grebber1 wrote: »

By the way. Great job everyone who participated in the challenge.

Rocknut53 wrote: »

craigo3154 wrote: »

Rocknut53 wrote: »

This is an interesting post if anyone is interested. I immediately identified with this woman.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10697701/i-still-have-chronic-obesity-even-a-year-into-maintenance

@Rocknut53. Very interesting. I can see where a lot can identify with this.

From my point of view, obesity is a symptom, not a disease. It's indicating that there is something that is not right either with your eating habits (food choices), or the way your body processes food.

The modern food industry is heavily driven by profit, not the benefit of the consumer. As such, long shelf life foods that are calorie dense and cheap to produce (usually heavily government subsidised) are prolific. When you can make profit from something, you spend money on influencing and advertising to continue to make a profit. Consequently, funded studies, education, government backed food organisations, etc.. have questionable motives.

What can be done?

1. Teach the people about health, nutrition, macros and how the body processes food. (science based research, reproducible results, method and results published, researched aimed at finding information rather than targeting to prove a hypothesis, ideally NOT interest group funded - a lot of my research was through pub-med and I needed to learn a lot of medical terminology to wade through the data).
2. Encourage people to experiment with their diet and activity to find a balance that works for them (not everyone processes the same food in the same way). Any change must be able to be made forever. If the change is too hard, it can never become habit.

Tracking is ESSENTIAL to diet/lifestyle experimentation. Only by tracking can you know what the start point was, what has been changed and what the result is.

Before experimenting, get a medical (blood tests), check to see if you have any known conditions that may be affected by experimentation (hyperthyroidism, type II, reduced liver function, etc...).

Experiment till you find out what works for you.

Once you get the right mix of eating and activity as an easy habit to maintain, weight is MUCH easier to keep in line.

Through experimentation, I found I do not process gluten the way I should (not celiac, just sensitive). Solution for me is to limit gluten where possible.

I see myself as gluten sensitive, not normal with "obese" tendencies.

I also limit snacks so I can have better meals. If I find myself hunting for food between meals, drink something first (water or unsweetened tea) and wait 20 minutes. Often hunger is a sign of dehydration (or boredom). If still wanting food after 20 minutes, find something small, high fat (like nuts) or high protein (dried meat) to snack on as it induces satiety. I carry high fat/protein snacks with me most days when out of the house.

Small changes at a time. Weight management is a long term activity, not just something you do for a month or three.

@craigo3154 While I agree with your assessment which in theory is spot on, I feel the emotional/psychological aspects of obesity can't be ignored. Every morning, I find it easy to focus on what I need to do: the logging, the exercise, the meal planning, steps I can take to avoid giving in to the insane urges I have to eat more than I should and so on. Then as the day progresses inevitably something happens to sidetrack my efforts. At this point I'm convinced it's something subconscious because I can't identify the trigger. I achieved my goal weight of 129# after a 60# loss last year, maintained for awhile then slowly started putting it back on (like the large percentage of people who lose weight). At this point, I'm stable, but having a hard time nudging that scale downward. I can and will do this. I refuse to be one of those who gains it all back and then some. I've spent my whole life doing that and that cycle needs to stop. Thank you for insight and your commitment to helping us all.

1. Hunger (the desire to consume food)
2. Habit (what you have always done)
3. Comfort (you get pleasure from the taste of the food you are eating)

LesIckaBod wrote: »

ShareASmile wrote: »

ShareASmile
Week 3
Last weight: 159.4
Current weight: 159.4
Weigh in day: Saturday
Comments: ugh! 😥

@ShareASmile I know it stinks not to see a move downward, but holding steady isn't necessarily a bad thing. You know how people say some big percent of weight loss is mental? I always imagine weight loss is like I'm gripping on to the edge of a cliff. If I can pull myself a little bit up the cliff that's great, but I'm also pretty psyched to just keep my fingerholds in this cliff and not slip backwards. Does that make sense?

So hang on, and you'll pull yourself up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8NzhNe9Res

• First set till the point where you can do no more, wait 2 mins
• Second set of 50% of the number you did in the first set (half)
• Third set