Weight Loss Truisms (Weight Watchers, cardio, running, lose weight)

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Charles

If maintaining goal weight was a matter of money, then there wouldn't be any overweight rich people (Shatner, Orson Wells, Bill Gates, Ryan O'Neal, Elvis, etc).

95% of weight control is food control.

Exercise has very little to do with weight control. For every five calories you burn exercising, you become six calories hungrier.

Fat people aren't fat because they don't exercise, thin people aren't thin because they do.

People aren't thin because they run. They run because they are thin.

There are three types of people: thin people, overweight people, and temporarily thin people. If you are overweight, then you are overweight. If you are thin, then 1) you are thin or 2) you were overweight, you lost weight but you are almost certain to put it back on.

Overweight people are in one sense destined to be miserable the rest of their lives: They'll either be overweight and miserable or hungry and miserable.

It's easier to lose 40 pounds in six months than it is to keep five pounds off for six months.

The easiest way to lose weight and keep it off for good is to change your genes.

The only diet that has ever worked is the HNM diet: Hungry 'N Miserable.

People aren't really fat, they're just short for their weight.

I've got a great body, unfortunately it is inside this one.

I'm not fat, I'm just wearing my lipid suit.

I forgot one:

Overweight people drink Diet Coke.
Thin people drink regular Coke.

[Charles]

Here's another one.

For losing weight, it really doesn't matter too much on what you eat. (It matters, but not nearly as much as you think.) What you eat really does affect your health (cardiovascular for example, cholesterol, etc), but not your weight.

If you put a genetically thin person in a room for a year with nothing but cakes, ice cream, pizza, white bread, cookies, pasta, fried chicken, donuts...He would come out weighing a little more, but not much.

If you put an genetically overweight person in a room for a year with nothing but cantaloupe, lean chicken, whole grain breads, fresh fruits and vegetables, broiled fish, etc...He would lose a little weight, but not much at all.

Quantity control trumps quality control almost every time. If you are overweight it's not what you eat; it is how much you eat.

Thin people don't eat any healthier than overweight people, it just takes them less calories to become satisfied. Overweight people are overweight because it takes more calories to become satisfied.

Education does not change this.
Education won't make that quantity of calories less desirable.
Overweight people are typically the most knowledgeable when it comes to food nutrition, calorie content, etc...and they are still overweight.

There is no solution other than discipline and deprivation.

There is no magic.

[LittleDolphin]

Thin people don't eat any healthier than overweight people, it just takes them less calories to become satisfied. Overweight people are overweight because it takes more calories to become satisfied.

This is simply not true...many slender people eat a whole lot healthier than the overweight do...I've seen what my overweight friends eat and it's a lot of creamy, high-fat, high sugar and fried foods...lots of simple carbs such as white bread (with butter) and store-bought cakes, cookies, doughnuts, ice cream...and sodas, diet and non-diet and sweetened ice tea...now my slender friends eat the opposite...lots of vegetables, whole grains and fruits and low-fat dairy.

Don't believe me? Go to your local grocery store and look in the shopping baskets of the heavy and the slender...world of difference in food choices.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by LittleDolphin

This is simply not true...many slender people eat a whole lot healthier than the overweight do...I've seen what my overweight friends eat and it's a lot of creamy, high-fat, high sugar and fried foods...lots of simple carbs such as white bread (with butter) and store-bought cakes, cookies, doughnuts, ice cream...and sodas, diet and non-diet and sweetened ice tea...now my slender friends eat the opposite...lots of vegetables, whole grains and fruits and low-fat dairy.

Don't believe me? Go to your local grocery store and look in the shopping baskets of the heavy and the slender...world of difference in food choices.

What many people do is irrelevant; it's what the whole population does in general.

What your friends do (what are talking about 10, 25, 50, 100 people?) is irrelevant. The sample size is too small.

If you ever want to know what the healthiest things to eat are, ask an overweight person.

I don't believe you. Overweight people and thinner people buy pretty much the same things. Overweight people just eat more. If thinner people do buy less high cal, high fat stuff, it isn't that much less (as a percentage of their overall shopping list) than overweight people. Thinner people just eat less. It's in their genes for the most part.

[mjohnson4381]

No, all of that is untrue. With the exception of not being satisfied with one potato chip. Everybody has foods that they have trouble controlling themselves around. Mine are Doritos and pizza. The solution is to not buy Doritos or pizza. Out of sight, out of mind.

Some people do have genes and/or health problems working against them. But anybody who really wants to be at a healthy weight can get there.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by mjohnson4381

No, all of that is untrue. With the exception of not being satisfied with one potato chip. Everybody has foods that they have trouble controlling themselves around. Mine are Doritos and pizza. The solution is to not buy Doritos or pizza. Out of sight, out of mind.

Some people do have genes and/or health problems working against them. But anybody who really wants to be at a healthy weight can get there.

What about the 16 hours of the day when you are at work or in a social situation or at a school function or whatever and there is pizza there?


Can you eat calzone? No? OK, Now that is three things.
Fritos? No? Four things.
.
.
.
.......No? 678 things.
I guess it isn't that simple.

Is that all people have to do? Just "really want to be at a healthy weight"? That sounds so simple. I wonder why I didn't think of that. Actually, past my sarcasm, you are 100% correct. It you want to be thin it just takes willpower. No magic. No education. (Overweight people are the most knowledgeable people when it comes to nutrition and calories.)

I thought the only requirements were "change eating habits" and "make smart choices". You know, just flip a switch and all of sudden you are effortlessly thin. It is so easy, just learn to not like pizza, that's all you have to do.

[LittleDolphin]

How many true vegetarians are grossly overweight?? And I don't mean lacto-vegetarians who eat a bunch of ice cream and cheese, but true vegetarians?? Pretty thin crowd, that one. I wonder why? Hard to overeat when you're eating bunches of vegetables...you can eat a truck load of vegetables and stay thin compared to eating the same weight in pizzas.

[LaoTzuMindFu]

Originally Posted by Charles

Let's say you like Lays potato chips (the reader can pick his poison); It is easier to eat no chips than one chip. That's (one of the reasons) why when a plate of cookies or donuts or candy is passed around in a public environment like at work or something, overweight people say "no". Non-overweight people say yes because they can stop at one. Overweight people need six - doesn't look too cool pigging out in public - overweight save the gorging for behind closed doors. (The other reason they say no is because they don't want people whispering "Look at big Alice over there, like she needs that cookie....")

LMAO. You are so totally correct with this. That is so very true.

[mjohnson4381]

Originally Posted by Charles

What about the 16 hours of the day when you are at work or in a social situation or at a school function or whatever and there is pizza there?


Can you eat calzone? No? OK, Now that is three things.
Fritos? No? Four things.
.
.
.
.......No? 678 things.
I guess it isn't that simple.

Is that all people have to do? Just "really want to be at a healthy weight"? That sounds so simple. I wonder why I didn't think of that. Actually, past my sarcasm, you are 100% correct. It you want to be thin it just takes willpower. No magic. No education. (Overweight people are the most knowledgeable people when it comes to nutrition and calories.)

I thought the only requirements were "change eating habits" and "make smart choices". You know, just flip a switch and all of sudden you are effortlessly thin. It is so easy, just learn to not like pizza, that's all you have to do.

Sorry, I didn't realize I had to spell it out to make myself clear. If you really want to be at a healthy weight, you'll figure out what foods you should be eating and what foods you should stop eating and you'll adjust your diet. If you really want to be at healthy weight, you'll also exercise more often. But if all you do is sit around and whine about how you'll never be thin and never do any work, then yeah, you'll probably be overweight forever.

[Jane72]

I'm not sure about these "truisms".
I've always been an average eater, I think; it's hard to know exactly how much everybody else eats, but I don't think I eat outrageously more or less than anybody else. I was never a girl who picked at my food or lived on salad, but neither have I ever been the sort of chick who can eat an entire pizza in one sitting.

I've always been thin. Even after having two babies in 14 months, I was still thin.
But when I hit my 30s and quit smoking (these two things happened simultaneously), I noticed that about five or ten extra pounds settled around my middle.
I didn't like that, so I tried eating less. I felt like crap all the time, and it didn't work. When I tried to restrict my portions, it just made me hungrier later, and for the first time in my life, I started "binge-eating". Which totally sucked.
Then I started walking and riding my bike more, and eventually graduated to running. Now I run nearly every day. The extra flab I put on in my early 30s is gone, and I'm actually somewhat firm and toned for the first time in my life (even when I was younger, I was one of those untoned skinny people). I love the way my calves look, especially.

If I hadn't added the exercise regime, I think I was in danger of falling into slobbishness in middle age, no matter how much or how little I ate.
I probably never would've become obese, but just, you know... sloppy.

Some people seem to have some natural muscle tone, and maybe those are the ones for whom exercise doesn't make that much difference.
But I'm not one of them. I've had to earn every ounce of muscle I've got, and for me, exercise really has been the key in staying fit.