Are we fat because we eat too much or eat the wrong things?

[Frailty]

The amount of people that are fat but healthy compared to those who are fat and also unhealthy is pretty damned low in my experience.

Also, just because an overweight person can't stick to a certain diet plan does not make the plan a failure. In fact, most of the time it simply means the overweight person is a failure and is blaming an external source for their inability to fix their weight problem

THIS!

It's always someone else's fault and they don't take responsibility for their own actions. It's not easy to lose weight, and its not supposed to be - but if you want to do it you will succeed. The amount of people who 'want' to lose weight and take bullshit miracle treatments or these weight lose programs make me sick - stop looking for the easy option!

I was 118kg in January 2010, I got down to 76.6kg in June 2011. I'm sitting at 82kg now (the additional weight is muscle - I've actually decreased my body fat % since June). I did this by first adjusting my diet, and then doing some exercise. I lost and kept off more weight than my brother who went on the Tony Ferguson plan.

Because I put in the hard work, I know how to make my food choices when I go out. I know how much I should be eating - all without the need to count calories, because counting only helps if you know your basal metabolic rate - which I guarantee the average joe doesn't understand what that is.

To answer the question in the title - both. People eat TOO much, and make BAD food choices.

 

[Hooch]

Also, just because an overweight person can't stick to a certain diet plan does not make the plan a failure. In fact, most of the time it simply means the overweight person is a failure and is blaming an external source for their inability to fix their weight problem

It's a pretty negative mindset.

I'm pretty firmly of the opinion that people who want to lose weight, but try and fail, it's not about strict diets and counting calories, it's about positive self image, developing good eating habits and exercise.

These guys are probably already caning themselves internally over their weight, so I don't think you bust out of that with ultimatums. The old diet-crash-diet-crash thing is pretty common. It's just disordered eating and the weight loss dieting contributes to it.

For the people who just don't try, well they need a kick up the arse, but fear of a failure can trap people when these diets don't work.

Why not concentrate on eating well and exercising... if you eat well and exercise, aim for health physically and emotionally/mentally, weight loss is a side effect. If you're trying to drop those difficult last 5kg, well that's more body sculpting than weight loss for health.

 

[sportive cupid]

What frustrates me is how many people have been sucked into the weightloss,gym and 'fitness' industries .These profit making ventures try to confuse the public into believing that they can tell us about what is healthy when ,in reality,they have little knowledge or interest in the complexity of what is god health.

If being healthy was just about knowing the correct information then we would have no smokers or fat people. If it was as simple as - eat right and exercise smart we would not have skinny people dropping dead from malnutrition or heart failure while a doctor with a BMI of 35 saving them.

Good health is a complex issue....well beyond the designers of - or the graduates of -TAFE course for personal trainers can comprehend.

 

[aqua_duck]

What frustrates me is how many people have been sucked into the weightloss,gym and 'fitness' industries .These profit making ventures try to confuse the public into believing that they can tell us about what is healthy when ,in reality,they have little knowledge or interest in the complexity of what is god health.

If being healthy was just about knowing the correct information then we would have no smokers or fat people. If it was as simple as - eat right and exercise smart we would not have skinny people dropping dead from malnutrition or heart failure while a doctor with a BMI of 35 saving them.

Good health is a complex issue....well beyond the designers of - or the graduates of -TAFE course for personal trainers can comprehend.

I'm guessing you're overweight and trying to tell yourself it's all ok? Seriously you taken the cake fir most idiotic post, congratulations because you've certainly managed to uphold your reputation as the forum idiot.

 

[Cliffhanger]

It's true we don't know everything about being healthy, but epidemiological research has told us enough to discern how to lower your risks of developing chronic illnesses and improving fitness.

Obviously over training and under-eating are not the way to go, the fact people constantly bring this up when healthy lifestyles are promoted frustrates me to no end. Like 1 in 100,000 seemingly healthy people die doing exercise and they all have pre-existing conditions.

We keep making allowances for sedentary lifestyles and poor dietary choices and we are paying for it.

That said doctors need to stop pushing their clients to lose weight and focus on promoting fitness, as this is what will reduce the risk of CVD (the number one cause of death in Australia).

 

[Hooch]

I'm guessing you're overweight and trying to tell yourself it's all ok? Seriously you taken the cake fir most idiotic post, congratulations because you've certainly managed to uphold your reputation as the forum idiot.

His/her post is actually pretty insightful, and gets to the crux of what I've been saying; that good health is far more than just the physical, or being a certain shape, or having a BMI in a certain range.

But for an imbecile like yourself, health is probably measured in skin folds and muscle mass, or how much you can bench. Or how 'not fat' you are.

There is a widespread misconception that confuses health and body image, and there are a lot of powerful social pressures behind it.

 

[Cliffhanger]

There are a lot of problems with the health and fitness industry, but this is more a reflection of society and the desire for fast and easy results.

With universities being offered incentives to increase numbers for their Exercise Science and Exercise Physiology degrees personal trainer certifications will become redundant.

We're constantly learning new information about what is the optimal approach to good health. However, there is a lot we do know and what we have is enough insight to

Also the latest studies show we have in fact underestimated how much physical activity someone should do in a week and the intensity at which they should do it. Fact is as long as you don't starve yourself you cannot go wrong eating raw foods and you cannot go wrong with an hour of moderate intensity (40-60 per cent of heart rate max) exercise a day.

It's pretty simple in some senses, would you rather exercise for an hour a day or be dead for 24 hours a day.

 

[sportive cupid]

Health is a field and fitness is an industry- don't confuse the two.

Real univestities would do better to encourage more students to undertake the more rigorous courses in the applied sciences and humanities they might just get more graduates that can help address the real reasons behind health concerns of our western society , instead of merely being able to make fat kids cry through personal anecdotes

 

[Cliffhanger]

Lol, believe it or not exercise and sport science degrees are very intense, you have to study sport psychology, growth, maturation and aging, biology, bio mechanics, nutrition, and on top of that you do your exercise prescription units. It is an applied science.

To write exercise scientist off as people being trained to make fat people cry, is unfair. You cannot go and complain about how limited knowledge there is on health and then talk down the very people who will be doing the research to build on that knowledge.

Exercise Scientists aren't the guys working in the gym, they generally end up dealing with elderly populations.

Also as somebody who is only one semester off finishing an Arts degree with a history major and Sociology, Philosophy and Literature minor, I laugh at the notion that you think more people should undertake bullshit degrees in the humanities. HAHA!

 

[Danish]

Health is a field and fitness is an industry- don't confuse the two.

Either one will tell a fat person that they need to lose weight. Whats your point?

 

[Frailty]

I don't know about anyone else, but I judge my health on my bf%, my blood work, my cardiovascular fitness, VO2 max, eyesight tests....

But then again, the fact I get myself checked out regularly means I am a slave to the 'fitness industry' I bet.

I'm tired of this 'soft and softer' approach to the obesity epidemic. We live in this bullshit society which seems to accept that people are so overweight to the point where health is being degraded, and that it's all about them feeling ok about themselves. That's all well and good, but would we have the same thoughts about someone who is dangerously underweight? As long as they are 'ok about themselves'.

NO.

You can have your charge against the fitness industry as much as you want, but they are merely filling a demand - they are not creating it. People not its unhealthy to overweight - it's not the fitness industry telling them that, and they are simply filling a demand for a quick and easy solution that these lazy people want. Is it ethical? Perhaps not, but business isn't ethical and I place no blame on them, just like I don't blame McDonalds when a fatty goes there to eat every day.

Our society has become so irresponsible that it is always someone else's fault. It's McDonald's fault we have an obesity crisis, it's the fitness industries fault for people going on crash diets, it's the clubs and gaming machines fault for gambling problems, etc. Have some responsibility for your own actions!

I do not work in the fitness industry, and I personally laugh at some advice personal trainers give. I lost 43kg in a year and a half, and I have kept that off (put on 6kg of muscle since). I did this through healthy eating, exercise and motivation. I had all the resources I needed - the internet to do research, a kitchen, a gym to go to, and the outdoors.

 

[Fire]

Fat people shit me.

 

[Cliffhanger]

I don't know about anyone else, but I judge my health on my bf%, my blood work, my cardiovascular fitness, VO2 max, eyesight tests....

But then again, the fact I get myself checked out regularly means I am a slave to the 'fitness industry' I bet.

I'm tired of this 'soft and softer' approach to the obesity epidemic. We live in this bullshit society which seems to accept that people are so overweight to the point where health is being degraded, and that it's all about them feeling ok about themselves. That's all well and good, but would we have the same thoughts about someone who is dangerously underweight? As long as they are 'ok about themselves'.

NO.

You can have your charge against the fitness industry as much as you want, but they are merely filling a demand - they are not creating it. People not its unhealthy to overweight - it's not the fitness industry telling them that, and they are simply filling a demand for a quick and easy solution that these lazy people want. Is it ethical? Perhaps not, but business isn't ethical and I place no blame on them, just like I don't blame McDonalds when a fatty goes there to eat every day.

Our society has become so irresponsible that it is always someone else's fault. It's McDonald's fault we have an obesity crisis, it's the fitness industries fault for people going on crash diets, it's the clubs and gaming machines fault for gambling problems, etc. Have some responsibility for your own actions!

I do not work in the fitness industry, and I personally laugh at some advice personal trainers give. I lost 43kg in a year and a half, and I have kept that off (put on 6kg of muscle since). I did this through healthy eating, exercise and motivation. I had all the resources I needed - the internet to do research, a kitchen, a gym to go to, and the outdoors.

Good post.

 

[DiabloThree]

you are fat because you don't work out and because you eat the wrong things.

if you want to stop being a morbidly obese shitstain, change your diet and lifestyle. simple.

 

[Fire]

Eric Cartman is OK I guess.

 

[Cliffhanger]

you are fat because you don't work out and because you eat the wrong things.

if you want to stop being a morbidly obese shitstain, change your diet and lifestyle. simple.

You're over simplifying it though.

Fraility made a good point, all the right info is out there if you look for it. Problem is too many people are too lazy to find the information for themselves and just make unfounded assumptions about how they should eat and what constitutes as exercise.

 

[sportive cupid]

...and yet this information is available on the Internet.......the haven for fat,unmotivated people...

But you are right.too many people too lazy to lookn up the info. For themselves relying on doctors and other idiot scientists.

 

[DiabloThree]

You're over simplifying it though.

Fraility made a good point, all the right info is out there if you look for it. Problem is too many people are too lazy to find the information for themselves and just make unfounded assumptions about how they should eat and what constitutes as exercise.

but it is that simple.

no excuse! if they are too lazy to try and find out how when the info is right there, what does it say about them?

unless there is a medical condition of some sort..

 

[Fire]

...and yet this information is available on the Internet.......the haven for fat,unmotivated people....

Saw a Status Update on Facebook the other day. It said something along the lines of people's internet should be powered by treadmills, and the faster you run the faster the internet will download, etc.

 

[JoeD]

Here is another article that reports research that goes against current thinking about weight and exercise.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10822486

Desk workers burn as much calories as hunter-gatherers

a study by the Hunter College in New York suggests the rate at which humans use up calories is relatively constant and shows that expanding waistlines are more likely down to our greater consumption of food.