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Losing weight why is it so hard for so many people?

Thalassa

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Man, I disagree on that. In a way, soup is like a taste test of a whole culture. Every culture has a standout soup or two (or at least soup like meals). Gumbo, Pho, Miso, NE Clam Chowder, Goulash, etc..

OMGZ I had the best freaking pho last weekend, it was like soup from heaven.
 

ceecee

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Yeah, on the other hand I dont buy the whole new ad campaign from coke in the UK suggesting that its a great beverage provided everyone is an athelete, the message in Supersize Me was pretty clear, there's no reason to consume that sort of thing, its all a modern era innovation which chimes with or has succeeded in engineering cravings and needs, its not safe or a good idea in any sort of diet.

That would never fly in the US. Everyone knows coke or any pop/soda is a huge contributor to obesity and every health issues related to it.
 

Rail Tracer

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I hate minestrone.

I do love soup though. Mostly homemade borscht, or broccoli cheddar and french onion in restaurants.

I consume a great deal of soup.

I got 99 soups, and minestrone ain't one.

Lol, it is great because a lot of soups use the mirepoix base (at least the more western soups,) which consist of celery, carrots, and onion. However, Minestrone actually includes celery, carrots, and onion into the recipe and not as a soup base itself (because the base of minestrone should be beans.) For me, when I've tried minestrone, it was..... ohhhhhhh sooooo goood. Simple ingredients, but also so healthy when you make it yourself without all that salt.

I just remembered it solely because people think "healthy" foods are better with store bought ranch dressing (which made me think celery and carrots.)
 

ceecee

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I just remembered it solely because people think "healthy" foods are better with store bought ranch dressing (which made me think celery and carrots.)

And the store bought ranch is full of crap too. People....:doh:

Anyway I made some corn chowder from corn I picked and froze in the summer last week. It was so good I could have finished the pot by myself. I wouldn't choose a burger over that.
 

Rasofy

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irony-its-everywhere.jpg
 

Stigmata

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hmm I wonder if it's because different people have really different body physiology and metabolism and appetites Nahhh that's crazy talk, fat people must just be unaware of the benefits of dieting and exercise!

While those are relevant factors in specific instances, in most cases people it seems as if know what steps they'd need to take to become healthier but lack the will-power. The urge to succumb to the instant-gratification of something tasting good outweighs their ability to make good eating decisions.

In theory, weightless is extremely simple: consume less overall, exercise more, avoid specific things whenever possible, but in actuality it's extremely hard to overcome those mental hurdles and to have the delayed-gratification.
 

KDude

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While those are relevant factors in specific instances, in most cases people it seems as if know what steps they'd need to take to become healthier but lack the will-power. The urge to succumb to the instant-gratification of something tasting good outweighs their ability to make good eating decisions.

In theory, weightless is extremely simple: consume less overall, exercise more, avoid specific things whenever possible, but in actuality it's extremely hard to overcome those mental hurdles and to have the delayed-gratification.

You don't necessarily need to eat less. Just eat better. The kind of things people usually go for instant gratification with are usually things they need the least (sugar especially). And the obese don't move enough to burn all of that off. Straight to the ass.
 

Rail Tracer

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And the store bought ranch is full of crap too. People....:doh:

Mostly Salt and Fat. :D

My family has like a few of them in a container. And...well... we haven't touch them in what feels like ages.

Anyway I made some corn chowder from corn I picked and froze in the summer last week. It was so good I could have finished the pot by myself. I wouldn't choose a burger over that.

The corn chowder definitely sounds better than a hamburger. I'm actually looking at recipes right now.
 

INTP

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because many people dont know how to do it properly
 

Quinlan

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This is a better list:

I'm not sure why people exclude the Pacific islands, West Indies and the Middle East, this gives a better perspective:

Rank Country % Overweight or obese
1. Nauru 94.5
2. Federated States of Micronesia 91.1
3. Cook Islands 90.9
4. Tonga 90.8
5. Niue 81.7
6. Samoa 80.4
7. Palau 78.4
8. Kuwait 74.2
9. United States 74.1
10. Kiribati 73.6
11. Dominica 71.0
12. Barbados 69.7
13. Argentina 69.4
14. Egypt 69.4
15. Malta 68.7
16. Greece 68.5
17. New Zealand 68.4
18. United Arab Emirates 68.3
19. Mexico 68.1
20. Trinidad and Tobago 67.9

Source: World Health Organization.
 

KDude

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I wonder why Egypt is up there? That whole civil war revolved around food more than democracy.
 

Quinlan

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I wonder why Egypt is up there? That whole civil war revolved around food more than democracy.

Note how pretty much all of them are either deserts or islands, environments that strongly favour obesity genes and select against low fat mass.
 

FDG

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Note how pretty much all of them are either deserts or islands, environments that strongly favour obesity genes and select against low fat mass.

Sorry? Deserts favor against low fat mass? :shock::shock:
 

KDude

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Sorry? Deserts favor against low fat mass? :shock::shock:

It could be the general mode is "I'm not going to eat for awhile", so you stuff yourself. But in a typical desert lifestyle, you're also moving a lot (I think?), so you're burning energy as well. It should balance things out.

In America (and maybe just modern life in general), people are eating as if they'll never eat again, but practically hibernating at the same time. You can't do both.
 

Quinlan

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Sorry? Deserts favor against low fat mass? :shock::shock:

Should I say desert environments favour genes that conserve energy over those that may waste it. If you don't extract and store as much energy as possible then you will die or not pass on your genes (infertility?). The same thing occurs on islands where if for some reason there is a problem with your food supply you can't just move somewhere else (at least without a dangerous ocean voyage that would itself favour those that tend to conserve energy).
 

Orangey

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Mexico is 2nd.. Hmm, not really surprised, I guess. They don't live in excess like the US, but their food is full of red meat and carbs. I'm surprised Greece is up there though. Usually I hear the traditional Greek diet as being sort of ideal.

I would think that the problem with Mexican food is more to do with fats than red meat or carbs (though, yeah, that diet is high carb.) Seriously, everything is prepared with lard and/or involves cheese, and there is a lot of deep frying going on.
 

Thalassa

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I'm interested in these numbers. They say "overweight OR obese." Overweight by BMI sometimes can be a joke, as we all know, and has been established in other thread.

I'd rather see numbers of people who are actually OBESE or SIGNIFICANTLY OVERWEIGHT, and is there some way to measure it besides BMI?

A lot of the cultures named value an appearance of being well-fed, too.

In Argentina, meat is actually cheap compared to the United States, one of my Argentine friends was telling me about this; so they eat a lot of red meat, but they also eat a lot of Italian foods like prosciutto and cheese with bread, as well as completely Argentine delights, like deep fried savory empanadas with chimichurri sauce.

So...what I'm saying is that okay...you have a culture like Mexico or Argentina where they find curvier women more desirable...and I'm sure this is the case with some of the other countries...so right there this might skew the numbers toward what would only be considered slightly overweight, and then by BMI standards, perhaps not even REAL health standards.

Do you get what I'm saying? Then you're lumping those cultures in with a place like the U.S. where there's actually a lot of OBESE people.
 

Thalassa

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I would think that the problem with Mexican food is more to do with fats than red meat or carbs (though, yeah, that diet is high carb.) Seriously, everything is prepared with lard and/or involves cheese, and there is a lot of deep frying going on.

Eh ...yeah but a lot of the staples of their diet are actually things like beans, rice, fresh tortillas, eggs, and chiles. A lot of the deep fried stuff is more like special or heavy food, though I do agree they eat a lot of cheese.

But so do French people.

The lard could be the problem, but also reference what I said in my last post about BMI, lumping in overweight with obese, standards of cultural beauty, etc.
 

Orangey

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Eh ...yeah but a lot of the staples of their diet are actually things like beans, rice, fresh tortillas, eggs, and chiles. A lot of the deep fried stuff is more like special or heavy food, though I do agree they eat a lot of cheese.

But so do French people.

The lard could be the problem, but also reference what I said in my last post about BMI, lumping in overweight with obese, standards of cultural beauty, etc.

Yeah, I'm not commenting on beauty standards or what anyone should be eating. I'm just saying that fats like bacon fat or pork lard, which Mexican cuisine is steeped in (you mentioned beans...you just forgot the "refried" in lard part), probably have more to do with making people fat than eating red meat. Or even carbs (a tortilla isn't that bad...but a tortilla literally fried in fat IS.)
 
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