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

[Thalassa]

So you see...if you were never fat to begin with, you are at an advantage. However, it is much harder to remain at a normal weight if you were once fat.





*edit* I just did some research (translation: Googling) and found that this is apparently that some studies have found that this is not the case in some lucky individuals. In some people, the number of fat cells does not increase, so they have an easier time losing weight and keeping it off than those who unfortunately have an increase in fat cell number. Also, I've found other things that say whether or not you will have an increase in the number of fat cells is actually dependent on different locations of your body.

The reason why I don't think it applies to everyone is because I think it mostly applies to people who were fat as children or teens. That's why I think childhood obesity is child abuse.

If you grow up fat, you have a harder time of ever seeing yourself as an average person, let alone a slim one. You also develop horrendous eating and exercise habits that are much tougher to break in adult life.

It's much easier for me to stay active because I've always been active. I was heavier at one point in my adult life after leaving an abusive relationship, where I was more sedentary and depressed and it also had something to do with Lexapro an anti-depressant I took; however, as soon as I STOPPED TAKING LEXAPRO my shorts literally fell off of me. Once that happened, I became more active again and changed my entire life and found that I felt back in touch with my real self, my childhood self, when I was constantly active and it helps me to live in a warmer, sunnier climate.

I think fat people sometimes stay fat not because of fat cells but because of their mind, and the mind is harder to change if it was formed that way before adulthood, or is how they've seen themselves or been comfortable for their whole lives; it's much easier to be in shape again after being chubby for two years in adult life when you were always an active person who had a nice body before that period of life.

It's largely in the mind.

 

[/DG/]

The reason why I don't think it applies to everyone is because I think it mostly applies to people who were fat as children or teens. That's why I think childhood obesity is child abuse.

If you grow up fat, you have a harder time of ever seeing yourself as an average person, let alone a slim one. You also develop horrendous eating and exercise habits that are much tougher to break in adult life.

True.

I was more sedentary and depressed...Lexapro an anti-depressant I took

I'm sorry, but this is an entirely different situation than the average overweight person. Weight gain is a known side effect of anti-depressants. Not to mention depression itself can cause weight gain and lethargy. When you were depressed and taking anti-depressants, of course you were going to gain weight. And after you got better, you had more energy to exercise.

I think fat people sometimes stay fat not because of fat cells but because of their mind, and the mind is harder to change if it was formed that way before adulthood, or is how they've seen themselves or been comfortable for their whole lives; it's much easier to be in shape again after being chubby for two years in adult life when you were always an active person who had a nice body before that period of life.

It's largely in the mind.

I think you're missing the point. Yes, the mind is a powerful thing. And yes, old habits are can be very hard to break, but being and staying overweight is caused by a multitude of factors. It's not all in the mind. It's a very large factor, yes, but there are many others.


Personally, I don't think the answer to the obesity problem is getting rid of all of the junk food out there. Here are my opinions:
(Warning: May be boring and full of BS. Skip to #3 for the main idea.)

1. My thoughts are that poor, overweight people are in a different situation than some. If you want to feed your family, you can either go to McDonald's and get a whole meal for a few bucks, or you can go spend the same amount of money in a grocery store and only get a few fruits. It might save medical bills in the long run, but this isn't much of a concern when your family is poor. There's also a matter of lack of education. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to fix these.

2. In general, diets don't work. Stop trying to cut fats or carbs or dairy out of your meals. I realize this is fairly obvious, but it's a shame that societies push this concept so hard. You don't need to count calories or anything. You don't need to pop special diet pills or starve yourself. Just eat reasonably. This means don't eat McDonald's and chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Also, eat a variety of foods. That's it. Nothing special. Most people probably don't even need to change the way they are eating right now. If you do it right, you might able to get away with eating massive dinners. Why? Keep reading.

3. This is one the key. In order to solve the obesity problem, I think we need to find better ways to exercise. Why better ways? You could go running or to the gym, right? Yes, but many people find these absolutely fucking boring! Exercising isn't supposed to be a chore, it should be fun! I had a terrific way to exercise, and unfortunately I can't exercise this way anymore. As of now, I could go running on the treadmill I have in the basement...and I've tried it. But it's so terribly boring that I just stopped doing it. This is why it's absolutely key to find an exercise you enjoy, which in my experience is very difficult. And hell, if you exercise enough, you may be able to enjoy three platefuls of dinner every night. Did you ever hear about how much food Michael Phelps crams into his face every day? It's absurd! Yet, he is able to do so because of how much he exercises.

IMO, if society worked more on figuring out what ways people liked exercising, rather than what diet pills are most marketable, we would be a much thinner society.

 

[Lark]

I believe people make losing weight harder than it actually is, I've been able to lose a lot of weight by eating right and doing a doing cardio routine maybe 2-3 times a week? It doesn't take a rocket science book to figure this out. Chances are if it tastes nasty and green and makes you fart, it's probably pretty damn good for you, gobble that shit up.

I got 99 problems but broccoli aint one.

 

[Abbey]

People don't lose weight for the same reason that someone doesn't accomplish any given goal.

They lose sight of their ambitions and dreams because the reward presented to them in the moment is more tangible and real to them then a future (and more satisfying) reward.
It's called the art of being disciplined, an acquired skill for some. I have yet to obtain it.

 

[Thalassa]

True.


I'm sorry, but this is an entirely different situation than the average overweight person. Weight gain is a known side effect of anti-depressants. Not to mention depression itself can cause weight gain and lethargy. When you were depressed and taking anti-depressants, of course you were going to gain weight. And after you got better, you had more energy to exercise.



I think you're missing the point. Yes, the mind is a powerful thing. And yes, old habits are can be very hard to break, but being and staying overweight is caused by a multitude of factors. It's not all in the mind. It's a very large factor, yes, but there are many others.

Yes, endomorphs physically have a harder time losing weight than mesomorphs or ectomorphs. I'm a meso-endo, so I burn fat pretty easily because of the amount of muscle, but my genetic pre-disposition toward being large-breasted means that I was never intended to be "skinny" even when I'm very fit. Good thing there are a lot of men who like my body type, though, I mean there seems to be no lack of them, despite myths that men only want size 0 women. It appears that a size 4 is quite alright with many of them, as long as you're proportionate and toned.

That's another issue. Just because someone isn't a slender ectomorph doesn't mean they're overweight or fat.

Personally, I don't think the answer to the obesity problem is getting rid of all of the junk food out there. Here are my opinions:
(Warning: May be boring and full of BS. Skip to #3 for the main idea.)

1. My thoughts are that poor, overweight people are in a different situation than some. If you want to feed your family, you can either go to McDonald's and get a whole meal for a few bucks, or you can go spend the same amount of money in a grocery store and only get a few fruits. It might save medical bills in the long run, but this isn't much of a concern when your family is poor. There's also a matter of lack of education. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to fix these.

I do. It's called education. Poor people CAN eat better, trust me, I grew up in West Virginia in a working class family, and there is no shortage of beans, cornbread, and greens, which a pretty healthy, high fiber, high nutrient and not terribly fatty home cooked meal. My grandparents had their own garden and grew their own veggies.

Education is the problem with the poor. The media has convinced them all they can afford is McDonald's and they've been conditioned to think McDonald's tastes good (it really doesn't, when you're exposed to other foods) so lack of education and lack of experience tends to go into what makes poor people fat.

When I worked in a grocery store, I saw people spend all of their foodstamps on chips, cookies, and frozen pizzas. It wasn't because of lack of income that they purchased these things.

We live in a culture where there are "children's menus" as if we should bow to a child's every whim to eat pizza or cheeseburgers; they don't do that shit in France, little French children eat asparagus and brie, and they aren't nearly as fat, collectively, as Americans are.

There actually is some wisdom to the old SJ stereotype of eating what your parents told you to. I don't think it's fair to force a child to finish everything on their plate, but I think there's a lot of wisdom in telling them what they're going to eat for dinner until they reach a certain age.

2. In general, diets don't work. Stop trying to cut fats or carbs or dairy out of your meals. I realize this is fairly obvious, but it's a shame that societies push this concept so hard. You don't need to count calories or anything. You don't need to pop special diet pills or starve yourself. Just eat reasonably. This means don't eat McDonald's and chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Also, eat a variety of foods. That's it. Nothing special. Most people probably don't even need to change the way they are eating right now. If you do it right, you might able to get away with eating massive dinners. Why? Keep reading.

I mostly agree with this.

3. This is one the key. In order to solve the obesity problem, I think we need to find better ways to exercise. Why better ways? You could go running or to the gym, right? Yes, but many people find these absolutely fucking boring! Exercising isn't supposed to be a chore, it should be fun! I had a terrific way to exercise, and unfortunately I can't exercise this way anymore. As of now, I could go running on the treadmill I have in the basement...and I've tried it. But it's so terribly boring that I just stopped doing it. This is why it's absolutely key to find an exercise you enjoy, which in my experience is very difficult. And hell, if you exercise enough, you may be able to enjoy three platefuls of dinner every night. Did you ever hear about how much food Michael Phelps crams into his face every day? It's absurd! Yet, he is able to do so because of how much he exercises.

IMO, if society worked more on figuring out what ways people liked exercising, rather than what diet pills are most marketable, we would be a much thinner society.

I agree. I love dancing and yoga and swimming and biking on the beach. I like to walk for transportation when its practical.

I hate gyms. If someone made me join a gym, I'd hate exercise.

Athletic types are also lucky, as they typically love basketball, running or whatever their sport happens to be, and it's a part of who they are.

 

[Thalassa]

I got 99 problems but broccoli aint one.

I actually love broccoli. I crave broccoli. Lima beans, mmm.

"Good for you" foods are not gross if they're prepared properly, or if you figure out which ones suit you better.

Like I'm not a big fan of raw carrots, I'm just like really, why? But mmm cucumbers and broccoli.

I think telling people to eat food that really doesn't taste good isn't the answer. Very few people will stick with a diet that isn't satisfying to their palate.

But your palate CAN and DOES become more sophisticated with experience and by removing things like excess added sugar.

 

[trancemode]

That's why I think childhood obesity is child abuse.

This judgment may be a little bit extreme in some cases, but not all. I’ve known of obese people who got that way at least in part because they were forced to overeat as kids.

I’m no expert on the topic, being one of those hated people who can eat what I want without gaining weight. However, it’s hard not to notice that the more obsessed we’ve become with weight control in the US, with all the over-the-counter diet and weight loss pills, trendy diets, etc., the more obesity has become a national epidemic. Like depression. We’re the feel good society, with all the latest anti-depressants and the top self help gurus and bestsellers like The Secret to help cleanse (or lobotomize) us of our sinful negativity, yet depression seems to have grown proportionately worse.

 

[Ingrid in grids]

I think there's too much information and noise out there giving people advice on how to lose weight. Really, it should come from a good awareness of what your own individual body needs and wants. Of course, if a person has only ever maintained a very unhealthy self-destructive diet and an inactive lifestyle, gaining that intuition will be a greater shift and require more work—it makes sense to go out look how-tos.

Most people fall by the wayside because they can't see their success. These people ought to get a BIA test done. BIA stands for bioelectrical impedance analysis and tests for body composition. In the test, a very weak electrical impulse is sent through your body. The test can measure fat percentage, muscle mass, quality of muscle, water retained outside of cells, water retained inside of cells, etc.

I was having trouble losing 'weight' when I went in to get a BIA done. My BIA test showed pretty bad results—I needed to put on 3.5kg of muscle (and also improve the quality of muscle); I was dehydrated and was holding way to much water outside of my cells and not enough inside of myself; and I also needed to lose fat. When I received these results, my goals shifted. I focused on building muscle and I also stopped listening to all the advice on how much or how often I should eat, and started eating an amount that made me feel balanced, which turned out to be about 2-3 meals a day—I stopped trying to force feed myself the recommended 6 small meals. I kept getting the BIA tests done weekly, then fortnightly. Having this sort of data was much more motivating. I found scales pretty demotivating.

 

[kyuuei]

In the attempt to avoid a sarcastic reply to the OP..

I think people's relationship with food is different now. Even right now, I'm eating foods that I LIKE to eat, and I am upset that I am on a diet. It is a temporary thing, one month long and I am only two days into it today, and I already am all frowny-face about it. You're raised eating a certain way, and that's the way it is. The environment around you, the way your friends and family eat, advertisements, they all shove these messages down your throat on a daily basis whether you want them to or not. People doing extreme diets almost always isolate themselves or do it with a group of friends. There is a social aspect to it.

There are plenty of people with physiological disorders that keep them from losing weight--but all of those are eclipsed in America by the mentality of convenience we have. We don't have a healthy relationship with food, and the people we surround ourselves with tend to not either. It takes a lot of will power for me to stick with a diet like mine right now while my parents are eating whatever they please every night. Enchiladas, one of my favorite dishes, for them tonight--and a black/brown rice mixture, two eggs in a bit of oil, and some soy sauce and miso soup for me. I LIKE ALL OF THOSE FOODS! But I grew up in a house that fosters the mentality of eating as a family.. and so, not eating the same food as them is a bit disheartening for me. The mere fact that I can't have it makes me want it more. It's why diets fail.

I agree with Marm that childhood obesity that is NOT caused by physiological disorders is definitely a form of abuse. Maybe those are extreme words to some, but I don't find that to be so in my heart. Parents, to me, have a responsibility to take their child's health and put it into a high priority.. It is arguably more important than their education, and it certainly contributes to their safety. My parents were not very strict about what we ate--but we did NOT go to McDonald's every week, and my parents made sure our tails were outside no fewer than five times a week playing with other kids in some way, shape, or form. TV was reserved for the evenings when it was dark and in the mornings while waiting for the bus. Video games could be played on Saturday nights where we got to stay up as late as we wanted.

Parents just don't seem to have the rigid demeanor they once did. Even my parents, whom created these strict rules in me, are now slacking off so much and turning more and more to convenience foods and convincing themselves they don't have time to cook the way they used to (even though they were both way busier back then) and I feel that the advertisements and media of today (as well as bad-for-you-food now being way cheaper than home cooked meals without proper planning and shopping) contribute sooo so much to this mentality.

 

[Venom]

You also can't balance out CONSTANT sitting with one 30 minute leisurely walk per day.

Bingo. It's all about hitting that breaking point where you actually have momentum! All the little shit doesn't matter. Would our body be so stupid as to gain/lose 10s of pounds in a year just by adding/subtracting a glass of orange juice? No. Our body prefers homeostasis and little changes like that are accounted for to keep us in stasis. The little s&&& just doesn't matter IMO. Your body is controlled by hormones and the food you eat and the way you live is shuffled around based on those hormones to keep you at homeostasis.

It has to be BIG momentum to actaully change someone's hormone expression. If you sit around 23 hours a day outside of gym time your body still will express hormones like someone who sits around 23 hours a day! Humans were not meant to live sitting on their asses all day. Every new computer job means one more fat f&&& that humanity has to account for.

That's the problem. It doesn't mean we have to be hiking or hunting all day. It doesn't mean we need 4, 6, 8 hours of "activity" either. We need jobs that have people not chained to desks and computers. Hell you can be inside. We need to get rid of the office clothes too. Those clothes are designed to be anti-movement. Suit jackets and button down are designed to make you immune to actual natural movement.

I went from 160 to 200 from office jobs over a two year period. I remember that i easily dropped down to 180 within months of quitting for a more active job. Diet and "exercise as an activity in my planner" had nothing to do with it.

 

[entropie]

I have yesterday seen a serious documentation about the latest in fitness and health and there they presented the "short burst intense training method". This is actually one method I could imagine to excercise in the daily work life.

It goes back on human evolution, where the hunters ran thru the field chasing an animal. In the moment of the hunt they had an intense burst of energy, to then later relax again or to have an equalized load. Intense training method says that you for 5 days a week should exercise about half an hour a day. For that you can for example use a home bicycle. Then you run on the bicycle for 4 minutes on full power and then you take it easy for 30 seconds. Then again 4 minutes full power and so on.

If you havent done sports in a while like me, you should start easy on that. Then 30 minutes of easy bicycling should be it and that way you get more trained. If you havent done sports in a while, you shouldnt go running in the field aswell. The strain on the human joints and skeleton would be high so that sport injuries could happen. Rather start bicycling and then work your way up when you feel you are getting fitter.

The documentation said that the greatest problem is our daily life. If you work an office job for example, you have a resting pulse allday long that equals to the pulse you'd have when you sleep. So the body never gets to power up and therefore he gets bad at the ability to burn fat. The consequences will be diabetes, which is a common illness for us nowadays.

Another problem is if you work as a waitress for example and have lots of running to do in a day: there the problem is that you never get to sweat. Meaning you have a constant high load on your body but its not high enough to peak the pulse. So if you work as a waitress, one or two times you should do intense jogging in the week.

Last but not least: fitness is encoded in the genes. The human body is an efficiency wonder, meaning it is better at taking on fat reserves than loosing them. Additionally some people are good fat burners but bad fat takers and others are good fat takers but bad burners. So to just say that fat people just eat too much or badly, is pretty stupid. As a matter of fact there are plenty fat people who could eat less than totally skinny people and still not loose weight.

For the people who are good fat takers and bad burners there aint much to do but watch the food they eat: reduce direct fats and indirect fats (sugar, carbohydrates) and eat more vegetables.

Besides all the superficial being skinny maniacism going on all this tips and hints here are still good, cause they are meant to improve your overall health. Health programs that aim to make you loose a lot of weight in only a few months, are not healthy and will never be. Loosing weigth will be a side-effect of living healthy.

I have bought a home-bycicle and am going on it 30 minutes a day 5 days the week. Thats pretty good cause you can still watch TV on it.

 

[Thalassa]

Bingo. It's all about hitting that breaking point where you actually have momentum! All the little shit doesn't matter. Would our body be so stupid as to gain/lose 10s of pounds in a year just by adding/subtracting a glass of orange juice? No. Our body prefers homeostasis and little changes like that are accounted for to keep us in stasis. The little s&&& just doesn't matter IMO. Your body is controlled by hormones and the food you eat and the way you live is shuffled around based on those hormones to keep you at homeostasis.

It has to be BIG momentum to actaully change someone's hormone expression. If you sit around 23 hours a day outside of gym time your body still will express hormones like someone who sits around 23 hours a day! Humans were not meant to live sitting on their asses all day. Every new computer job means one more fat f&&& that humanity has to account for.

That's the problem. It doesn't mean we have to be hiking or hunting all day. It doesn't mean we need 4, 6, 8 hours of "activity" either. We need jobs that have people not chained to desks and computers. Hell you can be inside. We need to get rid of the office clothes too. Those clothes are designed to be anti-movement. Suit jackets and button down are designed to make you immune to actual natural movement.

I went from 160 to 200 from office jobs over a two year period. I remember that i easily dropped down to 180 within months of quitting for a more active job. Diet and "exercise as an activity in my planner" had nothing to do with it.

Yeah it's really scary; sometimes when I look longingly at people's Mercedes-Benz, like my a couple of friends I have whose parents helped them buy one or something, I'm really sorry I wasn't from an upper middle class family; but the truth is I AM SUPER GLAD I AM FROM A SOUTHERN WORKING CLASS FAMILY. I HAD GREAT ROLE MODELS IN TERMS OF HUMAN MOVEMENT.

My ISTJ grandfather was either constantly active or napping. On his days off he still gardened or worked in the yard. When he worked, he did physical labor. When I was growing up, I didn't know ANYONE who didn't at least stand up and walk around constantly when they went to work, if they didn't work even harder than that.

And by virtue of being a Southerner, I knew working class people who owned large swaths of property (a complete oxymoron in urban areas, particularly outside of the South) ...so they grew a lot of their own food.

My dad was a musician, he was probably the most "intellectual" person I knew, aside from my grandfather reading so much non-fiction and Westerns in his free time.

Activity was something that everyone did. Everyone walked around and did stuff. I still have an issue where if I'm not in a nice, atmospheric restaurant, on a park bench, or at a meal with others, I will eat standing up. I will eat walking. I think it's WHY I love restaurants so much, it's like, sit down and just eat your food and enjoy the scenery.

I walk everywhere. Walking is functional and cheap.

I don't really know what it's like not to move, though. Anytime I've gotten depressed and moved less, I felt it in my body, I was so conscious of it.

Doctors have basically stated that people who go to the gym who sit for 8-11 hours a day still have a great risk of things like heart disease.

I could feel it when I was writing/editing for a living. At first I was like "hey cool" and after a while I was like "OMG I FUCKING HATE THIS, HOW DOES ANYONE DO THIS WITHOUT KILLING THEMSELVES."

I couldn't sit still. I couldn't stay at a desk.

 

[FDG]

Doctors have basically stated that people who go to the gym who sit for 8-11 hours a day still have a great risk of things like heart disease.

It depends on what kind of exercise they primarly focus on, if they - for example - choose an approach similar to the one described by entropie, they'll likely manage to be fit (even in terms of health). If they just work on their chest, like most gym guys do, then no lol.

 

[Thalassa]

It depends on what kind of exercise they primarly focus on, if they - for example - choose an approach similar to the one described by entropie, they'll likely manage to be fit (even in terms of health). If they just work on their chest, like most gym guys do, then no lol.

Nope.

I read an article in L.A. Yoga that stated that it's really not enough to just go to the gym and get on the walking machine or what have you if your ass sits at a desk 10 hours a day, and advised that people constantly attempt to stand up or move around while working at a desk job, taking the stairs, etc.

No, it's not just about type of exercise, it's sum total of time being sedentary versus being active.

 

[entropie]

Yeah it's really scary; sometimes when I look longingly at people's Mercedes-Benz, like my a couple of friends I have whose parents helped them buy one or something, I'm really sorry I wasn't from an upper middle class family; but the truth is I AM SUPER GLAD I AM FROM A SOUTHERN WORKING CLASS FAMILY. I HAD GREAT ROLE MODELS IN TERMS OF HUMAN MOVEMENT.

My ISTJ grandfather was either constantly active or napping. On his days off he still gardened or worked in the yard. When he worked, he did physical labor. When I was growing up, I didn't know ANYONE who didn't at least stand up and walk around constantly when they went to work, if they didn't work even harder than that.

And by virtue of being a Southerner, I knew working class people who owned large swaths of property (a complete oxymoron in urban areas, particularly outside of the South) ...so they grew a lot of their own food.

My dad was a musician, he was probably the most "intellectual" person I knew, aside from my grandfather reading so much non-fiction and Westerns in his free time.

Activity was something that everyone did. Everyone walked around and did stuff. I still have an issue where if I'm not in a nice, atmospheric restaurant, on a park bench, or at a meal with others, I will eat standing up. I will eat walking. I think it's WHY I love restaurants so much, it's like, sit down and just eat your food and enjoy the scenery.

I walk everywhere. Walking is functional and cheap.

I don't really know what it's like not to move, though. Anytime I've gotten depressed and moved less, I felt it in my body, I was so conscious of it.

Doctors have basically stated that people who go to the gym who sit for 8-11 hours a day still have a great risk of things like heart disease.

I could feel it when I was writing/editing for a living. At first I was like "hey cool" and after a while I was like "OMG I FUCKING HATE THIS, HOW DOES ANYONE DO THIS WITHOUT KILLING THEMSELVES."

I couldn't sit still. I couldn't stay at a desk.

As a matter of fact in the documentary I watched, the one person who was retired but worked in the garden everyday for some hours, had the overall best health. And that tho he was age 68 and a bit overweight. (garden work would be it for germans, cause farmland is scarce )

 

[1487610420]

cuz they are ignorant lazy ass fux addicted to feel.good mentality.

 

[Thalassa]

As a matter of fact in the documentary I watched, the one person who was retired but worked in the garden everyday for some hours, had the overall best health. And that tho he was age 68 and a bit overweight. (garden work would be it for germans, cause farmland is scarce )

Yeah my mom said her aunt who lived to be 92 or 98 or something was a gardener who consistently walked.

I feel pretty certain that unless I contract a rare terminal illness that I'm ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE because of my constant habitual walking (primarily due to not owning a car since I was 23), as well as actual hard aerobic exercise via jogging, aerobic videos, swimming, biking, dancing, and now vinyasa flow yoga.

I am a habitual, steady mover who does spurts of higher activity.

I think habitual, steady moving (like walking, gardening, being one of those people who do housework) is the answer, especially when combined with "real exercise" like periods of focused activity.

I think being exposed to sun and fresh air is also important, as well as a varied diet, including fruits and vegetables, even if you eat some unhealthy greasy stuff.

Other helpful health factors are sex and moderate alcohol consumption. MODERATE. Apparently people who drink moderate amounts of red wine, especially, have overall better health than non-drinkers or heavy drinkers. Better than non-drinkers is probably the surprising part: less strokes, less alzheimer's, less heart disease, less dementia.

I'll probably do some kind of work that is varied or where I have to move for the rest of my life. I WILL NEVER EVER HAVE A 9 TO 5 CHAINED TO A DESK OFFICE JOB.

I'm pretty sure I'd rather wait tables.

 

[FDG]

Nope.

I read an article in L.A. Yoga that stated that it's really not enough to just go to the gym and get on the walking machine or what have you if your ass sits at a desk 10 hours a day, and advised that people constantly attempt to stand up or move around while working at a desk job, taking the stairs, etc.

No, it's not just about type of exercise, it's sum total of time being sedentary versus being active.

It's definitely also related to the type of exercise, the study you mention was in fact focused on low-to-medium intensity exercise, which is ineffective for the reasons you state.

 

[PeaceBaby]

Weight loss is a math equation - expressed somewhat differently for each person to account for their own unique physiology, but a math equation nonetheless.

If you restrict caloric intake and are eating healthily - food in nature's form (not processed foods or excess meat and dairy) and being active, plus getting at least half an hour of brisk walking in a day to boot, you are going to lose weight. Period. Granted, I do think it's easier for some than others, but it's math, plain and simple.

I've done my share of complaining about wanting to lose weight here and there too. It happens when I dedicate myself to it happening.

Plus, there's no one on those weight loss shows who fail to lose, no one. I think it's difficult because people are hard-wired to want to eat high calorie foods from an evolutionary standpoint to ensure survival. Load up in times of plenty. That stuff just tastes better. And sadly, in our highly processed food environment atm, that stuff is just calorie-laden nutritionally deficient crap.

 

[Fidelia]

I think you have to take into account the emotional role that food plays for some people - comfort, a method of dealing with anxiety, entertainment, a way of connecting with the people close to you, keeping people at a comfortable distance, avoiding attention of creepy people etc. I have had a couple of friends who have had lap band surgery, only to discovery that their weight issues were not physical, but emotional. That is much harder to deal with quickly and requires finding suitable replacements for the emotional hole food filled, as well as alternative ways of interacting with people. The older you are, the more difficult that is to do.

I lived on a reserve for five years where the average person would drink several litres of pop a day, have fast food at least once a day, and where normal groceries are pizza pops, poutine, KD, lard, bannock, minute rice, wonderbread, spam and bologna. It is normal to be obese there, and so people's idea of overweight is redefined. I saw a lot of little children who even at 3 years old were walking with bowed legs on the sides of their feet because they were very obese. People who want to live a more healthy lifestyle aren't going to feel like they fit in with their family or friends, so it is hard to make different decisions over the long term. I remember an interview with Jennifer Hudson where she said that in her neighbourhood, there was no stigma for being a size 16 - it was an average size. So I think cultural (or subculture) norms play a role.

In addition, your exposure earlier in life to physical exercise influences how much of a role you think it should play in your life. If you have never played sports or been inside a gym, it is much more intimidating to start without sufficient emotional support and a buddy to do it with. It is often difficult to coordinate schedules with someone else until you are at the point where exercise is a regular, every day part of life.

Allergies also play a significant role in weight retention (particularly water, but also fat). If you have even a mild food allergy (most common with corn, soy, gluten, dairy, sugar), then the resulting inflammation can cause you to gain significant amounts of water weight. Think of how you get a water blister when you have a burn. It's the same idea, but in your internal tissues. I used to have ridiculous edema in my legs, hands, and vocal cords and gained 40 pounds in a very short amount of time. I was getting increasingly desperate as I saw the numbers on the scale shoot up, even as I ate better and exercised more than I ever had in my life. After discovering I was celiac (through a friend - I had been to about 10 doctors with no results and finally got tested for that at her suggestion) and going off gluten, I started losing weight with very little effort. I am still not at an ideal weight, but am also aware that I should be cutting out dairy entirely, as it is a problem for my guts too. Socially though, I find it difficult to be off both dairy and gluten on a long term basis.

Anyway, weight loss isn't solely about calories in and out, even though I think in our culture that is a significant issue and the sheer availability and cheapness of non-nutritious food makes the struggle worse, especially when coupled with stressful lifestyle and not much time.