The Men Who Made Us Thin

[PasadenaTrudy]

Spent the whole morning watching this brilliant BBC series on the weight-loss industry. I learned a great deal and wanted to share with you all. It explains the BMI and how it was lowered to, guess what, increase profits for certain industries. Enjoy!

[postulater]

1. Marked for later. Thanks.

[PasadenaTrudy]

2. It's long

but very engrossing!

[Th1onein]

3. knr

[Warpy]

4. Great series!

Weight loss products don't work long term. Nothing works long term, not even weight loss surgery and yo yo dieting kills.

Maybe it's time to realize some fat people can be healthier than their thinner counterparts and that the whole aim shouldn't be about attaining a size 6 body (for women) or a sixpack (for men) but should be about attaining the best health for us just the way we are.

Maybe the moralists could stop fat shaming and start greed shaming, instead.

[PasadenaTrudy]

5. I agree 100%

So healthier to focus on health and fitness as opposed to weight. I weigh more now at 49 than I did at 39, but I'm healthier! My blood sugar and bp are excellent, and I have more energy now that I'm coming off the Cymbalta. I can walk farther than I could at 29. I quit going to my psychotherapist because she fat shamed me. I gained some lbs after I lost my mom and my sister within two months. I'm also in perimenopause. I will admit I used food for comfort. She was disappointed in me. She's like a size 2 and eats a very strict diet to maintain it. Sorry, I can't live that way. I'm now using a more intuitive way to eating, and it works for me. No more diets, and I'm not joining a gym! I enjoy taking long walks and I get my heart rate up. There is so much pressure in this narcissistic vanity culture of ours. It's really bad here in Los Angeles...oh well, I've always been more of a counter-culture type

[Marr]

6. It was odd how he noted that all the people he talked to

who were counting calories were not overweight-- and said that was a sign of some kind of unhealthy preoccupation.

Well, their habit of counting calories is probably *why* they're not overweight. Accurately counting calories and not overreating is the only way to maintain the weight you want.

[Quantess]

8. Sssshush! Nobody wants to hear it.

It makes some people feel better to believe it's a conspiracy of evil geniuses working hard to keep them overweight.

[Marr]

9. Well, there certainly is an industry focussed on producing calorie-dense crap

that plugs into our most foundational taste cravings, but yeah-- you have to actually put it in your face hole for it to have any effect.

[PasadenaTrudy]

10. Did you watch

the whole series? All three parts containing five or six episodes each? Doesn't sound like it.

[Marr]

18. I'm watching it now, yes. The portion on BMI that you referenced was particularly interesting.

And it's true, we've classified lots of people as "overweight" in the country who are nowhere close to being overweight, because it helps certain industries make more money. It's awful.

Having said that, we also have a runaway obesity problem.

[Warpy]

12. If you don't think fat people count calories, you've been living the life of a hermit.

It is an unhealthy preoccupation for just about everybody. Calories don't present the full picture, they're only a small part of the puzzle of the obesity epidemic. If calories in/calories out were the whole story, all these diets would work and weight would stay off forever. It doesn't.

One study some years back surveyed a group of obese women, keeping food diaries on all of them, and found their diets were much more healthful, higher in fruits and veggies and lower in fats and empty carbohydrates than their thin sisters.

This wasn't true of the morbidly obese, who really do have terrible food habits, but you can't assume that the people who are obese but able to maintain an active life are the same as the morbidly obese who aren't.

Instead of fat shaming people who really can't help their body type, try shaming people whose behavior really does injure us all, the greedy bastards using labor as a resource to be stripmined.

[Marr]

14. Overweight people consume more calories than their bodies need.

Excluding the relatively rare cases of hormone problems and certain health issues, obviously-- overweight people are simply consuming more calories than their bodies need. I'm not making a value judgement, just stating an simple fact.

They may be counting inaccurately or estimating their caloric needs too high, or making any number of errors in arithmetic, but they are not miraculously defying the laws of physics.

As for those food diaries, I'd believe that if they were being observed 24-7-- not self reporting. People are wildly inaccurate in self-reporting caloric intake-- especially people who eat too much.

[Warpy]

16. Keep repeating that and you'll come to believe it.

Never mind the differences in gut bacteria, metabolic rates, and presence of antibodies to adenovirus serotype 36. Just keep blaming fat folks for being fat. It will make you feel righteous every single time.

Something else is going on. It's high time moralists were ignored and real science done.

[Marr]

17. Your contention is that overweight people create new matter?

That's quite an impressive talent.

[Warpy]

20. Reading comprehension.

It's a dying art.

[eridani]

30. There is no such thing as some specific number of calories that bodies "need"

Eat less and exercise more, and your body will quickly adjust to "needing" a lot less--how much less being dependent mainly on genetics and prior history of yo-yo dieting.

[ananda]

7. It's so weird.

When I started sticking to meat, veggies, fruit, eggwhites, and nuts,
my weight got stable and exactly right.

Getting off grains and corn, most dairy except goat feta and eggwhites, and
ice cream, really made a huge difference.

It's the high glycemic carbs that make me fat. Once I got off those completely,
my body changed for the better... and so did my mind. I'm happy too.

[PasadenaTrudy]

11. Sad that most of the comments here

are from people who did not watch the entire series. Don't make judgements until then. It just makes you sound stupid.

[Marr]

15. No one watched the entire series before commenting.

There wasn't time between your post and the initial comments. I'm on the third episode now, and it's very interesting-- thank you for posting it.

Can I assume the only people who "sound stupid" are the ones who have pointed out that counting calories isn't such a crazy idea?

I'm sorry if I seem a bit brusque, but much of what he was saying in the first episode amounted to "don't bother, you're going to be fat no matter what". When someone actively discourages people from even trying to tackle a potential health problem, it gets under my skin.

[Warpy]

19. Same here, third episode

A lot of the real meat is in the second one, so people don't have to go far to find out their funny equations regarding all those "lazy" and unattractive fat people are bogus along with their faith in the diet industry, the latter probably because they've gotten suckered more than once and don't want to admit they got hoodwinked. Relax, folks, we all did, usually by the time we were out of our teens.

[Marr]

21. Yeah, the diet industry is right next door to a criminal enterprise, imho.

Same goes for much of the "fitness" industry, to be honest. Being fit and being slim are completely different things. You can be incredibly fit and carry extra fat, and you can be slim and not fit at all. And exercise is actually a pretty horrible, unreliable way to lose weight-- but it sells a lot of product.

[Warpy]

22. A lot of people start exercise programs and are disheartened that they're gaining weight instead of

losing it. If there is weight training involved, what they're doing is swapping fat for muscle mass and muscles are much denser than fat cells.

Exercise of any type is great for cardiovascular health.

And believe it or not, I've taken care of many heart patients who were thin. And had type II diabetes.

[Marr]

24. There's water retention as well, especially at the start of a weights program.

Yeah, it discourages people. There's also the issue of overestimating the amount of energy you've expended working out, then eating those calories (and then some) back.

Not an issue if you just want to be more healthy, stronger, more fit, etc., but if your goal is to lose weight-- yeah, it understandably discourages people.

[eridani]

31. It may be crappy for weight loss, but it's great for blood pressure and blood sugar control

--among many other things. Which gets back to the OP's point that focusing mainly on weight loss is really silly.

[PasadenaTrudy]

25. Just wait

until you hit menopause, if you are a woman. Metabolism slows and weight shifts. You are probably still pretty young?

[Marr]

26. I'm 41.

I certainly feel it some days. Things change, yep. Recovery takes noticeably longer than it did in my 20's.

[PasadenaTrudy]

27. Yes, young

You are lucky...

[closeupready]

13. Thank you, Trudy - I will watch this. :-)

I have never been obese; the heaviest I have become is the lowest weight range in standard definitions of 'overweight', i.e., 182-185 lb.

I lost about 35 lb. by adopting a fairly rigorous exercise routine (not all at once, but rather, starting exercise modestly and focusing on making it more challenging over time), and changing my diet, but changing it NOT in terms of counting calories, but in terms of eliminating highly refined carbohydrates like white flour products, sugar, white rice, and as someone else said, high glycemic index foods.

I'm never hungry, I have no flab, and I am actually MUCH healthier today. I sleep better, too.

I will be interested in watching this show.

[PasadenaTrudy]

23. Thanks!

And congrats on your healthy changes

[rufus dog]

28. I just looked at a BMI calculator

Says I am overweight. Currently at 195 pounds, down from 225. To get in the "acceptable" range I need to get below 190. This week I finally had to give in and buy some new pants, (plan is to lose 5 more by the end of the year so I figure I can invest in some pants now and be safe) anyway I bought 33 inch waist, down from 38. If I hit my goal, maybe I drop to a 32 inch waist, regardless the BMI will have me overweight. But if I use the height to waist ratio I am fine now. In fact, it says I can be 34 or 35 inch waist and still be fine.

[liberal_at_heart]

29. frankly I just wish people would just leave each other the hell alone. Find what works for you

and never mind what everybody else is doing. I have recently lost 12 lbs. I feel great. I am still overweight, but I don't care. I am not eliminating anything from my diet. I am limiting how much of certain things I eat, but I have not eliminated anything and I am not counting calories. I haven't really started exercising yet. That will be the next thing I try to start, slowly and gradually. But as far as what the BMI tells me I should be, or what society tells me I should be, or what diet someone tells me I should be on I really don't care.

[PasadenaTrudy]

32. Right on

I'm at the point where I don't care what others think. The BMI can go fuck itself. All I can say is, boy do things go nuts in your body when perimenopause hits. Plus I learned the med I've been on for fibromyalgia causes weight gain. Then the grief of losing my mom and sister, I'm lucky all that happened was weight gain. I actually didn't feel like going on anymore, to tell the truth.