Why is it normal/OK to be obese in Ireland?.

tedpan wrote: »

Hmmm, I don't know about that. There are too many excuses these days. An excessive amount of food and drink is the reason in 99.9% of cases.

I used to be very obese and decided to change my ways.(still have some weight to lose) Anyone who says different is kidding themselves.

I am not sure where you are getting your statistics but there have been so many counter examples found - that the idea it is simply excess food and drink is not really supported.

For example an anthropologist from Havard - Called Russel I think or Wallace - not sure which I just remember it was a name that reminded me of Charles Darwin because Darwin also knew a russel and a wallace I think - spent over half a year studying the Pima Indians around 1900.

The tribe had had decades of famine and were being homed on a state reservation at the time. At the time he found Women were doing most of the manual labour - farming and carrying yet were the most obese. So less food and more physical activity was not the cause of their obesity issues.

But more examples have been found since 1900 of obesity parallel with poverty and famine. They found diets with 2000 calories and 20% fat daily - and yet their obesity was a medical issue.

This was also found in areas of Chile and Mexico. And these were all not people with reality tv and computer games to sit around on.

There are other studies of stress - something many deal with these days - that suggest stress hormones have an effect on fat tissue and cells - that work similar to insulin. Not to mention how stress works on our ability to choose the rights foods rather than comfort foods.

There are those who think sugar is the problem. But the anti-carbers for example tend to cite evidence suggesting that carbs are stimulating the over production of insulin to deal with the carbs, and that insulin is then meeting the refined sugars in our diet and laying it down as fat. So rather than sugar being the problem per se - they believe the problem is the sugar is being taken in a carb rich environment. And I believe that had one culture they like to cite to back that up but I can not think of it now. Will find it if anyone asks though. But in said culture they had a very high sugar diet but very low carbs and the effect of sugar on obesity was not even remotely close to elsewhere because of it.

And since people often like to make posts like this with a personal anecdote like "This person in my office" or "This guy I saw down the gym" I will give my own anecdote. I am very healthy and active and not a shred of excess weight on me. But I eat an _obscene_ amount of food. I love food and I love cooking. When I am not at a meal I am grazing or snacking.

If I am making eggs for breakfast for example I would put 6 in for my girlfriends and 6 just for me. Usually with cheese melted in and slices of chirizo on top. Then I would walk out the door with a banana in my hand and an apple in my pocket. I am a short guy compared to the average so it is not even that there is a lot of me to feed.

Yet despite the constant and large array of food going into me - I am the perfect weight. Why? Because not only am I more active than most people - but I am very very aware of _what_ food I eat and in what combinations.

And I worked through an obesity issue with someone I know too who sought advice and help on it. And I feel for LadyMacbeth who tells us above that her weight loss was hard won through "deprivation and misery" because it was anything but with my friend. My friend ate himself silly getting to stuff loads of food into his "cakehole/face" losing weight all the while and reaching his target weight much quicker than he expected. So his experience was the exact opposite of LadyMacbeth. His weight loss was not only easily won - but was immensely pleasurable as an experience.

So there is a diversity of evidence and opinion out there but what it does show is that the only ones "kidding themselves" are the ones who make out it is straight forward and simple with advice like "just put less in your cake hole" or that they have a "stuffing their face issue" and other snippets of "wisdom" like that. Rather the user flaneur above is likely more on the ball with the quantity of food not being the issue - but the type and variety of food you eat - and a lot about your lifestyle in terms of physical activity, stress, and so forth.

If "putting less food in your cake hole" works - and I have no doubt it often does - it potentially is often merely a coincidence based on what food the person happens to inject less of - rather than merely the fact of ingesting less.