How I lost 20 pounds in 3 Months (Alli, hysterectomy, daily basis, cardio)
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What about people for whom bad habits were not the cause of their being overweight? For example, if the primary driver is genetics?
See a doctor if you think you might have a genetic condition keeping you from losing weight. Then follow the treatment the doctor recommends (if there is one). If you don't have a genetic condition, stop using that as an excuse. Just because some people have medical challenges does not mean the average person trying to lose weight is doomed to failure.
People with genetic conditions get my sympathy, but let's get real. Most people who are overweight do not have a medical issue. They have bad habits.
In other words, they eat too much and exercise too little. They eat junk food, they don't drink enough water. Their weight is all about bad habits, not genetic conditions.
If you are a typical person, losing weight is about learning better habits. Keeping the weight off is about following those habits for the rest of your life.
Most people who are overweight do not have a medical issue. They have bad habits.
Do you have data to support your claim?
I guess it depends what drives the habit. People who have no eyeballs could be considered to have a "habit" of being blind.
We're not referring to genetic "conditions" such as a disease. We're referring to picking up the genetic predisposition to become overweight.
Twin Studies
""In one famous study, twins raised apart had the body weight of their genetic parent, not the parent who raised them," Laferrere says. "So the genetic contribution is pretty strong.""
"Researchers found that when identical twins were placed in separate adoptive homes, the twins’ bodies looked more like each other’s and those of their biological parents than the bodies of their adoptive parents — the homes in which they were raised."
"Twin studies are a good way to test how far our genes or our environment influence our development.
Identical twins have exactly the same genes, while non-identical twins are genetically different, like brother and sister.
However, because they were born at the same time, and raised in the same household, they can be assumed to have roughly similar upbringing in terms of food.
This allows scientists to measure differences in weight and calculate how much of that difference can be blamed on environment, and how much on genes, even though it doesn't identify individual genes which might be linked to obesity.
They worked out that the effect of a bad environment was far less marked than the effect of a child's genes.
Professor Jane Wardle, who led the study, said: "It is wrong to place all the blame for a child's excessive weight gain on the parents - it is more likely to be due to the child's genetic susceptibility.
"These results do not mean that a child with a high complement of susceptibility genes will inevitably become overweight, but that their genetic endowment gives them a stronger predisposition." "
"The results, showed that identical twins were considerably more likely than fraternal twins to have similar patterns of obesity. For both BMI and waist circumference, genes accounted for about 77 per cent of the variation between individuals, and environmental factors for 23 per cent. "
Once again, we are talking about most people. Not individuals who have specific conditions that need a doctor's attention. If you want to kid yourself that most people are "genetically predisposed to be overweight" go ahead.
Of course, logic points out that if most people really were genetically designed to be a certain size, then that weight wouldn't be considered "overweight," now would it? But go ahead, kid yourself if you want. For some reason people are much fatter than they've been throughout history but it's all because of genetics. Apparently some new genetic mutation that didn't hit our forefathers. Su-u-u-re.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles
I guess it depends what drives the habit. People who have no eyeballs could be considered to have a "habit" of being blind.
Getting extreme to the point of being silly, dontcha think? OK, if you want to go to extremes, here's something to chew on. History's full of tragic events that have shown eating less eventually leads to weight loss, even for those who are "genetically predisposed to be overweight." None of the survivors from WWII concentration camps were portly. Which is an extreme example, of course--starvation is not healthy and certainly not what anyone here is recommending--the point of this example is that the human body loses weight if you eat a lot less, no matter how much you may want to believe it's not possible.
I've known a few families where the entire family was fat! I've gotta say, that they all had horrible eating habits. They all claimed it was genetic (since they were ALL fat) but they all ate and ate and ate. But let's get real, weight gain and loss is usually due to overeating and under-moving. I used to blame it on my dad's side of the family....but it didn't fly. I lost over 40 pounds by exercising a little and eating better food, and less of it!
weight gain and loss is usually due to overeating and under-moving.
This is 100% true.
However, the genetic explanation isn't arguing that they eat too much. The explanation is that they want to eat more than people who aren't genetically predisposed to being obese. When overweight people aren't overweight (as if they lost weight), they are hungrier because their genetics drive them to overeat until they reach their equilibrium weight (or body fat) set point. that also explains why overweight people plateau (at equilibrium) - they don't keep getting fatter and fatter and fatter.
Thats' why one person wants one donut and another person wants five. It's not a habit thing. It's a "want" thing.
Genetics don't change. That's why a person who is predisposed to being overweight will be either hungry (and thin) or fat (and satiated) for the rest of his life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaniMae1
I used to blame it on my dad's side of the family....but it didn't fly. I lost over 40 pounds by exercising a little and eating better food, and less of it!
Is your father overweight? Does it seem you have a similar physiology/genetic makeup? If you lost the 40, are you having an easy time keeping it off?
Thats' why one person wants one donut and another person wants five. It's not a habit thing. It's a "want" thing.
Sounds like you're looking for an excuse, to me. If you want to lose weight it doesn't matter if you want 1 donut or you want 5 donuts. What matters is that you drop the bad habit of eating donuts.
BTW, thinking about whether you want to eat 1 donut or you want to eat 5 donuts is a good way to sabotage yourself. Make a habit of thinking about things that aren't food-related, and you'll have a lot more success.
Sounds like you're looking for an excuse, to me. If you want to lose weight it doesn't matter if you want 1 donut or you want 5 donuts. What matters is that you drop the bad habit of eating donuts.
BTW, thinking about whether you want to eat 1 donut or you want to eat 5 donuts is a good way to sabotage yourself. Make a habit of thinking about things that aren't food-related, and you'll have a lot more success.
There's a difference between an excuse and a reason.
I wish it was that simple (dropping a bad habit - like flipping a switch), but genetics, food control, brain chemistry, physiological feedback mechanisms, anthropological survival mechanisms make it a little more complicated than that.
If it was that simple, then we wouldn't have a nation with such a high percentage of obese people, the overwhelming majority of whom continuously fail to keep the excess weight off.
Nobody ever said breaking a bad habit was easy. Or uncomplicated.
The bottom line is this: if you want to successfully lose weight and keep it off, you have to break your bad habits.
This argument that if a high percentage of Americans are obese then that somehow proves losing weight isn't about breaking bad habits is lame. Also, illogical. Get real, Americans have all sorts of bad habits. Want to know some other bad habits that a high percentage of Americans have?
A high percentage of people don't balance their check books.
A high percentage of people sneeze into their hands, not their sleeve.
A high percentage of people don't floss their teeth.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
Are you going to claim that the reason a high precentage of people don't floss their teeth is due to some genetic predisposition?
These people can come up with all sorts of excuses to defend their bad habits, too. Oh, wait I forgot--not excuses, reasons! (Yah, right.....)All sorts of reasons--and some of them might sound pretty good, too. People are very good at rationalizing their bad habits.
I don't waste my time focusing on people like that because they don't have what I want. I focus on people like Normie, who lost 40 pounds back in the 1980s and has kept it off. Or my various family members who have lost more than 20 pounds since 2000 and have kept it off. Or Antredd, who so far has been very successful IMO. They prove it can be done, and that's all that matters to me.
It's silly to focus on a "high percentage of failure." You know why? Because when I look back over my life I've succeeded at all sorts of things that have a "high percentage of failure."
I have a happy marriage, getting married 30 years ago was one of the best things I've ever done. But according to your logic, no matter how happy I am my marriage is doomed because statistic show a high percentage of marriages fail. You know what else, I have a profitable small business. It's successful even though a high percentage of small business fail. Just sayin--there are all sorts of reasons people fail, no matter what they try to do. And there are all sorts of reasons people succeed, too. Yes, even at weight loss.
Anyway, at this point I've said about what I have to say on this subject. Have the last word, if that's important to you, it's not going to keep me from continuing my diet. I'm sorry you choose to believe all these excuses you've given yourself, but that's your business.
Thanks for the compliment. Yes, for me it really was a matter of eating less, eating healthier foods, and exercising more. I guess it may not work for everyone, but it certainly worked for me and for the people in my support group. I'd like to underscore that it's not enough to lose bad habits for a week or two. You have to stick to your new habits even when you hit plateaus.
IMO, of all the bad habits Americans have, the worst one is a tendency to quit when they don't get instant and dramatic results. That's the bad habit you really need to overcome if you want permanent weight loss.
Are you going to hit plateaus? Probably. I hit a few plateaus. The reason I was ultimately successful is I kept going. Of course the initial reason I kept going was I had an extra incentive (I started my diet for health reasons, not just to look thin). But because I kept going I did indeed lose 40 pounds and I've kept it off for more than 20 years.
Don't let plateaus bother you, when you hit them focus on the fact that eating healthier is good for your health and keep going. Which is another way of saying you have to permanently let go of bad habits.
Some people can simply cut back on the food they eat, others benefit from diet aids. I'm a big fan of some of the diet aids. I didn't personally need them but I've seen them help other people. But what do diet aids do? They help you achieve the same basic goals: eat less, eat better, exercise more.
Even people who lose weight through surgery or other medical techniques have to let go of bad habits. Once the weight is lost, they keep it off following the same plan: eat less, eat better, exercise more.
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