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[Freezie KO]

Because there is no "best" way for everyone.

For some people, low carb will work best. For others, high carb will work best. For others. moderate carb is the right choice.

I'd suggest you give this article a read - http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/comparing-the-diets-part-1.html

Try the first diet, monitor your weight/mental wellbeing for a month, and then try the second, and the third, and so on until you've tested them all and found which works best for you.

Or, consult the table at the end of the series.

If you don't know what your insulin sensitivity is like, or you don't know how well your body handles carbs, you'll need to experiment to find that out yourself.

Interesting. Thanks for the link. I'm not fat, but I could afford to lose 15-20. I've been trying to change my diet around lately with not much success.

 

[dejay]

I hate it when fit people at the gym have to comment on fat people at the gym. I already heard a remark about fat people in the locker room when I was changing. I knew he was talking about me. It's like I am at the damn gym working out on losing weight you'd think those people would be supportive of me at the gym coming almost everyday. No they are there to work out and flex in the mirror and be happy they are not fat. I hate those people

Yeah, fuck that noise. When I started back at the gym about four weeks ago I had a big spare tire and some man titties (not too big, but noticeable). I didn't give a fuck. I'm there to get shit done, not worry about what other people may be thinking about me. At least half of those flexing dudes are probably gonna end up fat at some stage I would wager.

I still have a smaller spare tire but my man breasts are now more pec than flab.

Because there is no "best" way for everyone.

For some people, low carb will work best. For others, high carb will work best. For others. moderate carb is the right choice.

I'd suggest you give this article a read - http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/comparing-the-diets-part-1.html

Try the first diet, monitor your weight/mental wellbeing for a month, and then try the second, and the third, and so on until you've tested them all and found which works best for you.

Or, consult the table at the end of the series.



If you don't know what your insulin sensitivity is like, or you don't know how well your body handles carbs, you'll need to experiment to find that out yourself.

I've pretty much done that on my own - tried IF, keto, low carb but not keto, etc. Seems that mod carb/mod fat works best for me along with exercise to keep my anxiety and eating triggers in check.

 

[twofold]

I've pretty much done that on my own - tried IF, keto, low carb but not keto, etc. Seems that mod carb/mod fat works best for me along with exercise to keep my anxiety and eating triggers in check.

Yup, same. I have around 100g carbs on rest days, and 200g carbs on workout days. It's working a treat.

Lyle says in his article that most people will do well on a moderate carb/moderate fat diet.

To quote --

While I feel that a moderate carbohydrate/moderate fat diet will probably be sufficient for all but the most extreme cases, there are always those individuals for whom a nearly complete reduction in carbohydrate intake may be necessary.

And, as above, for those folks for whom even moderate amounts of carbs make them hungry for more carbohydrates (this tends to be far more true for starches than anything else), a complete removal of them may be necessary at least for the time being. I’ve found that, after time on a ketogenic diet, most people lose their taste for the high GI starches as their taste buds adapt. Frequently they can go back to a more moderate carb/moderate fat approach without getting into problems.

I found his reasoning why people have success with particular diets to be very interesting, too.

Again, to quote --

What few of these groups are willing to admit or acknowledge, and what I’ve tried to make a recurring theme in this book is that different diets are more or less appropriate depending on the situation. Each of the different diets may be the ‘correct’ approach, simply at different times and under different sets of circumstances.

Rather than promoting a specific diet as being optimal under all situations, I take the stance that the choice of diet (for example high vs. low-carbohydrate) is context specific: different diets are more or less appropriate under a given set of conditions. Sure, I’d sell more copies of my books if I told you I had the ONE TRUE DIET (TM) but that’d be bullshit because I don’t think it’s true.

Frankly, I feel that this is a big part of why you can always find someone reporting near magical results with a given diet: whether by design or by accident, they stumbled on the diet that happened to meet their specific needs. At the same time, it’s easy to find people who weren’t so lucky: who by design or accident picked the absolutely wrong diet for their situation. Results, as would be expected, are poor.

Lyle's books and his website are full of so much great information. If you want to learn more about dieting and fitness, they're well worth a read.

 

[freddy]

I usually start at the the neck and work my way down from there.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I don't really like fat people in general. Except my mother because I love her.

I've been pretty fat once too and I hated myself for it. IMO it's not just about being happy with yourself, being fat shows a weakness in character. Hardly anyone who is fat is happy with himself, yet they are not willing to do something about it, they rather just keep moaning because others pick on them. Tells you something general about that person if you ask me.
Like it is THAT hard to loose weight. I lost 10 kg within 3 months and thanks to my love to bodybuilding can play with my weight as I please today. In March I was at around 100 kg. Now I'm already down to 92 kg again.
It's not that hard to watch your nutrition and do some sports. I hate the fact that fat people always say they don't want to agonize and starve themselves because they always only (want to) see the people that start working out. They never look athow good people feel once they're into it. Makes me rage sometimes. They fail to grasp that most of that tasty shit they eat would taste like shit if they wouldn't eat it for some weeks. I ate a choclate last weekend on my cheat day and I almost vomited after that. When I started my training back in 09 I didn't drink anything with sugar for like 6 months (which was huge to me because at one point in my life I wasn't drinking anything except sugar coke) and was shocked at how shitty this stuff tastes when I zipped a coke after that. To this day I have never been drinking anything with sugar again when I didn't have to.

I think that in a time where "movement" is not as common as it used to be a decade and more ago we just have to be more concious about what and how much we eat. There is no excuse.

 

[Horseticuffs]

Because there is no "best" way for everyone.

For some people, low carb will work best. For others, high carb will work best. For others. moderate carb is the right choice.

I'd suggest you give this article a read - http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/comparing-the-diets-part-1.html

Try the first diet, monitor your weight/mental wellbeing for a month, and then try the second, and the third, and so on until you've tested them all and found which works best for you.

Or, consult the table at the end of the series.



If you don't know what your insulin sensitivity is like, or you don't know how well your body handles carbs, you'll need to experiment to find that out yourself.

Hey, thanks for the link! It was interesting to read up on various concepts of diets. I've had a lot of luck keeping my diet around 55% carbs, 30% fat, and 15% protein but I'm always trying to find ways throughout my day to favor my ratio more towards fats and proteins. The closer I can get to 50/25/25 the happier I am. More and more I find that I'm adding foods with a lot of healthy fats and protein, like seeds and nuts, to my meals.

I don't mind having a high-carb diet if that's what works for me, but I spend a lot of time each day trying to keep it balanced around the same ratio and I'm definitely all for trying to reduce the percentage of my diet that is carb-based. I'm fairly certain that while I am losing weight quite quickly that when I reach my goal I'll be "skinny fat" so I want to start adjusting my intake now so I can reach a ratio more conducive to a more athletic build.


Again, thanks for the info!

 

[Macka]

I generally don't like seeing fat people. I'm not trying to be mean, but when you see a morbidly obese person...it just isn't pleasant. The first thought that crosses my mind is usually 'how could you let yourself get to that point?'.

That said, I have a friend who I've known since we were kids, and over the years he's just gotten bigger and bigger. I could see he was heading down that path when I was younger, since whenever I'd go over to his house for a sleepover we could eat anything we wanted. His parents are fat themselves, so they failed him in setting a better example for eating.

So...while I don't like looking at fat people, I can see that it often isn't completely their fault.

 

[freddy]

I don't really like fat people in general....

Ain't nothing worse than a reformed fatty.

 

[ReadingRambo]

As a reforming fatty and relative to fatties I generally see them as being at the very least weak-willed, which is an unattractive attribute to me. At worst I see them as self-destructive. I think the "fat acceptance" campaign is abhorrent.

 

[Thunder Monkey]

Bout the same as I do every person.

They are a strange unknown until they prove their worth.

 

[homeworkfilms]

I have lost about 250 pounds in 2 weight drops in my life and am about to embark on a third since I have crept up about 65 pounds in the last two years after getting back down to 180. I am 5f9. My mind is always occupied by food and when and what I will eat next. No level of help I have ever had has changed that. To look down on me as lazy or dumb or whatever completely misses the issues that are probably mostly in my chemistry and mind but also in how available and easy it is for me to consume cheep sugar laden food. I have virtually no control over eating it unless I spend all my day thinking of how to avoid it.

It is better for those ignorant of how people like me operate to try to engage with issues around the rise of obesity in society rather than making us pariahs. You might find we have though deeply about these issues and probably have better solutions than lol eat less.

 

[bengraven]

I don't understand why crack heads don't just stop smoking crack.

 

[ReadingRambo]

I don't understand why crack heads don't just stop smoking crack.

I understand what your implying but the physical dependency isn't nearly the same. Maybe in extreme cases of food addiction, but not the majority.

 

[freddy]

As a reforming fatty and relative to fatties I generally see them as being at the very least weak-willed, which is an unattractive attribute to me. At worst I see them as self-destructive. I think the "fat acceptance" campaign is abhorrent.

I used to be fat but I never hated myself while I was. I think that makes a big difference in how you perceive others once you lose weight.

 

[Casanova]

I'm far shorter than the average male height, but I make the most out of who I am.

Everyone has their faults, and although some may be more extreme than others, we all have to learn to either extinguish them or live in their presence as best as we can.

 

[bengraven]

Seriously..."fatties"?

Jesus Christ, if you said "trannies", you'd get banned.

I understand what your implying but the physical dependency isn't nearly the same. Maybe in extreme cases of food addiction, but not the majority.

Right, but the generalization is that fat people have complete control over losing weight, which I firmly believe is wrong. Maybe I'm biased because I have an addiction, but I feel like every fat person is getting thrown into the same bucket.

If you were addicted to crack and asked someone for help, you would have a dozen hands there, leading you to help. If you're addicted to food and ask for help, you won't get nearly as much help.

 

[Nocebo]

I don't understand why crack heads don't just stop smoking crack.

More like why do they even start?

 

[Antioch]

I don’t post often on this forum (I lurk nearly every day though), but I thought it’d be appropriate to reply here, seeing as I’ve now lost almost 60kgs after 2 and a half years and my obesity is pretty much behind me.

What I think of when I see fat people now is simply that I wish for their sake that they could lose it like I did. I know what it’s like to be mocked for my figure, and to encounter criticisms everywhere, well, I can say from firsthand experience, at least pertaining to my case that years of this simply don’t help. Hearing how bad your habits are from others never, not once served to motivate me to do anything about it. I was perhaps lucky in terms of what I encountered. At school I was mostly well liked and other students tried to motivate me in PE and things like that. However, being treated like that wasn’t good. I understand they meant well and I thank them for their intentions, but being treated like I was different from the others, like I deserved everyone’s pity never motivated me either, it just made me depressed.

What I learned was that no matter what others said to me about it, whether they tried to be supportive or hateful, none of it would work. So eventually I found the motivation within myself and did something about it. As I write this, and look back on the last few years, I am amazed how easy it was. Really, all I ever did was power walking (that was the start), that was towards the end of 2010. I did like half an hour of that 5 days a week. Through this I lost about 25kgs in 5 months. I didn’t do much for my diet except for eating nothing sweet. I still ate tons of bread, and it was when I eliminated this from my diet that another 35kgs or so have practically fallen off me. Those aforementioned 35kgs is weight I’ve lost since the end of November last year. In that time my exercise has been minimal and I can eat whatever I want on occasion, as long as I don’t eat bread too often (I eat bread maybe two or three times a week now), I can eat anything. In that time between those two periods of rapid weight loss I played for a soccer team at school and didn’t really do much else, so my weight was fluctuating for about a year and a half.

Generally though, I know now I can lose weight pretty much by just putting my mind to it. In the last month I’ve lost about 7kgs and at the moment I’m actually trying to eat more again because it feels a little too quick.

Anyway, to get to the point, I suppose I sometimes feel sorry for other fat people, for the fact that they haven’t found anything that makes weight loss as easy for them as I did for me. Although I must also say one should be careful about judging fat people for being inactive. Often I wondered what people thought of me while I was losing weight. I thought about how they might judge me without even knowing that I was doing something about it. Obviously this wouldn’t apply if you see a 400 pound guy gorging himself at McDonald’s.
I know what it feels like to be an outcast because of one’s figure. I know what it’s like to feel strangers judging you with a mere glance. I wish every fat person could undergo what I did. It’s the most liberating feeling I could imagine. I can actually go into a store to buy clothes now... I couldn’t do that before. I don’t need to feel awkward about leaving the house... I couldn’t do that before.

But now that I’ve pretty much lost all my excess weight, I don’t feel proud of anything, because it needed to happen sooner or later. I don’t feel I’ve accomplished anything. It was easy. People tell me how good and slim I look now, and I don’t listen to them. I’ve got another 5-10kgs to go before I’m at the goal that I set myself years ago. But you know what? If I could somehow change the past to be so that I was never fat in the first place... I wouldn’t. Sure, part of me wishes I could have had normal teenage years, but I would be a very different person if it wasn’t for my obesity. I am capable of great discipline when I need it, I can motivate myself to do pretty much anything, and I’ve learnt not to care about what other people think of me. Being in a situation where I forced myself to act has taught me much about myself and I feel I am a better person than I likely would have been otherwise.

I wish people who still struggle with their weight the best of luck in finding what works for them. If you’re reading this and are trying to lose weight, try to cut bread out of your diet, try to exercise a little here and there, and do so regularly , it worked for me. For reference I am turning 19 in a few months.

Sorry if this is a long post, but it felt good to put it all into words.

 

[bengraven]

What I think of when I see fat people now is simply that I wish for their sake that they could lose it like I did.

And that therein is the problem: not everyone can lose weight the same way.

That said, going by the rest of your comment you do touch upon one thing that is mostly universal - once you get into the habit and for some people it can take the better part of a year or more - it becomes easier. But those formulative months are agony for someone kicking the habit.

 

[Seanspeed]

I understand what your implying but the physical dependency isn't nearly the same. Maybe in extreme cases of food addiction, but not the majority.

But you HAVE to have food everyday. And everybody has been eating since they were first born.

Its extremely hard in its own way. And even if crack addicts had enough regular access to crack to ward off withdraw, its not like you could very well ask them to 'moderate' their intake, could you? Losing weight is also a long process. People have to keep it up for long periods of time. Lots of people were also not brought up with good eating habits, so they basically have to 'unlearn' all the things they grew up doing, which is also often quite difficult.

Willpower isn't as easy to come by for a lot of people for various reasons. Depression, stress and low self-esteem are all huge factors that fight against people's ability to make lasting changes.

Altogether, being overweight can be a really tough challenge to overcome for a lot of people. People that trivialize it as 'just eat less fatties' really seem to have very little sympathy for the human condition.

 

[bengraven]

But you HAVE to have food everyday. And everybody has been eating since they were first born.

Its extremely hard in its own way. And even if crack addicts had enough regular access to crack to ward off withdraw, its not like you could very well ask them to 'moderate' their intake, could you? Losing weight is also a long process. People have to keep it up for long periods of time. Lots of people were also not brought up with good eating habits, so they basically have to 'unlearn' all the things they grew up doing, which is also often quite difficult.

Willpower isn't as easy to come by for a lot of people for various reasons. Depression, stress and low self-esteem are all huge factors that fight against people's ability to make lasting changes.

Altogether, being overweight can be a really tough challenge to overcome for a lot of people. People that trivialize it as 'just eat less fatties' really seem to have very little sympathy for the human condition.

That's exactly it. It feels like it's just people using their gut reactions to judge a person. And not to make it seem like a discrimination thing, but let's be honest: gut reactions to different people is something we fought hard in the 20th century to overcome with minorities and sexual preferences.

And as you said in the beginning, it's an every day part of life. Imagine a crack addict trying to go clean while their mother is going "Just smoke one bowl of crack...this one bowl of crack won't ruin your treatment...come on...if you don't have the willpower, then that's your fault not mine...now smoke it."

(actual thing my mother once said to me, but in regards to a dessert while I was on a heavy diet).

 

[Antioch]

And that therein is the problem: not everyone can lose weight the same way.

That said, going by the rest of your comment you do touch upon one thing that is mostly universal - once you get into the habit and for some people it can take the better part of a year or more - it becomes easier. But those formulative months are agony for someone kicking the habit.

Exactly, there is no universal method of weight loss that could work for everyone. And yes, the first months are indeed the hardest part. For me for example, since I started with power walking and that eventually became jogging, the start was awful for me. When you're obese and every bit of exercise feels like a great struggle, it can be awfully difficult to keep up the necessary motivation. I think this is something that a lot of people don't understand, how difficult it actually is for a fat person to do substantial exercise and to actually keep at it too. But it does get easier with each bit of progress.

EDIT: I consider myself to be very lucky to have found a way for me to lose weight so effectively.

 

[Kiriku]

They make me somewhat sad, especially when I see really them eat a lot of unhealthy food in public, buy a lot of crappy food or talk about how they love to eat it. All I see and hear is how they're basically steering themselves towards an unhealthy life and probably early death. Actually, that's not limited to obese people, but rather people in general. Even worse when children are affected and take after their parents.
I have no hate, but it's frustrating to see people waste away their lives like that (I feel the same about people who smoke or drink a lot). But it's not like I walk around making comments on people's obesity and tell them to lose weight, if they want to do it, it's their choice (assuming they have a choice). I just hope they make it.

 

[bengraven]

hey make me somewhat sad, especially when I see really them eat a lot of unhealthy food in public, buy a lot of crappy food or talk about how they love to eat it. All I see and hear is how they're basically steering themselves towards an unhealthy life and probably early death. Actually, that's not limited to obese people, but rather people in general. Even worse when children are affected and take after their parents.
I have no hate, but it's frustrating to see people waste away their lives like that (I feel the same about people who smoke or drink a lot). But it's not like I walk around making comments on people's obesity and tell them to lose weight, if they want to do it, it's their choice. I just hope they make it.

I think that's a problem in our society. You see them eating crappy foods and you're disgusted. You see the gifs and "this is why you're fat" jpgs shared online and that doesn't help.

But you can't generalize. That fat chick on PeopleFromWalmart buying 15 bags of pork rinds is probably someone who doesn't care she's fat ("ya'll don't like a big woman, ya'll don't know what you're missing munch munch munch"). You can't base the increasingly larger and larger population (both physically and statistically) on a few especially disgusting people.

That's like judging the entire gay population on a horrible stereotype you see in a movie.

Exactly, there is no universal method of weight loss that could work for everyone. And yes, the first months are indeed the hardest part. For me for example, since I started with power walking and that eventually became jogging, the start was awful for me. When you're obese and every bit of exercise feels like a great struggle, it can be awfully difficult to keep up the necessary motivation. I think this is something that a lot of people don't understand, how difficult it actually is for a fat person to do substantial exercise and to actually keep at it too. But it does get easier with each bit of progress.

EDIT: I consider myself to be very lucky to have found a way for me to lose weight so effectively.

And please keep in mind I'm someone who's struggled all his life, but I wasn't always fat.

When I was 19 I found a way that was easy, relatively harmful, but easy to lose weight. I was bored, I had no motivation except to curb my boredom and I had easy access to weight loss. And I went from 250 pounds (which was about my average weight for the majority of my life) to 155 pounds in just a few months. I lived for 3-4 years as a relatively skinny, then skinny-fat person until the weight started to pile back on quicker than before.

I saw it happening, but I also saw the reason was the same as when I was in high school trying hard to lose weight: I acknowledged that I was addicted to eating and I couldn't just stop. I had incredible willpower in every other aspect of my life, but not eating.

I'm now the largest I've ever been, plus much more, and I KNOW how to lose weight. I've spent countless hours studying weight loss, becoming a regular on weight loss forums asking questions, etc. I have the knowledge. I know what to do. It's just putting that knowledge into action is the hardest thing I could ever do in my life.

 

[zoukka]

I have no hate, but it's frustrating to see people waste away their lives like that (I feel the same about people who smoke or drink a lot).

I feel the same towards people who fill their day with entertainment (and suffer from it myself).

 

[Kiriku]

I feel the same towards people who fill their day with entertainment (and suffer from it myself).

And I can understand and relate to that. I'm not saying I'm perfect myself, but I try my best.

 

[bengraven]

I feel the same towards people who fill their day with entertainment (and suffer from it myself).

I'm guilty of that myself, trying to push reading on people who don't want to.

"I would love to read, but don't have time" and then they watch 3 hours of television.

 

[Vortex566]

I find fat women really attractive.

 

[Mumei]

I think the "fat acceptance" campaign is abhorrent.

Why?

And what do you mean by "the fat acceptance movement"? I read that and I see you saying, "I think the campaign to de-couple fitness and weight in peoples' minds, educate people about the myriad factors for becoming and staying overweight beyond lazy moral judgments, and treat fat people with dignity and respect is abhorrent," but I don't know that that is what you mean.

Thanks to internet, there are no excuses concerning information about the matter. Counting your calories, macros and replacing bad stuff with healthy stuff has never been easier in the history of mankind.

I would agree that there's a plethora of information, but so much of it is mutually contradictory that I don't know how someone who is ignorant is supposed to know which information to take in. The Internet is full of bad information, after all, and it is easy to see how people get the wrong ideas because they trusted the wrong sources.

 

[Marleyman]

After reading through this thread I must say that my faith in humanity is much lower than it was before. Our society is far too quick to judge/criticize people for various reasons; it makes me ill. My mother is chunky and I can easily say if I heard a ridiculous comment in real life that some have posted on this board to her..l don't want to get banned so I am going to just relax.

 

[Nocebo]

Personally I see obesity due to over eating as one of the easiest bad habits to fix. But maybe that's because I've never been fat. And it took me a lot of effort to gain weight by eating more when I was doing the gym thing. I went from 58kg up to 70kg.

I also find it hard to understand why someone like that (obese due to over eating) wouldn't want to fix themselves? I mean being overweight can put a strain on your body amongst other things.

And as you said in the beginning, it's an every day part of life. Imagine a crack addict trying to go clean while their mother is going "Just smoke one bowl of crack...this one bowl of crack won't ruin your treatment...come on...if you don't have the willpower, then that's your fault not mine...now smoke it."

(actual thing my mother once said to me, but in regards to a dessert while I was on a heavy diet).

How hard is it to say no? I'd get angry with a person like that if they were being persistent after I said no. Even if it was my mother.

 

[slit]

As a reforming fatty and relative to fatties I generally see them as being at the very least weak-willed, which is an unattractive attribute to me. At worst I see them as self-destructive. I think the "fat acceptance" campaign is abhorrent.

What does that even mean? It's not for you, or anyone else for that matter, to accept or not accept other peoples habbits.

 

[Kiriku]

I think that's a problem in our society. You see them eating crappy foods and you're disgusted. You see the gifs and "this is why you're fat" jpgs shared online and that doesn't help.

But you can't generalize. That fat chick on PeopleFromWalmart buying 15 bags of pork rinds is probably someone who doesn't care she's fat ("ya'll don't like a big woman, ya'll don't know what you're missing munch munch munch"). You can't base the increasingly larger and larger population (both physically and statistically) on a few especially disgusting people.

That's like judging the entire gay population on a horrible stereotype you see in a movie.

You're right, and I'm aware that there are many different reasons or motivations for being overweight, and I'm sure some people are really trying or can't do much about it. Didn't mean to generalize, and I don't think any less of people who are overweight, it's just a gut feeling I have. Maybe I'm just too blinded by the health perspective to see the bigger picture, I'm sure people could find aspects of my life that they consider a terrible way of living life. I just hope everyone do their best to enjoy life to its fullest.

 

[zoukka]

I would agree that there's a plethora of information, but so much of it is mutually contradictory that I don't know how someone who is ignorant is supposed to know which information to take in. The Internet is full of bad information, after all, and it is easy to see how people get the wrong ideas because they trusted the wrong sources.

But again, you can now do research of your own. From your home, on your computer. You can verify information with different means. Don't know how? Study how to verify information. It's completely relative of how we use the term "challenging", because frankly there needs to be a point where we stop making up excuses for laziness.

"Doin research is hard". Compared to what? Picking your nose?

 

[Antioch]

And please keep in mind I'm someone who's struggled all his life, but I wasn't always fat.

When I was 19 I found a way that was easy, relatively harmful, but easy to lose weight. I was bored, I had no motivation except to curb my boredom and I had easy access to weight loss. And I went from 250 pounds (which was about my average weight for the majority of my life) to 155 pounds in just a few months. I lived for 3-4 years as a relatively skinny, then skinny-fat person until the weight started to pile back on quicker than before.

I saw it happening, but I also saw the reason was the same as when I was in high school trying hard to lose weight: I acknowledged that I was addicted to eating and I couldn't just stop. I had incredible willpower in every other aspect of my life, but not eating.

I'm now the largest I've ever been, plus much more, and I KNOW how to lose weight. I've spent countless hours studying weight loss, becoming a regular on weight loss forums asking questions, etc. I have the knowledge. I know what to do. It's just putting that knowledge into action is the hardest thing I could ever do in my life.

Do you play any sports or do any other exercise regularly? I must admit I am not someone who has done much research on weight loss, but it seems to me that if you can't stop yourself from eating too much, it would be necessary for you to counter-balance it with substantial exercise. This is basically how I did it at the start. Actually, I should tell you when I began walking as exercise, I took about 40 minutes for a walk of about 3 kilometres. It included a pretty steep uphill part, but still, that was pathetic. In a week or two I got it down to 30. Now when I go there I go around that track twice within 30 minutes. My point is, if you're not doing any exercise routinely now, start small, that way it'll be easier to keep the motivation going, but do start with something. If you live anywhere near a hill you can walk up, start doing that, a little each day, most days of the week.

I can't claim to know anything about food addiction, I don't think I was an addict, though others who know of my habits in years gone by might say I was. Try to cut things out of your diet one by one. As with exercise, it's making the start that's the hardest part. Until about 6 months ago, I ate bread multiple times a day, in pretty large amounts. My father who has had some weight problems too, though more minor than mine, told me a few months prior about how he cut bread out of his diet and after a brief period he didn't even want to eat it any more (unfortunately he didn't stick to it). I thought it was a good idea, so I tried it. After about a week of not eating bread I didn't want to eat it any more. When I quit eating chocolate and things it took a little longer but after a few weeks I felt the same effect. I just didn't want it any more. Now I am in a position where I can allow myself a treat from time to time, and when I do, I feel unsatisfied. Sometimes I'll have an urge to eat chocolate, and then I'll feel sick after actually eating it. It's strange, but I couldn't imagine eating as much of it as I used to.

Now, I do know you've probably heard some variation of this advice a billion times already, and I feel nothing I say here will be of any great help to you. Rather than just to tell you to change your eating habits and to exercise as much as you can, I know me saying such things is likely to be quite worthless to you, but I'll tell you, you have to muster the will power to overcome your weight. It'll be hard, at times you'll want to quit. But you have to keep going and accept that any and all motivation to do so has to come from within yourself and no one else. It'll be hard as you are aware, as you say, the hardest thing in your life, but it'll be worth it.

Honestly, I wish you the best of luck in getting your weight down, I hope you'll find something that suits you.

 

[Horseticuffs]

I don’t post often on this forum (I lurk nearly every day though), but I thought it’d be appropriate to reply here, seeing as I’ve now lost almost 60kgs after 2 and a half years and my obesity is pretty much behind me.

What I think of when I see fat people now is simply that I wish for their sake that they could lose it like I did. I know what it’s like to be mocked for my figure, and to encounter criticisms everywhere, well, I can say from firsthand experience, at least pertaining to my case that years of this simply don’t help. Hearing how bad your habits are from others never, not once served to motivate me to do anything about it. I was perhaps lucky in terms of what I encountered. At school I was mostly well liked and other students tried to motivate me in PE and things like that. However, being treated like that wasn’t good. I understand they meant well and I thank them for their intentions, but being treated like I was different from the others, like I deserved everyone’s pity never motivated me either, it just made me depressed.

What I learned was that no matter what others said to me about it, whether they tried to be supportive or hateful, none of it would work. So eventually I found the motivation within myself and did something about it. As I write this, and look back on the last few years, I am amazed how easy it was. Really, all I ever did was power walking (that was the start), that was towards the end of 2010. I did like half an hour of that 5 days a week. Through this I lost about 25kgs in 5 months. I didn’t do much for my diet except for eating nothing sweet. I still ate tons of bread, and it was when I eliminated this from my diet that another 35kgs or so have practically fallen off me. Those aforementioned 35kgs is weight I’ve lost since the end of November last year. In that time my exercise has been minimal and I can eat whatever I want on occasion, as long as I don’t eat bread too often (I eat bread maybe two or three times a week now), I can eat anything. In that time between those two periods of rapid weight loss I played for a soccer team at school and didn’t really do much else, so my weight was fluctuating for about a year and a half.

Generally though, I know now I can lose weight pretty much by just putting my mind to it. In the last month I’ve lost about 7kgs and at the moment I’m actually trying to eat more again because it feels a little too quick.

Anyway, to get to the point, I suppose I sometimes feel sorry for other fat people, for the fact that they haven’t found anything that makes weight loss as easy for them as I did for me. Although I must also say one should be careful about judging fat people for being inactive. Often I wondered what people thought of me while I was losing weight. I thought about how they might judge me without even knowing that I was doing something about it. Obviously this wouldn’t apply if you see a 400 pound guy gorging himself at McDonald’s.
I know what it feels like to be an outcast because of one’s figure. I know what it’s like to feel strangers judging you with a mere glance. I wish every fat person could undergo what I did. It’s the most liberating feeling I could imagine. I can actually go into a store to buy clothes now... I couldn’t do that before. I don’t need to feel awkward about leaving the house... I couldn’t do that before.

But now that I’ve pretty much lost all my excess weight, I don’t feel proud of anything, because it needed to happen sooner or later. I don’t feel I’ve accomplished anything. It was easy. People tell me how good and slim I look now, and I don’t listen to them. I’ve got another 5-10kgs to go before I’m at the goal that I set myself years ago. But you know what? If I could somehow change the past to be so that I was never fat in the first place... I wouldn’t. Sure, part of me wishes I could have had normal teenage years, but I would be a very different person if it wasn’t for my obesity. I am capable of great discipline when I need it, I can motivate myself to do pretty much anything, and I’ve learnt not to care about what other people think of me. Being in a situation where I forced myself to act has taught me much about myself and I feel I am a better person than I likely would have been otherwise.

I wish people who still struggle with their weight the best of luck in finding what works for them. If you’re reading this and are trying to lose weight, try to cut bread out of your diet, try to exercise a little here and there, and do so regularly , it worked for me. For reference I am turning 19 in a few months.

Sorry if this is a long post, but it felt good to put it all into words.

Beautifully put! You've really captured how I feel as well. I've learned so much about myself this past year that it's like I'm this whole other dude and all these limitations and obstacles that I've had, that I've blamed on others or society, I've realized were all my doing or my attitude.

I'm not proud of having lost the weight because it was my fault and I never should have needed to lose it. But I'm proud I have been able to conquer my weakness this far.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[Antioch]

Beautifully put! You've really captured how I feel as well. I've learned so much about myself this past year that it's like I'm this whole other dude and all these limitations and obstacles that I've had, that I've blamed on others or society, I've realized were all my doing or my attitude.

I'm not proud of having lost the weight because it was my fault and I never should have needed to lose it. But I'm proud I have been able to conquer my weakness this far.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

Thank you, this post really made it worth it.

 

[andycapps]

Because there is no "best" way for everyone.

For some people, low carb will work best. For others, high carb will work best. For others. moderate carb is the right choice.

I'd suggest you give this article a read - http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/comparing-the-diets-part-1.html

Try the first diet, monitor your weight/mental wellbeing for a month, and then try the second, and the third, and so on until you've tested them all and found which works best for you.

Or, consult the table at the end of the series.



If you don't know what your insulin sensitivity is like, or you don't know how well your body handles carbs, you'll need to experiment to find that out yourself.

High carbs are going to be bad for at least 90% of the population, with the exception being people that run marathons and those that have excessive physical activity on a daily basis. The problem with carbs is that when you're not burning off all of them, your body is storing those as fat. So if someone is continually taking in more carbs than they need, they're going to get fatter. That's oversimplifying a great deal, but that's the gist of it. And you probably know that, I just wanted to say that "high carbs" is unnecessary for almost everyone. Of course, then there's the discussion of what are good carbs and what aren't, but at a high level, most people need to reduce their carb intake or increase their exercise substantially just to maintain weight.

 

[TL4E]

I have no sympathy when I see an obese person at a supermarket with a cart filled to the brim with nachos, a handful of nasty frozen pizzas, 4 12 packs of Coca Cola, and a bunch of other junk. Perhaps they have some genetic/medical issues that make it difficult to lose weight which makes it easier to sympathize (though not when the medical issue is brought on by a bad lifestyle), or maybe even some mental illness -- but in most cases I have a hard time believing the average joe can't do some research on what foods make up a good diet or can't dedicate at least a few hours to walking/jogging outside every week so my opinion of the obese can be pretty low.

I can understand having a BMI of 25-29 given that the modern world makes a sedentary lifestyle difficult to avoid, but morbidly obese? That's not acceptable. You're a burden to yourself and a burden to society.

I hope that doesn't come off as too insensitive.

 

[Mumei]

But again, you can now do research of your own. From your home, on your computer. You can verify information with different means. Don't know how? Study how to verify information. It's completely relative of how we use the term "challenging", because frankly there needs to be a point where we stop making up excuses for laziness.

"Doin research is hard". Compared to what? Picking your nose?

I think there needs to come a point when you are able to acknowledge that not everyone is in the same circumstances. Can you not imagine any reasons - poverty, lack of education, other responsibilities such as children or work - that are barriers to even attempting to become educated in the first place, let alone figuring out which information is accurate? Or how these barriers and others such as obesogens, lack of access to healthy foods, lack of safe places to exercise, cycling in and out of food insecurity, and so forth can be impediments to putting your education into action even if you do manage to educate yourself and not get sidetracked by nonsense or the latest fad diet?

I don't think it is impossible for every person to lose weight; we clearly have people in this topic who have managed to do it. I know some people personally who have managed to lose weight and keep it off. But it is still ignorant to suggest that every person is capable of losing weight and keeping it off. We shouldn't see the failure to lose weight as a moral failing, or see the overweight as necessarily diseased, unhealthy, and lazy.

 

[grumble]

I think there needs to come a point when you are able to acknowledge that not everyone is in the same circumstances. Can you not imagine any reasons - poverty, lack of education, other responsibilities such as children or work - that are barriers to even attempting to become educated in the first place, let alone figuring out which information is accurate? Or how these barriers and others such as obesogens, lack of access to healthy foods, lack of safe places to exercise, cycling in and out of food insecurity, and so forth can be impediments to putting your education into action even if you do manage to educate yourself and not get sidetracked by nonsense or the latest fad diet?

I don't think it is impossible for every person to lose weight; we clearly have people in this topic who have managed to do it. I know some people personally who have managed to lose weight and keep it off. But it is still ignorant to suggest that every person is capable of losing weight and keeping it off. We shouldn't see the failure to lose weight as a moral failing, or see the overweight as necessarily diseased, unhealthy, and lazy.

I guess you could look at it similarly to someone who's failing school. If someone is failing, then many people say that they are lazy or just aren't trying, at that is often partially or wholly true. It's also true that not everyone has the same advantages in life. If your family doesn't support your education, if you have a real disability or otherwise have it tough, then it's harder to pass. It doesn't make it okay to fail, but it does mean that you should have more understanding and less derision for failures in the same way that understanding for the obese should be number one.

 

[zoukka]

I think there needs to come a point when you are able to acknowledge that not everyone is in the same circumstances. Can you not imagine any reasons - poverty, lack of education, other responsibilities such as children or work - that are barriers to even attempting to become educated in the first place, let alone figuring out which information is accurate? Or how these barriers and others such as obesogens, lack of access to healthy foods, lack of safe places to exercise, cycling in and out of food insecurity, and so forth can be impediments to putting your education into action even if you do manage to educate yourself and not get sidetracked by nonsense or the latest fad diet?

I don't think it is impossible for every person to lose weight; we clearly have people in this topic who have managed to do it. I know some people personally who have managed to lose weight and keep it off. But it is still ignorant to suggest that every person is capable of losing weight and keeping it off. We shouldn't see the failure to lose weight as a moral failing, or see the overweight as necessarily diseased, unhealthy, and lazy.

Not at all, I think the biggest responsibility is the governments, not individual people. I should've made it clear I was talking about people who don't have massive obstacles in the way to prevent them from taking action. But still as a single ingredient, obtaining knowledge of the matter is a very easy step towards healthy life.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Ain't nothing worse than a reformed fatty.

For fat people yes. As from my experiance they really don't like to hear that it ain't that difficult to loose weight. So they like people who have always been slim more. So, you know, they can say: Ey, you don't know how this is like as you've always been slim.

Makes me sick....

 

[blame space]

im gonna starve myself until im skinny

 

[Sub_Level]

I know some pretty fuckin' awesome people who are fat.

I would never let myself get that way though, I'm too insecure for that.

Fat children however, do make me a bit angry.

 

[slit]

im gonna starve myself until im skinny

How skinny?

Auschwitz survivor skinny? or Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition skinny?

 

[HalfBakedProphet]

It'd be interesting to hear from these posters who find fat people disgusting in 20+ years after their metabolisms have slowed down and its much, much easier to gain weight.

 

[dead souls]

It'd be interesting to hear from these posters who find fat people disgusting in 20+ years after their metabolisms have slowed down and its much, much easier to gain weight.

So true.

 

[Princess Carl]

Being overweight is no different from smoking cigarettes, watching too much tv, or any other unhealthy habit. The problem is one is easier to spot than the others. It's unfortunate for overweight people that other people can see the habit, and can ridicule and hate them for it.

 

[freddy]

For fat people yes. As from my experiance they really don't like to hear that it ain't that difficult to loose weight. So they like people who have always been slim more. So, you know, they can say: Ey, you don't know how this is like as you've always been slim.

Makes me sick....

No, I meant for the rest of us.