How can some people not get why they are overweight?

[disneysteve]

OT: A hoagie??? You wouldn't be from SW Pennsylvania, would you.

What about SE Pa? They're called hoagies in Philadelphia and surrounding areas.

 

[KelNottAt]

Some people DO know better, they just choose to eat unhealthy. They think it doesn't taste good and ignore portion control. Take, for example, my inlaws:

FIL had a heart attack that lead to quintuple (yes, 5!) bypass on Christmas Eve, 1997. He was 62, 5'8" 230 lbs. Needless to say, this postponed our Christmas to MLK Day. When we finally gathered to celebrate and exchange gifts, MIL ended up with a few new "heart healthy," AHA, and low-fat cookbooks. Her response? "Why would I want those? I'd rather feed him what he wants for 2 years of happiness than feed him healthy for 10 years of misery." (God bless DMIL. She's a saint in more ways than you have time to hear. But, in this case, she's a enabler. When DFIL asks for lunch, her reply is "one-and-a-half sandwiches, or two?")

DFIL just turned 70. He really really really believed the surgeon when he said, "Ok, I've done the best I could. You should be as good as new and able to live another 62 years."

 

[emmoms]

What about SE Pa? They're called hoagies in Philadelphia and surrounding areas.

They are called hoagies in New Jersey too - at least in both north and central Jersey.

 

[DoeWDW]

I can't speak for others but I can speak of my own experience. I've been battling my weight for years.

When I am feeling calm and confident and upbeat, I find it very easy to eat properly and exercise. In fact I crave healthy foods and I truly enjoy extra movement.

When I am feeling stressed, however, my body craves carbs (usually the refined junky type carbs) and I'd rather sit than move.

Therefore, the weight battle for me goes much deeper than "eat right and exercise". It is more about battling stress, cutting back on those situations that stir up tough emotions so I can avoid emotional eating. It's about nurturing myself, getting enough sleep, consciously reducing stress and proactively handling the stress I do have.

 

[bajanswife]

I can't speak for others but I can speak of my own experience. I've been battling my weight for years.

When I am feeling calm and confident and upbeat, I find it very easy to eat properly and exercise. In fact I crave healthy foods and I truly enjoy extra movement.

When I am feeling stressed, however, my body craves carbs (usually the refined junky type carbs) and I'd rather sit than move.

Therefore, the weight battle for me goes much deeper than "eat right and exercise". It is more about battling stress, cutting back on those situations that stir up tough emotions so I can avoid emotional eating. It's about nurturing myself, getting enough sleep, consciously reducing stress and proactively handling the stress I do have.

You know, I'm pretty much the same way!

Recently I've gotten a better grip on my habits, and I've dropped a little weight. I think I only have about 10 lb to go before I will feel like an "ideal" size. But it's a constant battle, and if I am not very, very careful the weight will creep back on. My eating habits can get out of control in flash, and when I am stressed I do not have the mental strength to resist my cravings. Whe I am stressed it's too difficult to make time for exercise (too much juggling or early mornng rising involved. And of course when I'm not eating right I just don't feel as well, my energy flags, it's more difficult to do anything! And for some people, like me, eating sugar and simple carbs only makes me want more and more of them!

The good news is ...... after reading and posting on the MILF thread (now vanished mysteriously into cyberspace .....), I am more determined than ever to turn myself into a "knockout"!

 

[Crankyshank]

Therefore, the weight battle for me goes much deeper than "eat right and exercise". It is more about battling stress, cutting back on those situations that stir up tough emotions so I can avoid emotional eating. It's about nurturing myself, getting enough sleep, consciously reducing stress and proactively handling the stress I do have.

I think you are actually speaking for a lot of people with weight issues, myself included. Those who tell us to get off our butts and exercise and eat right quite frankly have their heads up their unmentionable. It's not that simple for so many people. Not just because of medical issues, but more often than not there is deep rooted psychological issues. Food is an addiction and a drug. There are so many people that turn to food for comfort. Why do you think they call it "comfort food" ?

Like Disney_1derland mentioned I also was told my whole life I was fat because I was big boned and wore a larger size than kids my age. I was far from fat but I believed I was. When I was depressed and also on prednisone I let the weight come on because in my mind I was all ready fat.

I also am disgusted by how many Dr's treat obese patients. Either I get treated like I'm disgusting and lazy, or the issue is totally glossed over. I went to see an endocrinologist per my PCP's suggestion for a possible issue unrelated to my weight. Now my Dr is fully aware of my weight struggles and is pleased with my eating habits and exercise regime. There are medical and psychological issues that are making weight loss a slow process. The endocrinologist essentially made me feel like crap for being overweight and told me I needed to go on a liquid diet or get gastric bypass because I'm killing myself. I was livid. I might be fat but I'm healthier than many skinny people I know. BP, glucose, and cholesterol levels are all normal. He told me WW was not for people with more than 50lbs to lose. Why on earth did he think telling me that (without asking me about what I am doing to lose weight and whether or not I was working with my pcp with my weight loss program) would accomplish? Shaming someone because they are fat without bothering to understand why is nothing more than bullying.

 

[scanne]

South Jersey, but grew up in Philly.

 

[cardaway]

Most people are fat because they eat too much and don't exercize. It's as simple as that.

I have a good 25 pounds I need to lose, and I totally own up to the fact that it's still here because I don't put much effort into losing it.

Exactly. Too bad the denial effort doesn't burn more calories.

 

[MizBlu]

Just a clarifications: The mentioned medications do not cause weight-gain. The weight-gain associated with those medications is a second-order condition. It stems from decreased metabolism. Patients still have the opportunity to monitor their condition while on such medications and elect to balance their intake with their new, lower metabolic rate. It is important to case these situations without biasing the patient against health, by making it sound like the weight-gain is inescapable.

I guess the point of it all is that many people aren't even aware their meds can help put on weight.

And, talking to people on SSRI's, I don't know one person who didn't put on weight no matter what they did. Some put on more weight than others, but the pounds still came on.

 

[Galahad]

I am very intuned to professionalism,boundries and confidentiality issues. Nothing that Steve has posted in my opinion has crossed any of these lines. Health care professional need the occasional "safe" place to rant and or engage in some theraputic "black humor". As long as he avoids patient identifiers why wouldn't the DIS be a good place to accomplish this?

I agree. DW needs to vent at home about patients sometimes. If we took HIPAA to that extreme our conversations might be:

Me: How was your day?
DW: Can't tell you. Some lady you don't know and will never meet and I won't mention the name of may-or-may not be pregnant and may-or-may not be a non-compliant diabetic who is drug seeking. But you're not getting any more out of me.

Dr. Steve neither violated the letter nor the intent of HIPAA or any other privacy ethical consideration, PMO.

 

[Marseeya]

What about SE Pa? They're called hoagies in Philadelphia and surrounding areas.

I didn't know that. I thought it was just a Pittsburgh thing! Sometimes when I call it a hoagie, my DH laughs at me and he's from SE PA.

Anyway, speaking of hoagies, let's get back to why we're fat...

 

[disneysteve]

Anyway, speaking of hoagies, let's get back to why we're fat...

DW and I rarely do steak sandwiches and such but a couple of weeks ago I had to go straight from work and meet her somewhere. Neither of us would have dinner so I stopped at a pizza place and got a beef steak sandwich for her and a chicken steak for me. I had never been to the place so wasn't familiar with their sandwiches. They had a small and a large. I ordered smalls. They turned out to be 6" rolls. When we unwrapped them, they looked tiny and we both thought they wouldn't be enough as most places sell 10 or 12" sandwiches (or larger). Guess what. We both ate them and we were both full. I guarantee that if we had gotten larger sandwiches, we would have eaten them too even though we didn't really need them.

Portions have gotten so out of whack that we've all forgotten how little we actually need to be satisfied. We just keep eating until the food is gone.

 

[scanne]

AS I sit here eating my grilled chicken over mixed greens with no salad dressing, I wish to add:


Portion sizes are out of control as well as HIDDEN fat. I wanted to eat at On the Border one night so I looked up the nutrition info on line so I could choose something ahead of time and count it (I'm on WW doing Points). Well, I ended up NOT eating there b/c most of the choices had such astronomical amounts of calories and fat I wanted to throw up before I even ate anything. I don't understand WHY they need to put that much fat into food. Seriously, one of the items had like 110 grams of fat! And I bet that was per serving and the portion they give is probably 2 or 3 servings.

So I don't think people even realize that when they're out at chain restaurants. I like Applebee's b/c they have a WW menu and I can always get something off of that.

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

Steve, have you ever read Geneen Roth's book "When Food is Love"? Geneen has some good insight into the mental issues that come with obesity, and I would love it if every physician out there could have just have this one tool in his/her arsenal.

I'm 5'3. I've weighed as much as 250 lbs., and now still weigh over 200 lbs. I've been through weight watchers more times than I can count. I've seen nutritionists, read books, tried going it on my own, and spent a year in counseling with a Clinical Psychologist who specializes in eating disorders.

There is a great mental divide--the obese against the skinny. Neither can understand how or why the other side IS the way it IS. I think the only way we'll ever combat obesity as an epidemic is to bridge the gap between the two sides...without rolling our eyes, without accusations, without having a "he/she is so stupid and just doesn't get it" attitude.

You may have never been overweight or had the struggle in your life. You may not have also ever had to deal with something like alcoholism. I challenge you and those in your profession to confront the issues as you would any other disease--question it, learn about it, approach it with curiosity rather than accusation. If it were as simple as "just don't eat bad foods" or "just don't eat too much"...we'd all be thin.

 

[deelam]

I love hoagies, I'm from south Jersey and you just can't get a good Hoagie out of the NJ/Philly area.

On being fat, managing weight is the hardest thing I have ever done. I have gone up and down many times. It's all about decipline. At work today they brought in the sticky buns with icing on them, and they put them about 3 feet from my desk. Since I'm trying to lose right now, it took all my strength not to eat one. You can't eat the crap food and lose weight. I do believe that people can be addicted to sugar and carbs. And these people get the cravings for junk all the time. I must admit that foods loaded with sugar and carbs really taste the best.

 

[Galahad]

What about Grinders? Anybody like Grinders?

 

[va32h]

Well I know why I am overweight! I don't exercise and I don't eat healthy foods. In my case it is as simple as that, as I have no underlying metabolism problems or addictions to food or side effects from medication.

I was fine until my last pregnancy - that baby is almost 2 now, and I still look pretty much the same as I did the day I came home from the hospital.

My excuses for not exercising are: it's too hot outside, and I can't afford to join a gym, and I don't have a babysitter if I wanted to go work out anyway.

My excuses for not eating healthy - well there are none. I have never like fruit and veggies, but have always loved starchy foods like bread, potatoes, crackers, pretzels, etc.

My 35th birthday is approaching, and I know that the older I get the harder it will be to lose weight. So I really do want to try to get my act together ASAP.

So since it is a lovely 65 degrees outside today, I'm going to get of the DIS and take a walk.

 

[MizBlu]

What about Grinders? Anybody like Grinders?

One sub coming up.

 

[deelam]

What is a grinder?

What I like about doing a low cardb diet is I can eat the inside of an Italian hoagie, just don't eat the roll. I can do this and still lose weight.

 

[shortbun]

I find your "story" very far-fetched. Or at the very least, exaggerated to the nth degree.

Yeah, and this isn't the first time you've posted about this. We get that you are obsessed about people with a weight problem. Why do you think posting here will help you?

Well, I see this thread was resurrected but strange that the OP saw it immediately and began to post again. I'm out.