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I always remember what my doctor when we lived in NO.VA had to say about weight because i do have a weight problem: he simply said, makes no difference what you eat, or when; the amount of calories you consume in one day controls your weight. He said, cut the down by 1/3 and you will lose extra lbs. He wnet so far as to say, you drink all your calories and lose weight but of course he added if we do that, we will end
coming to see him with liver problems
Geography isn't my best subject, but isn't the UK in Europe?
Not anymore
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarisaMay
But American portion sizes are huge. We do not have many buffets here except hotel breakfasts and a few others. They are pretty much out of fashion.
Speaking personally, I have lost weight by cutting down on carbs. But I find when I am travelling that is very difficult.
I spent some time in Italy 40 y/a and had trouble maintaining my weight-- portions there were tiny compared to here. Restaurants give you huge portions for your buck and grocery store prepared foods are also high in cals compared to cooking your own from fresh meat & produce.
The general rule in prescribing diets to diabetics is that it takes 10cal to maintain one lb of bodyweight. Most Americans probably eat 1.5x that.
DD is now in USA and her dad went with her to the local Walmart he saw the big grocery section and was bit amazed at all the factory produced foods. All the varieties of chips,crisps, snacks etc. He usually does spinning/cycling as his sport in EU. In the USA he walked from his airport hotel 23 km early morning to DD college campus and evenings same walk 23 km back again. He has heavy work in EU plus the spinning so he burns massive amounts of calories.
He had a great time eating american foods there, ribs,big steaks, corn breads and beans with bbq sauces etc. It is not something he would be able to do for a longer time, he said food portions there are very big.
Your DD is probably in the southern portion of the USA. Remember, this is an enormous country with varied cuisines. We don't have ribs, corn breads, or beans with BBQ sauces where I live (you could probably find it but you'd have to look hard.) Of course we have our own "poisons": grilled hamburgers, lobsters, cheddar cheese, blueberry muffins, Boston cream pie, clam chowder, pot roast with gravy, chicken pot pie, and very good pizza.
If you go to a restaurant in my part of the country, the foods are different but the portions are still usually huge. When a plate arrives with that amount of food, the person probably feels as though they're expected to eat it. Then they get used to eating huge portions. Then they start going to these "all you can eat" buffets where they stuff themselves.
Over eating becomes a bad habit that's hard to break. At the root of it is the greed of the big food corporations and probably the fast food/chain restaurants. Everyone wants to make money at the expense of the American consumer who falls for the ploy.
Your DD is probably in the southern portion of the USA. Remember, this is an enormous country with varied cuisines. We don't have ribs, corn breads, or beans with BBQ sauces where I live (you could probably find it but you'd have to look hard.) Of course we have our own "poisons": grilled hamburgers, lobsters, cheddar cheese, blueberry muffins, Boston cream pie, clam chowder, pot roast with gravy, chicken pot pie, and very good pizza.
If you go to a restaurant in my part of the country, the foods are different but the portions are still usually huge. When a plate arrives with that amount of food, the person probably feels as though they're expected to eat it. Then they get used to eating huge portions. Then they start going to these "all you can eat" buffets where they stuff themselves.
Over eating becomes a bad habit that's hard to break. At the root of it is the greed of the big food corporations and probably the fast food/chain restaurants. Everyone wants to make money at the expense of the American consumer who falls for the ploy.
Luckily my parents NEVER made me clean my plate, even when we went out to eat in sit-down restaurants. So I never felt obligated to do so.
Now that I pay for my own meals (ha!) I frequently get a to-go box, at least if it is something that can be reheated reasonably well. In fact, I try to leave enough for another full meal for later, even if I might be able to eat a little more at the time. I love paying "half" for a meal!
With regards to dieting and willpower...I don't think anyone here would expect an alcoholic or someone who smokes to be able to kick his habit while at the same time still taking a drink a day or needing to smoke several times a day. But for people who are on diets, that's exactly what they have to do.
Dieting would be super simple if we could just kick the eating habit and still survive, but of course, that isn't going to happen. So instead of going off eating, we have to moderate eating. Can you imagine the success rate of AA if alcoholics wanted to be sober but still had to have a single drink 3 times a day? Or the success rate of smokers wanting to quit if they just had to moderate their smoking?
So before we start blaming people for being fat because they have no will power or personal responsibility, try to remember there's a whole lot more involved than just willpower.
A distance runner burns 570-600 cal/hr. How many hours can most people keep on running? Other exercises involve significant rest periods between spurts of energy-- lower calorie expenditure.
Over what period? The median US marathon runner burns around 570-600 cal/hr at marathon pace, but that's a 4:22 effort for the median marathon runner at a 10:00 mile pace. It's not that difficult to go for an hour at a 10:00 mile pace, much, much easier than going for 4 hours. We're just talking about medians here, not elite levels. You wouldn't even qualify for the Boston Marathon with a 4:22 time unless you were over 70, New York over 75. Normal marathons aren't full of great runners. They're full of average Joe runners.
Personally, I try and get in two runs a week in for about 30-45 minutes at an 8:00 mile pace, but that's just general exercise. I wouldn't call myself a runner. I haven't done any serious running since college but I doubt I'd have trouble holding a 10:00 mile pace for a 10K over an hour. It's barely longer than my normal runs and quite a bit slower. I'd have to some training to do a 10:00 mile pace over a marathon. That's not something I'm interested in doing.
It all comes down to this. Many people do not have that type of self discipline. They will obey traffic laws and not commit crimes, but when it comes to food they can be quite weak.
Not buying it. People have the same range of self-discipline today that they had back in 1950, and obesity was fairly uncommon back then. The difference is the sugar and carb laden food landscape that we have today. The primitive human instinct is to consume these foods as much as possible, because these types of high energy foods were rarely encountered when humans were hunter-gatherers. No amount of self-discipline will overcome that instinctive human drive to consume these foods and store them as body fat.
This is a deliberate plan to generate trillions upon trillions of dollars from consumers by manipulating our bodies and psyches to consume more carb and sugar laden foods, which are dirt cheap to make and incredibly profitable. Remember, here in America - every dollar of profit is a GOOD dollar, right?
Last edited by GearHeadDave; 08-18-2018 at 01:58 PM..
You could write an encyclopedia on what's wrong with the obesity in this country and how we got here.
IMO here's a few:
- The unregulated, unrestricted, limitless access to junk food (in grocery stores, fast food, and restaurants)
- The unregulated, unrestricted, limitless access to massive portions
- The white collar sedentary lifestyle of working in an office
- The addiction to sugar and salt and the greed of food companies to put it in everything
- The massive rise in depression overeating
I do not believe there is any hope for this country. We are long past the point of return. Former NYC Mayor Bloomberg tried to limit soda sizes one time and people lost their damn mind.
Exercise with weight training and cardio, eat clean, and control your portions. That's it. But we cannot control the massive amount of junk in America or what Americans choose to put in their body, which is very unfortunate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SomeGuyInFairfax
It all comes down to this. Many people do not have that type of self discipline. They will obey traffic laws and not commit crimes, but when it comes to food they can be quite weak.
Bingo. You know how you put food in front of a dog and it eats all of it?
Humans are no different. Just because one has a fridge full of food doesn't mean they have to eat it all in a day. Just because you pass by 10 Taco Bells and 5 McDonald's doesn't mean you have to stop by and get something
We take human hunger, and we nourish it with the most caloric dense unhealthy meals and we are going to pay a big price for it.
I work with a few overweight/obese people and they suck down all this sugar and energy drinks. Have they no shame? There is no room for debate sadly, obesity and overweight will be a slow, painful, and expensive death for them. And our tax dollars will fund their ER visits.
You could write an encyclopedia on what's wrong with the obesity in this country and how we got here.
IMO here's a few:
- The unregulated, unrestricted, limitless access to junk food (in grocery stores, fast food, and restaurants)
- The unregulated, unrestricted, limitless access to massive portions
- The white collar sedentary lifestyle of working in an office
- The addiction to sugar and salt and the greed of food companies to put it in everything
- The massive rise in depression overeating
I do not believe there is any hope for this country. We are long past the point of return. Former NYC Mayor Bloomberg tried to limit soda sizes one time and people lost their damn mind.
Exercise with weight training and cardio, eat clean, and control your portions. That's it. But we cannot control the massive amount of junk in America or what Americans choose to put in their body, which is very unfortunate.
I'm in full agreement with all of that except that I don't think that the majority of obese people really "choose" what they put in their body. Sure they THINK they have a choice, but the reality is that the instinct to consume those foods and to store fat is hard wired into our bodies. Sure, some people might be able to overcome that instinct through great and tireless effort, but these will be the outliers. The great majority will become more and more obese regardless, as we are seeing. The food industry understands this innate behavior very well and they will continue to make trillions of dollars of profit at the expense of our health.
Not buying it. People have the same range of self-discipline today that they had back in 1950, and obesity was fairly uncommon back then. The difference is the sugar and carb laden food landscape that we have today. The primitive human instinct is to consume these foods as much as possible, because these types of high energy foods were rarely encountered when humans were hunter-gatherers. No amount of self-discipline will overcome that instinctive human drive to consume these foods and store them as body fat.
This is a deliberate plan to generate trillions upon trillions of dollars from consumers by manipulating our bodies and psyches to consume more carb and sugar laden foods, which are dirt cheap to make and incredibly profitable. Remember, here in America - every dollar of profit is a GOOD dollar, right?
Mostly I agree with you, especially that it's all about profit. Even when you go to the grocery store, you can have a hard time finding the actual food. It's all boxes of prepared junk and the area that has food gets smaller and smaller.
But in regard to the sugar and carbs, people back in the 1950s and 1960s ate a lot of sugar and carbs. There was always pie, cake, brownies, cookies. For dinner there was roast beef with a lot of gravy, meatloaf with gravy, lots of fattening foods.
Some differences are that the food was home made so there were no artificial fillers. And people did get more exercise even if they worked at sedentary jobs. People back then mowed their own lawns and did the rest of their own yard work. They didn't have riding mowers and they usually didn't pay someone to take care of the yard. They climbed ladders to paint the house, they did interior repairs themselves. More exercise without going to a gym.
The portion sizes were normal too. If you had a piece of pie for dessert, that was it. You didn't snack on the pie later on. You usually didn't get ice cream along with the pie. Ice cream would have been a dessert on its own.
I think it's a combination of a lot of things but if people could return to cooking their own meals at home they'd be better off. Keep the junk food out of the house so they're not tempted. Use real ingredients instead of fake. Do your own work instead of paying someone.
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