am I missing something?
Yes, its precisely the opposite.

so you are right and the NHS is wrong ?

Is it all down to Corn Syrup ?
Not quite, but try researching the recent history of sugar consumption, per capita, in the west. You may discover a correlation between increasing sugar consumption per capita and the increase in obesity, which is just one of the symptoms of metabolic syndrome.

so the available foods across the USA are very likely all affected by stuff like corn syrup equally – so how come Florida is full of fat biffers whereas somewhere like New York or Texas, where they exercise and look after themselves more, has a lot less fat biffers?

Could it be that it is possible to make a conscious decision to not be fat – rather than helplessly succumb to the modern foodstuffs that are forced upon us by being the only stuff available in the shops ?

So. Err… Why do people generally get fat? Why are so many more people getting fat?

About 50-60 yrs ago, people were told that they had to reduce dietary fat intake ( The dietary fat hypothesis ). This produced a deficit in a person’s daily caloric intake. So the medico types balanced the deficit with….. CARBS !

WooHoo !

Obesity is a symptom of a metabolic disorder now commonly refered to as “metabolic syndrome”.

Obesity is a symptom of bone idleness.

They constantly show this in television programmes
Oh, then it must be true.

as it is more than the one programme using lots of different methods ….yes I am going with the scientists on that.

. During experiments in the 40s and 50s, subjects on a calorie restricted diet exhibited signs of lethargy and a distinct lack of interest in doing any activity.

Oh must be true then?

cra8p – I am now wondering what I need to go and buy at Waitrose so I can go and get a butterscotch yum-yum 🙁

Obesity is a symptom of a metabolic disorder now commonly refered to as “metabolic syndrome”.

I don’t really know anything about metabolic disorder but a quick google suggests that it’s something brought on by poor lifestyle/diet choices rather than being something you’re born with (noting that there are genetic factors that may make you more susceptible).

Happy to be corrected if this is not the correct interpretation.

Calories 547 Sodium 0 mg
Total Fat 35 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 16 g Total Carbs 51 g
Polyunsaturated 0 g Dietary Fiber 1 g
Monounsaturated 0 g Sugars 20 g
Trans 0 g Protein 7 g
Cholesterol 0 mg

.slowoldman – Member
So. Err… Why do people generally get fat? Why are so many more people getting fat?

Because they eat to much…damn am I ever going to get to Lidls?

.Solo – Member
So. Err… Why do people generally get fat? Why are so many more people getting fat?

About 50-60 yrs ago, people were told that they had to reduce dietary fat intake ( The dietary fat hypothesis ). This produced a deficit in a person’s daily caloric intake. So the medico types balanced the deficit with….. CARBS !

WooHoo !
So eating to much then greedy buggers!

.
Calories 547 Sodium 0 mg
Total Fat 35 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 16 g Total Carbs 51 g
Polyunsaturated 0 g Dietary Fiber 1 g
Monounsaturated 0 g Sugars 20 g
Trans 0 g Protein 7 g
Cholesterol 0 mg

What is it and what does it weigh?

Could it be that it is possible to make a conscious decision to not be fat – rather than helplessly succumb to the modern foodstuffs that are forced upon us by being the only stuff available in the shops ?

Yes, will power may play a part. Hence why when subjects on a prolonged calorie restricted diet, under test, developed phsycological issues, some of them even self harming. Yeah, its all in the mind.

Also, a conscious decision not to be fat, might start by avoiding eating things that make you fat, right ? So people were told to eat low fat food. Because for 60 years, Joe Public has been told that eating fat makes them fat.

The chap next to me eats a Mug-shot at around 10am each morning. The packet advertises a fat content of 1 percent. Carbs ?, thats listed on theback, 47g in just that one mug.

Ok, I’m done.

To slightly misquote a well known engineer:
“You cannae change the laws of physics”..

Put in more energy than needed and weight goes on. Use more than you put in, then weight drops. This is a simple truth that cuts across all ideas of any endocrine disorder. No matter how extreme the disorder, the same simple equation still applies. Anything else supports the unhealthy perspective and is a crutch. Stop making excuses for laziness!!

.Solo – Member
By the way what is it do with?
A genetic change due to??
A inability to convert fat into energy?
And the oldest one of all BIG BONES.. the latter is killer!

I wish Yeti was here
Would your mate Yeti have the intelligence to answer the question.. definetly leaving so no rush to answer that. Sit and think about it….durhh your head hurts

There has never been an experiment which shows this “People are fat because they eat to much relative to the amount of exercise they do” isn’t true. They constantly show this in television programmes.

Well I lolled

These threads are always worth a laugh, the thrashing around of those defending obesity and desperately looking for reasons other than excess calories causing weight gain is hilarious and not to mention delusional.

Yes, there are some metabolic and hormonal disorders that can cause people to be prone to weight gain….however, the percentage of the population suffering with genuine illnesses like these is small….or do people really think there is an epidemic of hormonal/metabolic disease sweeping the country?

Most people dont exercise full stop let alone not enough, people i work with get home from work and stay indoors, the general consensus is that going to the gym is boring and few people have the appetite for getting outside and doing any kind of physical activity in bad weather….spek to anybody who works in a gym and ask what happens to memberships after christmas, they shoot up and then as january and february pass the numbers drop off again….working up a sweat isnt appealing for most people and people can and will avoid it if given the choice.

A lot of modern convenience foods are ridiculously calorie dense, the other half and i ordered a pizza the other evening that contained all the calories i would need for the day (close to 3000), we ate at the end of the day and it was a rare treat but it wasnt difficult to eat and if i ate like that 2 or 3 times a day i would be consuming a monumental number of calories and it wouldnt take long to gain weight.

Look at people involved in decent level sport, runners, cyclists, swimmers etc etc….they are rarely fat because they take their diet and exercise seriously, this is simply something most people dont do….why?….who knows, maybe they find the nutrition stuff boring, calorie counting to be tedious and so on….some people simply enjoy eating and will use food as an emotional crutch.

Rather than getting hung up on what your meals consist of, people should aim for a balanced diet containing fats, proteins and carbs….just dont exceed the recommended calories per day (for men i believe it is round 2500), if you lose weight and dont want to then eat more, if you put on weight and dont want to then try cutting the calories down to 2000 per day….i have known people who’ve had to come down to 500 calories a day in order to lose weight, not pleasant for the person involved, they had a ridiculously slow metabolism and probably should have been checked for an underactive thyroid amongst other things.

The last thing is that ignorance about food really is astounding, girl at work this week started her ‘diet’….she came into work with Ryvita crackers and low fat cheese spread….the assumption being that both foods are low in fat so she will lose weight, thats fine in moderation but she sat there at lunch and ate the whole lot, the calories consumed must have been astronomical but in her mind because Ryvita is marketed as healthy and the cheese spread was low fat she seemed to think she could eat as much as she wanted….

….my mother-in-law does the same with salads, makes a bowl large enough for 2 people and covers the salad in a pile of grated cheese and a layer of calorie dense sauces and dressings….then wonders why she doesnt lose weight and proclaims that diets dont work!

Take in less calories than you need, take some exercise each day to crank up your metabolism, drink loads of water and have the odd cup of coffee when feeling lethargic….this stuff really isnt rocket science and i think thats half the problem, too many vested interests have shrouded weight management in mystery and too many people are making money from it to shine ay real useful light on the situation….it will only get worse, the country is getting fatter and the pharmaceutical companies are salivating at the prospect of making a killing on this ‘disease’….call obesity a disease for long enough and eventually people will of course look for medical solutions.

Mind boggling.

🙄

Solo – Member

Ok, I’m done.
Run away….am I ever going to go…probably as I am on a tablet and it keeps telling me I am running out of power. Is that the reverse of over eating?

Also, a conscious decision not to be fat, might start by avoiding eating things that make you fat, right ? So people were told to eat low fat food. Because for 60 years, Joe Public has been told that eating fat makes them fat.

thing is, why don’t you notice that you are getting fat and think “hmmm, maybe eating this thing is making me fat, lets try something else.”

Worked for me – marzipan makes me fat (1 ritter bar of marzipan equal 1lb heavier the next day – almost guaranteed). Baked potatoes help me lose weight (even with loads of butter). Turkey helps me lose weight. Eating after 8pm makes me fat. Too much sugar makes me light headed – there’s something wrong there – maybe I shouldn’t eat so much sugar. Etc.

If you eat more of it than you need … Obviously. Bit of a stupid question.
Pure carbohydrate 100grm 400 calories
Pure protein 100grms 400 calories
Pure fat 100grms 900 calories

Guess what diesel has 1029.4 calories per 100grams, will this make you fatter than fat then?

What is it and what does it weigh?

more pictures :

butterscotch yum-yum from Waitrose. Not sure on weight.

More details here :

http://www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-35303-Butterscotch+pecan+yum+yum#.UzqzNFdnAU8

SD-53 – you really are a pillock but then you’ve done this sort of trolling before.

So people with a disfunctional endocrine system are unable to just get up and go, as there is insufficent energy available to them, to facilitate being active. Its a vicious circle.

Well said Solo.

I have a thyroid condition that is not a common type hence the NHS have done naff all for me. At my worst, I was sleeping for 18 hours a day, hardly ate as I couldn’t work out how to use an oven or microwave due to brain fog let alone having no energy to go to the shops to buy food. Went from a size 10 to size 18 and ended up with a bloated body together with a load of other symptoms.

Thyroid condition is more common than diabetes yet the treatment, in my experience, is shameful. The NHS would rather leave me feeling ill but happy that numbers on a lab sheet fit their narrow and blinkered guidelines.

Put in more energy than needed and weight goes on. Use more than you put in, then weight drops. This is a simple truth that cuts across all ideas of any endocrine disorder.

Except of course that a major meta-study across the EU found that what you eat is more important than counting calories in vs calories out. So what you’re saying is at best unhelpful, at worst arrogant judgemental bollocks.

No matter how extreme the disorder, the same simple equation still applies. Anything else supports the unhealthy perspective and is a crutch. Stop making excuses for laziness!!

Would you say that to your son/daughter if they became ill and got fat? Really?

The first law of thermodynamics tells us that energy can not be destroyed, it can only change form. So if the energy that is entering the body is greater than the energy leaving the body, then the body will store the energy, usually as body fat.

If we take in more energy (calories) than we expend, we gain weight. If we expend more energy than we take in, we lose weight. This is an unbreakable law of physics and isn’t even debatable.

However… this fact, tells us nothing about WHY this is happening.

A person who has gained weight is the same as a person who eats more than they burn.

Let me explain this with a simple analogy…

Imagine that the entrance hall of a movie theater is full of people. These people are all there because they’re going to watch a very popular movie that just came out.

If you would ask… “why is this entrance hall full of people?” and someone were to answer with “because more people are entering it than leaving it” – then you’d think it was a fairly ridiculous answer, right?

It tells you nothing about the cause of the entrance hall being full, it is simply stating the obvious.

http://authoritynutrition.com/debunking-the-calorie-myth/

Could it be that it is possible to make a conscious decision to not be fat – rather than helplessly succumb to the modern foodstuffs that are forced upon us by being the only stuff available in the shops ?

The only stuff available in my local greengrocer is fruit and veg. The butcher sells meat and the baker bakes their own superb bread. What a shame I have to buy these raw ingredients then take them home and prepare a meal. It must be so much easier to whip open a packet of additives with some food in from the supermarket.

Yes I know there are medical conditions which lead to overweight. That doesn’t exlain the obesity “epidemic” does it? It’s not all down to some underlying medical condition. Or if it is, why are so many more people suffering from it?

The only stuff available in my local greengrocer is fruit and veg. The butcher sells meat and the baker bakes their own superb bread. What a shame I have to buy these raw ingredients then take them home and prepare a meal. It must be so much easier to whip open a packet of additives with some food in from the supermarket.

I think that there is a government grant available for people suffering such hardships…

Just to add that I pay for my own medication and will have to for the rest of my life. The cost to the NHS would be £600 per month hence they’re not interested in helping me regain my health.

Yes I know there are medical conditions which lead to overweight. That doesn’t exlain the obesity “epidemic” does it? It’s not all down to some underlying medical condition. Or if it is, why are so many more people suffering from it?

Maybe some of the other numerous reasons people have posted in this thread? You’re straw manning again.

You don’t really need to count calories though,a set of scales will let you know if you’re burning more calories than you take in,so I don’t understand why the “metastudy” ( or do you actually have a reference for the study?)makes a difference,there is no need to calorie count,the scales are your friend,not your enemy.

I tried to find it just now but couldn’t – it was widely reported within the last year or two but I don’t seem to be using the right search terms. I have to actually do some work now unfortunately. 🙁

Just to add that I pay for my own medication and will have to for the rest of my life. The cost to the NHS would be £600 per month hence they’re not interested in helping me regain my health.

It is the cost – they are strapped for cash because they are having to buy extra large chairs and operating tables for fat people, extra large ambulances, etc.

Combine this with the cost of IVF, treating diseases caused from smoking, etc, then the important stuff gets overlooked.

At least with smoking they claw back some of the money from taxes. Perhaps they need the fat tax after all?

Oh dear, go and join SD-53 in the offensive users group. 😐

I might as well join the offensive posters group then.cg when,i know that an underactive thyroid causes lethargy,and that controlling it can be difficult,and i sympathise with your view that the NHS is not providing adequate care,and that they should fund your treatment,but when it was not adequately controlled,and you started to gain weight,what did you do about it?Did you attempt to control your intake,in order to control your weight? or did you feel that the thyroid condition made this impossible?

thejesminddingo – I was repeatedly misdiagnosed although I knew fine well what was going on. When you’re untreated/under-medicated there is nothing you can do about the weight gain. As I stated, I could hardly eat as I didn’t have the energy to make food plus a typical symptom is loss of appetite.

I was the fittest I’d been for quite a few years when this happened and it didn’t help that I tried to ignore it but continuing to ride when on my knees. Suspect that has probably contributed to why I’ve not got this sorted.

Just as a matter of interest, the UK thyroid forum I use has 14,000 members and in the main these are all people who’ve been failed by the NHS.

CG- your situation sucks big time and I offer only understanding..
But you are an exception; most of the folk within the obesity epidemic do not have a good reason for their own imbalance and quite simply, are greedy and lazy. I look around an office full of 60+ folk that I know well. Over half are significantly overweight or obese, some morbidly so. I know all of the (important) medical histories and none have reasons for their problem other than the obvious one. 95% of the whole group would benefit form a more balanced diet and significantly more exercise. You are a wonderful example of taking control of your own destiny and I salute you. I wish so many more people around me would follow such a strong example.

Oh dear, go and join SD-53 in the offensive users group

so what – should the NHS budget be limitless then ? And no-one need take any responsibility for their own health because the NHS has all the funds needed to fix them up after they have eaten as many pies. etc as they want ?

meanwhile people with cancer or other terminal conditions are refused treatment because there aren’t the funds available….

But you are an exception; most of the folk within the obesity epidemic do not have a good reason for their own imbalance and quite simply, are greedy and lazy.

This is purely an opinion, one that reflects your own prejudice. What do you know of the statistics of the causes of obesity?

What do you know of the statistics of the causes of obesity?

enough to know that they don’t tally with reality ?

TurnerGuy – Member

Oh dear, go and join SD-53 in the offensive users group

so what – should the NHS budget be limitless then ? And no-one need take any responsibility for their own health because the NHS has all the funds needed to fix them up after they have eaten as many pies. etc as they want ?
I think if you read cinnamon_girl’s posts properly you may (just maybe) come to the conclusion that actually, yes, you are being offensive in this case.

grum – Member
Maybe some of the other numerous reasons people have posted in this thread? You’re straw manning again

No I’m not. There is a general increase in obesity levels. Are you telling me that is ALL due to medical conditions, genetics, etc. If so, why this rise in such conditions?

What do you know of the statistics of the causes of obesity?

In the US where obesity is rife, hypothyroidism affects just 0.3% of the population.
While metabolic and hormonal causes do exist they are few and far between, the majority of westerners are fairly healthy and disease free….obesity for the bulk of us is simply due to eating too much for whatever reason (lack of education, comfort eating, lack of exercise etc etc)…

Its a harsh truth that most people dont like to acknowledge as its puts the onus back on the individual to do something about it.

I think if you read cinnamon_girl’s posts properly you may (just maybe) come to the conclusion that actually, yes, you are being offensive in this case.

I’ve read them – I am not being offensive to her – but I do object to the NHS resources being used up by so many fat people who are not suffering from a medical condition that they have brought on themselves…

toys19,do you have access to any statistics which refute the causes stated in this article
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Obesity/Pages/Causes.aspx
If so could you kindly provide references as I am interested in the arguments put forward in this thread.

Grum, from that article you linked to:

Bottom Line: Saying that weight gain is caused by excess calories is true, but meaningless. It tells you nothing about the actual cause.

The article cant make up its mind, in the above snippet it says what several of us have already said: that an excess of calories causes weight gain….it then tries to tell you that this is the cause but actually isnt…or some other mealy mouthed nonsense?….it talks about certain foods filling you up more than others, some foods stopping the hunger signals sooner than others and how crash dieting can cause the body to hold onto fat, that 100gms of sugar will be used differently by the body than 100gms of protein etc etc….none of this is new information.

To exclude particular food groups entirely is wrong, the body uses fat, proteins and carbs for various essential functions….eat a balanced diet but dont eat too much, it really is that simple.
If you’re eating healthily but still gaining weight have a blood test to see if you’re one of the few with a disorder….but if it comes back all clear then you’re simply eating too much and need to cut back on the amount you’re consuming.

If you’re taking in the bulk of your calories via sugar then obviously you’ll be screwing with your insulin responses and playing havoc with your metabolism….this is not an illness or a problem with food or science…this is just somebody without a clue deciding to eat the majority of their calories in the form of carbohydrates….i wouldnt advocate anybody does this in the same way i wouldnt suggest somebody gets their total calorie intake from fat…or protein for that matter.

Every day try to eat some meat, fish, fruit, veg, pulses, rice, eggs, nuts, etc etc….if you actively look to include this variety of foodstuffs you’ll be surprised how little you actually eat because its quite filling…whereas polishing off a packet of biscuits is easy for most people.

The older generation were onto something when they said: everything in moderation.