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Breaking the Obesity Cycle

Hawki97

HR Legend
Dec 16, 2001
13,759
23,860
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Iowa City, IA
I’m at lunch watching some ridiculously obese people eat lunch with their on-the-way to ridiculously obese kids. One is a teenager and the other is probably 10. Feel so bad for them, they don’t stand a chance and will be 300+ just like both their parents.

As Michelle found out, just putting good food in front of them during the day doesn’t solve the problem and actually enrages people. Their parents won’t do it either. How do these kids ever learn how to properly eat and not balloon into the ugly, fat American?
 
I think health insurance will ultimately be the answer. There might become a price to pay for being so heavy.
This could be something that would get some to change their habits. PE needs to be something all kids do daily through high school. Hell, even recess is less than it used to be years ago. Kids just aren't as active. They don't move around as much at school, then go home and sit at a tv or game monitor and then sleep before they get up and repeat that cycle. Need to get kids in the habit of some sort of fitness/healthy eating/diet and hope it carries over when they go out in the world on their own.
 
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Eat less and exercise more. I firmly believe 99% of the obesity problem is a willpower problem.

Also, our restaurant portion sizes are ridiculously large.
My sister has been heavy for 30+ years. She's lost ~100lbs this year by changing the way she eats. She eats every two hours and has cut a lot of food types from her diet. I think the key for her is that it allows her to keep eating something all day. She was always a grazer and I don't think she realized how much she ate between meals.
 
Genetics plays a big part. Overweight people tend to mate with other overweight people. Their kids aren't exactly starting with champion bloodlines where they are naturally lean. Add to that the bad habits and it just gets worse.
 
Eat less and exercise more. I firmly believe 99% of the obesity problem is a willpower problem.
This. My co-workers usually order lunch 2-3 times a week from good places around the area. I decline about 95% of the time, occasionally treating myself. Each time they tell me they don't know how I say no so often. And it's really really simple. Just do it once, and you realize it's really not that bad. Then it becomes a habit after a couple weeks.

As I've mentioned before, since late 2020 I've gotten my fatass into pretty good shape, and this is one of the major reasons why. Willpower. Just saying no to fatty food/csb
 
This. My co-workers usually order lunch 2-3 times a week from good places around the area. I decline about 95% of the time, occasionally treating myself. Each time they tell me they don't know how I say no so often. And it's really really simple. Just do it once, and you realize it's really not that bad. Then it becomes a habit after a couple weeks.

As I've mentioned before, since late 2020 I've gotten my fatass into pretty good shape, and this is one of the major reasons why. Willpower. Just saying no to fatty food/csb
Food is fuel. Once you realize that it becomes easier. Sure, there are some things that taste great and you want to binge but most food is just ok so just eat enough to fuel the tank.
I'm pretty sedentary at this point. I get up, trudge up to my office and sit in my desk chair for 8-10 hours. I don't need much fuel. I don't usually have breakfast and if I do I won't have lunch. I don't need both. I have a smallish dinner and maybe a small snack later. I vary 10 lbs throughout the year but people think I'm thin and fit. I'm not really either, but I'm not very fat.
 
My sister has been heavy for 30+ years. She's lost ~100lbs this year by changing the way she eats. She eats every two hours and has cut a lot of food types from her diet. I think the key for her is that it allows her to keep eating something all day. She was always a grazer and I don't think she realized how much she ate between meals.
That’s fantastic.

I have lost 6lbs in the last few weeks by just minimizing non-nutritional foods and cutting out stuff like bread. And eating less when going out to eat. I realized I am full after eating half a meal, and stopped mindlessly finishing the meal and instead take it home for leftovers.

I am eating pretty much what I want and still losing weight. We just have too much junk food and portion sizes are unnecessary most times.
 
Tax everybody for being fat.

You have to weigh in once a year to prove you are not fat. You get your tax back if you are not fat and a share of the money the truly fat don’t get back.

It will never happen. Race card would be played instantly.

School lunch was never a problem. It’s one meal out of the day 9 months a year. It’s the stuff they eat 24/7 outside of school that was the issue. I would argue school lunch should be high in calories and even fat, for the kids where school lunch is their ONLY meal each day.
 
Snacking is a problem IMO. A bag of grapes shouldn't cost more than chips. Fresh foods shouldn't cost more than a bag of chocolate.
Define a “bag”. Bananas are like $.39 a pound at Kwik Star.

You also would need to define “healthy food”. I could easily eat enough fresh bread to be fat as hell considering the calories and carbs of an infinite amount of things people consider healthy.

You can’t have arbitrary price controls on food.

Shrinkflation is already reducing the size of candy.
 
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Food is fuel. Once you realize that it becomes easier. Sure, there are some things that taste great and you want to binge but most food is just ok so just eat enough to fuel the tank.
I'm pretty sedentary at this point. I get up, trudge up to my office and sit in my desk chair for 8-10 hours. I don't need much fuel. I don't usually have breakfast and if I do I won't have lunch. I don't need both. I have a smallish dinner and maybe a small snack later. I vary 10 lbs throughout the year but people think I'm thin and fit. I'm not really either, but I'm not very fat.
Try keeping some dumbbells and or a barbell in your office. Do 10 squats or shoulder presses each hour. I try to do that with the work from home thing. walk over lunch hour. Supposedly sitting is the new smoking
 
There is no stopping the obesity epidemic in this country, sadly.

The US sits at 41.9% adult obesity as of March 2020. I wonder how much it balloons in the next census because Covid/WFH certainly won't improve that number (it was 30.5% in the early 2000's).
 
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I read this book last month and highly recommend for those interested in the subject. It's focused on adult weight loss not child, but I imagine both are linked. The real culprit seems to be insulin levels, and like any drug, the body develops resistance to it. Constant sugary foods and no activity is a recipe of obesity.

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Genetics plays a big part. Overweight people tend to mate with other overweight people. Their kids aren't exactly starting with champion bloodlines where they are naturally lean. Add to that the bad habits and it just gets worse.
I’d suggest that the real issue is dietary and lifestyle rather than just genetics. Sure that’s part of it but the other parental choices are far more likely the issue. Hence seeing kids obese at 4. That isn’t genetic folks.

I mean I am at my neighborhood grocery store almost everyday. And the fatties almost always have a cart load of sugary snacks, cookies, soda, juice and the like and rarely a cart of fish, chicken and fresh vegetables. Accordingly the obesity epidemic continues.

I just got off my indoor bike trainer after doing 45 minutes of hard intervals. Did I want to? Not really. Would it have even easier to put on Netflix and grab a soda and a donut? Heck yeah. But I’m not going to turn into one of you fat f***ers. So I got off my ass and put in the work.
 
Snacking is a problem IMO. A bag of grapes shouldn't cost more than chips. Fresh foods shouldn't cost more than a bag of chocolate.

A banana, an apple, an orange, a plum, etc. is not going to cost more than a bag of chips

This problem simply isn't going away so long as our culture eats out so often.

Diet, like vitamins, has a cumulative effect. A cheeseburger isn't going to kill you. Eat one every week with fries instead of a pb&j with carrots when you want one will in fact kill you.
 
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I eat healthy six days a week and am a fat slob one day a week. I'm not saying this method is healthy but one bad day (and im talking often 5,000 - 10,000 calories of pure fatness and eating whatever it is I crave), for me, doesn't result in any weight gain.

I grew up chunky and love binge eating. Giving myself that one bad day helps me a ton. I'm not really even that tempted to eat poorly the other six days.
 
I eat healthy six days a week and am a fat slob one day a week. I'm not saying this method is healthy but one bad day (and im talking often 5,000 - 10,000 calories of pure fatness and eating whatever it is I crave), for me, doesn't result in any weight gain.

I grew up chunky and love binge eating. Giving myself that one bad day helps me a ton. I'm not really even that tempted to eat poorly the other six days.

We've talked about this before, I basically do the same thing. Life is too short...I'm not eating salads from here on out dag gummit! Hell can have me five years earlier if it means I get a big slab of red meat and cheesy mashed potatoes followed by 8 beers once a week.
 
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I eat healthy six days a week and am a fat slob one day a week. I'm not saying this method is healthy but one bad day (and im talking often 5,000 - 10,000 calories of pure fatness and eating whatever it is I crave), for me, doesn't result in any weight gain.

I grew up chunky and love binge eating. Giving myself that one bad day helps me a ton. I'm not really even that tempted to eat poorly the other six days.
Dude, I'm the exact same way. I spend the entire week day dreaming about what all I'm going to eat on my cheat day. But I've found that it helps keep me on track. It's a sustainable diet plan for me. Healthy stuff and protein shakes all days, but eat like shit 1 sometimes 2 days a week.
 
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Maybe stop handing out medications for things caused by obesity.

That would never fly but I can’t sand the mentality of “there is a pill for that”.
 
Yep. The 1 day a week thing works for me. I can usually pass off other temptations during the week if I know I can eat what I want in a few days.

Although my free day binges aren’t nearly as much as they used to be - basically a big bowl of ice cream, or some unhealthy app during an Iowa game, or chips and French onion dip are the most they amount to now …
 
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I know it's bad for me but I get a large McDonald's Coke at least every other week. That shit is amazing to me. It's very hard not to do it more often, but I know if I did it would add up in a hurry. That said, I do allow myself to do it now and then cuz you only live once.
 
I mean, it's ultimately that there's a massive industry that is incredibly successful at making us eat a lot of food that is bad for us.

The differences in exercise doesn't really make the kind of difference we're seeing.

It's because advancements in food science technology, preservation, flavors and ingredients, plastics, logistics tech, etc have exploded. Efficiencies that bring the prices way down.

I mean, in like 1982 there were like 6-7 kinds of chips. Lays (four flavors?), Doritos (one flavor), Cheetos, Fritos, probably a local/regional brand. Now look at the chip aisle.

Look at the baked goods...there wasn't 1000 baked goods in plastic shells in your supermarket in 1982.

I'm a big cheerleader for capitalism and the free market, but this issue is 100% the result of the absolutely brilliant effects of capitalism...technology, efficiency, marketing, etc. And it's just about the greatest product line in the world because it's all disposable and people have to buy it again next week.

Nothing has changed in the last 40 years that all of a sudden people will put things that taste great in their mouth. If you dropped today's supermarket/fast food scene down in a city in 1960, with relative prices for the time, that would become the fattest city in America in 5 years.

We have absolutely mastered the efficient, inexpensive delivery of a very basic intrinsic human desire.

And don't dismiss the fact that obesity rates going up all over the world reflects the near global elimination of chronic hunger and food scarcity. People will eat "too much" when they can eat too much.
 
People eat too fvcking much.

I am sure it is more nuanced that as others have mentioned and I’m pretty far from being an expert, but how do people expect to stay thin eating Casey’s breakfast pizza in the morning and then posting or HORT all day?

I’m not perfect when it comes to eating and admittedly I have struggled with eating disorders for much of my adult life, but I am observant. Constantly stuffing our faces, especially when it’s unhealthy, has consequences. The question is how to break that cycle.
 
One slice of bacon breakfast pizza from the Casey’s warmer is 560 calories. many people are already well on their way to going over before 8am.

+coffee with cream and sugar and youre over 1,000

the coffee thing is the easiest one for everybody to fix. you will get accustomed to drinking it black after a week or two and you'll enjoy the coffee more imo
 
+coffee with cream and sugar and youre over 1,000

the coffee thing is the easiest one for everybody to fix. you will get accustomed to drinking it black after a week or two and you'll enjoy the coffee more imo
Coffee is gross... therefore it's easy for me to save those calories. ;) But, I also see co-workers daily with their "coffee" it they look like milkshakes... tall creamy/chocolatey concoctions with whipped cream and more chocolate drizzled on the top. Those drinks have to be 1000+ calories. Coffee used to be a mug with coffee, maybe cream and if getting crazy a cube or two of sugar.
 
Coffee is gross... therefore it's easy for me to save those calories. ;) But, I also see co-workers daily with their "coffee" it they look like milkshakes... tall creamy/chocolatey concoctions with whipped cream and more chocolate drizzled on the top. Those drinks have to be 1000+ calories. Coffee used to be a mug with coffee, maybe cream and if getting crazy a cube or two of sugar.
Water is a true elixir for losing weight.
 
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