America is more Obese than ever before (lose weight, expensive, cost)

[BigRedBeth]

Originally Posted by Luckyd609

You cannot out exercise a bad diet. Diet AND exercise are needed to lose and keep off the weight. Exercise without a calorie deficit will not amount to losing weight. Diet is 90% of the equation.

Refined carb foods is junk food. Don't blame doctors for this epidemic. People in this day and age know what constitutes good and bad foods. They also know that eating huge portions of food is not good idea either. Blaming doctors is just lazy.

Good post. I lost weight a few years ago on a program that included packaged food, and lots of coaching. Kept it off by eating mostly whole foods, very little processed, and simply stopping eating when I am no longer hungry. Exercise as well. Very simple.

[blisterpeanuts]

Originally Posted by Good4Nothin

Medical doctors are telling people it doesn't matter what they eat, all that matters is the number of calories. That is not true.

People are also being told, by the researchers and professionals, that increasing exercise is not the way to lose fat. Of course it is, but people believe their doctors.

The obesity epidemic is caused by refined carbohydrates, processed food, and inactivity. We all know this. But the "experts" are saying otherwise.

What's your evidence that calories don't matter? Who are the experts saying exercise doesn't matter? Please provide a link or two.

Based on personal knowledge and experience, I can testify that:

1. Exercise is absolutely necessary and everyone agrees, from doctors to nurses to life coaches. We're designed to run and hide, climb and fight, every day. We die without exercise.

2. Caloric intake is directly related to weight. There's the famous case of a Kansas State professor who lost 27 pounds on a Twinkie diet over 2-3 months. No one is saying you could survive on such a diet long term, but there is definitely a mathematical relationship between energy input and output.

3. We live sedentary lifestyles and eat too much. Everyone knows this, but it's incredibly hard to reprogram our bodies and minds to more healthy habits.

Speaking for myself, I've put on a lot of weight in late middle age. I'm now going to a gym 4-5 days a week and doing both weights and vigorous cardio such as swimming and elliptical. When I hurt my back/hip back in January, I had to stop for four months, and I put on a good ten pounds! Luckily, that's over and I'm back to exercise, hoping to get back outside and running/biking pretty soon.

A few years ago, I tried a caloric diet using the MyFitnessPal phone app (there are several like it including Weight Watchers, but MFP came highly recommended). Over a period of six months, I dropped about 25 pounds, but then I lost the discipline and gained it all back. Now I've started a low carb regime, hoping to cure myself of sugar cravings, then will go to moderate low carb diet and restricted caloric intake for long term weight loss and maintenance.

This is tough stuff. You can't tell other people to stop eating. You can't make them exercise. You can't be like Mayor Bloomberg in NYC and ban jumbo soft drinks. It's a matter of slowly, methodically educating the population, giving them tax incentives, health insurance incentives, and FOR GOD'S SAKE stop with this "fat pride" thing that's sprung up. Fat is nothing to be proud of, though of course it shouldn't be shamed either. It's a life threatening condition that requires serious lifestyle adjustments to fix.

Just my 2c

[pikabike]

Big changes are easier to make if not done like flipping an on-off switch. In other words, you don’t have to reduce refined carb intake by “quitting” sugar. You use less of it. As time goes on, if you then taste something that used to be eaten frequently—say, ordinary hamburger buns or bigname sandwich breads—it will taste sickeningly sweet. They are loaded with sweeteners. Once your body has reset itself like that, listen to it and avoid the stuff it knows is bad.

Likewise, after you have incorporated exercise into your daily life in a way that is NOT crash-and-burn, skipping a day feels unpleasantly weird, unless you actually need a day off from having overdone things. Our bodies cannot evolve fast enough to adapt to highly-processed foods and a sedentary life. They just pack on fat, and the rest of the system is thrown off balance.

[Mikala43]

My husband's kids make fun of me for healthy eating, which is fine, there is no malice.

BUT, the youngest, is now asking all kinds of questions (he is not over for dinner any more). My education (nagging) about sugar just recently hit home and he was freaking out about all the sugar in his gatorade. Then I pointed out the servings in that container was 3, so multiply the sugar times 3.......

So now he is a crazy label checker, and has eliminated a lot of that from his diet... on his own. He is on a kick to eat much healthier over the last year and always has a list of questions every morning on our way to the gym.

So obviously, none of that is being taught in any class, and if they do NOT get it from home, they don't get it at all.

[Luckyd609]

Originally Posted by Mikala43

My husband's kids make fun of me for healthy eating, which is fine, there is no malice.

BUT, the youngest, is now asking all kinds of questions (he is not over for dinner any more). My education (nagging) about sugar just recently hit home and he was freaking out about all the sugar in his gatorade. Then I pointed out the servings in that container was 3, so multiply the sugar times 3.......

So now he is a crazy label checker, and has eliminated a lot of that from his diet... on his own. He is on a kick to eat much healthier over the last year and always has a list of questions every morning on our way to the gym.

So obviously, none of that is being taught in any class, and if they do NOT get it from home, they don't get it at all.

Good for you to get him looking at labels and making healthier choices. I think most adults know to look at labels but choose not to for fear of what they will learn about what they are putting into their bodies.

Schools should have a nutrition segment starting in elementary school and then being reinforced through middle and high school.

[Mikala43]

Originally Posted by Luckyd609

Good for you to get him looking at labels and making healthier choices. I think most adults know to look at labels but choose not to for fear of what they will learn about what they are putting into their bodies.

Schools should have a nutrition segment starting in elementary school and then being reinforced through middle and high school.

I am so for education in schools on this, and so disappointed they took away the healthy requirements for school lunches.

[boxus]

Originally Posted by blisterpeanuts

What's your evidence that calories don't matter? Who are the experts saying exercise doesn't matter? Please provide a link or two.

Based on personal knowledge and experience, I can testify that:

1. Exercise is absolutely necessary and everyone agrees, from doctors to nurses to life coaches. We're designed to run and hide, climb and fight, every day. We die without exercise.

2. Caloric intake is directly related to weight. There's the famous case of a Kansas State professor who lost 27 pounds on a Twinkie diet over 2-3 months. No one is saying you could survive on such a diet long term, but there is definitely a mathematical relationship between energy input and output.

3. We live sedentary lifestyles and eat too much. Everyone knows this, but it's incredibly hard to reprogram our bodies and minds to more healthy habits.

Speaking for myself, I've put on a lot of weight in late middle age. I'm now going to a gym 4-5 days a week and doing both weights and vigorous cardio such as swimming and elliptical. When I hurt my back/hip back in January, I had to stop for four months, and I put on a good ten pounds! Luckily, that's over and I'm back to exercise, hoping to get back outside and running/biking pretty soon.

A few years ago, I tried a caloric diet using the MyFitnessPal phone app (there are several like it including Weight Watchers, but MFP came highly recommended). Over a period of six months, I dropped about 25 pounds, but then I lost the discipline and gained it all back. Now I've started a low carb regime, hoping to cure myself of sugar cravings, then will go to moderate low carb diet and restricted caloric intake for long term weight loss and maintenance.

This is tough stuff. You can't tell other people to stop eating. You can't make them exercise. You can't be like Mayor Bloomberg in NYC and ban jumbo soft drinks. It's a matter of slowly, methodically educating the population, giving them tax incentives, health insurance incentives, and FOR GOD'S SAKE stop with this "fat pride" thing that's sprung up. Fat is nothing to be proud of, though of course it shouldn't be shamed either. It's a life threatening condition that requires serious lifestyle adjustments to fix.

Just my 2c

Lol, we die anyway.

At that, cannot out run a fork. A person can exercise all day and still be obese, just as a person can sit on the sofa all day and be as thin as a toothpick.

[Mikala43]

Originally Posted by boxus

Lol, we die anyway.

At that, cannot out run a fork. A person can exercise all day and still be obese, just as a person can sit on the sofa all day and be as thin as a toothpick.

Sure, and some can eat whatever they want and not exercise and still be thin (me for the first 30 years. ).

But thin should not be the only goal, and health should always be.

So whether or not you are obese exercise almost always improves your health.

My goal is to live as long, and as healthily as possible.

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by boxus

Lol, we die anyway.

At that, cannot out run a fork. A person can exercise all day and still be obese, just as a person can sit on the sofa all day and be as thin as a toothpick.

Thin without exercise is not healthy, either.

[blisterpeanuts]

Originally Posted by pikabike

Big changes are easier to make if not done like flipping an on-off switch. In other words, you don’t have to reduce refined carb intake by “quitting” sugar. You use less of it. As time goes on, if you then taste something that used to be eaten frequently—say, ordinary hamburger buns or bigname sandwich breads—it will taste sickeningly sweet. They are loaded with sweeteners. Once your body has reset itself like that, listen to it and avoid the stuff it knows is bad.

Likewise, after you have incorporated exercise into your daily life in a way that is NOT crash-and-burn, skipping a day feels unpleasantly weird, unless you actually need a day off from having overdone things. Our bodies cannot evolve fast enough to adapt to highly-processed foods and a sedentary life. They just pack on fat, and the rest of the system is thrown off balance.

You can accomplish it gradually, but frankly it's easier and simpler to just stop all carbs for a week or two. It puts your body into ketosis, you switch to burning your fat reserves, and once there, you can gradually add moderate carbs back, e.g. one apple a day (20g carbs).

I find that after being in ketosis for a while, I no longer crave sweets. In fact I look at them like a kind of poison. Eat something sweet and it sets you back, knocks you out of ketosis, and stalls your weight loss.