The truth about 'obesity'

I'm not saying that if you are obese, you don't need to lose weight. I'm not saying there isn't something to the numbers of overweight and obese people in the world. Unfortunately, I caught an episode of The Talk today (I don't typically watch these types of shows; partly because they are shallow, but mostly because they get me riled up) so what I am going to say is that I believe there is a certain amount of publicity out there that is working AGAINST us, not FOR us.

Let's start with the truth about the supposed increase in obesity. Twenty years ago obesity was measured on a scale of body mass percentage. Now with the misapplication of BMI (an index originally used as a scientific statistical tool which does not take into account bone structure, muscle, or other factors such as the amount of fat a woman is supposed to carry in comparison to men!) the new scale has increased the number of people who would qualify as overweight by up to 50% according to medical websites. This accounts for nearly the entire statistical increase of overweight, obese, and morbidly obese people.

Let's turn to the episode of The Talk I made the mistake of watching today. I don't mean to pick on anyone - the only reason I would turn to the show ever is that I have secretly paid attention to Holly Robinson since starring in 21 Jumpstreet (great show!), I always thought Leah Remini did great guest spots on comedies, Sara Gilbert played the best "depressed teen" for years - so much that I watched Roseanne even though I didn't really like the show, and Sharon Osborne's accent is just plain entertaining - but I'm going to name names in order to keep things straight.

They begin by showing the current cover of Men's Health magazine. On the cover is some congressman with his shirt open and his sexy abs looking nicely oiled. I was not offended by the nice body, of course, but the comments that followed brought to my attention the way that we use weight to justify shallow opinions! Candace Cameron Bure, guest hosting, started by saying something along the lines of "he's bringing awareness to obesity." No! He is flaunting a well toned body, but that is not linked to obesity. Working out until you have that kind of toned muscle; applying oils to make the appearance even more aesthetically pleasing, choosing the open shirt and that particular pose - these are all things that have nothing to do with health or bringing awareness to anything other than the fact that he has a nice body. No matter what you say, posing like a model simply does not relate to weight issues. It's shallow. I am not in better health because I buy nice shoes, am I? No, but they make my feet pretty and I want to show them off so I will wear them and claim it's about health and somehow it becomes a less arrogant quest.

Am I the only one who sometimes feels like people jump on the anti-obese bandwagon because they don't want to look at fat people? They are often not pretty to look at so if we focus instead on "health", then we can guilt fatties into losing weight so they are more pleasing to look in the eye. No one asks a thin person about their health. No one assumes a thin person has health problems even though there is a large percentage of the 'thin' population that is malnourished and there are many people who don't exercise or eat properly.

Holly Robinson Peete went on to say that the magazine cover is not an exploitation because she likes his abs, she likes abs, and she likes looking at a six pack. Right, but it is an exploitation because his abs are not and should not be the reason why we vote for him.

Julie Chen claimed that seeing him like that might encourage her to look at the issues. I think she gives way to much credit to the public. Again, people vote on aesthetic appearance whether they should or not and frankly, he's exploiting that with his appearance. He's clinched the deal for the next election, imo, by knowing which part of himself to sell. A sad reality in which we live...

In the next segment, the ladies took on an Atlanta ad campaign where a child stands before the camera and says she doesn't like going to school because the kids tease her for being bigger than they. Not that it makes a lot of difference, but the child they showed is not nearly as obese as some kids I've seen. They chose one who was pleasantly plump so that you wouldn't automatically turn away. The campaign then goes on to post statistics that are disputable; the percentage of kids who are now considered obese (see above for change in definition), the number of kids who are overweight in Atlanta (again based on the new definition by which, I might mention, George Clooney is overweight in comparison to his height), and the fact that kids will not live as long as their parents.

In a previous post, I mentioned that it's about the example we set. Of course we want to be good role models for our children, but we also need to let our children be children. Instead what we are doing with an ad like this is saying that it's okay for children to intimidate other children if they are fat because fat is unacceptable. We are also telling kids that if they are overweight, they should feel bad about themselves. Somehow we think this will jolt them into better eating habits, but the fact is, a child does not know how to deal with this pain. They do not think like adults. They don't have the same control over their lives that an adult does, therefore the only way to make themselves better is to escape into a world of television and video games (T.V. never teases a child) and food. It is my perception that this only increases the problem until they become adults with such a huge weight problem, the idea of turning it around is incredibly intimidating.

I talked about the booklet I received from school for my daughter, too. I feel like it also gave unrealistic expectations that would just cause a child to feel bad about himself or herself if she can't keep up. What's the incentive of a child who has little control over his or her life to improve things when the expectations are so high? I simply don't think that the information is being presented appropriately to encourage healthy choices in children. We brainwash them with adult thoughts and don't really account for balance.

As for obese children not outliving their parents, the statistics claim that obesity may only reduce lifespan by a few months. Others claim it could be up to ten. The problem here is that there is no solid information and all studies are disputable to the point that it may not shorten life spans at all! Additionally, evidence does show that many obese children have obese parents - therefore if there is a link, their parents likely have the same problem working against them.

After that had been covered, a comment was tossed out that obesity is linked to cancer, strokes, and type 2 diabetes. The links to cancer and strokes are tenuous at best and because the studies have been focused on weight, I think the attitude is dismissive. No where near the money is tossed at studies that try to make these links between anything other than weight so by blaming it all on weight, we may be missing other important and preventative factors. As for type 2 diabetes, it is linked much more strongly with a sedentary lifestyle than obesity. It looks like it is related to obesity because many large people are sedentary and have trouble processing sugars, but if that were the case, then only obese people would have type 2 diabetes. The truth is, there are many people with type 2 diabetes who are and always have been thin.

Next, Leah Remini spoke about her child and how "she wants the white pasta, she wants the carbs, she wants the bad stuff. CARBS ARE NOT BAD! Pasta is all right. It’s the serving size that is the problem. Read the labels. You can still give her the food she likes, just in portion control. Jane loves pasta and sauce, but we don't serve it with garlic bread or added meat anymore. By pre-measuring the pasta and sauce instead of having them both self serve, we find a normal serving size to be plenty filling. Save the garlic bread for another night so you don't overdo the carbs, but we need to stop thinking they are bad just by existing.

Leah then went on to say that she can't change her daughter because she has already introduced these foods. I get where she is coming from, but you don't know until you try. Jane likes a lot of the substituted foods we eat in this house - even some I was certain she wouldn't. When it comes to other things, we make compromises and keep trying things until she is happy as well. It's not easy, but it can be done if you care enough about your child's health to go through the process.

Right before the end of the segment, Holly then went on to say that it needs to be more convenient. Well, it is, but you have to get over the brainwashing we have going on. A happy meal with chicken nuggets, apples, and apple juice is quite healthy. Take some time to sit on the internet and look up other drive through menus. Salads are not automatically a good choice, but there are a few good ones out there. Seeing the Arby's version of the chicken salad sandwich is not the same as the Subway Apply Orchard (with the added mayo, nuts, etc, it is higher calorie). A burger at Wendy's might be lower calorie than a similar one at McDonald's. If you really care, take the time to look them up so you can still grab a bite in a hurry.

Of course, I have this whole idea that has nothing to do with weight loss, too. If you're getting fast food all the time and claiming that it's because of time, maybe it's time to slow down your life. We do not need to be running a race that doesn't allow time to enjoy a meal. In fact, if you enjoy your food, you tend not to need as much of it. Slow down! It is okay to skip signing your kid up for every sport and just encourage them to ride their bike around the block with you. It is okay to find time to relax at least a few days a week.

In the end, it's about excuses. As long as we keep making excuses, we are not ready to change our eating habits. A person either changes them or doesn't. Commit.


*Not a proper bibliography, but a bulk of my information comes from USA Today and The New York Times, both of which quoted doctors, scientists, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

But low carb diets work better for me than cutting calories…

...or so I've heard.

When you start dieting these days, people love to tell you how you should be doing it. Here's my response to the Low-carb, high-protein advocates:

Low carb has become the new foundation for better dieting and faster weight loss. It is the go-to diet that has been around long enough to lure people into a false perception that it is not a fad diet. Low carb is perceived as an alternative to calorie counting, but what’s the truth about low carb (aka high protein) dieting?

The theory behind low carb diets begins with the truth. Carbohydrates are sugars, but remember that our bodies turn starch into sugars, too, so we get glucose readings from all kinds of high carbohydrate foods; including breads, pasta, rice, potatoes, sweets, and fruit. That’s right, many low carb diets won’t let you have fruit! Glucose provides long-term energy and if we use that energy to exercise or live actively, we will burn those carbohydrates. Back to the theory we are told that what we don’t use turns to fat in our bodies. On a high protein diet, you consume so few carbohydrates, that your body is forced to feed off the fats in your body instead of using protein or carbs. In actuality it can also feed off muscle which is why weight training is often pushed with low carb diets – so you don’t lose muscle tone and realize that the diet is hurting you. Low carb advocates would have you believe that by leaving carbs out of your diet, you’ll know you are burning fat because that’s all there is to burn for energy. Am I the only one who thinks this sounds exhausting? Our bodies are designed in a very intelligent way and if its initial instinct is to burn carbs, the idea of forcing it to burn fats seems inefficient to me. Now wonder it’s the diet of the lazy. I am not criticizing laziness because I am the first to admit that I hate exercise! I just can’t fathom feeling more energetic while taking away your body’s main source of energy.

“But it works!” is the cry of low carb dieters as they tell me how their struggle with counting calories has never worked. Why does it work? First of all, ask yourself how filling is junk food? Usually if you eat potato chips, french fries, a candy bar, or a tasty filled sponge cake treat, you enjoy the flavor while it lasts, but almost immediately want to eat more. These don’t fill you up and they certainly don’t provide a long term satisfaction. If you eat a slab of meat with a side of carrots, you’ll feel full sooner and the feeling will last longer. You have, therefore, just consumed fewer calories than most overweight people do when they indulge in delicious treats. The evidence is out there. Low carb diets cut calories, too. A person who consumes 2,000+ calories in meats, butter, and other high fat foods – also known as high protein diet approved foods – loses weight because they were consuming more than that before they started their diet. It fills the tummy quicker than high carb foods so they think they are eating more when, in actuality, they have cut their calories the same as me.

The second reason people get such “great results” on a low carbohydrate diet is that protein acts a little like a diuretic. Ever been on a water pill? What’s the first thing that happens? Several pounds drop off like they are melting and often the weight loss program you are on is enhanced so that you lose just a little more at a time than when you are not on a water pill (that is, if you take the water pill on a regular schedule). Proteins force the kidney’s to work harder which sort of washes the weight out of your body. This is not sustainable. Imagine for a moment what this does to your kidneys! Hydration becomes an issue, followed by overworking the kidneys.

Confirming the theory that the low carb diet is giving these dieters great results is that if they eat just a few carbs and cheat, they put weight on. Clearly this means that the low carbs are keeping the weight off. Let’s go back to the water pill. What happens when you stop taking them? Immediately, you gain weight. Your body needs water so flushing it out of the system with a diuretic or by eating foods with diuretic properties is not going to help the problem.

Low carb diets are also not sustainable. For people who have found success on the diet, it’s only because when they reach their weight loss goal they are willing to go back on the low carb diet often in order to maintain. I find it to restrictive and know myself well enough to know I would have trouble recommitting if even for a few days a month.

One of the most important things to consider in any diet is you. You have to be committed or no diet will work – low carb included. This means that if you are finally ready to commit to a diet full of meat, cheese, butter and often very little fruit, you are probably ready to commit to a low calorie diet that didn’t work for you before. It’s a state of mind and maybe you just weren’t ready before. Nutritionists and scientists can agree on one thing. Calories are calories whether they are protein or carbohydrate. If you burn more than your consume, you should lose weight. Yeah, that part sounds easy, but not everyone burns at the same rate so for some it might take more work or fewer calories than their neighbor which is why some people don't think they lose weight.

I suck a little because I read a resource and checked the credentials so that I could say this with inarguable clarity, but I lost the source now. Yesterday I read that a study was done where men on a low calorie diet and men a low carbohydrate diet were compared long term (not just the first week). Evidence showed that in an overall comparison, the people on both diets cut calories and both groups lost weight at the same rate.

Now comes the scary part.

That state where the body feeds on its own fats instead of carbs? That has a name. It’s a metabolic state known as ketosis and by forcing your body to burn a lot of fat instead of glucose, the body produces ketones “which can cause organs to fail and result in gout, kidney stones, or kidney failure. Ketones can also dull a person's appetite, cause nausea and bad breath. Ketosis can be prevented by eating at least 100 grams of carbohydrates a day.”²

High protein diets do provide calcium, but the more meat proteins a person consumes, minerals including calcium are leached from the bones. Now you are at risk for osteoporosis and aren’t women at enough risk as it is?

High protein = higher fats. Clog your arties and increase your cholesterol? Sounds like a great plan. This, of course, leads to heart disease…

Now the good hard facts. A balanced diet is about 40-50% carbohydrates. In my research I found plenty of sources about how little you should eat for a low carb diet and how a healthy diet has more. Eventually I stumbled across sources written by a certified nutritionist, a doctor, and a medical resource page which all recommend something in that range. Sometimes it is easier to find what we shouldn’t be eating than what we should!

It's unpopular to say these days, but I challenge the belief that Low Carb diets are the way to go. The way it should go, imo, is the way of the Tab cola and the grapefruit diet. Away.

Sources include, but not limited to:

1. Providence Health Services

2. WebMD

Nitty gritty

Why is it that when you talk about weight loss, everyone is full of advice? It’s not the advice that’s annoying nearly as much as the commands. There is a difference between friendly, supportive advice (something from either experience or education) and trying to rain on someone else’s parade, trying to look smart, or just telling someone that they are doing it wrong (sometimes based on rumors or things you heard from your friend’s sister’s herbalist).

1. Fats – “It’s not just about cutting calories, you know. You also have to cut fat.” Well, if you are cutting calories, won’t you automatically cut fats? When you give up certain foods or choose between certain foods, can’t you see that counting fat might be less important? We now choose leaner meats and skip a lot of the junk food. Sometimes that’s the perfect thing because when we do treat ourselves to a high fat food, we realize it doesn’t taste as good as we thought it did.

Clearly we are becoming accustomed to less fat because if we eat something fatty at a dinner party, it will sit quite heavy for a while. Maybe we are still eating too much fat. Maybe not. Either way, there is no question that it’s already been cut.

2. Carbs – Even those of us with just a passing interest in cars found ourselves wondering why people on diets were suddenly obsessed with carburetors for a few days before we figured it out, right? I don’t care what you say; CARBS are NOT EVIL. Your body gets its energy from carbs and without energy, how the hell are you supposed to exercise? When you eat more carbs than your body uses, however, it will turn to fat. Granted it needs to be in balance like anything else and in general, we (humans) often eat more than we need. Low carb diets work, but what about balance? For me, it’s simply a matter of it being too strict. I can’t stick with it forever. I don’t miss potatoes, rice, or noodles. I can live without bread, cookies, chocolate. The thing is, I want sauce from time to time and I would cry if I couldn’t eat more fruit than one tiny strawberry a day. While fruit has calories so you still have to limit it, when I tried the low carb diet I found if I ate one carb over, I gained weight. I do find that if I spend too many of my daily calories on high-carbohydrate foods, it slows down my weight loss.

It’s my verdict that if you want a diet you can stick to, eat a few carbs. Just don’t create a diet of carbs or you won’t lose much. Eat something with carbohydrates before you go out for exercise, but avoid it at dinner.

3. Fiber – I find the last word on fiber to be non-existent. I’ve heard all sorts of stories on why fibers are good and why you need to watch the fiber numbers in your diet. The benefit I see requires getting VERY real. When you diet, your digestive system goes crazy. The end result? Troubles in the bathroom. Fiber will help to regulate that so eat your fiber. Additionally, high fiber foods do tend to make you feel full faster and longer just because they take longer to chew and digest. Veggies are free foods that are usually high fiber that make great filler foods. Suggestions on how to work these in will come later.

4. Multivitamins – It happens to be true that most people don’t actually need supplements, but if you are dieting, there is a good chance your body is getting shorted something, somewhere. Still, even at a lower calorie level, it’s possible you still don’t need them. He didn’t seem to need them, but I kept having strange feelings of general “unwell”ness until I started taking iron and Vitamin B complex supplements. Deficiencies in those areas have long been a problem for me which is the main reason I constantly discount vegetarian diets for myself. I now take a Women’s vitamin supplement. Despite hearing that your body doesn’t use vitamins, the truth is that if your body has what it needs and can’t use it, it will dispose of it in your urine so it’s harmless. Meanwhile, if your body is short of something, multivitamins can fill in the blank.

Don’t trust the guy at the store who is trying to sell you his overpriced product. Don’t trust the webpage that is paid for by the supplement you are researching. Do consider finding one of some kind or another especially if you just don’t “feel” right or if you’re quite sure you have a deficiency. If you are a woman of child bearing years, please consider making sure you get enough iron and B-vitamins from somewhere.

5. Water – drink lots of it. The general consensus is 8 servings at 8 oz. per serving. Personally, I can’t remember to do 8 things a day, let alone keep track of 8 glasses of water. Instead I carry around a large 32 oz cup which I fill in the morning and try to make sure I fill again by afternoon. That’s 64 oz a day which is the recommendation. Sometimes when I feel like I want a snack or something crunchy, a couple large gulps from my cup helps subside the craving.

6. Exercise - The "right" way is to do at least 3 days of strength training and 3 days of cardio a week, according to the majority of people who think they have the last word on weight loss. We've done a lot of walking (cardio) and similar things and I have no problem with strength training, per se, but again we are just focusing on the one thing because it's something we can do. We don't have weights or a lot of equipment. Besides, when you build a lot of muscle with a modicum of weight loss, you find yourself not losing much, if anything at all. How discouraging is that? It's been a motivator to see the pounds flee so we prefer this method.

Still, I have started doing certain muscle building routines just because the skin is a bit saggy and I am hoping that building muscle will give me something to sit on seeing as how my rear feels so freakin' bony all the time (and I still have ample!)

Basically, while I agree that all of these things are important, I want to make it clear that it is only calories we are counting. I think you should keep the other information in mind, but counting calories trickles down into the other areas. This is what works for us. If you find something else that works for you, kudos!

Please stop making it so complicated! If it’s complicated, either one of two things will happen. The person will become so discouraged, they will quit OR the person will become one of those people who can only talk about weight, diets, fiber, calories, etc and if they are like, they will become so bored with themselves that they will quit. If they are the latter and they don’t quit, they will just be boring and who wants to hang out with a boring person? Stop boring me and let’s talk about something else other than what I’m doing wrong, mmkay, pumpkin?