Those of you who are overweight: Do you think you do everything right and are still overweight?

I wouldn’t say I do everything right. I don’t know anyone without a complex who does everything right.

I can say what I do though. I eat 1500 cals a day (or less), eat fast food rarely, don’t mow down on sugar, I don’t eat fried food but for once a year. I feel I’m pretty normal in my eating habits.

I don’t exercise enough because physically it’s not possible for me. I don’t have my blood sugars regulated quite right yet and I can’t really get a good sweaty workout in without passing out from a drop. That plus having my legs randomly shut off keeps me from exercising as much as I’d like. I’m working on getting accepted for PT and having my insurance cover it so hopefully that will change soon.

It’s not that I’m not motivated either. My dream is to run. Just be able to slip on shoes and run like other people do- crampy, sweaty and free. Then again, I’d be happy with being able to walk for a week straight at this point so baby steps I suppose :)

Motivation is my weak spot. I know how to eat healthily and I know what exercises to do to help me burn calories, I just don’t have much motivation to do it. I have started curbing my intake of junk food and focusing on healthier food because of our plan to have a baby when my husband gets home. I just need to get motivated to start exercising.

motivation and fighting cravings. I have a huge addiction to food. I have a gym membership that I don’t use… pisses me off.

Oh, hell no. I eat well (the coroner’s term for me would will be “well-nourished”), but after that I don’t stop soon enough, and I have stopped with the exercise bit.

The trick is to just stop feeling frustrated. The hell with it, I say. Just get strong morgue attendants and enough fuel for the fire. But I do try to eat healthy foods, even if I eat too much of them.

The eating part is okay. I do have a sugar addiction and could probably stand to cut down, but otherwise, I eat normal portions. I just have a really slow metabolism, so when I eat the same portions (or less) that a thin person does, I still gain weight. Grrr.

The key for me is exercise. When I exercise regularly, I can eat what I want, like a thin person (within reason.. not binging or loads of fast food). The problem is that I hate to exercise. I just can’t get motivated to do it. It’s a lifelong question that I still don’t have the answer for: if being less overweight would make me infinitely happier/more confident and I can envision exactly how it feels and how much I want it, why the hell can I not bring myself to exercise? I guess I’m just very lazy. :\

@MissAnthrope I’m wondering how you know how much a thin person eats?

@JLeslie Generally speaking, people who are genetically thin have high metabolisms and are able to be more liberal with their diets.

@Facade I really question that line of thought (part of the reason I asked the question). I think people who are thin tend to eat less, or healthier, or exercise more than the average fat person. I was thin most of my life, and when I was I ate less and exercised more. I gained weight when I started eating more and exercising less. Most people I know who are overweight, when I see what they eat, I don’t think they eat like thin people. The heavier people around me tend to pile on the creamy dressings, put cheese or some sort of sauce on everything, take bigger portions, keep ice cream in their freezer, I could go on and on.

Of course there are some people who just have higher metabolism, and some who have slower ones, but I think it is an exception. I once saw on a show that only about 10% of obese people actually have slower metabolisms than average weight people. I kind of think that people who are heavy might be clueless to what is a normal portion, or how inactive they really are.

I am not including people who are heavy because they actually have illnesses or injuries that work against them, that is a whole different subject, and I have complete empathy. When I had my back injury it was incredibly frustrating for a multitude of reasons, including feeling unable to stay fit.

@JLeslie “I was thin most of my life, and when I was I ate less and exercised more. I gained weight when I started eating more and exercising less,” then I would say you are not genetically thin. You, like the rest of us, have to eat well and exercise to maintain a certain weight. I understand what you’re saying, but in my initial post, I was referring to those people who you see as the exception.

@Facade I think I am just average. I see your point, you are talking about people who are thin no matter what they eat, but I think they are a small minority, like you said I see them as an exception.

I think the worlds changed ALOT since humans first wandered the earth, no matter how good you think your being its actually pretty hard to eat for our bodies requirements. Anything over what you need is too much, take only what you need which I believe was the sayings of St. Francis (not that I’m religious he just had a good point).

We only live to consume it seems and food is pretty high up the list, I’ve lived for a year out in Siberia where I didn’t see a fat person ever really and its not like they don’t have supermarkets, they just shun the products that we crave in the west and I’m guilty too, I just ate a whole bag of M&M’s lol

Eat minimally, exercise alot and play more and I imagine you would loose weight without even thinking about it :)

I think the motivation comes from the idea of actual change!?...

@Tobotron I am not religious either but I often say the Christians were right (I am Jewish by the way, an atheist Jew) glutony is a sin.

I eat right, and very rarely do I eat sugary foods. I have my own garden in which I grow most of my vegetables. Yes, I am a bit frustrated that I haven’t lost as much weight as I want to, but I will never be a size zero, much less a size eight. My body isn’t built for that.
But it doesn’t stop me from going out and getting some exercise, and having fun.

@JLeslie – I know by observation. I have lots of thin friends and most of my girlfriends have been on the very slender side. Jen ate more and worse than I did and never gained weight, she also didn’t really exercise regularly, either. So, obviously she has a faster metabolism.

I also know because when it’s come up in conversation, I have had multiple people comment that it sucks for me because my portions are not large, I am not binging on junk food or fast food. I don’t snack all day, blah blah. I have a slow metabolism. I know this because when I exercise, I can eat the same portions and lose weight.

Now that I’ve read your answer, I seem to remember some other questions or posts of yours that were kind of hating on “fat people”, am I remembering correctly? If so, I regret posting here. If you’ve never struggled with your weight, you have no right to judge or comment. You have no idea what it’s like.

@MissAnthrope No, I do not hate fat people. I have sid many times that my father has been fat my whole life, I currently weigh more than I would like, and do not make any judgments of overweight people. I have however observed overweight people who truly do in my opinion overeat and then seem to not understand why they are heavy. Again, I am not judging, I feel like either they simply are unaware of what a normal portion is, which I think is very possible, and I do not think they are stupid or anything like that, or possibly they are rationalizing. My father is a big rationalizer, he will bargain with himself if I eat this now, I won’t eat later but then he does, or he tries to convince himself that eating a lot of healthy food will not cause him to gain weight. I do some of this type of bargaining myself, but when I was thin I didn’t.

When I was thin, which was most of my life, until I was in my early 30’s staying thin was no effort at all, I simply was. I did not overeat. I would never eat something just because it looked tasty whether hungry or not, I didn’t have the desire to do so. Now, I think I eat sometimes out of boredom. If I see a food or dessert I love I will have at least a few bites even if I am full, my eating habits have changed and so has my waistline. Although, I am not obese, I certainly have plenty of things I have to work on outside of weight, and so I never judge, we all have our problems, I don’t think I am better than anybody.

I do believe some people have slower metabolisms, and it is much harder for them. I just think it is the minority, just like I think it is a minority of thin people who can eat and eat and eat and still stay thin. So many more Americans are overwieght compared to 40 years ago, and I don’t think we can blame that on evolution, something has changed in our habits or the environment.

Having said all of that I saw an interesting report yesterday about certain types of chemicals in pliable plastics that seems to effect hormones. A study showed that pregnant women who showed higher concentrations of this chemical in their urine were significantly more likely to give birth to sons who had “problems” with their sexual organs, including testes that had not decended, were smaller, and some sort of urinary structural problem. The occurances of these problems have greatly increased over the last 30 years. They were concluding that the testosterone in utero is being affected. Makes me wonder if chemicals are affecting all of us, our hormones, and our metabolism is directly linked to hormones.

I think there are many reasons why people today are heavier in general than they were years ago. Most folks had jobs that involved manual labor, now in our mechanized and technological society, it is not so. I was listening to a documentary on the radio that said the introduction of the remote control contributed to diabetes, one more bit of exercise eliminated. But about a year ago I read the book The Food Tree by Ranveig Elvebaak and it is such an eye opener. My husband has lost 20k on its concept. Sugar is the enemy and it is hidden in everything modern humans eat, bread is a big culprit. Anyhow, if you are interested, her website is foodtreemd.com/ and if you want to lose weight and feel better buy the book, I had bought a dozen different books before this plus weight watchers and none worked (I never had much to lose because I always did have the blessed rapid metabolism) but this book has done the trick. I feel better and have lots more energy. I was truly addicted to sugar and I am no longer.