Fat people

Derek Smalls said:
People, especially kids are no where near as physicaly active as they were 20-25 years ago. And all the incidental sugars from soft drinks is a major player in the childhood obesity epidemic. My kids schools all had vending machines that were filled with Pepsi and coke. When I was in school, we could'nt have soda of any kind, even if we brrought it from the outside.
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Same here. It was a test of courage to bring a coke can to class.
 
Babo 91 said:
I have read many books on obesity including the diet delusion written by gary taubes. Taubes looks at the science behind nutrition and shows how shaky the science has been for the past 50 years. Its a very good book and challenges conventional wisdom. I would advise anyone who has an interest in culture or science to get it.

what you have got to remember is that before the 20th century man survived on high fat foods such as meat, eggs, nuts and butter. We actually ate more back then (calorie wise) than we do know. The funny thing is we eat less fat now than we did 100 years ago and yet 100 years ago diabetes, obesity and heart disease was extremely rare. This should tell you that FAT has nothing to do with heart disease or obesity therefre why does the government reccomend a low fat high carb diet that we didn't eat fr 99.9% of our existence.
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That sounds like pseudo-science in itself. while I am all for meat, I have cut back on my own intake of it, eating more fruits and vegetables. But as Smalls mentioned, the BIGGEST, by far, change in the human diet is SUGAR. EVERYTHING has sugar. go to your local grocery store and you will see that "natural" yogurt has 12g sugar if not 14. Why does "natural" yogurt have that much sugar per serving? Flavored yogurt (strawberry, blueberry, etc.) can have as little as 16g and as much as 20,. Usually the cheaper something is the more sugar they put in it, so brand does matter. Fruit juice is the same way. These days one cannot escapte sugare and people don't take the effort in cutting down because after having their apple juice and some yogurt, they'll have ice cream and a chocolate bar... sugar, sugar, sugar.

The first step in losing weight is a LIFESTYLE change, not a diet, this isn't something you are doing for six months, it is for the rest of your life. cut back on the junk as much as you can. THEN it is excersice and not a whole lot. Look at Zare's post, he walks a decent distant and plays sports... that's all you need. You don't have to go to the gym. It helps, but you don't have to.
 
Onhell said:
That sounds like pseudo-science in itself. while I am all for meat, I have cut back on my own intake of it, eating more fruits and vegetables. But as Smalls mentioned, the BIGGEST, by far, change in the human diet is SUGAR. EVERYTHING has sugar. go to your local grocery store and you will see that "natural" yogurt has 12g sugar if not 14. Why does "natural" yogurt have that much sugar per serving? Flavored yogurt (strawberry, blueberry, etc.) can have as little as 16g and as much as 20,. Usually the cheaper something is the more sugar they put in it, so brand does matter. Fruit juice is the same way. These days one cannot escapte sugare and people don't take the effort in cutting down because after having their apple juice and some yogurt, they'll have ice cream and a chocolate bar... sugar, sugar, sugar.

The first step in losing weight is a LIFESTYLE change, not a diet, this isn't something you are doing for six months, it is for the rest of your life. cut back on the junk as much as you can. THEN it is excersice and not a whole lot. Look at Zare's post, he walks a decent distant and plays sports... that's all you need. You don't have to go to the gym. It helps, but you don't have to.
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I agree with everything you said you have to remember that starch is just sugar under a different name. It doesn't raise insulin levels as much but it still does. I mean something unnatural and highly refined like pasta can be passed off as healthy because it has low sugar content but 40g of starch per serving.
 
Any carbohydrate breaks down as sugar. The idea is to find a complex carbo vs a simple (refined sugar).  Having fructose or lactose provide your sugars isn't bad, its the "high fructose corn syrup" refined sugars that pack on pounds.  I know people that cut refined sugar out and drop pounds.
 
Exactly. Oranges have quite a bit of "sugar" naturally, but it is the processed "refined" sugars that have radically changed our foods.
 
I look at it this way; I'm not going to eat only vegetables and end up looking like a starving cancer patient like 99% of vegetarians. I think as long as you're physically active, you can eat pretty much what you want (of course some fast food creations should never be eaten by anyone). That's what I've been doing and I've been losing weight. People waste their time trying diets and pills when the real "secret" is getting off your fat ass. Fast food restaurants shouldn't be blamed, parents should. I'm sick of these shitty parents trying to blame everyone else for their fat (and stupid, but that's another discussion) kids these days.
 
It's a combination of both diet and excercise. But diet does more than excersice does. I lost 40 pounds in 6 months just by drinking strictly water rather than fruit juices, no more cookies, ice cream etc. and ate  BALANCED meals. You don't have to starve yourself, but some sacrifices do have to be made.
 
Or you can be a teenage boy who eats want he wants (although most of it is healthy) doesn't do much exercise and is still nearly underweight!

It'll catch up with me someday :mad:
 
Onhell said:
It's a combination of both diet and excercise. But diet does more than excersice does. I lost 40 pounds in 6 months just by drinking strictly water rather than fruit juices, no more cookies, ice cream etc. and ate  BALANCED meals. You don't have to starve yourself, but some sacrifices do have to be made.
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I disagree. I know MANY people who have dieted for a long time and seen no change. You need to exercise to burn the fat that's built up. Eating healthy will only build up less fat.
 
Well, it is always a combo of activity and diet. However, if you are active (daily) and eat proper amounts of good food, you will lose weight.
 
Explain this:  I was watching the NBA Finals last night and noticed that Glenn "Big Baby" Davis exercises as much as anyone (he's a forward for the Boston Celtics), he just played significant minutes in roughly 100 NBA games this season ... and he's STILL fat!  Genetics clearly has something to do with it. 

Nevertheless, it's amazing how many people who complain about their own weight never run.  They might go to the gym to do yoga or lift weights or something (which may very well be good exercise), but I've found that nothing gets you into shape quite like running.  Example: when I played organized sports in high school, did the coach get us into condition by having us do pilates or yoga?  No.  He made us run until we puked.  Every damn day.  And it worked, just like it has worked on sports teams across the world for the last 100 years. 

Maybe you prefer to run by playing basketball or football or some other sport because you believe, like me, that running just for the sake of running is boring.  Or, maybe you just enjoy running.  Either way, Run, Forrest, Run. 
 
Suicidehummer said:
I disagree. I know MANY people who have dieted for a long time and seen no change. You need to exercise to burn the fat that's built up. Eating healthy will only build up less fat.
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What Cornfed said, some people are genetically fat, but even then, the current medical establishment (in the U.S anyway) only promotes 30 minutes of excercise as light as WALKING a day for adults to stay "fit."

Lifting weights will only create more weight, to slim down running is the key. But I stick to my original point. it is a combination of the two. If you don't eat properly exercise might actually be harmful since you are not replenishing your system properly.
 
Swimming is the most active form of exercise you can do as it uses most of your muscles and you are barely ever "still" while doing it. The only problem is public baths can be pretty dirty sometimes and chlorine isn't the nicest smell.
To add to the above point, swimming doesn't add (much) muscle mass either.

Personally I prefer cycling for my exercise, I would love to play badminton more often but renting a court and finding someone else to play is usually too much hassle to do weekly.
As for dieting, I tend to just eat what I want, as I don't really have any bad habits. I like my chocolate and sweets from time to time but not every day and never loads of it. Fast food I generally avoid simply because of money (sandwiches are a nicer, cheaper and healthier!). I don't think you have to do anything special with diets, just make sure you aren't over-eating certain foods over others (e.g. 1 slice of cake not 2, regular meal not large, 6inch subway not foot long, water not sweet drinks, etc). Then as long as you are doing some form of decent exercise each week to burn off the excess, you should be ok.
 
From a practical point of view, the problem with swimming is that going to a public bath costs (not so much, but still) and you have to actually go there.  Running, all you have to do is buy a pair of sneakers, then step out of your front door.  It's the cheapest and easiest (practically) exercise that you can have, though of course games (football, tennis, whatever floats your boat) can be a lot more enjoyable and so more motivational.  I've lately enjoyed running about half an hour in the morning first thing I do when I wake up, it "wakes you up" very effectively. 

But as for losing weight, being outdoors, doing physical stuff (not exercise necessarily) and eating less than normal is very effective.  During my military service, most people always tended to lose weight over a week-long field exercise.  Part of the reason was, though, that in the field you don't always get meals when you're hungry (as with regular service, with fixed meal times), and even so the portions were rather small, so we basically lost weight by being starved. :D  And of course, physical activities and sleep deprivation also help.
 
Swimming is more an alternative to going to the gym, which also requries going and paying. I would argue it benefits you far better, far quicker (assuming you can already swim) than attempting to get into a training rhythm with weights, running machines, etc.
Swimming is arguably more enjoyable and less monotonous too.

But yeah, its not especially practical and not available to everyone (and sadly not everyone has learnt, which should be some kind of right to be honest). But if you wanted to get serious about losing weight quickly and easily, definitely the best possible thing you can do.
 
I agree that swimming is the best exercise:
  • It is naturally balanced: In gym you can make an exercise harder, but you can't swim in mercury or milk :) the density of water makes you waste a healthy amount of energy. If you look at swimmers, they are more or less equally muscular at a healthy level
  • If you want more muscle, you have the option of playing water polo
  • Cold water makes you waste extra energy, also increases your endurance
  • It is very refreshing
  • It can save your life
  • If you live by the sea or lake, it's free!
 
If you look at swimmers, male and female, they have HUGE shoulders and trapezoids... The women look flat out manish. They don't get that just from swimming. they put time in the gym too. Divers on the other hand.... But we are not talking about physiques anymore, but rather the most efficient practical "natural" work out. I stand behind walking/running and or biking.
 
If you train for Olympics or even small-scale contests, if you swim in that way rather than exercise, oh yea, you will and have better have huge shoulders and whatsoever.
But we are talking about regular exercise right? I didn't think we were talking about body builders, professional athletes.
If you look at people who regularly swim instead of who regularly go to gym, you'll see what I mean.
 
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