People think I'm lying?
 

My wife and I have both answered several people when the asked how I have lost about 40 pounds. Usually I tell them that I walk about an hour a day, ride my bike around 20 miles/day, count my calories and try to limit them to about 1800-2000, I eat lots of fruit, almonds, fish and lean meat, cut down on carbs and don't eat chips, candy, or ice cream. This is usually meet with a mutter of "I didn't want to hear that." Now I understand being in denial about your weight. But they act as if I have some crazy special pill that is super secret or something that I am refusing to share with them.

It kind of reminds me of one time my wife made cookies for an office party. Someone asked her for the recipe, my wife said it was on the bag of chocolate chips and the person got miffed at her for not sharing her recipe. :lol:

The Nestle Toll-house cookie recipe makes amazingly good chocolate chip cookies. Even better if you use butter flavored crisco instead of real butter.

Congrats on your weight loss. I'm not sure anyone here really denys that the key is hard work and exercise. So what exactly is the point you're trying to make here?

No, they are extremely disappointed that you didn't discover some "easy" way to lose weight. We all know what it takes to lose weight: Calories expended more than calories consumed. But as we all also know, that is difficult to achieve and maintain. It requires a mental toughness, that many of us have trouble developing. It requires us to change what we have become comfortable with. And it requires denial of those tasty high-caloric foods. And even worse, once you succeed in getting the weight off, you can't relax, can't go back to your old way of living and eating. Or it all comes back. Weight loss is HARD, and many want it to be easy. Where is that red "easy" button? They don't think you are lying, they just wish you were, and that you had that magic pill.

Congrats on your weight loss to date. Keep up the good work!

The point, I think, is that people assume weight loss can't be accomplished without a 'trick' of some kind. I've see this assumption everywhere, and had it applied to me at times. At my gym a couple of years ago someone insisted I had to have hard bariatric surgery to lose as much weight as I did. (I took my shirt off and challenged him to find the scar.) At work I had people thinking my multi-vitamin was a weight loss pill. More of the "fat people are victims that can't help themselves" thinking.

Stories like the mess on the cover of Atlantic Monthly this issue don't help. The article by political analyst Marc Ambinder tells us weight loss isn't something a person can bring about on their own. I'm afraid if I write any further on Ambinder's article, the thread will be moved to P & R, since the whole thrust of the piece is that the government has to DO something to protect people from getting fat.

But but but.... MickeyD's, BK and all the other greasy foods? And my sugary soda? I can't live without that!!!!
Fruits?? Are you insane? I've never eaten a fruit in my life. Over my dead body (yeah buddy, you're gonna be dead soon if you keep it up)

And you do what? 30 miles ride from office to home? You gotta be kidding me, I can't even walk 1/2 mile! Well, I hear that you started with low mileage distance, but I don't have time for that, I gotta watch all those TV shows.
Yeah, I'm single, but I'm soooo busy I have no time for exercise. :rolleyes:

Man, I heard them all. Hell, my own brother-in-law is in total state of denial. It's really a pity to see someone waste away like that.. but you can't make the horse drink.

I think as a society the US eating habits have degraded into TV dinners, processed, genetically altered foods with no taste and freshness, only to be somewhat edible (not enjoyable) with added artificial flavoring. And since that has been going on for the last 2-3 decades, that's what the general population is used to.

The general population needs to be shown what it means to eat a healthy and balanced diet, but I'm sure the food industry lobby at capitol hill will make sure that will never happen.

People stopped cooking and started eating.

Just because it is hard, though, many people view it as impossible. Maybe they've tried to lose weight and failed. It becomes a kind of learned helplessness where they honestly believe that their weight is beyond their control. BS. You just have to take the bull by the horns and go for it.

I've had a signficant weight loss (70 lb. in 6 mo. in 2005), so I know I can lose weight. I've slipped into some bad habits, though, and I'm working on breakig them so that I can get back to where I felt a lot better (losing 20-30 lb. would make me a new man).

it's made of people!

Sorry, therapeutic ranting most likely.

If I didn't have a krispy creme in one hand I'd write a long, scathing response.

You're in good company then :thumb:

"If weight loss was as simple as diet and exercise, everybody would be doing it." That was a quote from some TV show I saw five or ten years ago.

"Walking is for losers." That's from a parody t-shirt review on Amazon. It's funny because it's 'true;' most people in the cities I've lived in complain about public transit more because they'd have to walk as many as five blocks to take a bus, as for its schedule.

"Have you lost weight?" I ran into a former co-worker while bike commuting home yesterday, and this was one of the first things out of her mouth.

I had a roommate, once, who was trying to lose weight, and was certain the answer was to do with what time he ate, and not when... :rolleyes:

I had lap-band style surgery, which some people consider the "easy" way out. Friends ask about the surgery, and what I can eat these days: I explain that I can't have carbonation. Ever. No beer, no soda. "But -- but -- I need my Diet Coke!" "No beer -- ever?"

(And for the record, surgery doesn't do it for you -- you still need to watch what you eat and be active!)

When I started losing weight I did it kind of crazy. We have a gym at work, and I worked out an hour a day. Then I started walking to work, about a 8 mile walk, took me 2 and a half hours to walk it, so I would have to leave at 5:30 am in the middle of winter. I gradually graduated to biking.

But, people would make the weirdest comments, like it's too cold to walk, or worry about my safety, or any excuse to I feel try to talk me out of losing weight. It seems misery likes company. Most folks don't want to put the time in, or care to hear the truth of freezing your arse off to walk in to lose weight. My favorite comment would be its not too cold to walk in, it would be colder in that casket 6 feet below ground this time of year. Most conversations ended there.

Now, as I continue to lose weight, people say I am looking sickly, I am losing too much (I started at 290 - 300, right now I am about 230) I tell them this is the crack cocaine that has helped me lose all the weight.

Yes, I am a wise arse, lol, but the fact is, your nuts to succeed in weight loss, most want to compare themselves to others. When I was at my heaviest, I used to say, hey, at least I am not as big as so and so, and in a weird twisted type of way, it made me feel better.

I've wondered about the restrictions involved after surgery. seems like you may as well go on a diet anyway. When I had a bad kidney stone, the doc said lots of water and no caffeine, alcohol or soda. Gave up soda cold turkey and started losing weight.

Unfortunately it often takes a medical crisis to get people to change.

Exercise and hard work that's it! Amazing like posted before, some think it's a magic pill or drink!:D

Some years ago I was working among a small group of people, mostly wimmins.:D They decided to havea weight losing contest. I was asked to join but refused as really, I didn't think it was fair. I was very active and could lose weight fast. They insisted several times so after a few day sof being razzed for not joining, I did. Every contestant put $20 in the pot. I ate right and ran 2 or 3 miles every other day. No magic but I did lose 15 lbs in the 2 months of the contest.

Second place was 8 lbs. GEEZE people got pissed!:eek: They accused me of being on a liquid diet for the two months! Some said I was taking diet pills and stimulants.:eek:

I don't knwo why they were so upset, my plan the entire time was to take them out for pizza with the $120 I was planning to win! They were happy after he pizza but still accusations were there!:(

People have been lied to by their television about weight loss for hours on end, day after day, for years. We all know the spiels... Let's play "Name That Product":

Just 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week: ____________

Just 2 minutes a day, and you can have abs like mine: _______________ (multiple answers)

A complete ab and cardio workout in only minutes a day, without doing a single sit up: ____________

This is what people are led to believe; it doesn't take a daily regimen of dietary change and routine exercise... You just need to buy a machine and find a few spare minutes to use it and you can transform yourself in 6 short weeks from obese sofa-warmer into *ta-da* 5% bodyfat model-caliber hardbody!

Remember kids: Hard work is for suckers. TV said so; it must be true.

Why can't you have carbonation? That proscription doesn't seem to be universal among those who have had the surgery.

So then why do it?

Losing weight is DIFFICULT; Weight loss is SIMPLE

Correct caloric imbalance through diet and exercise. Steer clear of anything extreme. That's all there is to it; personally given the choice of diet or exercise, people should try and choose exercise since a thin couch potato is just as unhealthy as a fat couch potato.

I packed on a lot of weight since I left college ( I wrestled as a freshman in HS at 105# ) and loosing it will be easy, get off my fat ass and keep moving until it's not so fat anymore. Most work days I eat frosted mini-wheat's for breakfast and Wendy's for lunch ( a Jr burger and diet soda not that horrible in calories ), and I'm still loosing weight. My goal for this year is 160, and I'm on target and might get a few more in as well.

The most difficult thing will be once I hit 160 since that will be a great goal, but realistically I should weigh even less at my height. I'll probably focus on fitness/strength at that point and see where my body takes me.

I think a lot of the comments people make are a form of jealousy. Initially it's all "good for you!" but if the pounds lost pile up people seem to start making increasingly snide comments. Some sort of disbelief and jealousy.

Because, as near as I can tell from the data that's been accumulating over twenty years, 1) people who have bariatric surgery are better able to avoid regaining weight than people who don't; and 2) people who have bariatric surgery live longer than people of the same starting weight who don't have the surgery. Plenty of people lose weight through diet and exercise. The percentage of people who lose weight through diet and exercise alone, and keep it off for two years, is small enough that there's a national data registry to find out their "secret" -- how are they able to stay active, motivated, whatever, when so many other people can't manage it?

After losing and gaining too many times, I got a gastric band. ("Lap-Band" is the brand most people have heard of; I've got the "Realize" brand.) Food that goes in my mouth still gets converted to calories -- and fat on my hips, if I'm not careful; the band just reduces the effective size of my stomach so I feel full sooner. But it's very easy to game the system: ice cream, milk shakes, and chocolate don't get slowed down at all! So watching what you eat and getting active are still important. I'm only four months into this -- ask me how I'm doing two years from now.

For folks who have malabsorptive surgery, some of the food that goes in the mouth comes out the other end, bypassing the hips entirely. In that case, the old "calories in must be less than activity done" equation is a bit too simple. But that has its own problems and concerns.

And as for carbonation -- bubbles push against the smaller-than-original stomach, making you very uncomfortable in the short term and possibly stretching out the band in the long term.

If you can do that, great. But I think in part it's attitudes like that that make it difficult for people to lose weight. I lost 40 lbs and am now at around 12% body fat. I eat all of those things, just not often or a lot. Feeling that people have to never eat ice cream for the rest of their lives is enough to make them never want to start a diet. I lost my weight pretty much through portion control. Some days it's worth it to eat ice cream and cut calories elsewhere.

CoolEric is right ... "I'll never eat iced cream again" can be a turn off for a lot of people. It can seem so dismal, as to make the whole idea of working toward being healthier seem like a lost cause. But on the other hand, some people can't eat a little bit of iced cream, without eating more.

Fortunately I'm not exactly one of those people; my weakness is salty food, not sweets. Like the Lays commercial, I just can't eat one. I can make a whole bag of salt and vinegar potato chips disappear, though, so I've given them up. I don't miss them very much, which is surprising. I do still go out every now and then for a veggie burger and fries, but I do it rarely.

Probably, the answer is "everything in moderation, including moderation" unless you have that addictive tendency?

Carbs? You mean like cold barley soup?? I have no interest in ice cream or candy but I bike to keep the soup on the menu. ;)