Possibly the most absurd excuse for obesity yet
May 29th, 2009“You’re so lucky you’re slim.” You know how many times I’ve heard that? If I had a barrel of oil for every time I heard that, I’ll hold that oil until the Summer peak price and then take a year off taking Mrs. Z and Junior around the world on various cruise ships.
I thought I heard every excuse for obesity on the books, but this one may just be the most absurd. I used to work a Fitness Counselor, and you can imagine the excuses I heard. It was NEVER anyone’s fault they were overweight. It was always something else - bad genetics, too busy a schedule, no time to work out, blaming parents for bad dietary habits, can’t afford to buy healthier food, etc. I’ve had numerous people lie to my face about their eating habits and exaggerate how much exercise they did in their time between workout sessions.
The thing is, they weren’t cheating me. They were cheating themselves. But I guess they were too stupid to see that.
This is the thing - I could care less how much anyone weighs. If they’re cool to me, I like them. Period. I just don’t get why someone will pay me money for my advice, then discard my advice and counter with excuses. Makes no sense whatsoever.
I got tired of that job really fast. It paid better than my previous job, but I didn’t care. I hated it. So I moved on.
Simple physics
Unless you are GOD (or GODDESS for our Pagan friends), you cannot make matter from nothing. It is not possible. There is a very simple mathematical formula for either gaining or losing weight. If you want to gain weight, you eat more calories than you burn off. If you do that, you will gain weight. If you want to lose weight, you burn off more calories than you consume.
There is nothing magical about that formula. It is simple physics. Yes, people have different metabolic rates. But even that can be adjusted. There are ways to speed up or slow down your metabolism.
Are you ready for this?
So, you’re probably wondering when I’m going to get to this absurd excuse. Here it is. Boston University conducted a study that shows that there is a tie between racism and obesity. Yes, there are white people out there who put guns to the heads of black women and force them to eat and physically prevent them from exercising. The study is here if you want to read it. I personally got a kick out of the comments. Apparently, the people commenting are more intelligent than the people wasting BU’s money with this silly study.
Oh.My.Goddess (thanks). Mental……
Xmichra - You can say that again.
To sum up that absurd excuse for a study: Stress affects health. Not new news, but then most people will do almost anything to avoid looking at the real issues in their lives and do something about them, hence a lot of stressed-out people eat [or insert generic over-indulgence here] instead. Good post Zombieman!
Clothosfate - Exactly. I just hope Boston University wasted the money on this study and not us taxpayers.
More annoying to me are the number of people willing to exploit obesity with fad diets, diet drugs, “miracle foods”, and other b.s. These people justify the excuses by saying, “It’s not your fault, you just haven’t bought my [book, diet plan, silly exercise machine] yet!”
Garbage in-garbage out. My wife and I are both in fairly good shape. We exercise moderately, and eat well. As a former Chef, we do eat better than most, but cook with huge amounts of butter. We also cook with fresh ingredients, and real ingredients. I think a lot of the contributors to obesity is the amount of prepared food people eat these days.
Not only fast food, but prepared food in the grocers refrigerated and frozen sections. If you look at all the preservatives and chemicals that is in those,that are not in real food. We started buying organic when possible and also notice a real difference in taste. With the advent and popularity of cooking shows and info on the net, I’m a little surprised people don’t cook more.If someone tastes something we make, they ask for the recipe. If we tell them how it’s made they say ” I’m not going to do all that”. then they get a frozen pack O’ goo from the freezer and pop it into the microwave If people take the time to start cooking at home, not only will it take less time and effort the more they get used to it, they will also get used to the flavours, and not want crap anymore.
I’ve been doing a lot of stress eating lately. I’ve also skipped quite a few meals because I’m too stressed to eat. I figure this all balances out in the end. I don’t blame anybody but myself for this situation. Although my parents have caused us a LOT of stress. We’re desperately trying to lower the stress level here so we can get back to some semblance of a normal, balanced life.
I’m with klaatu, although it isn’t the fast food, per se that is the issue, it is the processed portions. Those ‘easily available carbohydrates’. Not just high fructose corn syrup, although it has its own evil metabolic pathways…
Meat, fish, eggs, cream (not milk), butter, fresh low-carb vegetables will, according to all the evidence (the REAL ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE) keep you a whole lot healthier than the ‘food pyramid’ morons at the FDA would guess.
Invert the pyramid. Put all the processed foods and sugars in the garbage. Use stable saturated fats such as lard, butter, chicken fat and eat that fat on your steak. It is what your body NEEDS.
ZS, go read The Book (GCBC that I recommended in your last post). You will be amazed, appalled and a whole lot more angry at the medical establishment that you could ever imagine…
Keep this in mind, and most people know it deep down - some people will get fat on the same diet that other people remain slender on. It doesn’t make it societies fault, but it sure as hell is the government’s fault when McGovern made diet political (Yeah, it all started with McGovern!)
Cheers ZS, enjoy your posts as always. Yeah, yeah, I should make my own blog, but I wouldn’t know what to write about.
SME - Even more annoying than that are the yuppies who are convinced the diet they are on works, and try to convince me to change my “evil ways” to fit their lame ass diet, whereas I’m actually quite healthy and don’t need change.
Klaatu - I love butter. I’m convinced it’s good for you, and margarine is bad for you. When I die in my mid-90s, I want it known at my funeral that I ate tons of butter.
Tshsmom - Whatever you do, don’t skip meals. That’s one of the worst things you can do for your body.
Wallflower - Yeah, still haven’t gotten around to buying it yet although it’s on my list.
I love meat, fish, cream, and butter. I cook with eggs, but won’t eat them plain because I think they’re gross, but I know they’re good for you so I try to make things that contain eggs.
I don’t buy the food pyramid at all. I avoid processed foods and eat real food and that does the trick.
There you go, ZS! You’ve got the trick. Avoid sweet tastes too - that means diet soda.
My husband has started low-carb dieting, and did pretty well - but he has a Diet Coke addiction. He lost some fat (he’s an ex-linebacker and size is everything in that position, so he never controlled his diet, just did a lot of training to build muscle under the, um… padding. Now he sits in meetings all day). But then he stalled. I read some comments years ago on muscle and fitness that diet sodas could interfere with successful pre-contest dieting, but could never find a study. Yeah for PubMed - we found a couple of studies that show that, indeed, sweet tastes (whether fake sugar or actual sugar) DO spike insulin production. He dropped the diet sodas and voila! Weight starts coming off again. He’s never been hungry on this diet, which is the key to actually staying on a diet. Nobody can resist unrelenting hunger for weeks/months at a time… I eat when I am hungry and ever since I’ve stopped eating carbs (years now), I’ve never had a problem keeping lean. More importantly for a power-lifter I’ve also maintained strength - although at 59, I no longer do 450# squats!! Not even close!
Truth is, I haven’t lifted competitively in years. I do, however, maintain a lot of muscle through intense, short sessions. My workout is DONE in 20 minutes. Period. That includes warm up and 8 INTENSE sets - (done to failure). They call it slow-burn now, although that is just a bunch of gym monkeys cashing in on an old technique used as far back as Paul Anderson. (Look him up, amazing guy!) He’d go out back and do ONE squat at max weight. Go back to what he was doing and an hour or so later go do another squat. All day long. He was the guy that would lift a dining room table covered in scantily clad women - you’ve probably seen the pictures!
Anyway, love the posts and will try to stay in the background.
Fair Winds and Happy Dockings,
Wallflower
Wallflower - I wish you had a blog because I love talking about this stuff. I could talk about this for days.
I’m very anti-diet soda. There’s something inherently wrong with fake sugar. I actually do drink real soda several times a week. Yes, it spikes insulin production, but if you’re walking when drinking soda, it’s irrelevant. If (the big if) your body is made to burn sugar, it will if you let it. The problem with some folks is that not everyone can.
I was a Defensive Back, so know a bit about Linebackers. Crazy position, usually weighing between 220-240, having to dodge 250 pound Fullbacks to get to the Running Back and being fast enough to both cover a Tight End and occasionally catch a Quarterback looking the other way.
Yes, sitting in a chair eight hours a day will kill your body. My secret? Drink tons of water and that forces you to go pee once an hour. Sitting in a chair in front of a computer is also hell on your eyes as well. Yet another reason to drink water.
Heh. I don’t have the knees to do 450 lb squats. That’s impressive. I’m glad to see a lot more women in weightlifting and one of the reasons is MMA. Surprisingly, MMA has gotten a lot of women to take care of their bodies more. So more power to it.
My workouts are done fast too. Mine have always been simple. When I used to box, it would be six miles six days a week of running, which I did in 45 minutes. Pushups, sit-ups, jump rope, and that’s it. Never touched weights because I never needed to.
I did though when I tried to make it in Semi-Pro football (that was a mistake, not the lifting weights but trying to make it in football).
Now it’s just walking everywhere with the occasional sprints. No long distance running whatsoever. I want to have knees when I’m in my 80s. My workout is done in 20 minutes as well and I guarantee you I’ll outlive these yuppies who run marathons and drink diet soda.
As for carbs, depends on the person. Italians and French eat carbs yet they live forever. Japanese do in only limited amounts, but they limit everything. They live even longer than the Italians and the French.
My old hunting partner swears by his low carb diet and he’s half a decade older than I and in great shape, plus he never tires. Anti-hunters have no idea how great of shape we’re in. I’d love to see one of these anti-hunters carry a rifle through the desert in 90 degree weather all day long up and down sand hills. They won’t make it half the day.
Agreed about the hunger in diets point. Got a friend who eats six times a day. He was fat. Lost 30 pounds that way, just by eating right and in small amounts, but spacing it so he’s never hungry. Hungry people tend to overeat when they actually get a chance to sit down. Plus, they eat fast which is a big no no.
As for lifting to failure, that’s the best way to build muscle. Period. If I understand muscle correctly, it builds by tearing and repairing.
Yeah, me too, ZS - thanks for your answer, it tells me a lot about you (and I like what I hear - plus you are a techie, but not a basement dweller!).
I was blessed with great big strong legs (and yet, I’m a girl!! I will never be a stick-model, but I got legs. I know how to use them ;->) . Squats and dead-lifts were my best, bench no to much (I’m a girl. Girls just don’t do great on bench unless they have a lot of testosterone, of which I don’t have much. I’m a very feminine girl. Lots of pink. The woman wears MUCH too much pink. And tangerine. Too much detail, sorry).
I was a gym-rat for years, ZS, as I suspect you were too. But I just fell out of love with it and use it only as a tool now. I belong to a gym called Anytime Fitness, which is most definitely not a muscle head gym. Different locations vary in their member content, but I like it a lot better than Gold’s. I hate the competitive nonsense, with guys screaming unnecessarily (necessarily, like with BIG squats, OK, but the best lifters grunt, not scream ;->)
You are dead right about how muscle builds… The old saying is that you “Build muscle in bed” is quite true. Your body repairs itself while you sleep, you tear it down during the workouts. I rarely get sore anymore, but I know I’m still stressing properly to keep the growth.
Semi-pro football is a real brawler sport - I can understand how you think it was a mistake! My husband has permanent back problems as a result of running into solid objects for years.
I’m with you on running. Bad for the knees. I think it is bad for everyone except the most gazelle like runners (you know them when you see them - they look like they aren’t even touching the pavement). But then you have me. I shamble when I run, whacking the ground like a sack of potatoes (glamorous, no? But I walk pretty. All has to do with those hyper-extended hips women tend to have.) For years I felt that aerobic exercise was necessary. Now I am a card carrying member of the “I hate aerobics” club. Well, OK, except I love my ergometer. A pretty good trainer, and down my alley. The harder you work, the harder it gets. My aerobics now consist of walking, which I really enjoy with my dogs. We all have fun!
My husband has this saying: There are two types of men. Those that are built to run it down, and those that are built to kill it and carry it back to camp.
Most women go for the top heavy guys or the ’swimmer physiques’. I’m a sucker for big legs. If a guy has great legs, he can do it all…
Cheers!
Wallflower
Wallflower - Women’s center of gravity is lower. I’ve known some women who have absolutely sick leg kicks (sick is actually a compliment with today’s kids).
So no surprise, I’m the opposite. I can bench and curl. My legs though are weird. Can’t squat, even when I had good knees. But I was able to leg press a lot back in the day. Now I can’t really do anything leg related when it comes to weights.
Yeah, one major problem with semi-pro football is you have guys who still have a shot of making it in pro football, so they’re going all out trying to prove themselves. Then you have guys like me who had no way in hell of making it in pro football, but just love to play so I wanted to give semi-pro a shot.
Well, I got two torn knees out of it, and it was even before making a team so I had to pay out of my own pocket for the repairs.
I know exactly who you’re talking about when it comes to gazelle like runners. The Kenyans are that way. Almost looks like they’re floating. So beautiful and graceful, unlike American long distance runners.
The saying about building muscle in bed I haven’t heard before. Totally makes sense though.
As for your husband’s saying, I’m the former. I can run fast and far and run anything down, but I’d rather have someone else carry it.
I can see what you mean about big legs. It actually makes sense. I’m actually attracted to mesomorphic women. Funny, I always dated tomboys, and was told by them how few other men found them attractive. But maybe it’s the Zombieslayer in me. I want an asset, not a liability when it all falls apart.
Hey ZS, I see I hit a trigger in you too…
As to being attracted to women who can do a little looking out for themselves, their kids and their man, that SHOULD be the way it is. The little insect women here in Texas that are the current rage - I can see why a man might be attracted to them, but for a partner?
That’s why it took me so long to find my lifetime love, mate and partner, both physical and mental. We were both EXTREMELY picky. I needed a physical mesomorph, someone who could bench ME ;-> Just my physical archtype. But I also wanted brains and I got both in spades. (I’m lucky, but I planned it, I really did. I waited until I found one who fit all 10 of my top requirements. Too bad most people aren’t introspective enough to figure out what it is that they really DO want instead of what looks shiny in the shop window.)
If you haven’t discovered it already, here’s a (believe it or not - wait for it….) TV show that was cancelled after one season (too smart, too fun, too good). Firefly - all 12 episodes are available on Hulu. Go watch at least one of them - they are Cowboy Space Operas. Real Hero (or anti-hero) myths done in space. I’ve heard them called smart westerns in space. ANYWAY, the point here is that my husband says I’m a Zoe. One of his requirements was that he wanted a woman who he would trust ‘at his back’. Strange for such an intellectual man to say, but that was one of the requirements he had. (Zoe from the Firefly series - a woman who can use guns and kick the tar out of anything on two legs, but yet is oddly, extremely feminine and sexually enticing! Gina Torres, who plays Zoe is a drop-down beautiful creature.. Go watch, you will fall in love). My guess is that you will really like the series. As I said, it is too smart for TV. (The only space show where shots of the outside of the space craft moving, don’t have a ’shoosh’ noise when it hits overdrive. Just dead quiet.)
Anyroad, I’m glad My husband sees me that way - although I am thoroughly Caucasian, not dark, roots deep in Viking genetics (Outer Hebrides, Scotland), and now completely gray.
Best wishes, ZS and I hope you get a kick out of Firefly.
Yes, brains are important.
I know exactly what you are talking about with the insect women in Texas. Admittedly, I had a crush on one when I lived in Texas. But I knew it would never work out. She didn’t eat meat. In fact, she rarely ate, period. Would have never survived the zombie plague. She was also anti-gun.
Mrs. Z can carry two gallons of milk one mile from the supermarket to the old house. Like me, she walks everywhere and is in good shape. She also practices shooting and is proficient with a handgun and a shotgun. No, not competition level, but proficient.
I love smart women. I find intelligence sexy in a woman. I think guys who are intimidated by a woman with an IQ higher than theirs are idiots. If a woman has intelligence, that’s one less thing to worry about when the you know what hits the fan.
And it will hit the fan. It’s happened with us more than once. We’ve gone through recessions and layoffs, jobs being sent overseas, and a minor health crisis. Of all the things that scare me, nothing scares me more than bad health of a loved one. I can’t imagine what Tshsmom is going through right now.
I love Firefly. The local library has them on DVD, but they’re always checked out so I’ve been watching them out of order. Loved the movie Serenity too. Review is here.
Zoe is awesome.
You like Firefly too. Ain’t the internet wunnerful? It is amazing the number of people that I ‘meet’ here in cyberspace that I am in such agreement with on many topics (and of course, there are many more I am NOT in agreement with, but we can sift more carefully…) one of my favorite scenes from the series is:
Mal and Zoe are coming in to rescue the doctor and River, who is about to be burned at the stake.
Mal: “Well here we are, just in the nick of time. What does that make us, Corporal?”
Zoe: “Big damned heroes, Sargent.”
Actually I’m not surprised you like it. The writer is sharp, quick witted and ‘good’ in all senses of the word. Joss Whedon - he did Buffy and Angel too. But I don’t much care for those, and I’m not much of a TV watcher except as a drug to dull my mind after a day of ‘basement dwelling’.
And Yeah, I’m an old time Unix user. I was using Unix in the early 80’s when most ‘computer nerds’ here in Central Texas were still wearing diapers. In fact, one of my Prof’s wanted to take me with him when he gave up proffing and went to Bell Labs in NJ. I’d have been in on the development of it, no doubt as OS development was the really cool stuff to work on in the late 70’s.
It does tend to hit the fan, doesn’t it? I never used to worry about my health, but I do now. I’m not obsessed with it, but this is the time when things ‘go wrong’. My body, ZS, is out of warranty. I try to do the best I can for it, but the information out there is so bad, so wrong. Doctors are no help either (they make things enormously worse with their outdated information. They don’t read their own publications for Pete sake. So their information dates from whenever they graduated from med school. And even a lot of that is just plain wrong. Like the whole lipid hypothesis of heart disease. Wrong. Wrong at the core.)
Now I’m ranting! But, again, that’s my hot button.
By the way: I love smart men! If I were still single, I would prefer to stay home to dating someone who was a mental midget. I want to be challenged, to have conversations that go beyond my knowledge and take me there.
Cheers, and again, I’m really enjoying your posts.
Wallflower
I first started on Unix, and going from Unix to Windows is like going from a brand new Cadillac to a 30 year old Pinto. I honestly can’t see how anyone can use Windows. It’s hands down the worst tool for any job.
As for Doctors, they make a lot of money telling you exactly what you already know. You can often diagnose problems yourself and save the money.
And glad we’re on the same page for intelligence. I love intelligence.
No the heck kidding. My default OS is Linux (I’m using Kubuntu because there is SOOOO much more information out there about it), and have a VMware Windblows XE sitting on top of it.
VMWare is way cool.
I wish there was a way that we could free ourselves from Windows entirely, but there are so many companies wedded to it. Mostly because they get “I can spell computer so now I’m a programmer, freshout” types working for them when the decision is made. Then it gets in like the stinking foetid swamp it is, and it is impossible to eradicate.
Plus most users want Windows. They tell you that anyway. No. What they REALLY want is an Apple. Except game players, and the heck with that. They can play their games on windows and let their systems become viral infested pools of web-vomit.
(Seriously, if you haven’t played with a new Apple, you should - they are amazing machines…)
A little vitriol there?? Yeeeeeaaaah. As I’ve said, my background is math/statistics. I’m just doing engineering because it PAYS well and I am not treated like dirt under the heels of the M.D.’s that work in research (where I did my post graduate work was NIH - got sick of the Slaughter of the Innocent. I am a meat eater, I hunt. But I will NEVER approve of using animals as victims of lab torture. Could you even think up a better hang-out for a sadist? I don’t think so, and I met a few certifiable heart-of-darkness monsters while there. (I will not give you the nightmares that I still am subject to, ZS, you probably got a bunch of your own to contend with.)
Rant End. ah em. Maybe not…
Doctors. They don’t even tell you what was wrong with you most of the time. You get a rash and go to the doctor’s? They say “Hey, you got a rash”. Here’s a bunch of cortisone (bad stuff, run AWAY) to rub on it, and take orally, and oh by the way, here’s a shot. With absolutely no warning that you could snap a tendon at your next visit to the gym.
My particular gripe (and this is recent) is I had a ‘conversation’ with an internal med guy. I had been talked into getting a colonoscopy. I asked him what the risk was for anesthetic. “Complications are rare.” I said “I’m a statistician, to me ‘rare’ is the way I like my steak. I’d like a NUMBER please.” No such luck. So I asked what the colon perforation rate was for colonoscopies (as my Dad’s colon was perforated in just such a procedure, and a girl-friend was punched so hard she came OUT of the anesthetic yelling). Again it is ‘rare’. I walked out.
I’ll just take my chances, and avoid getting murdered so someone can make a boat payment. He kills or maims me, he still gets paid!! Not only THAT, if he maims me, he can gather a BUNCH of boat payments.
I swear, I am not paranoid. These guys are always thinking up the next new ‘cash cow’ that they can milk until people get wise to it. Mammograms for ALL women (even those of us who have NO family history of any sort of cancer). Used to be D&C’s -EVERY woman had to have one at least once a year! Funny thing. Nobody gets THOSE anymore. Hysterectomies. Chest X-Rays. Now there are ‘body scans’. I swear to you ZS, that is one of the things you had best avoid… You scared of getting too much X-ray damage? THAT is scary stuff and people are lining up for it! ‘Heart scans’. The list is ridiculously long.
Stay healthy? Buy a glucometer (even if you are NOT diabetic). Keep your blood sugar below 100 AT ALL TIMES.
Rant End! (Feeling just a bit Ranty today!)
Cheers
Wallflower
Oh, I’m all about the Mac now that they’re Unix. I got one, and it’s my primary machine. I was a huge Linux nut until a few years ago I started getting back into music and unfortunately, Linux doesn’t have the cool music editing apps that Macs do.
As for Doctors, no, you’re not paranoid. Get this - my former boss, his Uncle was killed during a “routine” operation. The Doctor punctured his pancreas and he died within 3 days.
No thanks. I’ll pass. The further I am away from Doctors, the longer I’m going to live.
As for a glucometer, my mother actually measures my blood sugar. It’s “healthy.” I also get my heart rate and blood pressure measured regularly. Normal resting heart rate is 61 bpm. Blood pressure is usually pretty good, but don’t remember the numbers.
And agreed about animals. I’ll hunt them, I’ll eat them, but refuse to experiment on them. There’s something inherently wrong with that.