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Liar posted:Despite being fat though I'm insanely energetic. I run up and down ladders like a monkey at work. I'll spend an entire day kayaking, hiking, or playing some basketball. I honestly love walking. Oh, and I can do a full goddamn split. It blows people's goddamn minds! I'm not attacking you in any way, but do you notice that you first started talking about energetic you are, only to follow it up about spending days just sitting in front of the computer doing nothing? Could it be that you're not, in fact, as energetic as you think you might be, and that might contribute to your current obesity? Especially when you mention how when you were going at the gym 5 days a week with a controlled diet it was the best you've felt in years? quote:My other big issue is that I'm hungry ALL THE GODDAMN TIME. No matter how much I eat it feels like I'll starve to death. I'll eat a whole pizza as a snack. I feel embarrassed when I go to the buffet because I eat until I feel like I'm going to throw up. It's honestly like my stomach has no sense of when its had enough beyond me being in pain from over eating. The desire to eat is overwhelming. I imagine it's what a drug addict feels like. The second I realize I'm hungry I can't think of anything else. I would second going to the doctor, and possibly a mental health professional, to get this checked out. This clearly seems to be a huge problem for you and could be sign of a severe disease or problems you need to take care ASAP quote:I actually was on track towards a healthier lifestyle. I'd gone down to 270, was hitting the gym five days a week, and was eating only 1600 calories a day of homemade food (no soda, or prepared, or fast food). Leaving for work out of state disrupted this, and since then for the life of me I can't motivate again. It really, really depresses me because it was honestly the best I've felt in so long. You clearly hate the way you feel, you've been 50 pounds lighter and felt better than you had for years and years, and today you find yourself with no motivation to start that process again. What do you feel is missing that would get you off the couch and in the gym again? Gindack posted:I am currently 380 and 5'10 and haver been overweight since I have been 14. Main reason I got this way, still am here is just due to laziness and complacency. Just recently I have realized how truly unhappy I am with myself and now I am trying to change it but I fear it is just too late unless I do something drastic (surgery or hiring a personal chef). Unless you are going to drop dead in 6 months, it's never too late to change. Vyst has been able to shed off 250 pounds in a couple of years, and he's not even done! You've got 120 pounds on him, so imagine what you could achieve in a couple of years. Two years from now, on this very date, you could be 5'10 and weighing 170 pounds. Two weeks from now, you could easily be 370-372 pounds. Two months from now, you could be 350 pounds. In six months, you could be sub-300s and never again hit those dreadful numbers on a scale ever again. Something really great when someone your size decides to lose weight is that it will literally fly off those first few months. By merely changing your diet and nothing else you could be losing 10-15 pounds a month like it's nothing and sustain that loss for months on end. The only thing you need is the desire, to say that 'Today is the first day of the rest of my life' and act on it. Honestly I would advise against getting an operation unless a doctor tells you it's a matter of life and death for a very simple reason: if you don't work to change yourself, if you don't sweat it and you don't really work for it, you're never going to be able to keep it. All studies of weight loss have shown that the bigger the weight loss and the bigger the effort, the more chances you will be able to sustain that weight loss and keep your active lifestyle a decade from now. That's why I have no trouble believing that Vyst will never be fat again. He's worked so hard for it, made so many sacrifices, for the rest of his life he's going to continue appreciating his newfound fit body and never again let himself slide back. If he had an operation, most likely he would have backslid because it wouldn't have come from him. quote:I hate cooking and the clean up so trying to make healthy stuff is very hard for me to get off my lazy rear end and do it. The amount of money I spend eating out is insane (avg 500 month easy) and I usually eat fast food which is terrible. I have been trying recently to go to the gym and eat better once a day (Chipotle instead of Mcds) but even that is difficult for me to do as I am so set in my ways. The gym is the hardest part because even low impact exercise like the elliptical machine hurts, the only thing that doesn't is swimming. That's it, though, at the end of the day the change has to come from you. If you're stuck in your ways, you have to realize that your ways are sending you to an early grave. I've got good news for you, though: swimming is one of the best physical activities you can do to burn fat! Even better news: at your weigh, hitting the gym right now is not your priority. Changing your diet is what will get you thin, exercising is what will get you fit. The most important step for you, if you decide to turn your life around today, is to count your calories, NEVER eat something you don't log in, and follow it every day. The weight will fly off of you like crazy and six months to a year from now, when you're hitting around 280 pounds you can start thinking about getting serious at the gym (until then, keep hitting the pool though!). Register on MyPlate or MyFitnessPal and they will tell you exactly how much you need to eat every day to lose three pounds without having to do anything, even get out of bed. The embarrassing/lovely things you mentioned (and honestly they all sound terrible) could be a very bad memory a year from now, and a vague bad dream a few years from now. The only day it's too late to turn your life around is when you're in the grave. All the best and by all means keep posting here or the fat-shaming thread if you want motivation and advice. YLLS is also chockful of great threads for motivation and knowing how to turn your life around. I've got PM so if you want me to help you keep you motivated just PM me I'll be more than happy to help you, I genuinely love doing it and want to make it my life's purpose (that's an open invitation for anyone) Good luck, and get better!
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Jul 13, 2014 15:51
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Twee as gently caress posted:I'm not attacking you in any way, but do you notice that you first started talking about energetic you are, only to follow it up about spending days just sitting in front of the computer doing nothing? Could it be that you're not, in fact, as energetic as you think you might be, and that might contribute to your current obesity? Especially when you mention how when you were going at the gym 5 days a week with a controlled diet it was the best you've felt in years? It's basically like this; if someone else has planned an event then I'm super excited to do it and I'll be jumping around like I'm half the weight I am. This includes just the general stuff I'm told to do at work. However I have no motivation to do poo poo on my own. So I wind up sitting on my butt, feeling like I shouldn't leave my house because... who the gently caress knows. quote:I would second going to the doctor, and possibly a mental health professional, to get this checked out. This clearly seems to be a huge problem for you and could be sign of a severe disease or problems you need to take care ASAP I can't fully explain my adversity towards accepting a doctor's assistance on this. I do have a doctor who I see for yearly physicals. He just kind of bothers me because of his "Oh here's this year's hot new medication..." approach. I've also considered things like lap-band surgery, but it seems too pricey. quote:You clearly hate the way you feel, you've been 50 pounds lighter and felt better than you had for years and years, and today you find yourself with no motivation to start that process again. What do you feel is missing that would get you off the couch and in the gym again? I have literally no goddamn idea why I haven't been able to re-motivate. When my last big health spree happened it was absolutely spontaneous. I was sitting on my couch and was suddenly like, "Oh I think I'll go join a gym and from now on eat smaller meals with healthy snack between", and somehow I just stuck to it. I did that for roughly half a year, and the results were VERY noticeable. All of my clothes were falling off from me. People were stunned at how quickly I was dropping pounds. I had abandoned my car in favor of bicycling everywhere. I was even grocery shopping on the thing. Then my job sent me away for a week and when I came back it was suddenly like "why bother". Trust me when I say this is killing me. I don't know why I can't recapture that enthusiasm. Everyday I say to myself "I'm going to the gym", but then I wind up just going home instead. Once I'm home I just don't want to leave. Maybe if I had a buddy to go with or something it'd be different, or maybe that's just a lovely excuse.
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Jul 13, 2014 16:31
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Liar posted:
Fake it until you make it. You don't have to be particularly enthusiastic, just go through the actions and do it. Turn off the brain and just do the actions without thinking too much, even if it is half-hearted.
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Jul 13, 2014 16:34
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Shoshie posted:I know this isn't the "morbidly obese" story that you were looking for, Twee, but you said that you were looking for help as a gym teacher. Most kids like me, especially fatties, are going to be resistant to exercising and losing weight, simply because when someone does tell you to, even if they have the best intentions, to me, anyway, it felt like they were making fun of me. That along with the PE teachers constant emphasis on competition, and being the best, versus being the best YOU that you can be, and being thin versus being fit, it really turned me off and may have possibly been some of the reason for my psychosis. Perhaps I'm just too sensitive. Thank you so much for sharing, and this is absolutely the kind of stories I want to hear about. You've just inspired me to make a '[Tell] me about your time in gym class' thread too at some points. I'm glad to read that your problems got sorted out, wish you all the best and to keep focusing on being healthy first and foremost. meataidstheft posted:Of course, it is really disheartening to know people want you to DIE because you let your depression and lovely habits get the best of you. But the reality is I know none of those people would actually come up to me in real life and say anything to my face, and the internet is hyperbole. Yeah I can understand how it would feel disheartening, but I don't think anyone in that thread actually wants fat people to literally drop dead. I think most of the hatred and venom is directed at the fat acceptance people and those to try to make the lifestyle seem glamorous or desirable because a lot of posters in that thread are very health-oriented and to hear people advocate a lifestyle that literally kills people just makes so many of us mad. Obesity reduces your lifespan more than smoking does. It can cut on average 14 years of your life. 14 years, and that's without taking in account the diminished quality of life during those years. So yeah if you read hyperbolic statement don't feel like we're talking about you, especially since you're trying to get your life back on track and you're not in any way embracing FA bullshit. 30 Goddamned Dicks posted:Twee, thank you for making this thread. Hearing stories from others makes me feel like my own experience wasn't unusual and that I am not a failure for having gone through it. Thank you for sharing, you've made amazing progress and I'm glad this thread is helping you! quote:Also one of the hardest things about writing this entire post is that I do not see that much of a difference from my before and after pictures. I feel like all y'all are going to jump on me and tell me I don't look that different and I'm just in denial about how I look, because I have the hardest drat time processing the changes that have happened to my body and in my head I don't feel like I've changed that much. Don't worry no one is gonna jump on you in here! And when you're following a strict diet and strength training, it's not about the numbers on the scale as much as it is your measurements. I can't speak for the others, but those last pics show a clear different from the earlier ones roughly at the same weight but not fit. I understand it can be a long and grueling process, but don't lost faith that it's gonna happen, because it will as long as you stick with it! You're doing incredibly great. quote:How is life different now? This is incredible, and I hope that anyone morbidly obese will read this and use it as inspiration to kickstart their own return to health and realize that all of these things they struggle with, you struggled with but are not a problem anymore.
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Jul 13, 2014 16:37
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Liar posted:It's basically like this; if someone else has planned an event then I'm super excited to do it and I'll be jumping around like I'm half the weight I am. This includes just the general stuff I'm told to do at work. However I have no motivation to do poo poo on my own. So I wind up sitting on my butt, feeling like I shouldn't leave my house because... who the gently caress knows. Coupling that with quote:Then my job sent me away for a week and when I came back it was suddenly like "why bother". and quote:I can't fully explain my adversity towards accepting a doctor's assistance on this. I do have a doctor who I see for yearly physicals. He just kind of bothers me because of his "Oh here's this year's hot new medication..." approach. I would reiterate my advice to go seek help from a professional, most likely a mental health one. If you don't mind (and you don't need to reply to this if you don't want to/don't feel comfortable) that your lack of motivation also affects other aspects of yourself, like your job, your hygiene, your interpersonal relationships etc... This is more or less what you've expressed so far anyway, and that tells me you probably have issues you would do well to discuss with someone who knows what he's talking about and to help you through them. So far for everyone here who reached morbid obesity, it certainly played a major part and dealing with those things certainly proved to be the clincher to send them down a healthier path. A healthy mind in a healthy body and all that. quote:I've also considered things like lap-band surgery, but it seems too pricey. As I mentioned earlier, I really would not suggest the lap band or any other type of surgery as the chances of sliding back into bad habits is incredibly high versus taking the time to work all that weight off. It's gonna be a much slower process but it's a process that will stick for the rest of your life because you will have worked for it. It seems counter-intuitive, but the best way for you to get motivation to get off the couch would be... to get off the couch. It's always hardest at first, but as soon as you've been in the groove for a long period of time without interruption (like taking a week off, if you need to leave for work then keep working out wherever you are with body weight exercises or even just long walks). I felt the difference myself after being out of commission for months and the weight gain after my injury, and yeah my motivation and desire to do anything had dropped down drastically until I finally could get off my butt and started working out again. Those first few weeks sucked, too, but it got infinitely better. The more you exercise and take care about yourself, the better you feel and the more you want to. Saturday is my full rest day and I still ended up going on a 4 miles walk visualizing the 8 miles I'm gonna be running soon. I was up at 6 this morning even after staying up late with friends last night because I was so drat excited to go run. It was raining and I was angry but just saw it was starting to just drizzle so I made myself a protein smoothie and I'm giddy like a child and gonna go for a run. I never felt anything close to this level of excitement after spending months on end forced to sit on my couch and do nothing. The longer I sat and the more pounds I put on, the worst I felt but man as soon as I forced myself to get up that first time and say 'Enough, time to get back in shape' things got exponentially better really quickly. Six months from now, you could feel like you did after those six months of hitting the gym. A year from now, you could feel 5 times as good as that. A couple of years from now you could be looking at pictures of yourself and ask 'Who the gently caress was that?  ' because you'll just have changed so much you'll be a newer, healthier, happier and better person. Good luck trying to find that motivation, and I hope it happens soon, because once you do you'll realize this is the best gift you ever could have given to yourself
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Jul 13, 2014 16:56
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Twee as gently caress posted:Thank you for sharing, you've made amazing progress and I'm glad this thread is helping you! Thanks  After freaking out a bit after writing that post I realized that I semi-unintentionally stalled out in losing weight for the past few months (took up strength training again, had to deal with a sprained foot and now a sprained wrist), and that was making me feel kinda flubby and unmotivated. So now that I realize I'm off track, I'm going to get back on track and ask my coach about how to continue losing BF while getting my strength back up, and go back to sticking with eating well and tracking my calories.  See, here's a big difference from before and after: now when I have feelings like "Oh man I'm off track and not making progress" I say "Well then, time to get back ON track and continue making progress!" instead of "WAHHHHH I AM FAT AND WILL ALWAYS BE FAT AND AM A BAD PERSON TIME TO EAT ICE CREAM UNTIL I CAN'T MOVEEEEE!" Something that I think would have made a difference when I was young would be introduction to exercise/moving around/etc as being a fun, enjoyable, and normal part of life. I grew up treated like a princess and didn't have to lift a finger or do chores, and having a teacher introduce the concept of "Hard things can be FUN, doing things that get your heart rate up can be FUN, exercising should be enjoyable, playing sports should be enjoyable" would have gone a long loving way towards getting me off my butt at an early age.
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Jul 13, 2014 17:03
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Yeah 30 Goddamned Dicks you're looking good and strong - you are another motivator for me because my basic goal is to be a short person who looks like they could win in a fight with a bear.
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Jul 13, 2014 17:33
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Twee as gently caress posted:How old are you now, if you don't mind me asking? Also, were you just thin and lazy, or thin and fit? I don't mind! I just turned 30. I'll try to give a summary of my weight throughout life. It fluctuated A LOT. I'm pretty sure I was thin and lazy, for the most part. I was a stick as a child. During my teens I was around 115-125 without really trying. I think I did a lot of emotional eating during my first pregnancy. Being only 18 I was getting a lot of poo poo from family about it. I definitely had some sort of postpartum crisis. After my first pregnancy I weighed around 180 or so, and decided to change my diet in an extreme way. I remember exercising a bit but nothing major. But with just the calorie restriction I got down to around 115-120 pounds. I might have had an eating disorder, too, I'm not entirely sure. The weird thing about it is that I just up and stopped being semi-anorexic one day. So I have no idea if that counted as an ED. I don't remember having any therapy at the time, maybe depression meds I'm not sure. But I just stopped the extreme calorie restriction (still didn't eat like a pig, though) and hovered around 120-125 for awhile. A year or so later I gained about 30-40 pounds with my second pregnancy. And after the baby I slightly changed my eating habits, but worked out a lot more. That's the period where I was really into pole dancing, and with eating relatively normal and all the dancing my weight hovered around 155-160. Which is still higher "normal" for my height, but I looked good. It's probably the happiest I ever was, in a way. I danced at clubs for a bit and that was really physically demanding and extremely satisfying. Dancing for 6-8 hours a shift in 7" platforms kicks your rear end into shape pretty quickly. Then after 3 years of dancing I got addicted to benzos, and went into a sort of manic, downward spiral and stopped eating. Got down to around 125 again. Well I decided to stop that bullshit. Got help, moved in with my dad to help him, and attend the local college. I became extremely depressed. I'm not sure if something triggered it or if it's just the way my brain works. No idea. But the psychiatrist of course tried all sorts of meds on me. Mainly antipsychotic cocktails. I gained a HUGE amount of weight. Went from loving 125 to 170-80. Met the man I want to marry, had my son (the children situation is a long story so didn't include, not sure if anyone really cares), and after my pregnancy was around 220. I didn't have much motivation until recently, and my son is now 1. But hey, I'm just glad I finally feel motivated. The last few years have been hell with my body/mind. Twee as gently caress posted:
I'm pretty convinced my depression is chemical and/or related to something in my brain that is not fixed yet via therapy or drugs. I've had psychiatrists and therapists in my life since I was about 12. BUT- nothing has loving helped yet. So I'm definitely 100% following my doctors instructions right now. I am so happy and excited that someone is trying something new. I'm on my third day of Phentermine and I think it's actually working as intended. Just seemed to need to build up in my body first or something. But my fatigue is pretty much lifted. I'm doing more poo poo than I normally do. And most importantly strictly following the diet. Twee as gently caress posted:If you lose weight and your boyfriend tries to get you to pack it on again, he's probably not just a chaser but downright feeder and I would suggest you reconsider your relationship with him. As you said with the story of your father dying and how it impacted him, having a loved one trying to fatten you up is no different than having a relatively actively trying to get an alcoholic on the wagon to start drinking again. I'll watch out for it, but I'm not too worried. I think he definitely prefers fatter chicks, but I'm convinced he'd love me no matter what I look like. If not oh well I'd be hot again so I could just find someone else right lol. Twee as gently caress posted:Yeah there is vitriol for sure, but a lot of us also try to write positive and constructive posts and genuinely help people who come in the thread saying 'I'm fat I want to stop how do I do that?' Thanks a lot your help is very appreciated! It's amazing how angry and passionate people are about fatness. I didn't realize it made me so angry until the fat shaming thread and writing in here. I think it's good, though. I would never condone being mean to us fatties, but it's like hate the sin and not the sinner type situation.
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Jul 13, 2014 18:46
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Twee as gently caress posted:If you don't mind (and you don't need to reply to this if you don't want to/don't feel comfortable) that your lack of motivation also affects other aspects of yourself, like your job, your hygiene, your interpersonal relationships etc... I can assure you that I smell wonderful and am fantastic at my job (recent promotion to management). However I cannot deny that I have an insanely difficult time meeting people. I don't have anyone who I would consider a friend (outside of family members), and I would have no clue as how to even go about meeting people. I've always been very reluctant to approach others or to speak up.
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Jul 13, 2014 20:02
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I have updated the OP with a minifaq and relevant linksGoobish posted:The last few years have been hell with my body/mind. It certainly sounds like it  I am glad that things definitely seem to be turning around for you, though. Keep hanging on, and you could find yourself a completely different person soon!quote:I'll watch out for it, but I'm not too worried. I think he definitely prefers fatter chicks, but I'm convinced he'd love me no matter what I look like. If not oh well I'd be hot again so I could just find someone else right lol. That's the perfect attitude to have! quote:Thanks a lot your help is very appreciated! It's amazing how angry and passionate people are about fatness. I didn't realize it made me so angry until the fat shaming thread and writing in here. I think it's good, though. I would never condone being mean to us fatties, but it's like hate the sin and not the sinner type situation. It's my pleasure. As far as the anger/passion people have about it is because obesity literally kills. It's more detrimental to health than smoking is and cuts your lifetime on average by 14 years. That's, again, without taking in account the diminished quality of life. Personally I don't think it's fat people who anger me as much as the Fat Acceptance movement, those who try to normalize it and those who pretend that it's a good thing. I'm completely with you on the hate the sin not the sinner situation. I'd never be mean to a fat person to their face. I've shamed quite a few but that's usually in situations where I'm running outside and really sweating running by them in the park while their sitting down and eating ice cream and I see that flash of self-hatred in their eyes or while doing things they couldn't do because of their weight but it's not like I'm gonna go out of my way not to hurt their feelings by living my life either  Thank you for all of your contributions so far! Liar posted:I can assure you that I smell wonderful and am fantastic at my job (recent promotion to management). However I cannot deny that I have an insanely difficult time meeting people. I don't have anyone who I would consider a friend (outside of family members), and I would have no clue as how to even go about meeting people. I've always been very reluctant to approach others or to speak up. I'm glad to hear about the first two, and saddened to hear about the latter. I hope you can work through your issues, and I will point out that a great way to meet people is by participating in activities like sports leagues, in races or even at the gym, etc... I've made so many friends and acquaintances at sporting events and everyone is usually friendly and happy at those places, because being active is awesome. I hope you manage to get your life back on track, you were getting there once and you can do it again!
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Jul 13, 2014 20:19
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Ok so I'm not obese anymore but I sure as hell was in high-school. I was a pretty good pitcher for my high-school baseball team up until my junior year when I hurt my arm. I wasn't able to throw anymore, so I quit sports and stopped doing any form of exercise. I was already chubby before this, I think somewhere around 220 and 6'3", but I loving EXPLODED in weight. At my worse, at about halfway through my senior year, I peaked at 280. I decided in January of that year I wanted to join the army after I graduated so I started working with a recruiter to lose weight. By the time I shipped for basic training in August of that summer I was down to 260, just making the body fat standards to get in. Obviously I had no choice but to lose weight in basic. When I came home on leave in December I was down to 200 pounds. The next year I got as low as 185 before I got into weight lifting. At the best shape of my life I was 220 pounds with less than 10% body fat. I went from wearing size 46 pants to 32, from XXXL T-shirts to medium/Large. When I came home in December the different in quality of life was simply astounding. I used to run out of breath just walking up one flight of stairs to my bedroom, that didn't happen anymore. I didn't have to take breaks to sit or catch my breath when I walked around the mall with friends, I actually enjoyed going to the beach, swimming, taking my shirt off etc.Even bigger than those things was everything I didn't realize were needlessly tough as an obese person. Taking a poo poo was a way simpler experience since I now fit on toilets, I didn't sweat like a rapist even sitting down, and my sex life was a million times better. It completely blew my girlfriends mind how much more energy I had. Life was just loving better as someone of a healthy weight. It was SO much easier to make friends, be taken seriously, find a girlfriend, and to enjoy life. Most people don't respect someone who is obese and wont take you seriously. When someone is obese you are always at a disadvantage in social situations. You have to MAKE people look past your weight to see who you really are. I used to think I had some sort of social anxiety problem but it turns out I was just ashamed of myself and my weight. The winter of 2007 was when I was at my worst, and I'm still at a healthy weight now. I'm not trying to shame you, I'm not trying to make fun, but if you are obese you NEED to take steps to get down in weight. You only have one life to live and life IS better when you aren't obese. It is really god damned hard to defeat obesity, but it is worth it. Once you get down to it, maintaining a healthy weight isn't that difficult. I play a ton of video games and I'm a student so I don't ever have to exert myself if I don't want to. But just keeping a reasonable eye on what I eat and going to the gym 2-3 times a week is more than enough to keep me healthy and happy.
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Jul 13, 2014 22:22
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Jul 13, 2014 22:24
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Twee as gently caress posted:Because if you were the latter, it's honestly people like you who blow my mind. Like, I can wrap my head around a fat child of fat parents who was always fat but knew otherwise, but it's those people who were thin and fit who let themselves get to morbid obesity that I just can't understand. As I said earlier, after a bad accident I gained some weight, not too bad like maybe 30 pounds but I felt so terrible, sluggish and disgusted with myself that I couldn't imagine myself ever staying like that, even less get fatter. One pattern I've been noticing is that these stories feature people whose thinking gets badly distorted from depression and anxiety that have never been addressed. I'd imagine that you can't understand it because it's coming from a thought process that's unrecognizably strange, the same way that suicidal thoughts are always gibberish that seem convincing at the time to the people who have them. Why do people harm themselves? Because they're not thinking clearly and either ignoring the harm or doing it because they believe they deserve to be harmed. I'm happy to share a story if anybody cares: I was fat all through childhood and college, about 230 at 5'11" at the heaviest. I was never particularly unhappy and didn't understand that socializing was hard for me because I was fat and ugly. After college I got to the point where I didn't like being as large as I was and didn't like seeing myself in the mirror. I had moved away from one of the fattest cities in America to a coastal metropolis where people take care of themselves, and I think the example of the people around me made me think critically about myself and my habits for the first time. All of my coworkers and friends went running and lifted, and just from being around them I learned a lot about it and got support when I decided to start running. Along with this, I changed my diet to include much more fruit and many more vegetables. After two years I had dropped maybe 70 pounds and was really built, doing a dumbbell routine before bed at about 50lbs per dumbbell. Getting healthy made me realize everything I had been missing by being fat, of which I had never really had any inkling when I was. More recently, I got a couple of really debilitating injuries: a torn rotator cuff and de Quervain's Tendinitis back to back, the other starting once I had healed from the other. I lifted for about two months between them before the de Quervain's started, but overall I couldn't lift for about a year. I coped by running four times a week but stayed about the same weight and then slowly started getting fatter. Now I'm getting back to my old weight routine, slowly building up what I've lost, which is kind of demoralizing but encouraging too. As far as motivating other people, I don't think it can be done. Until I started running at 26, I had believed that I hated all sports and exercise. I had been in gym class as a kid, and I think that experience gave me the idea that some people are naturally attracted to exercise while others aren't, and my personality was so far from my gym teacher and the jocks in class that everything there just turned me off. They weren't mean or anything, but the teacher assumed all kinds of knowledge and experience I didn't have: of how to play certain sports or of accomplishing things physically that I hadn't done. I was uncoordinated and slow, and nobody bothered telling me that I could get better by trying on my own time. Instead I just segregated myself and everyone went along with it. My only real regret from childhood is that I didn't give running a try then, because when I started as an adult I found it really appealing and continue to look forward to my runs. Do I think that ripping on fat people helps? I don't think so. The fat acceptance people need to be shut down when they justify living an unhealthy lifestyle, yet I don't think it helps motivate people to change by calling them poo poo. The fat acceptance people do have one thing right, which is that we can and should treat fat people with dignity and respect. Fat people already know that they're fat. The only thing I didn't know was how much better everything would be for me once I got into shape. Change comes from within is all I can say.
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Jul 14, 2014 00:19
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Jack Gladney posted:As far as motivating other people, I don't think it can be done. Jack Gladney posted:I think the example of the people around me made me think critically about myself and my habits for the first time. All of my coworkers and friends went running and lifted, and just from being around them I learned a lot about it and got support when I decided to start running It seems like it can be done? Though funny how being immersed in a fit culture later in life was more effective than being "immersed" in a fit culture in elementary school.
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Jul 14, 2014 00:53
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Kids are dumb. About five years ago I helped my mother clean out her basement, and packed away in there were a bunch of notebooks I had from high school. Inside of one from health class was almost everything I later learned as an adult about nutrition and exercise. I have no memory of learning any of that, but it had all been given to me years before at 16 and I apparently hadn't appreciate it at all. I do remember not to drink if I'm running a barbecue grill, though, thanks to a really gruesome educational film they had us watch. Maybe they should have had one about a guy who eats cheetos and then burns to death horribly while screaming and begging for help. EDIT: quote:It seems like it can be done? Though funny how being immersed in a fit culture later in life was more effective than being "immersed" in a fit culture in elementary school. I mean that I don't think anybody could have convinced me to live differently just by telling me. I think that having your sense of what's normal shifted is different from getting an argument from somebody. I AM GRANDO fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Jul 14, 2014 |
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Jul 14, 2014 01:10
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Jack Gladney posted:I do remember not to drink if I'm running a barbecue grill, though, thanks to a really gruesome educational film they had us watch. Maybe they should have had one about a guy who eats cheetos and then burns to death horribly while screaming and begging for help. Ironically, I've grilled some splendid steaks when drunk (honestly, better than when I've grilled sober), and it's been much better for my health than having the equivalent steak served with potatoes, sour cream, bacon, and escargot cooked in butter as I would've done if I'd eaten it at a steakhouse. You have to be really drunk to fall into the grill or whatever.
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Jul 14, 2014 01:37
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Fat checking in. 6'1" 41-yo male, 215 lbs right now, was around 310 lbs at peak. What made you turn it around? About four years ago my blood pressure started climbing. I went to my doctor and was quickly prescribed hydrochlorothiazide (aka HCTZ), a diuretic. It helped some, but not a whole lot, and I ended up on ramipril, then some other pill whose name I can't remember, but it was a time-release pill. At worst, my BP was up around 170/90. That was when I first started "trying" to lose weight. Trying is in air quotes because I wasn't terribly dedicated to the idea, I just started eating less volume and exercising every now and then. It didn't work out terribly well, as I still had no clue how many calories I was cramming into my gaping maw. A little over two years ago, my doctor informed me that my blood sugars were going up, and that I should start taking a pill to lower my cholesterol. Well, that did it. I realized that I needed to turn things around or I was going to die before seeing my grandkids. How did you start to lose weight? What exercises could you do, or was it all diet initially? I actually didn't start losing weight right away. I got myself a treadmill and started doing cardio 4-5 times per week. I started out doing 2.5 mph at 0% incline for 25 minutes, and worked my way up from there to my current default medium intensity of 3 mph at 12% incline for 45 min. It was very hard to get started, and as many people have noted, treadmill cardio is boring as gently caress. I got around this by setting up a monitor in front of the treadmill and watching a show (usually anime). It made the sessions bearable at first, then enjoyable as it became my "me" time. I made a rule that I'm not to be interrupted while working out unless somebody is literally dying. I look forward to the treadmill now, and unless I'm doing intervals I forget I'm even on the thing after a while. I significantly reduced my food volume. I stopped getting seconds at supper. My plate went from 1/2 potatoes, 1/4 meat and 1/4 veggies to 1/2 veggies, 1/4 potatoes and 1/4 meat. To get around my complete and utter lack of willpower I got all the junk food out of the house and stopped drinking pop completely. I never did fast food very often, but that dropped to nil as well. It's easier to make good food choices when you don't have any junk food in easy reach. Over the next six months, my profile improved dramatically: my BP had improved, my resting HR improved, my blood sugars improved enough that my doctor stopped talking about taking more pills, I had more energy and slept better, but I had only lost 10 pounds and I wasn't happy with my food choices. Despite my improvements in some areas, I was incredibly frustrated at that point, and did an assload of research. I realized that the biggest thing I was missing was tracking the calories in and out. Looking back it seems like such an obvious thing. Hindsight, eh? So I started weighing, measuring, and recording calories in and out, and making sure I carried my deficit. I stopped cutting out the foods I had been cutting because they were "bad", and just made sure my macros were where they should be. I went from 2-3 meals a day to 3 meals plus 2 snacks, which helped a lot with hunger mitigation. I started eating fiber like I wanted to poo poo a goddamn tree, which also helped with the hunger. I was much happier with my diet, and I started consistently losing. When I lost 10 pounds over the next month, and my scale showed 289 lbs, I realized that I was really doing it, and could become legit thin again. That was a real watershed moment for me, and I wept like a little kid. I've only recently (about 3 months ago) started lifting. Similarly to the cardio, I didn't like it at all at first. Even less so than cardio. I can't say I like the actual lifting now, but I do look forward to my lift days and enjoy the feeling I get afterwards. Seems kinda odd, but it's a step in the right direction and I'm sure eventually I'll like lifting like I like cardio. What do you think someone could have said to you to make you want to start earlier? What do you think you could say to someone in a similar situation? Nothing. I'd heard it all before. It wasn't what I needed to hear, it was what I needed to believe. And that was "you really can do it." That's what I tell people. It doesn't matter what your situation is. It doesn't matter what you have, or don't have. You can lose weight and not be totally miserable while you're doing it. If anything, it might have helped to not hear some of the things I did hear. "Oh it's easy." No it's loving not easy, at least not for everybody. If it really was easy we wouldn't have the current obesity epidemic, because other than a few very fringe individuals, nobody wants to be fat. "It's easy" rings of the same bullshit as anti-weed gloom and doom, it's obviously stupid and sends the wrong message. "It may be hard for you, but you can do it" is the hard truth people need to come to believe. Did you encounter chubby chasers? Did anyone tell you they found your obesity attractive? On your way up the scale did you think you were attractive for a while or never? Not that I know of. I did run into one girl who seemed almost oddly attracted to me... she might have been a chubby chaser but I couldn't say for sure. I've never thought I was attractive, so getting fatter didn't really change anything for me in that way. Just out of curiosity, have you noticed any change in how your friends, family, and strangers interact with you now compared to before you began your weight loss? Holy poo poo yes. Everybody constantly tells me how good I look now, to the point where it's actually getting a little annoying. The question people who haven't seen me in a while ask now is "where'd you leave the other half of you?" My go-to answer is "buried in my backyard." I never really felt like I was discriminated against or anything like that when I was super fat, but now that I'm merely overweight I'm starting to see differences in how strangers treat me. They're friendlier on the whole, but it's not like they've stopped being mean, it's more like they stopped ignoring me. I do still get the occasional dirty look when I go to a fast food place, and I guess that's the one thing I'd like potentially judgmental people to keep in mind... that fat guy you see at the McDonald's may actually be on the way down, not up. If you don't think he should be there, why are you there? Almost everybody has reacted positively to my change. I have one co-worker, though, who hasn't *said* anything, but started bringing sweets and poo poo in to share with the office after I started losing a bunch of weight. I don't think it's a conscious effort to sabotage me, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a subconscious one. This is apparently a thing that happens sometimes, but I'm not troubled by it... free snacks! Besides the eating is there anything you miss or liked as a death fat? I have a pretty stiff bed, which wasn't much of an issue back when I had significant padding on my hips and shoulders. Almost all the fat stores left in my body are around my gut, so now I get some soreness from lying on my side that I didn't have before. I presume that once I have decent muscles in those areas it'll be less of an issue. Or I suppose I could just get a softer bed or something. Yeah that's it. What was the absolute worst thing being at your fattest? Gosh, there's so much to choose from. I'd have to say the general lack of mobility. Not being able to do something as simple as picking something up off the floor without it being a major production was depressing. How do you feel about the fat-shaming thread in GBS? Do you read it at all/frequently? Is it a motivation or source of shame or motivation through shame? The what thread now?  I get a lot of enjoyment out of the thread. I enjoy stirring poo poo up in there every now and then (read: on a nearly daily basis). Despite that, I agree with most of the messages in the thread: HAAS/HAES is maddeningly horrible, "fat acceptance" in general is pretty loving dumb, fat people should be told things like "you can and should lose weight, and here's how" by friends, loved ones, and health professionals, and feeders and other fat fetishists are horrible people who should be launched into the goddamn sun. However, I don't believe people should be shamed for whatever state they're currently in, because 99 times out of 100, it's just not helpful. In most cases, I believe it's truly harmful. Yes, smash whatever delusions they have ("I really eat very healthy!") with facts, but don't try to make people feel subhuman, because feeling subhuman is one of the things that leads people to just not caring about being fat. I'm aware there are people who have been motivated by the thread, and I think that's fantastic. I'm pleasantly surprised by that fact, but I think it helps that those people aren't being personally shamed in the thread, they're just seeing examples of what can/will happen to them if they don't turn things around. The first, best way to fight any kind of social ill is by education, and that thread is very educational if nothing else, so kudos in that sense. I think there are a few people in that thread who genuinely hate fat people for being fat, who do prop themselves up by feeding on and perpetuating the misery of others, and who probably need more therapy than the people they're mocking, but I'm betting they're the minority and most of the regular posters in there are just having fun. Geoj is my favorite poster in the thread, but just because I haven't quite figured him out yet... in most of his posts, he sounds like he's firmly on the bandwagon, but a few of his posts come very close to being obvious mocking of the mockers. Poe's Law I guess.
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Jul 14, 2014 02:29
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Hi, I'm Deep Winter, and I weigh 365 pounds, and am five nine inches tall. I've always been overweight. Mother raised me by herself, and she was overweight too. I didn't eat vegetables (am still learning and trying more), rarely are fruit, and never learned portion control. I don't want to blame it all on her, but I still have to actively stop myself from eating every last bit of food on my plate. Last December, I was bringing my father in law to a hospital for an appointment, and got on one of the hospital grade scales for funsies. It said 380 This was when I realized, holy poo poo, this is going to kill me. Since then, I've lost 15 pounds by eating better and going to the gym. I've stalled, now, however. It's hard. My father in law is now hospitalized, and me and my wife drive two and a half hours to see him ever few days. I work late and have to get up early to bring my wife to work, as we have one car. These are excuses, justifications to eat fast food, I know this. But the reality is, after working until 7 p.m then driving for hours, a quick hamburger is heaven. I was in the loose weight megathread in You Look like poo poo for awhile, then I stopped posting when things started to get bad with my father in law. I want to lose weight. I want a motorcycle, I want to practice martial arts (I have insane muscle memory). Day to day life isn't actually that difficult. Most of fat is in my thighs and stomach. Bending over to put on shoes or socks is tough and puts me out of breath. Hard to fit in tight places, or move around people. My job requires sitting down for long periods, thankfully. I actually work right next to my gym. After work, I could go over to the gym, yes. I shoud. I know that. But me and my wife just want to relax and eat before bed. I was going to the gym in the morning before work, after I drop my wife off. And then I had to start bringing my FIL to local appointments, and when he was my hospitalized, my wife took a leave of absence from work, so she has the car now in the mornings. Things will settle down, and I'll go back to the gym. I've been lax on portion control lately. I need to do better.
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Jul 14, 2014 03:13
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I don't have nearly the experience that other posters in this thread have, but I've gone from 25 pounds overweight to my target in the past few months, and what I have to say is this: there's nothing wrong with the occasional hamburger/steak/etc. There's a big problem with having a Coke and order of fries with it. Nutritionally, a Big Mac is poo poo, but it's not particularly high-calorie if you have it by itself. The fries and drink have no nutrition, and they are very high in calories. If you have three big macs a day, you might well suffer from scurvy, but you'll probably lose weight.
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Jul 14, 2014 04:00
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Yeah - soda was the one major component of my most recent weight gain. I switched colleges in 2008 because I hated the one I was attending (Millersville U, PA) - but I started needing to work because I was commuting to my new school. I got a night shift job at a credit card manufacturing company, working all night and going to school during the day. At this point I was maybe 175. I started raiding the vending machines for cola instead of eating for energy, because I was sleeping in 2-4 hour intervals. It wasn't too bad (immediate consequence wise), because the job had some physical aspect to it (loading machines and crawling around those machines to find card the die-cut would fling around). I had to walk to class from the parking areas while lugging a big old portfolio and/or other bags full of art supplies, so there was a little teeny bit of exercise there. Anywho, my job switched to 12 hour rotating shifts, so it was impossible to maintain and I dropped out of school. Then the epic packing on of pounds started. Moral of the story is - soda and other sugary drinks are a killer, really. Now that I've cut them out I find it difficult to get enough calories in the day because I get stuffed when I eat. In addition, have the absolute shittiest sleeping schedule really contributes. I still suffer from insomnia so I need to exercise more so I can get tired. Random question: I've been getting tired after meals (like having to take a nap tired) - that pretty much means I have diabetes right? I'm going to schedule a doctor's appointment next week. Anyway, I'm stupid and it blows.
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Jul 14, 2014 04:11
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Just giving up soda, without exercise, made me lose 10 pounds.
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Jul 14, 2014 04:32
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gleep gloop posted:Just giving up soda, without exercise, made me lose 10 pounds. Me too. I've never been obese, but I got fat after I left college, started working a sedentary job, and stopped exercising. I started exercising again, switched to diet soda, and stopped eating fried food and I lost 15 pounds. In the years since, I have regained about 10 of those pounds as muscle. I know this doesn't really compare to what some of you have had to go through.
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Jul 14, 2014 06:08
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Goobish posted:Well I decided to stop that bullshit. Got help, moved in with my dad to help him, and attend the local college. I became extremely depressed. I'm not sure if something triggered it or if it's just the way my brain works. No idea. But the psychiatrist of course tried all sorts of meds on me. Mainly antipsychotic cocktails. I gained a HUGE amount of weight. Went from loving 125 to 170-80. I was on antipsychotics for a month during college, for reasons that included anxiety over my body image. I started at a healthy body weight for my height. During that month, my weight increased ~30%. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. I would go to the dining hall for lunch, get a heaping plate of meat and vegetables, eat at a reasonable pace -- and 15 minutes later, I would be hungry again and go back. Repeat, repeat. I was eating about four or five times as much food as I usually did, at a conservative estimate. The days that I didn't grossly overeat, I felt like I hadn't eaten in days and hunger eclipsed all my other thoughts. I was disgusted and humiliated; it was bad enough that none of my clothes fit any more and my physical appearance had gone to poo poo, but the constant hunger was making me miserable and my inability to control my own eating was destroying my own self-esteem. When I worked up the courage to weigh myself and saw the evidence, I had a major breakdown which spurred a lot of lifestyle changes, including quitting all medication cold-turkey. It's obviously not a prudent general recommendation but it was essential to getting my life, and health back on track. I'm about back where I started now (same pant size, significantly more upper body muscle), but if I had complied with my doctors and continued on antipsychotics trying to manage through the side effects I would almost definitely be obese. I have the highest sympathies for anyone who genuinely requires medication with that kind of side effects. In that situation, the quality of life impact from being constantly ravenous was so severe, I can't imagine needing to suffer through that to maintain a healthy weight.
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Jul 14, 2014 07:26
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I've posted in the other thread enough, maybe I can atone for it here. When I turned 18 I weighed more than 105 kilos, or 220 pounds. Probably around 240. That's not a lot thesedays but it wasn't small. I was completely sedentary and could barely walk up a right of stairs. By the time I turned 19 I weighed 75 kg (165pounds), and i was rockclimbing and riding up to 100kms a day. What made you turn it around? I went to university and decided I wanted some independence, so I pulled out my old bicycle and started riding there and back every day. Public transport was bad, so the only other option was getting lifts with the parents, which would have killed any chance of the social life that I was hoping for. That, and the shoelaces. Putting my shoes on was a daily humiliation. How did you start to lose weight? What exercises could you do, or was it all diet initially? Just the bicycle. While I was growing up, my parents basically forced me to eat terrible food, until I started demanding it. Just not being at home for their terrible meals caused my weight to start dropping. What do you think someone could have said to you to make you want to start earlier? What do you think you could say to someone in a similar situation? Getting good advice would have helped. I wish someone had told me about weightlifting, because all I ever had was "only cardio counts". Actually I guess I did know about it, because my family would often mock weightlifters, despite being fat blobs themselves. It makes me very angry to hear the same crap from the fat acceptance crowd. I seriously didn't believe I could ever look like a weightlifter. I was sure, without any doubt, that I was going to be fat for my whole life. I don't think I could say anything to anyone that would convince them otherwise , but I would offer to be their gym buddy. There's no motivation like having to get to the gym and not let down my gym buddy. Did you encounter chubby chasers? Did anyone tell you they found your obesity attractive? On your way up the scale did you think you were attractive for a while or never? Yes. My first girlfriend was a chubby chaser who dumped me for a fat guy after I got thin. I never considered myself attractive at any point, which didn't help. It really was the change of lifestyle that had the effect. The advice is always "change your lifestyle to lose weight", but that hardly ever comes with advice on how to change a lifestyle. When my lifestyle changed back to something less healthy, I gained weight again. A while ago my company sent me to a country where eating the food was a real gamble, so I stayed in the hotel and ate at the restaurant there. With no bicycle and greasy hotel food, I put on more than half a pound per week. When I left, I literally couldn't fit any of the clothes I brought with me. Now I'm in weight conscious Japan, and that weight is coming off again. Dongsturm fucked around with this message at 07:40 on Jul 14, 2014 |
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Jul 14, 2014 07:37
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meataidstheft posted:Random question: I've been getting tired after meals (like having to take a nap tired) - that pretty much means I have diabetes right? I'm going to schedule a doctor's appointment next week. I've been a more or less heathly weight my entire life and get sleepy after big meals, especially lunch. I think it's fairly natural and the body's way of saying, "Stop your bullshit, I want to digest this here food". I guess it's part of our evolution, when you have the chance to fill your belly you must have found a good food source, so the most important thing you could do is digest the food as quickly as possible, so you can eat more, before something else takes the food(rot/lions). Cool thread.
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Jul 14, 2014 12:16
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meataidstheft posted:Random question: I've been getting tired after meals (like having to take a nap tired) - that pretty much means I have diabetes right? I'm going to schedule a doctor's appointment next week. I experienced the same thing when I made my big shift in intake. You definitely want to get checked out (because it could be related to diabetes), but if your experience is like mine, it will go away after a while.
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Jul 14, 2014 12:46
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Twee as gently caress posted:How old are you now, if you don't mind me asking? Also, were you just thin and lazy, or thin and fit? gently caress it. I was content with just reading the posts here but might as well because I have experience with that specific part. I'll keep it shortish and the E/N as much out of it as possible without losing critical information. I was always a chubby kid, not even close to obese, but chubby. I never cared much for sports. I started hitting the gym regularly and intensely when I was 16-17 or something and all the weight magically transformed into muscle. I started because of 1) a breakup and 2) I just sucked too much in gym class and it got to me. Unfortunately I also got acquainted with bulimia and eventually even a short affair with anorexia. This lasted up until the second year of college. Stuck in a major I didn't like, another breakup, a devastating commute and undiagnosed depression and cripplingly low self esteem that I would only get professional help for yeaaaaars later all resulted in gaining some 100 lbs over a few years (in bursts, not gradual). For two years I was miserable, getting fatter and all that standard stuff. Eventually I seeked out professional help and two years after that I felt I got everything I could out of that. Half a year later I was down the first 50 lbs etc etc. Now with 'just' 100 lbs over an ideal weight I obviously wasn't morbidly obese but I figure since I fit that particular part of your post that well I might as well answer. So in summary; chubby - fit - fat - obese - recovery Now at my physical peak I was pretty drat fit. Dozen pullups were no real problem, six pack abs and all those things we commonly associate with being fit. As you probably saw from most people, in the end it were mental problems that affected behaviour rather than what even people around me experienced as laziness. I had more written up but I kept it as factual and E/N neutral as possible. I can answer more question if you want but didn't want to flood everything with yet another wall of text.
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Jul 14, 2014 13:57
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meataidstheft posted:
Depends on what the meal is. If your meal is chock full of say sugars or carbs it could just be you coming down from a sugar crash that's making you feel tired.
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Jul 14, 2014 15:28
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What about edge cases? I was 6' even and ~240lbs when I was 15 or so. My joints started to hurt and that scared the poo poo out of me so I dieted and exercised for about a year and that fixed it.
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Jul 14, 2014 17:38
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When you get to 30, you realize time flies by so fuckin fast. When you think back to two years ago, it literally feels like last month. Think back to an event two years ago. If on that day you decided to live a healthy lifestyle, imagine what you'd look like/feel like at this very moment? Seriously, think about that. Make the change today and your future self will consider that the best decision you'd ever made. I promise.
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Jul 14, 2014 19:21
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I went from 440 lbs to ~215 lbs using a low carb diet because I was dumb and followed the old thread. I started to rebound to my old habits when things got rough with my gf. If you're wondering what changed it's that people actually wanted to hang out with me again, girls think i'm cute, i got a girlfriend, and i have way more endurance and stamina when i'm working. What made you turn it around? I kept getting called a girl because I had my hair long at the time. How did you start to lose weight? What exercises could you do, or was it all diet initially? Low carb and followed simple-fit.com What do you think someone could have said to you to make you want to start earlier? What do you think you could say to someone in a similar situation? Nothing, I wasn't unhappy or anything and my parents would try to put me on diets earlier they would never work. I love her to death but my mom was always a real bad influence spoiling me. She still does it and it's infuriating. Did you encounter chubby chasers? Did anyone tell you they found your obesity attractive? On your way up the scale did you think you were attractive for a while or never? No although I would frequent sites like dimensionsonline to get hope. I really didn't care about love or relationships. What do yo uthink of the fat shaming thread? I love it it's motivation to not want to get to how I ever was again. Writing this while I mow away on cherries because I fooled myself into thinking all fruit is empty calories.
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Jul 14, 2014 22:33
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Saeku posted:I was on antipsychotics for a month during college, for reasons that included anxiety over my body image. I started at a healthy body weight for my height. During that month, my weight increased ~30%. It really is its own special hell. I've never been on anything, prescribed or taken recreationally, that gave me the extreme hunger that antipsychotics did. It was loving unreal, and after a few years I forgot what it felt like to not be hungry. Once I got off of them that was the very first thing I noticed. Holy poo poo I can go hours without feeling insanely hungry. My cholesterol went from 400 something down to 162 after quitting Seroquel. poo poo is no joke. Hunger sucks, but the thing that helps me the most is accepting hunger. I think it's one of the major reasons people fail at weight loss, because hunger is seen as this evil thing that must never happen. Instead of telling people all these bullshit ways to avoid hunger we should just teach how to accept it and cope with it. The actual pangs pass pretty quickly, and it's good news to feel hunger when you're trying to lose weight. It's like 'mindfulness' meditations if anyone is familiar with that. I guess it sounds radical. I just think it would help a lot of people to try and see it that way.
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Jul 15, 2014 04:13
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You all with big losses should post in the ultimate transformation thread, if you haven't already.
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Jul 15, 2014 13:50
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I've been thinking on this since this thread popped up, and I think the best thing about losing a lot of weight is what the fatties at TITP call Thin Privilege- getting checked out wherever I go, having positive interactions with salespeople, meeting others easily, gaining respect of my colleagues at work, etc etc etc. Even before I gained a lot of weight I didn't have much self-confidence and was pretty shy and reserved around people I didn't know. However, since losing weight and gaining a shitton of muscle, I feel like a prize fighter whenever I'm walking around anywhere. I am hellah confident in myself and genuinely like myself- and that confidence oozes off of me in waves and generally makes people react positively to me. I don't think that people treat me differently because I weight less, I think they treat me differently because I act differently, and I act differently because now I genuinely like myself. It amuses me to no end how fat people go on and on about Thin Privilege, but it's not the fact that they're thin that nets them different treatment, it's the fact that they're confident and enjoyable people to be around and interact with.
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Jul 15, 2014 16:09
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Posting on the behalf of my wife. I've always been twig thin, but she's been varying levels of overweight most of her adult life. For her, the worst part about being overweight is this right here: Twee as gently caress posted:Question: Yeah but how? Paleo, Keto, McDo, so many fad diets I just don't know what to do? Do I really need to eat raw steak and drink 1 liter of honey a week but avoid white bread? How do you lose weight? Thin, fit people who've never been overweight going "It's easy, just eat fewer calories than you burn  ". Aside from it not in fact being easy at all with all of the emotional issues that invariably surround food and eating, the basic message is objectively wrong. The calories you think you're getting from your food aren't irrefutable scientific fact. They're inaccurate estimates (nutrition facts labels can be off by as much as 20%, usually understating) of approximations built upon naïve assumptions. "A gram of protein = 4 calories" isn't fact, it's a rough average (from experiments performed over 100 years ago!). Different proteins contain different amounts of energy, and are absorbed & digested at different levels of efficiency. And those efficiencies likely vary from person to person (or even for a single person in different conditions). And they can go on to affect how many calories you burn, too. I get that the basic message is intended to be "you have to cut your intake, the laws of thermodynamics guarantee it will work at some point, even for you, no matter how special and unique you think your case is". And that's fair enough. But the actual message that gets conveyed, "calories are the only thing that matter," is a lie that sets people up for failure. "A calorie is a calorie" is a falsehood that diminishes and discourages important research that could help lead people to easier and more effective diets. Twee as gently caress posted:Question: I really do have a lovely metabolism, though And this is another half-truth (with bonus shaming! nice). Non-exercise activity thermogenesis, while not technically a part of metabolism, has an impact that is perceived as metabolism by the average person and adds a bonus potential 700 calories of variation. Two people with similar body composition and levels of exercise can reasonably have well over a 1,000 calorie difference in their expenditure! Again, this doesn't negate the basic point, but telling people that their apparent challenges don't really exist or are "extremely easy" to overcome when that's not what they are experiencing doesn't exactly engender success.
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Jul 15, 2014 21:00
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Well at least your avatar already says "wrong" so it's kind of redundant to pick anything out of your post there. Eat less, work out, lose weight. Keep coming up with excuses and nothing will change.
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Jul 15, 2014 21:26
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Look, this is a thread where I want the morbidly obese to tell me what their life is like and what problems they face in their day-to-day life. If you want to argue about the laws of thermodynamics, please join us in the GBS thread, in YLLS or in Science and Academia. You are completely wrong and I'll be more than glad (along with dozens of others) to point out why, so please join us there instead. You're not the first one to try and argue against the laws of the universe, and you won't be the last, but let's not do this here. To quote Neil deGrass Tyson: "A weight loss book written by physicists would be 1 sentence long: "Consume calories at a lower rate than your body burns them'" and that really is all there is to the physical component of weight loss. The mental component is the one that is much harder and provides the biggest hurdle for everyone trying to lose weight.
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Jul 15, 2014 21:26
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Zhentar posted:the basic message is objectively wrong. Uh... What.
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Jul 15, 2014 21:28
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I had a big response that I edited out because everyone else got there first and better. If you eat less than you burn, you will lose weight. Inaccurate labels and variable metabolisms don't change that, they just mean you have to use slightly different numbers than most people. Reduce intake as suggested by generalised calculators and based on food labels, and increase activity. If you don't begin to lose weight within a reasonable amount of time, reduce it by a bit more, continue reducing until a reasonable and sustainable rate of weight loss is achieved. Unless your weight is not due to fat (I know some diseases cause massive water retention and so on) there is ALWAYS a level where it will work Fatkraken fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Jul 15, 2014 |
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Jul 15, 2014 21:40
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| # ? May 3, 2024 15:18 |
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Zhentar posted:The calories you think you're getting from your food aren't irrefutable scientific fact. They're inaccurate estimates (nutrition facts labels can be off by as much as 20%, usually understating) of approximations built upon naïve assumptions. "A gram of protein = 4 calories" isn't fact, it's a rough average (from experiments performed over 100 years ago!). Different proteins contain different amounts of energy, and are absorbed & digested at different levels of efficiency. And those efficiencies likely vary from person to person (or even for a single person in different conditions). And they can go on to affect how many calories you burn, too. Even if they are inaccurate (and you're gonna have to cite some sources here) the solution is still to eat less than you were before. You can't tell me that reducing portion sizes by say 30% of what you're eating currently isn't going to yield a change, inaccurate calorie counts or not. A big mistake that I do see people make is that they count exercise towards their calorie totals. Don't do that. Eat less than you were eating before if you want to lose weight, not more. Yes, there may be some magic combination of exercise time/intensity and additional calories consumed that might yield in a net loss, but don't do that because it makes it that much harder to break out of your fat eating habits. Eat fewer calories than you are currently eating, do more exercise than you are currently doing, BOOM weight loss.
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Jul 15, 2014 21:45
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