Originally Posted by
StephenH
"One woman lost over 500 lbs through exercise and diet, not surgery, proving that it can be done when not a medical necessity."
I'm all in favor of people losing weight and staying fit and all that, and certainly it's great that the lady lost that weight. But people are different. If people don't make any special effort to gain or lose weight or keep fit, some will be skinny, some will be fat, some will be in between. For the person that's naturally skinny, it seems so easy to be that away and makes it hard to understand how or why anyone could be fat. For that reason, I'm hesitant to tell other people how they should go about losing weight. I may suggest what seems to work for me, but I realize it won't work for everyone, and I'm not exactly Mr. Fitness myself. I think it's a similar thing with cigarette smoking, with alcohol, with drugs, with gambling or whatever. Some people can just walk away from those things and it doesn't bother them, and other people have a terrible time overcoming a particular problem. I personally don't feel the need for weight loss surgery or some of the other programs around, but I'm all in favor of people making the best choices they can for their health and happiness, including surgery if necessary.
Actually weight is an easy concept, it's simple math:
CI-CO=WC
CI - Calories in.
CO - Calories out
WC - Weight change (expressed in calories)
What is at issue is what these numbers really mean, some people are light eaters, as soon as it gets light they start eating, mostly highly processed sugary salty stuff that has little nutritional value, they are technically malnourished, probably overweight, diabetic and have high blood pressure. Other people eat a more nutritional diet, so their intake is lower, they get more value for the calories consumed.
Now on output, some people naturally burn more then others, some are more active then others, there are people who think nothing of walking 10km, other people would think of using the car to go 10m.
Weight change, there are roughly 7500 calories to 1kg of fat, anyone can do the math....
So we take 2 people, John, who believes the 4 food groups are frozen, canned, bagged and boxed, his kitchen tools consist of a microwave a spork and a mug, he drives every where he needs to go, and is nearly double the weight he should be, he is diabetic, has high blood pressure, just turned 40, and doesn't realize that within 3 years they will be filling in the died date on his tombstone....
Next we get Sven, he's always preferred fresh food, which is great his wife likes to prepare everything from scratch, they
bike to the market Saturday mornings, and spend the afternoon in the kitchen, they walk most places that are within 2km of home, bike anything more up to about 40km, they take public transport for longer trips, which are few and far between as 99% of all trips are under 40km. They do not own a car. Sven is within the normal weight range, has normal blood pressure and blood sugar, he just turned 70, and is in better shape then the average American half his age, even though his parents were Swedes he was born and raised in the US, and has never been to Sweden.....