyroid checks every six months and it is fine. The only other thing that changed was I got off the BC pill in 2012 and got an IUD (the hormone free one). My hormones were probably always very off balance and i just never knew because I was on the pill for so long. Maybe I gained weight due to the change of not having the pill. It just doesn't seem like that alone would be the reason for gaining this much.

I ate a paleo diet last year for 3 months and didn't lose but I didn't gain during that time either. I make good choices and I like healthy food. I also drink a gallon of water a day.

I wanted to comment on this section separately. It doesn't matter how "healthy" the food is you eat, if you eat too much of it and achieve a calorie surplus you will gain weight.

I really don't like the logic of why people follow the paleo diet. The idea here is that if you eat like humans did in the Paleolithic era that you will be healthier like they were. That logic is terrible, first have you even seen a person from that era and thought, man he looked amazing? You realize that people in that era also didn't have a guaranteed meal and had to gather / hunt and kill for their meals as well? Driving to the local whole foods doesn't count as hunting, sorry.

Paleo works in my opinion due to the amounts of restrictions on the diet. You can't go to McDonald's, or eat twinkies and ice cream and all of that jazz. So if you eat fresh meats, veggies and fruits then it's less likely you are going to over indulge. There's no stopping by starbucks every morning for your double double white mocha with extra whipped cream, cavemen didn't have that.

The problem with following a restrictive diet like paleo is it won't last forever. How long can you really last on a diet that doesn't let you have all of your favorite foods? There's nothing wrong with cutting out processed foods from your diet, in fact I wish they would just call it the no processed food diet, but I guess that's too boring. You get really good at eating paleo and maybe even lose the weight you desired, but then you go back to eating like you did before and all the tips and tricks you learned eating paleo are useless now.

Better idea, eat all of your favorite foods and still lose weight. IIFYM is a flexible dieting technique that in addition to watching your over all calories for the day you also track the amounts of fats, proteins and carbs you consume in the day. I love flexible dieting because as long as I reach my fat minimum goal and protein minimum goal for the day I'm doing well, and if I go over those goals its ok, I just consume less carbs. Best of all, following IIFYM is something you can do the rest of your life.

I ate a paleo diet last year for 3 months and didn't lose but I didn't gain during that time either. I make good choices and I like healthy food. I also drink a gallon of water a day.

I wanted to comment on this section separately. It doesn't matter how "healthy" the food is you eat, if you eat too much of it and achieve a calorie surplus you will gain weight.

I really don't like the logic of why people follow the paleo diet. The idea here is that if you eat like humans did in the Paleolithic era that you will be healthier like they were. That logic is terrible, first have you even seen a person from that era and thought, man he looked amazing? You realize that people in that era also didn't have a guaranteed meal and had to gather / hunt and kill for their meals as well? Driving to the local whole foods doesn't count as hunting, sorry.

Paleo works in my opinion due to the amounts of restrictions on the diet. You can't go to McDonald's, or eat twinkies and ice cream and all of that jazz. So if you eat fresh meats, veggies and fruits then it's less likely you are going to over indulge. There's no stopping by starbucks every morning for your double double white mocha with extra whipped cream, cavemen didn't have that.

The problem with following a restrictive diet like paleo is it won't last forever. How long can you really last on a diet that doesn't let you have all of your favorite foods? There's nothing wrong with cutting out processed foods from your diet, in fact I wish they would just call it the no processed food diet, but I guess that's too boring. You get really good at eating paleo and maybe even lose the weight you desired, but then you go back to eating like you did before and all the tips and tricks you learned eating paleo are useless now.

Better idea, eat all of your favorite foods and still lose weight. IIFYM is a flexible dieting technique that in addition to watching your over all calories for the day you also track the amounts of fats, proteins and carbs you consume in the day. I love flexible dieting because as long as I reach my fat minimum goal and protein minimum goal for the day I'm doing well, and if I go over those goals its ok, I just consume less carbs. Best of all, following IIFYM is something you can do the rest of your life.

My problem with the Paleo diet is: Why do people assume that cavemen had the best diet? They were scavengers, hunters and nomads for the most part- they were physically strong because they had to be in order to survive. They walked EVERY place they went, ran full blast after an animal and killed it brute strength and stone clubs. Their activity level was far higher than anyone in the modern era and their meals were far from consistent. I just have a hard time believing the Paleolithic era was the pinnacle of human nutrition. I know they say its what man "evolved" eating- but if you look at it truthfully, what man "evolved" eating was different all over the world. In order to stay in line with what your people ate during their evolution you would have to trace your lineage back to the paleolithic era, which would be pretty hard.

If I had to pick a time period, I would say Ancient Romans probably had the best diet. They had consistent access to food, it was minimally processed, high in good fats (fish, olives, nuts), had plenty of protein (Roman soldiers were required by law to eat a certain amount of meat each day) and I think you'd be hard pressed to find a civilization that was more physically fit. But regardless of the quality of food, quantity is what determines whether or not you will lose weight.

Is this even possible??? Can your body just like where it is and that is why you don't lose? I am so sad that nothing changes despite my effort. I feel defeated. Depressed. Disgusting.