People letting themselves go once in a relationship.

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Well, not wanting to fat-bash here but, while not all obesity cases are resulted by overeating.....but well, a lot of overweight people who claim they don't overeat DO actually overeat - usually without even realizing how they are overeating.

For example, one of my friends is really petite in stature but she had obvious extra fat on hips, butt, and around the waist, she even gave up on gym because she wasn't losing any weight.

On the outlook she eats healthy, she likes salads and fruits but once she invited me to her place for a lunch and there I knew right away the problem while tasting food: Her mom cooks almost everything in samnah, especially rice and meat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samnah (of course I kept my mouth shut lol). She also once brought me local cookie-like things and they were in done in samnah/smen tho, very greasy.

I mean come on, of course they will have weight problems! Also she had the wrong idea that eating a lot of fruits doesn't cause much weight gain, this is false. She's way thinner now tho as she has changed significant things in the way they cook.

There is a tv programme in the UK called "Secret Eaters". Each week it features two people - a couple, friends, parent/adult child, etc - who are overweight, usually to the point of obesity and who cannot understand why. They always claim to eat healthily and to exercise and do seem genuinely mystified as to why they are putting on weight - one woman had gained 8 stone in 2 years! They are asked to keep a food diary before filming starts and their calorie intake is calculated based on that. They usually think they are consuming less than the recommended amount for their gender, and "should" be losing weight. These are average people, who are articulate, seem sensible and reasonably intelligent.

They are filmed, and followed, for a week, and then are confronted with the reality of their eating and exercise habits. They are always consuming way more calories than they think they are - often twice as many and sometimes three times as many - and are genuinely amazed, often embarrassed to realise how much they ate without even thinking about it. The people who "never eat breakfast" will have fatty breakfast rolls in the car on the way to work, the person who has "healthy salads" every day for lunch will douse the salad in high fat dressing, the person who "rarely drinks" is out drinking with pals in the pub every other night.

One couple had bought a dog in an effort to get fit, and the dog put on weight!

In Scotland people have increased in girth at an alarming rate, and it does seem to me that the Americanisation of our eating and lifestyle habits has a lot to do with it. We eat more and move about less - and we're getting bigger. The MacDonald's Drive-Thru epitomises that culture, surely.

A friend once sent me a pic of her "hard diet" breakfast: 2 large sheets of turkey, 2 large toast breads, 9 medium sized cherry tomatoes, 2 medium cucumbers.

It is healthy but I think the portion is big, something that a lot don't consider while eating healthy I would eat that as a full lunch. lol

Eyeballing food is also a terrible idea. There is a reason food scales exist. There is no way to tell how many calories are in any of those foods, simply because they are not real measurements.

Well food isn't homogeneous so scales are only going to give you an estimate anyway.

I think it would be a step forward to just progressively put less and less on your plate, starting with the high-fat portions.

As an aspie-minded person I don't see what's wrong with asking thinner friends on help with dosages, but from what I understand most diet efforts seem to be improvised individually and end up being predictably misguided.

The_Face_of_Boo: Did she put this pic on a social media website? What was the "worst" response she got?

No, she sent it to our whatsapp group; I've told her that I would eat that for lunch tho. .

Metabolism is genetically linked and does vary between people: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/healt ... d=all&_r=0

I have watched Scottish people getting steadier fatter over the past 3 decades or so. More of us are fat, and we are fatter than ever before. There is no great mystery as to why this is. We are eating more and moving about less.

There is a KFC near where I live. It is a drive-through. On my way past, I have noticed a big sign inviting people to get a "bucket" to take home. So, not only do you not have to exert yourself even to walk a few yards from car to table, but you get your food in a bucket! I grew up on a farm, and we fed the animals from buckets.

She's right, Eureka, let's not blame everything on genetics as well; I don't think that human dna has much changed since 2 generations ago.

Last edited by The_Face_of_Boo on 20 Aug 2014, 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't disagree at all that there are plenty of people who simply eat too much and exercise too little. I just wanted to point out that everyone is a little different when it comes to metabolism (with the exception of identical twins). While most of us can stay at a reasonably healthy weight by getting some exercise and being judicious about what we eat, some people can eat everything in sight, never get off the couch, and never gain an ounce. Other people can exercise religiously, eat a very calorically-restricted diet, and never lose an ounce. It is a very real phenomenon, so blaming obesity solely on lazy, gluttonous behavior is not taking into account the bigger picture of genetically-dictated metabolic rates.

It's a lot like calling all women gold-diggers, or all men cheaters - blanket generalities are not always true.

It's the hormones. The hormones in certain foods can effect you too. That even causes some kids to develop very early.

Did you live with them? Me and Marcia just gave concrete examples how many people falsely think they eat little or healthy but in fact they don't.

Also....losing weight isn't really in exercising, do you know that? Sport doesn't burn much fat, it just makes you overall healthier and sexier; but losing weight is all about the diet.

Some studies show that too much wheat + sugar are lead causes to obesity.

What's the typical American breakfast? Cornflakes? Pancakes? So here you go.

Have you ever tasted the choco Kellogg's thing? I mean wtf, there's like a ton of sugar in that thing.

And that popular nesquik, f**k, how do they drink this s**t? At my previous workplace they were used to put nesquik for hot chocolate in our coffee machine and since I love hot chocolate at work in winter I've tried this s**t and went straight away afterward to the nearby supermarket to get this: http://www.pavi.com.mt/productImages/5000312000694.jpg no sugar, pure cacao powder, I would add like one teaspoon of sugar to a mug.

Last edited by The_Face_of_Boo on 20 Aug 2014, 3:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I have lived with a number of them (including almost everyone in my adopted mother's family). I have seen exactly what they eat - in some cases, for medical reasons (diabetes ran in the family), they had to keep a food diary. I personally would have starved to death on the <1000 calories/day that they were allowed (in some cases, for short periods, they had to stay below 600 calories/day). I have also lived with the opposite type I described - those who can consume 3000+ calories daily (sometimes upwards of 12,000), never exert themselves in any way, and be hard-pressed to maintain their existing weight.

I do acknowledge that some people simply do eat too much, but that absolutely is not a one-size-fits-all reason for obesity.

People burn fat at different rates, it's that's simple. Growing up in a family full of people with low metabolisms (on my adopted mom's side) and super-high metabolisms (on my adopted dad's side), I have seen every diet strategy known to mankind. The only one that is even remotely reliable for long term weight maintenance is "eat less, move more." You have to do both. Unless you're one of those genetically gifted types who simply don't gain weight, no matter what.

People's metabolisms haven't shifted drastically over the past few decades though. That might go some way towards explaining why some people are heavier than others, or why some people find it easier to lose weight. What it doesn't explain is why so many more people are overweight and obese, and why they are so much heavier than 20 or 30 years ago.

I was an undergraduate in the 1980s and I returned to the same university to study 20 years later. People asked me if much had changed. "Yes", I'd reply. "The Reading Room is full of computers instead of books and the girth of the students has increased."

I'm 6'0" 200-210lbs but don't look overweight at all. I think it's more in my thighs. I have a strong lower body. Not much muscle definition.
The way I look , people would easily say 175-185 give or take.
But I honestly think it's in my legs. When I played football, guys in the locker room stared at them because some said,
"you've got treetrunk legs dude". And that was when I was only 150lbs.
So I am starting to guess that most my weight is at the bottom. Because I barely have a belly. Lol