Small Talk: About Big People

[SunnyBeBe]

On 3/31/2017 at 8:27 PM, RubyRena17 said:

What happened to the fear of diabetes? It is a non-issue now. I haven't heard her BS (blood sugar) mentioned at all lately. And that is deliberate.

I suspect MBBFL has way more in common with 600 Lb. Life than one would think. Everyone in 600 Lb. Life has some sort of childhood trauma or sexual abuse or both. In Whitney's case, I think there is a dark aspect to her rapidly gaining 200+ pounds that is decidedly NOT fabulous. I also think that is why she doesn't get a real job. There is something inside her that shames HERSELF and kills her true confidence. Only not on TV-- where she's a fat sassy hip gal with plenty of energy and friends (aka social barnacles).

Arguably, it was ingenious of her to invent the "No Body Shame" as a defense along with all that "protective" fat that surrounds her body. Now, if she weighed, say 160 pounds, she would still be quite overweight (I am the same height--I know) and the shaming could still occur and maybe there would be some validity to her No BS platform. She could lose 200 pounds and STILL be overweight!

WHY does she insist on holding on to every half pound despite her obvious disabilities? Despite all that "dance" and "werking out" and Crossfit? That is just psycho! It is up there with Dr. Now's desperate patients stuffed in the back of a van to get help for their morbid, deadly weight insisting on another trip to the drive-thru--and another. And pizza in the hospital.

Is it simply the fear of losing the TV show? Did she sign a contract to follow TLC's script?

I admit I started watching the show because THIS is what I wanted to see: Whitney getting smacked down by doctors and medical personnel, her actual diabetes diagnosis and being forced to manage/reverse it, then forced into losing A LOT of weight and dealing with all the physical and mental challenges that entails. I think IF she ever does lose 250 pounds, (and get skin surgery), she would be very pretty. She would have NO problem dancing seriously, NO problem finding boyfriends/mates, and NO problem talking herself into a good full time job.

The show obviously dumped all the health aspects of her life. I don't know who pushed for that harder. Dance battles and Big Girl Dance Class and Will the Trainer's funny frustration and tattoos and gay male friends and lesbian weirdness and the radio station and dates and cats and Babs and Glenn are the TRUE BS of the show. Haha. So fun. There has got to be something real bad that happened to her beyond PCOS, and we will probably never know unless she gets a gig on 600 lb. life.

I agree with the bolden.  I'd like to see that too, however, I think the premise of the show is that her life is fabulous, despite her being fat.  lol  But, I think that by now viewers are seeing the things about Whit's life that aren't that fabulous, such as she can't tie her shows, can't dance without getting winded, can't do much without extreme sweating, etc.  Still, I hope that Whit will continue to lose weight, even if she does it reluctantly.  

I don't agree about how she would be doing lots of things if she only lost weight and looked pretty, like finding a boyfriend.  Very attractive, thin people encounter loads of romantic issues, regardless of their looks.  Especially, if they have unresolved issues.  Losing weight really doesn't make you mentally healthier, unless that gets treated too.  Most women on 660 pound life have a husband, boyfriend or partner, but, they still are miserable. 

[auntjess]

And now for something completely different.
 Buying Naked, a nudist version of House Hunters, is airing on TLC tomorrow, 4/7/17, 4 episodes beinning at 3AM ET. 
It's from a couple of years ago, and you learn that counter height matters, as do sharp edges.
I remember it as fun, and not salacious.
It has a forum, if you watch, and want to discuss it.

[crazycatlady58]

Buying Naked is a hoot. And I say this as someone who has no problem admitting she is a prude.

[auntjess]

Someone posted this on FB, and I thought it belonged here.

[spankydoll]

19 minutes ago, auntjess said:

Someone posted this on FB, and I thought it belonged here.

Caption this. Tea for Two? Tea on Two? Coffee, tea or teats?

[auntjess]

It just reminded me of balancing the sword.  Don't know if this lady danced.

[auntjess]

So what are you watching next?  I'm going to try PBS' Victorian Slums, and hope it's based on Henry Mayhew's work, and watchable.
Born This Way is coming back too, but not sure when.

[auntjess]

The last (I think) 600 lb Life airs tomorrow at 8ET (Nikki update). Live chat at 8 and again whatever PT is, regular post, at 10ET.
If you haven't watched before, it can be a good value, though Nikki was a nice person, I think.

[Snarklepuss]

That photo is yet more proof that obese people didn't originate with fast or processed foods or hormone injected meat.  A common myth is that obesity was unheard of in all but the richest classes in Victorian times. 2 of my great grandmothers were obese over the age of 40 or so (I have the photos) and neither of them were rich or lived lives of leisure.  Back then people worked hard!  Photos of other family members dating from the 1800s have made me think that being overweight or obese was probably not quite as rare as people today are lead to believe.

[M.F. Luder]

It was certainly MUCH more rare than it is today, which is not rare at all. And being obese back then probably did not mean being as big as Whitney. That woman in that picture seems to be part of a circus act, in which case she is being paid to be that big, just like Whitney. I could be wrong though.

I don't think anyone can deny that obesity is a huge problem today and was not a huge problem in the past. Obesity likely always existed because there are legitimate diseases that cause it (Prader-Willi, thyroid issues, etc). Those always existed, but I don't think they can account for why 2/3 of the population is now overweight or obese. Being overweight has become the new normal. And if it keeps up, Whitney's going to get her wish of having a world where only armless chairs exist because the average person is going to be as big as she is. There are already so many people who think that Whitney (a 32 year old with sleep apnea, PCOS, pre-diabetes, fainting spells, bad knees, etc) could be considered fairly healthy. That just shows how skewed people's perception is nowadays. Kids that I went to elementary school with back in the day (I'm 33) that we considered fat would be considered just a little chubby by today's standards. This trend towards growing obesity will be great for the whole No BS movement, but I work in health insurance, so the only thing I can see coming from that is a total collapse of our already unsustainable health system.

[Snarklepuss]

7 hours ago, M.F. Luder said:

It was certainly MUCH more rare than it is today, which is not rare at all. And being obese back then probably did not mean being as big as Whitney. That woman in that picture seems to be part of a circus act, in which case she is being paid to be that big, just like Whitney. I could be wrong though.

I don't think anyone can deny that obesity is a huge problem today and was not a huge problem in the past.

Certainly it is more of a problem today, but it was not non-existent nor even unheard of in previous times.  I am sorry to say I am old enough to have been around 50 years ago so I remember.  Even in my husband's family there was obesity.  We're not talking as heavy as the woman above, but it doesn't take anywhere near that much today to be considered "obese".  Back in earlier times I don't even think people knew that word, not because there weren't people that fit that designation, but because people didn't distinguish between "fat" and "obese".  There was just "fat" and "very fat". 

In today's times even a size 16 woman would often be considered "obese" (I know because it pertained to me).  That is one of the main reasons I think the so-called statistics today have everyone believing that obesity is so much more prevalent today than in past times.  The standards have changed and been lowered to include people much thinner than the woman in that photo.  Plus do these so-called experts really know how heavy people were back in the 1800s and early 20th century?  Did they even keep statistics on that back then?  Probably not.  So I call it a huge misinformation campaign engineered by the medical and fitness community to get people to spend more money on diet and exercise that IMO disrespects and rewrites history.

Seriously, I have dozens of photos - In addition to both my grandmothers and a great grandmother, all my mother's aunts after menopause would be considered "obese" today, plus my great grandfather and uncle.  I often peruse ancient photo sites and love to zero in on city street photos where you see the heavy people walking down the street.  They were not so rare, I see enough of them to know better.  My husband has reminded me of all the people in his family photos that were heavy going back to the mid 1800s, including some uncles and aunts and his grandmother, plus rattled off a list of famous people's names (including Ben Franklin) going back through history.  A walk through the New York Museum of Art will also confirm that in certain eras and cultures a "zaftig" female figure was actually more desirable, and probably more prevalent than we have been lead to believe.

Keep in mind that all these heavy women in both my husband's and my family did not own a car, had to walk everywhere to buy necessities because they didn't have supermarkets back then and had to do back breaking labor every single day.  They were not upper class pampered people by a long shot.

Perhaps morbid obesity like the woman above is more prevalent today than in eras past, but MHO is that obesity in general as it is defined today was not.

Anyway, YMMV.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Snarklepuss

[Complexity]

16 minutes ago, Snarklepuss said:

Certainly it is more of a problem today, but it was not non-existent nor even unheard of in previous times.

Same here. I'm in my mid-50s, and my paternal grandparents were always obese as far as I can remember. My father is also heavy, as well as one of my brothers and myself. Pretty much everyone on my father's side was heavier, if not obese. I always thought of it as a characteristic of that side of my family.

On the other hand, my other brother, my mother, and my entire maternal side of the family are all thin.

I do believe genetics plays a role which means it's not completely due to today's eating habits and lifestyle. My only cousins on my father's side (the heavier relatives) are thin. If weight on one side of the family was due to unhealthy eating habits being passed down through the generations, then I would expect the adopted family members to also have a weight problem, but that's not the case.

Therefore, if genetics plays a role in obesity, then it stands to reason that the genetic component existed throughout time. The difference is our current lifestyle increases the odds of gaining weight so those who were heavier in the past are now overweight and those who were overweight in the past are now obese. Everything just got bumped up.

As far as morbidly obesity, it was likely not common in the past, and it's still not common today. That's why people that heavy are a sideshow spectacle at the circus on TV.

[Snarklepuss]

5 minutes ago, Complexity said:

As far as morbidly obesity, it was likely not common in the past, and it's still not common today. That's why people that heavy are a sideshow spectacle at the circus on TV.

Yes, thanks for bringing that up.  I think shows like "My 600 lb. Life" give the impression that there are far more morbidly obese people out there than there really are.  Just because they're getting more attention in the media doesn't mean there are more of them proportionately in the population.  Also, the population in general has grown so of course there will be more morbidly obese people today than in generations past, but relative to the general population size it's still pretty rare.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Snarklepuss

[Complexity]

9 minutes ago, Snarklepuss said:

Yes, thanks for bringing that up.  I think shows like "My 600 lb. Life" give the impression that there are far more morbidly obese people out there than there really are.  Just because they're getting more attention in the media doesn't mean there are more of them proportionately in the population.  Also, the population in general has grown so of course there will be more morbidly obese people today than in generations past, but relative to the general population size it's still pretty rare.

Exactly. It's called the availability heuristic. We tend to think something is more common when we can readily think of examples of that thing. So by watching My 600 lb Life and My Big Fat Fabulous Life, we receive high exposure to obesity, leading us to believe it's very common (regardless of the actual statistical facts).

Good point about the population growth and percentages.

I also think we're more sensitive to noticing obesity because many of us are dealing with our own weight problems. Being overweight is more salient so we are primed to see it. Same phenomena we experience when we buy a new car and suddenly notice that there are a lot of those cars on the road (they've always been there; we just didn't notice them). There has to be a psychological name for that phenomena, but I can't think of it at the moment.

[SunnyBeBe]

If you watch much tv, you'll notice just how many obese people there are.  They appear on the news, reality shows, contests shows, documentaries, etc.  I have noticed that it's VERY prevalent with young girls, teens and young women  10-30 year olds.  It's like it doesn't bother them at all.  I know some people like that.  I see young ladies who are at least 100 pounds over weight, but, don't mind it at all OR at least that's what they say.  I recall being a teen and being very concerned if I weighed more than 120 pounds.  I can't fathom being 16 and weighing 220 pounds, but, that is very common today. 

I saw a story on the news the other day about what is now labeled "emotional feeding."  Instead of "emotional eating." It's when the parent feeds their children the wrong things based on their own emotional problems.  It's creating some obese children with poor diets.  Just because of their parents.  

Edited May 3, 2017 by SunnyBeBe

[okerry]

12 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

That photo is yet more proof that obese people didn't originate with fast or processed foods or hormone injected meat.  A common myth is that obesity was unheard of in all but the richest classes in Victorian times. 2 of my great grandmothers were obese over the age of 40 or so (I have the photos) and neither of them were rich or lived lives of leisure.  Back then people worked hard!  Photos of other family members dating from the 1800s have made me think that being overweight or obese was probably not quite as rare as people today are lead to believe.

And in many places, being significantly overweight was a status symbol, because it meant you could afford a lot of good food. It was a sign of affluence. Nowadays, being obese is often taken - rightly or wrongly - as a sign of poverty, where the only food you *can* afford is cheap junk.

On 5/1/2017 at 11:27 PM, auntjess said:

So what are you watching next?  I'm going to try PBS' Victorian Slums, and hope it's based on Henry Mayhew's work, and watchable.
Born This Way is coming back too, but not sure when.

Oh yes, I watched *Victorian Slum House* last night and it was both fascinating and depressing. You will never again look at "poverty" the same way. Is there a forum for that show here?

ETA: I found it! http://forums.previously.tv/forum/3202-the-victorian-slum/

 

In the meantime, I'm watching *Married at First Sight* which just started again, and waiting for the queen of all trash TV: *90-Day Fiancee.*

Edited May 3, 2017 by okerry

[auntjess]

14 minutes ago, okerry said:

Oh yes, I watched *Victorian Slum House* last night and it was both fascinating and depressing. You will never again look at "poverty" the same way. Is there a forum for that show here?

http://forums.previously.tv/forum/3202-the-victorian-slum/
I can't watch those marry a stranger shows , and I was over the Amish several years ago when I found out they have puppy mills. 
I'll see you in the East End.

[ClareWalks]

I'm not sure if there are more obese people nowadays, but I do know that when I was a kid (25-30 years ago) I hardly ever saw anyone approaching 400 lb. Now I see people well over 300 lb nearly every day. I'm not sure what exactly this means for the statistics, but my anecdotal "evidence" shows a lot more really big folks now. It is particularly noticeable in kids, too. The criteria for "overweight" seems different for children since back in the 80s there was maybe one "fat kid" in each class. Now there are a lot of kids that we might classify as "chubby," but in the 80s they would have been "fat." Not sure if that makes sense. 

TLDR: There have always been plenty of fat people, but to my eye it seems like there are a lot more (or that we now consider chubby/mildly overweight to be totally normal).

[Me from ME]

I wish I could find the link but there are side by side pictures of a present day doctor next to either a sideshow fat man or, America's fattest man from the 20s or 30s and they were about the same size. Also, people who once were considered to be fat such as Totie Fields (sp?) aren't as obese as the people I see in Walmart on a regular basis.

And, while I am venting I would like to add that I am not happy when I take my elderly mother shopping and all the electric scooters are being occupied by much younger, but obese individuals.

[ClareWalks]

1 minute ago, Me from ME said:

Also, people who once were considered to be fat such as Totie Fields (sp?) aren't as obese as the people I see in Walmart on a regular basis.

You more succinctly said what I was trying to say :) Yeah, people who were considered "sideshow fat" 100 years ago would be one of ten such size folks in a typical IHOP today. I have a theory that in the last 20-30 years, as smoking becomes more expensive, difficult, and socially unacceptable, people are indulging their addictive personalities with food instead. We all have vices, and food became a much more "okay" one than smoking in recent decades. Now there is more of a backlash against overeating, so we will see what happens now...maybe this is why vaping is a thing :-P

[SunnyBeBe]

You know this is true about how many morbidly obese people that are around. Growing up, I knew only 2 people over the course of 18 years who were morbidly obese.  Now, I know quite a few.  Yeah, I've lived longer, but, still.....it's not unusual to be a hundred or even two hundred pounds overweight anymore.  

Edited May 3, 2017 by SunnyBeBe

[Ketzel]

Totie Fields! She was one of my father's favorite comedians. Hard to believe today that then she was considered laughably overweight.  The article where I found this picture quoted one of her favorite lines: "I've been on a diet for two weeks, and all I lost was two weeks!"

 

[Ketzel]

8 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

 Plus do these so-called experts really know how heavy people were back in the 1800s and early 20th century?  Did they even keep statistics on that back then?  Probably not.  So I call it a huge misinformation campaign engineered by the medical and fitness community to get people to spend more money on diet and exercise that IMO disrespects and rewrites history.

I can't vouch for expert use of the data, but there is a lot of recorded information about height and body weight from the 1800s. Military records, college records, life insurance records, hospital records. And beginning in the early twentieth century the US Dept. of Agriculture started tracking eating habits in the US and issued reports on height/weight trends.  I only know even this much because a friend of mine is doing research for her graduate degree that involves dietary trends and she talks about it. A lot. :-)

[SunnyBeBe]

This article is pretty interesting.

Quote

Exactly why humans are getting fatter is currently a question of heated scientific debate. Some researchers point to the traditional argument of eating too much and exercising too little as the culprit, whereas others offer alternative explanations, including the role of genetics and viruses that have been linked to obesity. The issue of excessive weight and obesity gets even more complicated, as many studies have linked being fat with poverty, which goes against a popular association of obesity and wealth.

http://www.livescience.com/46894-how-humans-changed-in-100-years.html

[Me from ME]

And of course, I have to add that processed foods are engineered to be addictive. That, in addition to the fact that they are relatively inexpensive, readily available, and aggressively advertised... Well, you do the math. I know I am sensitive to sugar and carbs and after eating them I am hungry soon after and craving my next meal. When I want to drop a few I go completely clean. This incudes making my own soy milk and mayonnaise. For me it is just easier to not eat the junk and skip the cravings.

 

I have been watching a documentary from the UK about breakfast cereals and how they are engineered. Cereals, bottled water, and yogurt are evidently the perfect profit-making foods. The base ingredients are cheap and with some tweaking and advertising they make a lot of money for the corporations (some of which had ties to the tobacco industry.)

[Dot]

2 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

This article is pretty interesting.

http://www.livescience.com/46894-how-humans-changed-in-100-years.html

That is an interesting article. Thanks for providing it.

[Snarklepuss]

My grandmother was fatter than Totie Fields back in the 1960s and nobody laughed at her nor was she that unique, so people didn't stare at her or make fun of her.  I know because I hung out with her all the time back then.  A lot of older women have always been heavy.  It's nothing new.  Plus my grandmother ate a classically Mediterranean diet.  She was a gifted Italian American cook and ate home cooked meals of beans and greens, fish, vegetables, etc.  Of course she made pasta for the family but only on weekends.  She never ate "fast food".  She didn't eat a lot.  She never drove and took the bus and walked all over the city. 

I think what might be complicating some of the statistics is that people are living longer today and tend to gain weight when they get older.  A long time ago people died before they got that fat, or because they got fat.   I just found out doing some genealogical research that one of my great grand uncles (my great grandmother's brother on my father's side) died in 1920 at age 54 from diabetes.  He was a cop in Brooklyn.  All one has to do is look at historical photos of cops in Brooklyn at around that time to realize that it wasn't unusual for them to be obese.  Tall and obese with "walrus" mustaches.  I have never seen a photo of my great grand uncle but I am pretty sure he was obese because my great grandmother was obese.  I am sure he ate a rich diet.

Plus I just don't see the amount of morbidly obese people that you all are seeing.  Here in Connecticut we don't have that many morbidly obese people.  They just don't exist, and believe me, I peruse ALL the Walmarts in the area several times a week, LOL.  Anyway, How would you even know who goes to IHOP if you're supposedly not eating that kind of food anyway?

Policemen on the waterfront in Brooklyn in 1917.  I like to think one of these men is my great grand uncle:

[ClareWalks]

3 minutes ago, Snarklepuss said:

Plus I just don't see the amount of morbidly obese people that you all are seeing.  Here in Connecticut we don't have that many morbidly obese people.  They just don't exist, and believe me, I peruse ALL the Walmarts in the area several times a week, LOL.  Anyway, How would you even know who goes to IHOP if you're supposedly not eating that kind of food anyway?

I live in the Midwest. But yeah, I never claimed to not eat at IHOP, so I'm not sure what that diss was about. I am not "above" eating at IHOP, or something. It was just one example of where one might see a lot of heavy folks. NBD.

[Snarklepuss]

Well, I don't eat at IHOP because if I did I'd surely weigh 300 lbs. in no time not to mention the probable diabetes.  My apologies, I guess I just assumed that thin, health conscious people don't eat there.

You mean there's a show about the Victorian slums in the East End and I don't know about it???  THANK YOU @auntjess for cluing me in!  My great grandparents immigrated to the US from there in 1909 with their children - lived there through the time of Jack the Ripper and everything!

Edited May 4, 2017 by Snarklepuss

[Maggienolia]

8 hours ago, okerry said:

In the meantime, I'm watching *Married at First Sight* which just started again, and waiting for the queen of all trash TV: *90-Day Fiancee.*

I love-hate 90-day Fiancé! Though they've seen a similar deterioration as MBFFL. Season 1-2 seemed like more "legitimate couples" who really wanted to be together and give it a go. The last couple of seasons seem mostly "train-wreck" driven.

[Tosia]

I haven't been to an IHOP in years,  but we have alot of Village Inn (pancake houses) where I live. I think they dropped the "pancake house" bit, but they do breakfast all day and decadent pies. They also have an awesome chef salad that's enough to take half home. 

Anyway,  my point is that I went there with a friend abt two weeks ago, and saw an obese man. and a very obese woman-- she was tall too-- there. Otherwise, alot of thin-to-average elderly folks. I do see bigger folks probably every time I am at Walmart. 

In the large urban high school, I'd say abt 1/4 of the kids are somewhat overweight, but nobody is obese; although one staff member is definitely morbidly obese--about as wide as she is short.

Interesting discussion. I will probably take more note of people who are obese, just to see. Most people look average to me. 

[TurtlePower]

9 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

Well, I don't eat at IHOP because if I did I'd surely weigh 300 lbs. in no time not to mention the probable diabetes.  My apologies, I guess I just assumed that thin, health conscious people don't eat there.

You mean there's a show about the Victorian slums in the East End and I don't know about it???  THANK YOU @auntjess for cluing me in!  My great grandparents immigrated to the US from there in 1909 with their children - lived there through the time of Jack the Ripper and everything!

Sometimes when you're with a group and the group wants IHOP, you order egg whites and unsweetened tea :). Healthy choices can be found almost anywhere. 

Edited May 4, 2017 by TurtlePower
Autocorrect. Fucking autocorrect was wrong AGAIN.

[Snarklepuss]

1 hour ago, TurtlePower said:

Sometimes when you're with a group and the group wants IHOP, you order egg whites and unsweetened tea :). Healthy choices can be found almost anywhere. 

Oh of course, if you have to I suppose you can manage somehow with limited choices if forced to go, but I was talking about choosing to go there and going there regularly.  I've been in similar situations but never at IHOP as no one I know eats there.  Everyone I know puts it on the level of fast food or worse and considers it bad for their health.  Just about the closest I've come to that was going to a Friendly's once with work people (it's a regional place similar to a Denny's with ice cream).  It was extremely hard for me to find anything on the menu to order.

[Complexity]

I have never before heard of anyone associating IHOP with anything bad. It's just another option out there.

I don't think there is anything wrong with eating at IHOP. But then I also don't see anything wrong with eating fast food or carbs or... eek... junk food like candy. It is not the food in itself that's the problem. It's the amount of that food that can be the problem. Balance is the key.

If a person were to eat high carb foods, especially simple carbs, as a large portion of their diet, they will likely have problems with their weight. But if they were to eat a slice of birthday cake once a year, then it's just a drop in the bucket and won't cause any real harm.

Different foods have different qualities, such as being more filling, more nutrient dense, or having fewer calories. And some foods can bring about unhealthy cravings. While each different food often affects most people in the same way, everyone's different, so their response to each food is also different. I personally don't crave cakes and sweets, but my husband loves them (surprisingly, he has never had a weight problem). Honey buns for breakfast? Yum (to him). Me? Ewwww! But if I had powdered sugar donuts in my presence, well, they wouldn't be in my presence for very long (so I've learned to not have them in my house).

I see food in the same way as money. If I spend more money than I have (or eat more calories than I burn), then I will have a problem. But there's nothing wrong with splurging every now and then. I don't think one meal at IHOP or McDonalds will explode a person's weight, but eating there on a regular basis can make it very hard to maintain a healthy weight (it can be done, but you'd have to be very choosy with what you got each time).

Thin people eat at IHOP. Thin people eat at fast food restaurants. Thin people eat candy, cakes, and every high calorie/low nutrient food there is. They just don't eat it very much/very often.

I think this is one of the keys to long-term successful weight control: learn your personal relationship to different foods and maintain a healthy balance. No single food or restaurant will cause a person to be overweight just as no single food or restaurant will cause a person to be at a healthy weight. It's the balance we choose between all these options that dictates our weight.

P.S. The city in which I live has been named the Fittest City in Texas for 4 consecutive years. And there is a thriving IHOP in my area.

[ClareWalks]

12 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

My apologies, I guess I just assumed that thin, health conscious people don't eat there.

You also assumed that I am "thin" and "health conscious." I am actually pretty solidly built and eat all kinds of food, and function very well on a higher-carb diet. Like @Complexity said, foods have their different purposes and I don't like to label foods as being good or bad (although eating a lot of less-nutritious food isn't too useful unless one is training for an Ironman or the Olympics).

[SunnyBeBe]

I have two issues that I have wondered about.   

1.  The number of SKINNY people who eat loads of fast food and it doesn't seem to effect their weight.  I know quite a few people who live on a steady diet of McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, KFC, etc.  And they aren't getting the garden salads either! lol  Most are overweight and don'st seem to care, but, there are also those who are very thin who also eat that way.  And these skinny ones aren't big workout people either.  Makes me wonder about those theories of genetics and viruses.  

2.  I have a theory that a lot of these fast food places are not serving REAL food.  It might sound crazy, but, to me most of that food seems to be as if the company got some powder, flavored it with chemicals, boiled it, then put it in molds in the shape of food, then sliced it up and called it a piece of chicken or a potato.  Only thing is....it's not really food!  lol  I'm sticking with my theory unless, I learn otherwise.  lol  This is why I don't care for fast food.  I wish they would do more studies on them and nutrition.  I realize they are supposed to show their actual content, but, I'm skeptical.  Especially, Taco Bell and KFC.

Edited May 4, 2017 by SunnyBeBe

[Tosia]

2 hours ago, Complexity said:

 

Thin people eat at IHOP. Thin people eat at fast food restaurants. Thin people eat candy, cakes, and every high calorie/low nutrient food there is. They just don't eat it very much/very often.

I think that's the crux of it,  Complexity.  Thanks. 

Also, I have read that birthday. holiday,  and special event foods causes a jump in weight--at least 5 lbs.-- and when that weight is not lost before the next event, it adds up.  I have gained abt 5 lbs a year and didn't make a significant effort to l Iose it until 20 lbs and clothes didn't fit.  

[Snarklepuss]

3 hours ago, Complexity said:

Thin people eat at IHOP. Thin people eat at fast food restaurants. Thin people eat candy, cakes, and every high calorie/low nutrient food there is. They just don't eat it very much/very often.

Yes they do by their own admission according to people I've known, and myself before menopause.  This is the myth that the diet industry keeps pushing, that thin people don't eat as much as heavier people and/or eat healthier foods.  Well, it depends on which thin people and who you're comparing them to.  Most of my life I was a thin person and thought I was eating sensibly to account for it.  Now no matter what diet I follow, I can't eat sensibly enough to avoid being what the diet industry would label "obese".

Until recently, I worked with a woman who was 4'11" and weighs around 100 lbs.  She was in her early 60s at the time, too!  She regularly eats high fat/calorie foods in large portions.  And I know for a fact that she eats a lot because I ate lunch with her all the time in our office cafeteria.  She would eat large portions of fattening meals and then have a piece of cake afterward, plus take 2 more fattening large meals of food home for dinner (one for her and one for her husband).  We're talking meatloaf with mashed potatoes, huge portions of barbecued ribs, etc., etc.  I would eat half the lunch portion of the baked chicken breast with steamed vegetables, then go home and eat a small dinner of vegetables and fruits to "make up" for my lunch.  I used to ask her if she really went home and ate the entire portion of the second meal, and she said "yes", and asked me if I didn't I do the same thing or eat even more.  When I told her how little I ate compared to her, she said she was "lucky".  I guess so!  But she is by far not the only person I know just like her.

Edited May 4, 2017 by Snarklepuss

[SunnyBeBe]

I have  a friend who works in my office who eats huge amounts of food.  Six donuts, 10 pieces of candy, ribs, potato salad, etc.   He's quite thin and always has been.  He's about 160 pounds and in his mid 50's. We kid him about it.  If he were  obese, he would be described as having an eating disorder. 

[Complexity]

7 minutes ago, Snarklepuss said:

This is the myth that the diet industry keeps pushing, that thin people don't eat as much as heavier people and/or eat healthier foods.  Well, it depends on which thin people and who you're comparing them to.

This is why I believe that each person's weight is determined by a combination of genetics and lifestyle.

And it actually makes sense when we consider all the other areas in which we, as people, differ. Some people are born with natural talents for music or athletics. That didn't come from their lifestyle. What about people who have better vs poorer eyesight? Hearing? Math abilities? Look at the differences in our physical shapes, such as height or bust size? We are not all built exactly the same. Our bodies are different.

So I find it very possible, in fact even likely, that different people's bodies handle food differently. We know from gastric bypass operations the physical design of the stomach and intestines affects food absorption and the person's feeling of fullness. Is every person really supposed to have the exact size stomachs, the exact size intestines, and the exact same location in which they are all connected? Are we all supposed to produce the exact amount of enzymes when breaking down the food we eat? I seriously doubt it. We all have differences in every other way (heck, even identical twins aren't perfectly the same in every way), why wouldn't the same be true for how our bodies handle the food we ingest?

I believe we all start out with different tendencies, due to our physical genetics, to be thin, medium, or heavy weight. Then that tendency is combined with our lifestyle choices (eating and exercise) to determine our final weight. Anyone on either genetic extreme (the two ends of the bell curve) will be less affected by their lifestyle. So people on the extreme of being thin can eat more without gaining weight while people on the extreme of being heavy can gain weight even when eating less. Most of us fit somewhere in between those two extremes, but still lean toward the thin or heavy side to a certain extent. Very few people will be in the exact middle.

I honestly do believe it is easier/harder for people to maintain a healthy weight. But just like hair color, texture, and curliness/straightness, we have to learn how to work with what we received genetically in order to accomplish what we want. Some people just got lucky while other people have to work their asses off to achieve only a modest level of success. We can fight it and curse at it and assert the unfairness of it all we want, but it won't change a thing. We have to learn how to accept it and then do our best to work with it.

[Tosia]

Yep, there's those despicable folks (just kidding) with high metabolisms or genes, or whatever,  who just stay thin no matter no matter how much of whatever they eat.

My mom was one of them.  Ate whatever and never gained.   And she was teased for being thin, although she looked normal--5'7", and 135 lbs.  Can you can imagine body shaming thin people! !!!!!!   Oh wait,  Twit does it.

Still hating Twit because she won't take responsibility for herself.  

[Complexity]

50 minutes ago, Tosia said:

Yep, there's those despicable folks (just kidding) with high metabolisms or genes, or whatever,  who just stay thin no matter no matter how much of whatever they eat.

My mom was one of them.

My mom was one of them, too. She didn't get teased; instead, she teased me. "Having a second portion of calories tonight?" "I see you're having a little cereal with your sugar." "I have a 23" waist" (which now I seriously doubt was true). And the phrase we've all heard, "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach."

Well guess what. As she got older, she got heavier. And she had NO idea how to control her weight. She had never had to work at it so she knew nothing about the nutrition content (or the lack thereof) of different foods, how to handle cravings, and what foods were healthy substitutes for unhealthy favorites.

So whenever I see one of those thin body shaming people, I always think in the back of my mind that they'll be eating their words one day (love the pun) when they get older and their metabolism naturally changes. Karma is a such a nasty bitch.

[Dot]

8 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

 

2.  I have a theory that a lot of these fast food places are not serving REAL food.  It might sound crazy, but, to me most of that food seems to be as if the company got some powder, flavored it with chemicals, boiled it, then put it in molds in the shape of food, then sliced it up and called it a piece of chicken or a potato.  

Wasn't there an expose a few years about one of the fast food restaurants doing exactly this? I don't recall exactly: something about pumping pink gunk into molds & calling it a meat patty.

I found a link: "pink slime" is called mechanically separated meat & includes hooves & diseases along with the meat.

http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp

Edited May 5, 2017 by Dot

[ClareWalks]

Everyone in my family has naturally fast metabolisms...until the women hit 25, and the men hit 30. Then we all pork out tremendously, to put it horribly. The only way to remain reasonably unaffected in my family is to become either a workout freak, or learn to eat in moderation, or both. My little bro has the eating down, and I work out a lot. My older brother is on a fast slope towards diabetes, though. Generally speaking, having a fast metabolism will catch up with someone, although everyone is different. If someone has a fast metabolism, though, they shouldn't rub it in for others. It's privilege, really, to not have to worry about what you eat. And it's a privilege that can be revoked at any time.

[auntjess]

Tiny at 20 on TLC again tomorrow, 5/5, at 11AM ET.
This is spoiled, surly Hannah, a primordial dwarf.
There's a tread for it in one-offs.

[Dot]

1 hour ago, auntjess said:

Tiny at 20 on TLC again tomorrow, 5/5, at 11AM ET.
This is spoiled, surly Hannah, a primordial dwarf.
There's a tread for it in one-offs.

After seeing your post, I had to go to the dictionary to see if I was incorrect in the definition of primordial. Nope. So does this designation of this woman mean she has a form of dwarfism dating from the beginning of time?

[auntjess]

5 minutes ago, Dot said:

So does this designation of this woman mean she has a form of dwarfism dating from the beginning of time?

From the beginning of her development, rather than developing normally at first.
https://www.nemours.org/service/medical/skeletal-dysplasia/primordial-dwarfism.html?tab=about
She had the misfortune, in my opinion, of being adopted by a family who treated her almost like a doll, rather than a person.


 

Edited May 4, 2017 by auntjess

[Snarklepuss]

10 hours ago, Complexity said:

My mom was one of them, too. She didn't get teased; instead, she teased me. "Having a second portion of calories tonight?" "I see you're having a little cereal with your sugar." "I have a 23" waist" (which now I seriously doubt was true). And the phrase we've all heard, "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach."

Well guess what. As she got older, she got heavier. And she had NO idea how to control her weight. She had never had to work at it so she knew nothing about the nutrition content (or the lack thereof) of different foods, how to handle cravings, and what foods were healthy substitutes for unhealthy favorites.

So whenever I see one of those thin body shaming people, I always think in the back of my mind that they'll be eating their words one day (love the pun) when they get older and their metabolism naturally changes. Karma is a such a nasty bitch.

My mom was like me - Normal weight until Menopause.  When I was young she knew the same thing was likely to happen to me, so when she saw me eating ice cream for example, she would tell me to "enjoy it while I can".  So I was prepared for things to change for me and took precautions as soon as the slow slide began.  I was in my late 20s/early 30s when it started.  No one knew because I responded by increasing my exercise and improving my eating habits, which was enough to stem the weight gain for quite a while.  As I got older I had to improve them more and more until menopause intervened and worked against everything I did.  It was crazy.  My main complaint became "The less I eat the more I weigh".  I was so determined to beat this thing that I read every diet book I could get my hands on and became an annoying "expert" on nutrition that could tell everyone just what they were doing wrong.  I thought that if I knew more and kept up with the latest diet and exercise wisdom I would learn how to control my weight.

Well, despite putting all that knowledge to work and pushing myself way beyond my comfort zone, after age 50 or so it became like nothing I did worked.  Bike riding, power walking, you name it.  Low carb, slow carb, low fat, low sugar, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, South Beach Diet, you name it, the weight just kept piling on.  I FINALLY lost 20 lbs. last year when out of desperation I cut my calorie intake down below 1000 calories a day with very few carbs and no added sugar.  I suffered a very bad fall last Fall and needed surgery on my dominant arm (which I broke), plus in the middle of everything had a gall bladder attack out of nowhere, which only helped my diet because I was in no position to eat or prepare food for a while.  I didn't need to have the gall bladder removed, fortunately.  The attack was a fluke brought on by eating a LOT on my birthday, which shocked a gallstone into going into the bile duct and wreaking havoc.  Once the gallstone moved out, I was fine.  One tiny little gallstone in my gallbladder caused that massive attack!  As the Fall wore on and the weather got colder, I could not keep up the very low calorie diet anymore and I plateaued.  Now I probably eat around 1500 calories a day, still with no added sugar and fortunately have maintained my weight, but the thought of having to go under 1000 calories again to lose more is not something I'm looking forward to doing, nor is it something I'm completely comfortable with because it goes against most diet and health wisdom.  Note that I have been out of work for months and walk like a MANIAC.  I understand we all have to respond to whatever we're given, but what if what we're given makes responding almost futile without taking drastic and possibly unhealthy measures?  Plus as I get older I just can't maintain the level of exercise I used to do, especially with mild arthritis and a torn meniscus in my right knee that's still healing.  This getting older crap doesn't help, LOL!

[Complexity]

7 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

This getting older crap doesn't help, LOL!

That sums it up, doesn't it! I know the feeling all too well.

[AZChristian]

So if Twitney can't/won't deal with her weight now, what's going to happen when she gets older?  Paging Dr. Now, paging Dr. Now. ??????