Weight, health & body image
Comments
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The scale only goes to 9? I kid you not there are 2 women and one man in our office pushing 11-13 on that chart. Constantly munching on biscuits, cakes, pizza etc.
I find it/them revolting even though they are lovely people.Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.
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Must admit I find the whole obesity epidemic thing baffling, frustrating and terrifying in equal measure.
I struggle to understand the psychology of people who continue to eat too much despite the fact they've become morbidly obese.
When my trousers feel a bit snug after the Christmas binge, I'm straight back on the 5:2 and soon I'm back to where I want to be. Am I just one of the lucky few?
It's not like smoking which people continue to do despite the known health risks because they think it won't happen to them. Unless they are using something from the hall of mirrors it's blindingly obvious that obesity has happened to them. But still millions appear unable to stop. It's just like the stuff they are eating and drinking is powerfully addictive. Maybe that's it; for some people it's just the same as nicotine, alcohol or class A drugs? Which is quite a depressing thought given how unsuccessful we've been tackling those.
The terrifying part is that the already struggling NHS could actually collapse under a tsunami of blubber and all the health complications it brings0 -
A lot of people enjoy eating. It's that simple. For me to be thin, I either need to do a lot of exercise or eat very little. The latter is perfectly possible, but makes life very dull.Munsford0 said:Must admit I find the whole obesity epidemic thing baffling, frustrating and terrifying in equal measure.
I struggle to understand the psychology of people who continue to eat too much despite the fact they've become morbidly obese.
When my trousers feel a bit snug after the Christmas binge, I'm straight back on the 5:2 and soon I'm back to where I want to be. Am I just one of the lucky few?
It's not like smoking which people continue to do despite the known health risks because they think it won't happen to them. Unless they are using something from the hall of mirrors it's blindingly obvious that obesity has happened to them. But still millions appear unable to stop. It's just like the stuff they are eating and drinking is powerfully addictive. Maybe that's it; for some people it's just the same as nicotine, alcohol or class A drugs? Which is quite a depressing thought given how unsuccessful we've been tackling those.
The terrifying part is that the already struggling NHS could actually collapse under a tsunami of blubber and all the health complications it brings0 -
I often think we're pretty lucky that we enjoy cycling/running as a form of exercise. I'm not suggesting it's an excuse, but I think our roads and driver mentality are a massive barrier to more people taking up cycling. Although, there's nothing stopping people from heading for trails etc. I think half the battle is finding an exercise you have a bit of a passion for.
Obviously, that's a massive aside from the points already mentioned around easy availability of fast food etc.0 -
I think there is an element of addiction in certain types of food (which are also the worst kinds) but people also eat for various reasons other than to fuel their bodies or because they simply enjoy eating. The term comfort food has come about for a reason. In my case I'm at my worst when bored and it is the only real downside I find working from home that I'll go and get some snacks to break up the day. Beyond that there are a whole range of psychological reasons why people overeat, as RJS has said a few times on this thread you need to address those issues rather than just telling people to eat less and exercise more.Munsford0 said:Must admit I find the whole obesity epidemic thing baffling, frustrating and terrifying in equal measure.
I struggle to understand the psychology of people who continue to eat too much despite the fact they've become morbidly obese.
When my trousers feel a bit snug after the Christmas binge, I'm straight back on the 5:2 and soon I'm back to where I want to be. Am I just one of the lucky few?
It's not like smoking which people continue to do despite the known health risks because they think it won't happen to them. Unless they are using something from the hall of mirrors it's blindingly obvious that obesity has happened to them. But still millions appear unable to stop. It's just like the stuff they are eating and drinking is powerfully addictive. Maybe that's it; for some people it's just the same as nicotine, alcohol or class A drugs? Which is quite a depressing thought given how unsuccessful we've been tackling those.
The terrifying part is that the already struggling NHS could actually collapse under a tsunami of blubber and all the health complications it brings1 -
I experienced something of a dilemma this morning. Whilst running into work, as I generally do when overnighting in the Big City, I dropped into Tesco near the office to buy a croissant for breakfast. Unfortunately, there were some TTD salted caramel and chocolate Hot Cross Buns on special offer (80p vs £1.80) which I was unable to resist and of course I downed them in one go with my coffee shortly afterwards. That's circa 900 calories in one go, more than offsetting the beneficial impacts of the run. My colleagues were impressed and appalled in equal measure at the speed with which the buns disappeared.0
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If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.0
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Exactly. And this takes commitment.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
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Anecdotal. I gave up junk food completely while training for a big cycling holiday and I didn't miss it at all after 2 weeks. I had some after I got back and noticed the cravings.Munsford0 said:... It's just like the stuff they are eating and drinking is powerfully addictive. Maybe that's it; for some people it's just the same as nicotine, alcohol or class A drugs?
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There is something to the addiction theory.The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
Anecdotal. I gave up junk food completely while training for a big cycling holiday and I didn't miss it at all after 2 weeks. I had some after I got back and noticed the cravings. There is something to the addiction theory.
There have been various studies on this. The general idea seems to be that it is a behavioural addiction rather than a physical one, such as you may get with nicotine and other drugs.
The theory is that overeating is a psychological compulsion to eat, either for pleasure because food makes us feel good, or over eating to compensate for negative feelings.
I guess this would tally with the notion that it is maybe easier to change someone's eating habits and relationship to food than it is for someone to give up drug addiction, if the former were psychological/behavioural and the latter mainly physical (although I guess there must still be a behavioural element in any form of substance misuse?).
I think the major thing, as per above posts, is that for people wanting to change eating habits, they need a strong level of discipline and commitment to eat well. I guess why some can do this and others struggle is probably a complex mix of various personal traits and issues for each of us as an individual.
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I was born not long after rationing had ended. For the first time what must have seemed like along time for my parents and grandparents food was freely available. So food was used to celebrate things but also as a thing to deal with bad events.
So I tend to reward myself with food and also to cheer myself up.
I suspect this is not uncommon relationship with food.
In order to deal this I had to develop an addiction to exercise.
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I'd argue against this. I have a history of disagreeing with experts. 😉 I didn't have a craving for crisps until after I'd had crisps. I'm back in the no crisps, no cravings zone.MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:Anecdotal. I gave up junk food completely while training for a big cycling holiday and I didn't miss it at all after 2 weeks. I had some after I got back and noticed the cravings. There is something to the addiction theory.
There have been various studies on this. The general idea seems to be that it is a behavioural addiction rather than a physical one, such as you may get with nicotine and other drugs.
....The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
On a few occasions I've done a 3 week 'fat blast' with a PT I know. It's a very basic concept, you log what you eat and can only eat fruit, veg and lean fish / meat (less than 3% fat) and each day you would upload the data from My Fitness Pal plus pictures of your meals to a Facebook site for everyone who was doing it. You could eat as much as you wanted if you stuck to those rules and I would generally find that I would only be eating 1500-1800 calories even if constantly grazing. I had really good results on it, losing 10-12lb over the 3 weeks and because it was high protein / low fat with carbs from healthy sources like vegetables or fruit it got rid of fat (measurements were taken before and after to calculate body fat using the US Navy method). The idea behind it being 3 weeks was that things are supposed to become a habit when you do them for 3 weeks. Unfortunately it never quite worked for me on that side, usually towards the end of week 2 I would be having a few things I shouldn't have to liven the food up a bit and by the end of week 3 I was gagging for some treats.0
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I'd have agreed but is our hunger partly due to the types of food we are eating? When I changed my diet to cut out starchy carbs and simple sugars ( replaced with vegetables, salads, fats) I genuinely stopped feeling hungry.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
We may think we are hungry because we've not eaten much but it could be because our body reacted to that breakfast cereal we ate at 8am with a blood sugar dip at 10:30. If we'd eaten plain Greek yoghurt maybe we'd last until lunch ?[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]1 -
as an aside not many people will know that rationing did not end until 1954webboo said:I was born not long after rationing had ended. For the first time what must have seemed like along time for my parents and grandparents food was freely available. So food was used to celebrate things but also as a thing to deal with bad events.
So I tend to reward myself with food and also to cheer myself up.
I suspect this is not uncommon relationship with food.
In order to deal this I had to develop an addiction to exercise.
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I suspect that's a part of it.DeVlaeminck said:
I'd have agreed but is our hunger partly due to the types of food we are eating? When I changed my diet to cut out starchy carbs and simple sugars ( replaced with vegetables, salads, fats) I genuinely stopped feeling hungry.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
We may think we are hungry because we've not eaten much but it could be because our body reacted to that breakfast cereal we ate at 8am with a blood sugar dip at 10:30. If we'd eaten plain Greek yoghurt maybe we'd last until lunch ?
Reality for me is I really need breakfast before I'm out the door, so I'm eating breakfast at 6am, and my dinner is at 8-8:30pm, so between that there are gonna be long stretches of being hungry.
When I WFH I can eat breakfast later and dinner earlier so I don't have those same stretches.
6-8hrs of not eating will leave you hungry, unless you're overeating.0 -
Not necessarily. I can go for longish periods without getting hungry. Breakfast (cereal) at 8:00 out on the bike at 10:00 ride for 4 hours just drinking sugar free squash. Then shower before eating. Or out on the crag all day with just coffee, squash and a bit of fruit.rick_chasey said:
I suspect that's a part of it.DeVlaeminck said:
I'd have agreed but is our hunger partly due to the types of food we are eating? When I changed my diet to cut out starchy carbs and simple sugars ( replaced with vegetables, salads, fats) I genuinely stopped feeling hungry.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
We may think we are hungry because we've not eaten much but it could be because our body reacted to that breakfast cereal we ate at 8am with a blood sugar dip at 10:30. If we'd eaten plain Greek yoghurt maybe we'd last until lunch ?
Reality for me is I really need breakfast before I'm out the door, so I'm eating breakfast at 6am, and my dinner is at 8-8:30pm, so between that there are gonna be long stretches of being hungry.
When I WFH I can eat breakfast later and dinner earlier so I don't have those same stretches.
6-8hrs of not eating will leave you hungry, unless you're overeating.
Just as your body will store fat it will also burn it, if you train right and don’t go in to red too often.0 -
I wouldn't claim to be at the right weight, but my weight is broadly constant. (BMI circa 22). I mainly sit down a lot and am hungry most of the time. But I also eat a lot.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
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What constitutes a lot? I suspect we're not very good at measuring what a little or a lot is.wallace_and_gromit said:
I wouldn't claim to be at the right weight, but my weight is broadly constant. (BMI circa 22). I mainly sit down a lot and am hungry most of the time. But I also eat a lot.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
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Heres a nice graph of my weight from 2011 till now. I cannot really explain why I haven't succeeded in losing any weight over such a long period. The recent dip is almost 100% due to quitting alcohol.Munsford0 said:Must admit I find the whole obesity epidemic thing baffling, frustrating and terrifying in equal measure.
I struggle to understand the psychology of people who continue to eat too much despite the fact they've become morbidly obese.
When my trousers feel a bit snug after the Christmas binge, I'm straight back on the 5:2 and soon I'm back to where I want to be. Am I just one of the lucky few?
It's not like smoking which people continue to do despite the known health risks because they think it won't happen to them. Unless they are using something from the hall of mirrors it's blindingly obvious that obesity has happened to them. But still millions appear unable to stop. It's just like the stuff they are eating and drinking is powerfully addictive. Maybe that's it; for some people it's just the same as nicotine, alcohol or class A drugs? Which is quite a depressing thought given how unsuccessful we've been tackling those.
The terrifying part is that the already struggling NHS could actually collapse under a tsunami of blubber and all the health complications it brings
I couldn't even tell you why I've continued to plot the graph regardless of success or failure !
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rick_chasey said:
What constitutes a lot? I suspect we're not very good at measuring what a little or a lot is.wallace_and_gromit said:
I wouldn't claim to be at the right weight, but my weight is broadly constant. (BMI circa 22). I mainly sit down a lot and am hungry most of the time. But I also eat a lot.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
I've been able to eat gargantuan amounts and stay roughtly 75kgs for ages. A not-atypical work day would be:
large bowl of muesli
some biscuits during the morning
school lunch with pudding
biscuits & cake during the afternoon
big plate of dinner
pudding with ice cream
some biscuits
couple of slices of buttered bread or toast before bed
I hate feeling hungry.
Essentially, until recently (health's had a bit of a wobble), once I get home in the evening, I would barely stop eating. But I cycle quite a bit (100-150 miles a week) and used to swim energetically four times a week for 30 minutes. Plus I'm a terrible fidget. Hate sitting still.
Somewhat reduced activity now, and have put on a couple of kilos, which I can see. Bu also eating somewhat less, for the time being, as currently off the swimming and fewer miles on the bike than normal.
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In other breaking news on the front of the Times the DiRECT type 2 diabetes trial shows that if you stop doing what's causing you to become diabetic, you might stop being diabetic.================================
Cake is just weakness entering the body0 -
Sufficient that whoever I associate with for a non-trivial amount of time generally comments spontaneously on how much I eat, in the form "How can you eat so much and stay so thin?"rick_chasey said:
What constitutes a lot? I suspect we're not very good at measuring what a little or a lot is.wallace_and_gromit said:
I wouldn't claim to be at the right weight, but my weight is broadly constant. (BMI circa 22). I mainly sit down a lot and am hungry most of the time. But I also eat a lot.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
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Someone overweight in the office said that to me once, when they were eating a miserly lunch.wallace_and_gromit said:
Sufficient that whoever I associate with for a non-trivial amount of time generally comments spontaneously on how much I eat, in the form "How can you eat so much and stay so thin?"rick_chasey said:
What constitutes a lot? I suspect we're not very good at measuring what a little or a lot is.wallace_and_gromit said:
I wouldn't claim to be at the right weight, but my weight is broadly constant. (BMI circa 22). I mainly sit down a lot and am hungry most of the time. But I also eat a lot.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
I then caught them biting into a solid block of cheddar in the office kitchen, so I think that mystery was solved.0 -
It's never a mystery. Just denial!rick_chasey said:
Someone overweight in the office said that to me once, when they were eating a miserly lunch.wallace_and_gromit said:
Sufficient that whoever I associate with for a non-trivial amount of time generally comments spontaneously on how much I eat, in the form "How can you eat so much and stay so thin?"rick_chasey said:
What constitutes a lot? I suspect we're not very good at measuring what a little or a lot is.wallace_and_gromit said:
I wouldn't claim to be at the right weight, but my weight is broadly constant. (BMI circa 22). I mainly sit down a lot and am hungry most of the time. But I also eat a lot.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
I then caught them biting into a solid block of cheddar in the office kitchen, so I think that mystery was solved.0 -
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I used to get that when I came back from the snack place in the office at 10am every morning with 6 rounds of toast and a toastie to keep me going until lunchtime. I guess that was very much the metabolism of being in my late teens / early 20s as I wouldn't get away with it now.wallace_and_gromit said:
Sufficient that whoever I associate with for a non-trivial amount of time generally comments spontaneously on how much I eat, in the form "How can you eat so much and stay so thin?"rick_chasey said:
What constitutes a lot? I suspect we're not very good at measuring what a little or a lot is.wallace_and_gromit said:
I wouldn't claim to be at the right weight, but my weight is broadly constant. (BMI circa 22). I mainly sit down a lot and am hungry most of the time. But I also eat a lot.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
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Although I don't have a nice graph, that's what happened to me in middle age. I thought I was maintaining the same levels of activity and eating just the same as I'd always done, but my middle had been steadily growing. The wake up moment came when I spotted a fat little bugger in a photo from a company jolly and realised it was me. At 5'6" and 11st 4lbs, I was definitely fatter than I wanted to be. Cue a couple of years trying to reduce calorie intake which made me miserable but no thinner. Then in 2012 I watched Michael Mosely's Eat Fast Live Longer documentary and decided to give 5:2 intermittent fasting a try. Monday and Thursday I eat nothing till the evening, and then only a 600 kcal snack. The other 5 days I eat whatever I like. Pretty quickly the inexorable weight gain went into reverse and in 3 months I'd lost 18lbs. Apart from pigging out at Christmas / Easter / on holiday I eat like that all the time now, and my weight is stable at 10st.mully79 said:
Heres a nice graph of my weight from 2011 till now. I cannot really explain why I haven't succeeded in losing any weight over such a long period. The recent dip is almost 100% due to quitting alcohol.
I couldn't even tell you why I've continued to plot the graph regardless of success or failure !
I discovered that a lot of my eating was just habit, and that not eating was easier than I'd feared. I don't feel constantly hungry on fasting days, but I do feel a bit chilly as the afternoon wears on, but it's easy to stick with it knowing you can eat whatever you like the next day.0 -
wallace_and_gromit said:
Sufficient that whoever I associate with for a non-trivial amount of time generally comments spontaneously on how much I eat, in the form "How can you eat so much and stay so thin?"rick_chasey said:
What constitutes a lot? I suspect we're not very good at measuring what a little or a lot is.wallace_and_gromit said:
I wouldn't claim to be at the right weight, but my weight is broadly constant. (BMI circa 22). I mainly sit down a lot and am hungry most of the time. But I also eat a lot.rick_chasey said:If you're mainly sitting down for your job, the reality is you'll probably have to be hungry for most of the day if you want to stay in the right weight.
Ditto... mostly work colleagues in my case, as a lot of my friends are also keen cyclists, so better understand why.0
