Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I eat healthy. Roughly 2000 calories a day and about 2500 during the weekends. I work out 3 times a week and currently weight roughly 72-73kg. And like most, I agree that good diet and exercise can allow for amazing body transformations for most people.
However, when it comes to obese individuals I think this meme of "just eat less move more" is actually bull****.
I use to believe that as well before I started working out, but after I started educating myself about the human body and how it treats/responds to nutrition, I am now much more sceptical about the idea that obese people are merely obese because they can't change their lifestyle, and believe that many (I said MANY, not all) of their claims about how they can't lose weight might actually be valid. The reason I believe this is because of the fallowing facts (which most people don't know about or understand):
1. Metabolism.
How fast your body burns energy/fat changes depending on how much you eat. If start eating less than before you lose weight for a while, but then your body adapts and starts slowing down your metabolism making weight/fat loss harder. Your body does this to protect you from starvation (it's not like your body cares you are trying to get abs, it just wants you to live). This means the typical argument of "your body can't create energy out of nothing" isn't as valid as it sounds, because by eating less your body will start spending less energy to begin with.
2. Every time you get new fat you did not have before your body generates new fat cells.
When you get rid of fat you lose some fat but your fat cells will not go away. Ever. Your fat cells allow your body to remember your max bodyfat percentage you have ever obtained so that it can more easily obtain it again in the future should you increase your caloric intake. Again, this is a survival mechanic.
3. Your body adapts to the manner in which you live.
Calories in, and calories out. That's how it works, right? No it doesn't. Your body is a living machine that spends the energy you give it depending on what it believes it should be used for. If a person has been very active for most of it's life then your body will adapt to that fact and is more likely to invest calories into muscle building instead of converting them into fat. In a similar manner, if somebody has been obese and inactive since they were small your body will slowly start defaulting into just converting everything into fat because it sees no reason to do anything else. The more active or obese the person is the greater this effect will be.
The point being:
While none of what I said above makes it impossible for "normal fat people" (individuals who are merely fat rather than disgustingly obese) to get back down to normal weight, for individuals who have obtained extreme levels of bodyfat and maintained it for long periods of time, the damage they have caused to their body mechanics via accumulation of large amounts of fat cells, slow metabolism, and the obtaining of a body behaviour that defaults to storing fat rather than building muscle, it is very possible that they will never be able to get back down to normal bodyfat again.
That doesn't mean they can't lose weight. But there is a big difference between losing weight and actually going back to normal. If a 250kg person loses 70kg, that's a lot of lost weight, but the person would still be obese. Things like genetics no doubt play a role, as some obese people might be luckier than others. But generally speaking, I think that for many people obesity might not be something they will ever be able to properly get rid off.
A special note:
Note this doesn't mean obese people aren't to blame for their condition. It's still their fault they got obese in the first place. Also note that nothing of what I said should be considered as an excuse to not try and lose weight. There is also a difference between merely being pretty fat and having high levels of obesity.
The reason I felt the need to create this thread is that I don't like the elitism coming from the fitness community which heavily promotes the idea that obese people are only lazy. I mean don't get me wrong, MOST of them ARE lazy. But there is more to it then that.
Hope this information was helpful and informative
EDIT: Honestly I think this thread should be stickied.
I think, we have enough fat bashing threads in here.
Wtf I was writing an argument AGAINST the idea that obese people fail to lose weight merely the because of obese people being lazy. How is this fat bashing? Because I said most obese people became obese in the first place because they eat too much?
I have only known one obese person while I have been an adult. I used to work with him and eat lunch with him at least 1 time a week. He only eat salad at lunch, but every time he got the salad he also coated the entire salad with dressing. But when we would have a conversation, he would always say that he only eat 2000 calories a day. His salads were more then 2000 calories, but he has convinced himself that he was eating healthy.
He had to quit working because of weight associated health problems. It was really sad because he was a very good person and proficient at his job. He was 43 when he had to quit.
I eat healthy. Roughly 2000 calories a day and about 2500 during the weekends. I work out 3 times a week and currently weight roughly 72-73kg. And like most, I agree that good diet and exercise can allow for amazing body transformations for most people.
However, when it comes to obese individuals I think this meme of "just eat less move more" is actually bull****.
I use to believe that as well before I started working out, but after I started educating myself about the human body and how it treats/responds to nutrition, I am now much more sceptical about the idea that obese people are merely obese because they can't change their lifestyle, and believe that many (I said MANY, not all) of their claims about how they can't lose weight might actually be valid. The reason I believe this is because of the fallowing facts (which most people don't know about or understand):
1. Metabolism.
How fast your body burns energy/fat changes depending on how much you eat. If start eating less than before you lose weight for a while, but then your body adapts and starts slowing down your metabolism making weight/fat loss harder. Your body does this to protect you from starvation (it's not like your body cares you are trying to get abs, it just wants you to live). This means the typical argument of "your body can't create energy out of nothing" isn't as valid as it sounds, because by eating less your body will start spending less energy to begin with.
2. Every time you get new fat you did not have before your body generates new fat cells.
When you get rid of fat you lose some fat but your fat cells will not go away. Ever. Your fat cells allow your body to remember your max bodyfat percentage you have ever obtained so that it can more easily obtain it again in the future should you increase your caloric intake. Again, this is a survival mechanic.
3. Your body adapts to the manner in which you live.
Calories in, and calories out. That's how it works, right? No it doesn't. Your body is a living machine that spends the energy you give it depending on what it believes it should be used for. If a person has been very active for most of it's life then your body will adapt to that fact and is more likely to invest calories into muscle building instead of converting them into fat. In a similar manner, if somebody has been obese and inactive since they were small your body will slowly start defaulting into just converting everything into fat because it sees no reason to do anything else. The more active or obese the person is the greater this effect will be.
The point being:
While none of what I said above makes it impossible for "normal fat people" (individuals who are merely fat rather than disgustingly obese) to get back down to normal weight, for individuals who have obtained extreme levels of bodyfat and maintained it for long periods of time, the damage they have caused to their body mechanics via accumulation of large amounts of fat cells, slow metabolism, and the obtaining of a body behaviour that defaults to storing fat rather than building muscle, it is very possible that they will never be able to get back down to normal bodyfat again.
That doesn't mean they can't lose weight. But there is a big difference between losing weight and actually going back to normal. If a 250kg person loses 70kg, that's a lot of lost weight, but the person would still be obese. Things like genetics no doubt play a role, as some obese people might be luckier than others. But generally speaking, I think that for many people obesity might not be something they will ever be able to properly get rid off.
A special note:
Note this doesn't mean obese people aren't to blame for their condition. It's still their fault they got obese in the first place. Also note that nothing of what I said should be considered as an excuse to not try and lose weight. There is also a difference between merely being pretty fat and having high levels of obesity.
The reason I felt the need to create this thread is that I don't like the elitism coming from the fitness community which heavily promotes the idea that obese people are only lazy. I mean don't get me wrong, MOST of them ARE lazy. But there is more to it then that.
Hope this information was helpful and informative
EDIT: Honestly I think this thread should be stickied.
I read this post in disbelief. Then I got to the end and literally LOL'd.
I can't decide what's worse - this inaccurate post based on anecdotal evidence or the fact that you believe that it should be a sticky.
I eat healthy. Roughly 2000 calories a day and about 2500 during the weekends. I work out 3 times a week and currently weight roughly 72-73kg. And like most, I agree that good diet and exercise can allow for amazing body transformations for most people.
However, when it comes to obese individuals I think this meme of "just eat less move more" is actually bull****.
I use to believe that as well before I started working out, but after I started educating myself about the human body and how it treats/responds to nutrition, I am now much more sceptical about the idea that obese people are merely obese because they can't change their lifestyle, and believe that many (I said MANY, not all) of their claims about how they can't lose weight might actually be valid. The reason I believe this is because of the fallowing facts (which most people don't know about or understand):
1. Metabolism.
How fast your body burns energy/fat changes depending on how much you eat. If start eating less than before you lose weight for a while, but then your body adapts and starts slowing down your metabolism making weight/fat loss harder. Your body does this to protect you from starvation (it's not like your body cares you are trying to get abs, it just wants you to live). This means the typical argument of "your body can't create energy out of nothing" isn't as valid as it sounds, because by eating less your body will start spending less energy to begin with.
2. Every time you get new fat you did not have before your body generates new fat cells.
When you get rid of fat you lose some fat but your fat cells will not go away. Ever. Your fat cells allow your body to remember your max bodyfat percentage you have ever obtained so that it can more easily obtain it again in the future should you increase your caloric intake. Again, this is a survival mechanic.
3. Your body adapts to the manner in which you live.
Calories in, and calories out. That's how it works, right? No it doesn't. Your body is a living machine that spends the energy you give it depending on what it believes it should be used for. If a person has been very active for most of it's life then your body will adapt to that fact and is more likely to invest calories into muscle building instead of converting them into fat. In a similar manner, if somebody has been obese and inactive since they were small your body will slowly start defaulting into just converting everything into fat because it sees no reason to do anything else. The more active or obese the person is the greater this effect will be.
The point being:
While none of what I said above makes it impossible for "normal fat people" (individuals who are merely fat rather than disgustingly obese) to get back down to normal weight, for individuals who have obtained extreme levels of bodyfat and maintained it for long periods of time, the damage they have caused to their body mechanics via accumulation of large amounts of fat cells, slow metabolism, and the obtaining of a body behaviour that defaults to storing fat rather than building muscle, it is very possible that they will never be able to get back down to normal bodyfat again.
That doesn't mean they can't lose weight. But there is a big difference between losing weight and actually going back to normal. If a 250kg person loses 70kg, that's a lot of lost weight, but the person would still be obese. Things like genetics no doubt play a role, as some obese people might be luckier than others. But generally speaking, I think that for many people obesity might not be something they will ever be able to properly get rid off.
A special note:
Note this doesn't mean obese people aren't to blame for their condition. It's still their fault they got obese in the first place. Also note that nothing of what I said should be considered as an excuse to not try and lose weight. There is also a difference between merely being pretty fat and having high levels of obesity.
The reason I felt the need to create this thread is that I don't like the elitism coming from the fitness community which heavily promotes the idea that obese people are only lazy. I mean don't get me wrong, MOST of them ARE lazy. But there is more to it then that.
Hope this information was helpful and informative
EDIT: Honestly I think this thread should be stickied.
Actually, you are not correct. Medical issues are true for some, but the majority can lose weight if they eat less, and eat right.
Case in point: My BIL suffered from pneumonia that almost killed him in February of this year. A LOT of that had to do with the fact that he was O-BESE. The guy was HUGE. He was in the hospital for just a bit over 2 weeks, one of those weeks he was in an induced coma on a ventilator in a bed that moved him around because he was so obese, they had to turn him on his stomach in the rotating bed so that he could get oxygen in his system. Otherwise, his weight was crushing down on his lungs.
Granted, he did lose some weight while in that state...that's a given.
When he got out of the hospital and back home to continue recovery, he was told that not only did he have to recover before going back to work, he had to lose weight. His Dr refused to allow him back to work while he was considered "obese".
So, my sister started feeding them practically only fruits and veggies. They have some meat here and there but it's chicken, mainly, and some pork. I don't see a whole lot of beef in there anymore. Even if they have meat, they mostly have fruits and vegetables. There is no sugar. There are no more potatoes, bread, rice dishes. There's no more milk unless it's some kind of gross nut milk like cashew or almond milk..or coconut milk. She is using far more healthy alternatives when she is cooking...no more oil, she uses coconut juice, whatever it is. No more butter, she's using something that is made of something else that tastes like butter but isn't. The pop? Gone. No snacks like crackers, chips, things like that.
Within a single month, he has dropped 70 pounds. That is how obese he was, and that is how unhealthy he was eating before all of this happened. (That loss does NOT include the weight loss while he was in a coma in the hospital....he's lost over 100 pounds in total since the middle of February.)
So your body will adapt to what you put in to it. If you eat healthy, your body will shed the pounds. In addition, that healthy eating has made my sister's MS flare ups happen far less than they did. She's not as tired as she was. Her legs don't hurt like they did. She has more energy.
They are also getting on that treadmill that sat in their living room for who knows how long. He does it not only for the weight, but also for his lungs. Before he got sick? The only exercise they got was from the car to the couch and picking up the remote.
I am not happy that he got so sick that he almost died. I can't even imagine what that would have done to my sister, and of course, he is way too young to be dying. However, to find a positive in anything, I have to realize that because he almost died, he is now slimmer, getting in shape, eating so much better than he was, and I think will, in turn, have a long life instead of the short one that my sister was so worried about. She was terrified it would be a heart attack that killed him....she never imagined pneumonia. But now he has a really good chance at a very long, healthy life....and that is because they completely and totally changed their eating habits, and he's getting up and exercising. I'm really impressed by them both. It's not easy to cut out all of the foods that taste so good, that are easy. It's not easy to get up and do that exercise when you haven't exercised in years...I'm absolutely amazed at their desire to do this, their resolve to do this, their willpower to do this...there's things that they do that drive me crazy, but damn if they haven't impressed the hell out of me with this complete night and day change. They literally changed overnight. And it's showing.
Seeing an obese person is like coming across a homeless person or addict. You wonder how they got there and in the same instance think thank God I was spared that experience. Unless you walk in their shoes it can only be imagined.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
