60av8tor

What’s sad is that you believe this. Who makes them eat the processed foods? Oh right, no one. It is their fault. Stop eating crap and exercise - questions? Some people gain and lose differently for sure, but blaming society..??? Heroin is bad don’t do it - pretty simple. But somehow we can’t do that with fried food, processed food, soda, etc. Look at overweight people in the grocery store sometime and glance at what’s in their cart. Illuminating.... Society...

Stepping down from my soap box.

FollowMe

Agree to some extent, except wherein you forget to mention that eating unprocessed healthy foods is expensive, and excersizing requires having excess time at your disposal. Pretty easy for someone making a six figure income with 12-18 days off a month to say, a lot harder for someone working multiple low paying jobs just to be able to afford processed food to put on the table for their family to do.

Now those people likely aren’t the ones sitting next to you on a legacy flight, but let’s not pretend they don’t exist.

JamesNoBrakes

There was a story about the new Army PT standards I read last week, and below someone who claimed to be a senior NCO said that they often grab a fast-food burger because they "don't have time to do anything else". That's the problem. When you are young and burning more calories, sometimes you can get away with this, but figuring this out and making a good decision doesn't take any more time, the guy was just stuck in a rut and lazy, a product of the environment where he grew up (the military) where all the young guys can do this for at least a few years, and many of them will be gone before serious health issues come up. The habitual "fast food" eating just destroys your body, due to the saturated fats, the carbs that turn to fat, the massive sodium and sugar from the soda and fries, and so on. Sure, processed foods and other stuff is part of the problem, but the biggest part of the problem is people making bad decisions and cramming their mouths. Coffee-sugar-drinks is one of the latest things that has just gone over the top. This stuff isn't hard to figure out.

60av8tor

I absolutely understand that it’s connected to socioeconomic status/place to some extent. I will never argue that it isn’t easier for some than others for all kinds of reasons - money, upbringing, biology, knowledge, etc. What I will never buy are all the reasons/excuses - if it is truly important to the individual. There are ways to eat clean and not spend a lot of $$. It requires education, knowledge, and - most importantly - personal discipline.

I’m never exclusionary - I don’t look at an overweight individual and chalk it up to lazy. I generally chalk it up to being misinformed. I’ve helped numerous people with diet/fitness education - at their request, not unsolicited. Almost to a person, what I’ve found is the same basic errors - having wild misconceptions about the amount and what (at the macro-nutrient level) is ingested, what foods are actually clean/healthful, and how many calories are burned - e.g. walking :20 on the treadmill, feeling proud for exercising, and celebrating by ingesting 6 times the calories that were just burned. This is actually a very common problem to those just beginning to get into exercise/diet.

One of the best educators is to actually track everything you eat for a period of time - not just calories, but fat/protein/carb - and to weigh what you’re eating. Once people actually see what a “serving” is of most foods, their eyes are quickly opened.

Ok - done rambling. I’m truly not “that guy”. Never speak to anyone on the topic unless asked. But I do enjoy helping people and learning from others about diet, exercise and nutrition.

SSlow

I practice intermittent fasting (IF) in a 16/8 setup. Basically I fast for 16 hours at a time with an 8 hour feeding window, ideally between noon and 8pm depending on my schedule. Definitely have noticed a ramp up in metabolism and fat burning. I try to eat home cooked unprocessed foods as much as possible, but training your body to burn more fat greatly helps to mitigate those less than optimal situations when you're stuck in a hotel with limited dining options or grabbing a quick meal at whatever is available at the airport that day. Also I like to enjoy myself and have dessert or a few beers, within reason of course. Unless you are a bodybuilder looking to pack on some serious muscle mass, IF is a great flexible dieting option.

badflaps

Want to see an underground economy? Show up at a Walmart around 1:00am any Sunday morning. Unbelievable.

FollowMe

Agreed, I workout nearly every morning and have for years. But I still go up and down (currently “up” the 25 I took off last year). For me since I do my exercise, it is 100% diet. I just love beer and pizza too much!!

60av8tor

Ha ha - nothing wrong with that!! That’s exactly it - if someone has a few extra pounds and says, “I’m not willing to give up xyz. I’d rather have those extra pounds”, more power to them! It’s when people really struggle and feel like they cannot lose; that’s when I enjoy trying to help.

Airhoss

Apparently you’ve never been to Africa.

CX500T

Bid the ER NYC and you will see there are indeed fat people in Africa.