Genetics and Obesity? (health issues, vitamin, carbohydrate, lose weight)

[Tiickled]

What if I start to eat 1200 calories a day? Will I start losing weight naturally with no exercise? The only time I can exercise is on weekends. How much weight could I lose in a month if I eat the same amount of food that will amount to 1,200 calories a day?

[jade408]

Originally Posted by Tiickled

What if I start to eat 1200 calories a day? Will I start losing weight naturally with no exercise? The only time I can exercise is on weekends. How much weight could I lose in a month if I eat the same amount of food that will amount to 1,200 calories a day?

Instead of just going to 1200 calories tomorrow, start small. Count calories for a week. See how many you eat daily.

Then cut 10%. And try this for a few weeks. You'll start seeing small successes, and you will feel like you can do it!

Then cut another 10% and improve the quality of your calories (more lean proteins, whole grains and produce, less processed food).

Keep going until you have cut enough but still feel satisfied. Add servings of produce as well so you are getting 7-10 a day, mostly veggies.

Cutting calories drastically, quickly can sap your energy, make you cranky and kill your motivation. 1200 calories is tough.

You'll find your happy medium and start losing, and it won't be so soul crushing as cutting your calories drastically. (my happy medium to lose is 1600)

[Luckyd609]

Originally Posted by Tiickled

What if I start to eat 1200 calories a day? Will I start losing weight naturally with no exercise? The only time I can exercise is on weekends. How much weight could I lose in a month if I eat the same amount of food that will amount to 1,200 calories a day?

1200 calories might be a bit low. I would shoot for 1500. As long as your calorie intake is less than the amount that you burn whether you exercise or not you will lose weight. Now you can do little things throughout the day that will count as exercise. You can park your car in the furthest parking spots from stores or wherever you are going. You can always choose to take the stairs. You can stand up and walk in place and raise your arms over your head for minutes at a time. You can choose to use your lunch break by walking. On the weekends you can get more of a workout in. The point is to move your body. Do not remain sedentary for too long a period of time. As the weather gets warmer go for a walk after dinner.
Do not worry about how much weight you will lose in a specific period of time. Just concentrate on eating well and moving your body. The weight will come off in due time.

[nancy thereader]

These are very helpful and kind suggestions & I thank you for that.

[stepka]

Originally Posted by jade408

Nope it's the food not the people. All the processed crap we eat the replaced the whole foods versions are causing the problems

It doesn't take much digging to find genetically identical and very similar Native Americans without the diabetes problems. It is totally the change in diet. Check out the book The Jungle Effect by Daphne Miller for some great research on this topic (and reducing incidence of chronic disease by eating the right foods in the right combos.)

Um that's the point I was trying to make. Obviously these people were not fat and diabetic when the white men came over so it's got to be the food. In other words, they're not genetically programmed to be diabetic and obese but they do have a genetic inability to deal with European food and I'd guess that many Native Americans have problems with wheat and dairy. Of course we can say this about any race--caucasians actually have fewer problems with diabetes than other races, all other things being equal but no race is immune. My what a legacy we've unleashed on the world and it's not something I'm proud of.

[BigDGeek]

Genetics loads the gun.

Environment pulls the trigger.

I think some people (myself included) are genetically predisposed to obesity, but you can overcome it with a solid exercise regimen and close attention to diet.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by stepka

Um that's the point I was trying to make. Obviously these people were not fat and diabetic when the white men came over so it's got to be the food. In other words, they're not genetically programmed to be diabetic and obese but they do have a genetic inability to deal with European food and I'd guess that many Native Americans have problems with wheat and dairy. Of course we can say this about any race--caucasians actually have fewer problems with diabetes than other races, all other things being equal but no race is immune. My what a legacy we've unleashed on the world and it's not something I'm proud of.

It is specifically american food, not "white" food. Everyone else in the world is still eating minimally processed stuff in whole forms.

The book I mentioned had a perfect example, the author had eastern European roots. Her grandma made borscht "in the old country" and it was made of fresh beets and veggie broth. But when her family moved to the US, the fresh beets were replaced with canned ones and the broth was replaced with sour cream -- since it was more convenient. So the original version was healthy, and the new version was more processed. The same thing happened to the bread. The bread from the "old country" was whole grain....and we all know what american bread is like.

Or how about italian food and italian american food? A world of difference.

So I don't blame white people, I blame American ingenuity.

[stepka]

Originally Posted by jade408

It is specifically american food, not "white" food. Everyone else in the world is still eating minimally processed stuff in whole forms.

The book I mentioned had a perfect example, the author had eastern European roots. Her grandma made borscht "in the old country" and it was made of fresh beets and veggie broth. But when her family moved to the US, the fresh beets were replaced with canned ones and the broth was replaced with sour cream -- since it was more convenient. So the original version was healthy, and the new version was more processed. The same thing happened to the bread. The bread from the "old country" was whole grain....and we all know what american bread is like.

Or how about italian food and italian american food? A world of difference.

So I don't blame white people, I blame American ingenuity.

I mostly agree with you b/c obesity didn't explode in this country until the 20th century and Weston Price discovered populations all over the world that were quite healthy until they were exposed to what he called "foods of commerce." But the difference for Native Americans and the reason I'm using them as an example is the fact that certain foods that the whites brought over, such as wheat and dairy, may not be tolerated well by them at all, even in their unprocessed form. We've had 10,000 years of farming behind us and some time to evolve into this diet but they have not and there are still many whites who don't tolerate this diet well either. This is true of other races that didn't have this diet in their culture--I'm thinking of Asians, Pacific Islanders, Africans, and Oz aborigines--if all have the double whammy of not being able to tolerate wheat very well, and half their diet is composed of Little Debbie snack cakes (I"m exaggerating for effect but this is true of many people around the world) then they will have more problems than whites eating the exact same foods. And even when they try to eat healthy-- let's say they eat yogurt cups for breakfast instead of fruit loops, but maybe they don't tolerate dairy very well.

Since I'm picking on Native Americans, and I swear this is not racist!--I'll just mention corn. Can't say I know a whole lot about it except that I find it interesting that scientists are still not completely sure of what the parent plant is. I've heard that it might be teosinte, but there are some reasons it might not be that either, but any way you look at it, corn has come a long way, no, has bred a long way from its original ancestor. I don't know that I've heard of anyone having an intolerance to it and if anything, it's a little too digestible. And of course, we've come in and messed with that too and made the sugar content much higher than it was in 1492. An amusing observation that I've made about corn is that when wild animals get into it they get just as obese as any modern day American--mom was feeding it to her squirrels and they could barely get off the ground and my rat terrier was almost able to catch one.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that almost everyone on earth would be better off to eat a native diet of wild game and wild berries and black walnuts or whatever came from their ancestral home, but of course that's not even possible, given the population on earth. If you look at the numbers of animals that sit on top of the food chain, well let's just say there are a lot more rabbits than there are wolves, so we have had to learn to eat mainly starchy plant foods and the trick is to learn to thrive on them and we're going the wrong way by taking them and turning them into something worse than what we started with. We must take what is available to us and learn which combinations are healthiest for us and it may not be the same for everyone, and then learn to prepare them in the healthiest way possible. And for some people that means they're going to have to learn to cook! Convenience will kill ya.

Oh, and it's not quite true that everyone else in the world still eats minimally processed foods. It's more true for those countries, but believe me they have the appetite for this stuff too. When we were in Vietnam, we noticed that the people there are slimmer than anywhere else, but some VN people told me that diabetes is exploding there and I guessed that it's for 2 main reasons--1. junk food is more widely available there and the fattest VN people we was were those running the snack stands and stores and 2. a few years ago they made the switch from regular bicycles to motorbikes and almost everyone has one now. I have never seen an Asian eat brown rice, and it's no longer true that French women don't get fat and we saw overweight people everywhere we went. The main difference is that you don't see people who are massively obese like you do here. It is true that America has about the worse bread in the world, but at least if you search you can buy some at bakeries or learn to make it yourself and puffy white wonder bread is no longer the norm, even here.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by stepka

Oh, and it's not quite true that everyone else in the world still eats minimally processed foods. It's more true for those countries, but believe me they have the appetite for this stuff too. When we were in Vietnam, we noticed that the people there are slimmer than anywhere else, but some VN people told me that diabetes is exploding there and I guessed that it's for 2 main reasons--1. junk food is more widely available there and the fattest VN people we was were those running the snack stands and stores and 2. a few years ago they made the switch from regular bicycles to motorbikes and almost everyone has one now. I have never seen an Asian eat brown rice, and it's no longer true that French women don't get fat and we saw overweight people everywhere we went. The main difference is that you don't see people who are massively obese like you do here. It is true that America has about the worse bread in the world, but at least if you search you can buy some at bakeries or learn to make it yourself and puffy white wonder bread is no longer the norm, even here.

It's that pesky american ingenuity and culture, it is like a virus spreading all over the world. It is definitely pretty sad. Let's consider something like Pad Thai. I am sure in Thailand it is made with crushed peanuts and whole tomatoes. In America, ketchup and peanut butter are the main ingredients.

(I don't think white rice is the villan we make it out to be. I think that generally speaking Asians are pretty slim is the abundance of veggies in their diet, compared to the standard American diet. Conversely, supposedly in a few spots in Japan, brown rice has been part of the diet for a while as well.)

It is really sad the uniquely American phenomenon of totally fake food is catching on elsewhere, as well as American suburban car culture.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by stepka

Since I'm picking on Native Americans, and I swear this is not racist!--I'll just mention corn. Can't say I know a whole lot about it except that I find it interesting that scientists are still not completely sure of what the parent plant is. I've heard that it might be teosinte, but there are some reasons it might not be that either, but any way you look at it, corn has come a long way, no, has bred a long way from its original ancestor. I don't know that I've heard of anyone having an intolerance to it and if anything, it's a little too digestible. And of course, we've come in and messed with that too and made the sugar content much higher than it was in 1492. An amusing observation that I've made about corn is that when wild animals get into it they get just as obese as any modern day American--mom was feeding it to her squirrels and they could barely get off the ground and my rat terrier was almost able to catch one.

It is pretty interesting how different "wild corn" is from regular corn. Or even looking at the corn used to make masa vs regular corn. I read a book talking about the change in corn, there was a native american group that called themselves "People of the Corn" but in reality, us americans are the real "people of the corn," so many of our processed foods contain corn in some form.