Letters to the Editor
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65 Percent Obese? Mais Non
No, the government's BMI statistics say 65 percent of Americans are "overweight or obese." This means they have a BMI of 25 or higher. This number, incidentally, includes that famed workout nut George Bush and virtually every other male gym rat in the country. About 30 percent, it is estimated, have a BMI over 30, which the government defines as "obese" -- but again, this includes many male athletes and musclebound movie stars, among them Shaquille O'Neal and Tom Cruise. BMI data, for most Americans, tells you virtually nothing meaningful about them, including what clothing size they wear. If we really gave a damn about people's health in this country, we'd concern ourselves a lot more with their stress levels and a lot less with their BMI.
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Say it ain't so!
I come from a fat family. Both my parents are fat, both my siblings are fat, and most of my relatives on both sides are at least chunky. I've always been pretty embarrassed about it, and since I was a teenager I've been bound and determined to prevent myself from becoming fat. Hence, I work out daily, I eat a low fat, vegetarian diet, I limit my calories to 2000 per day (and given the fact that I run between 25-45 miles a week, depending on whether I am in training for a long distance race) that's on the low side. I don't drink alcohol. I don't eat sugar. And I'm no waif - at 5'3'' and 130, people probably wouldn't call me "skinny". I have a lot of muscle, I look like I have a lot of muscle. I wear a size 6, a 4 if there's vanity sizing. I've many times realized that I have far less "wiggle room" in my diet than many of my girlfriends - I've acceped that I probably have a genetically slower metabolism and that I have to eat less and exercise more to maintain the same level of slimmness as some others who were genetically luckier.
And like I said, that I can accept - just like people with dyslexia can accept that reading is harder for them, but by knowing exactly what their abilities are they CAN learn to read. but this study, this dutch study - did it REALLY find that NO MATTER what they ate and NO MATTER how much they exercized, kids of fat parents became fat adults? And kids of thin parents beame thin adults? That's just not fair. So far I seem to be doing allright - but I don't want to end up fat! I understand that I'm going to get jumped on by the "happy with being fat and fit" crowd, but I don't want to be fat and fit! I want to be thin and fit! Am I doomed? Say it ain't so!
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A losing battle
Hate to say it, Anonymous, but you're doomed. Good for you for being a fighter, but you're literally fighting against your body. Our bodies always win in the end, alas.
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yes
there's plenty of evidence that the usual calories in- calories expended formula isn't really working when it comes to weight, obesity, etc. there's also plenty of evidence that, say, diets rich in animal fats and alcohol don't necessarily make for unhealthy people. this evidence usually points to the fact that people who eat real food, not the grotesque products of our industrial food chain, and people who engage in community/family meals instead of eating alone in the car as they dart through their stress ridden corporate dominated lives, are much better off. GET A CLUE, AMERICA!
the class issue here is that not everyone can afford to step out of the cycle, and those who are in the cycle are mercilessly harangued by our awful awful culture of overwork and what marx would've called alienation.
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Stop having an excuse for being fat
even in the face of overwhelming evidence that it's not possible to keep it off.
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Plain old bullshit. Calories burned more than calories consumed and you lose weight.
Ever see films from the early 20th century, see if you can spot a fat logger. Plus, they ate 9,000 calories a day, but burned far more.
Sure, some people will have an easier time losing weight, but that happens with anything.
Here's the only diet you ever need. Eat half the food you do now.
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Atkins Works
Nine years ago I was on the cusp of type 2 diabetes. Since both of my parents had this condition, I knew I needed to loose weight and keep it off. I purchased the book "Protein Power" by Michael and Mary Eades, both MD's and read it twice before starting this life style change. It's a modified version of the Atkins diet but a little more liberal with what can be eaten. I lost 43 pounds and nine inches around the waist. Because I do most of the shopping for groceries, my wife lost about the same amount of weight. She really looks nice now.
My wife occasionally eats Little Debbie snack whatevers from time to time and once every month or two, I have a pecan pie with Cool Whip. Other than that, I stay close to a diet of meat, vegetables, and fruit for sweets.
Today at 6 foot tall, I weigh 168 and can keep up with my hunting dogs in the field. I walk my dogs 365 days a year, around 30 minutes each for both of them. My body fat index in 1998 was 10.5%.
I can hunt all day long and not get tired. Not bad for a 63 year old guy.
This diet is more expensive than a typical low fat, high carb diet. I eat lots of rib eye steak, cheese burgers, torsk cod, and use mushrooms, onions, and acorn squash instead of potatoes and white rice. We do have wild rice/brown rice from time to time. And plenty of butter, eggs, bacon, etc. For snacks in the evening, I have cashews and frozen fruit. But this food choice is easy to stay on.
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before you assume you're doomed....
I'm not sure I completely believe the results of the study. My reasons are as follows: in my family tree, which granted, is just one example, people do not look exactly like their parents. my grandmother was quite thin all of her life and ate fruits and vegetables and didn't like sweets. my mother loves to eat all of her calories of the day in one large dose at the end, and a box of cookies as well, because it comforts her. she weighs quite a bit more. This "no matter what" at least from my personal experience, sounds a little too strong, like the kind of stirring the pot phrase that people use to sell the endless numbers of books on obesity and dieting.
As one other example, I lived in South Korea for several years and there young people, under a lot of stress and eating a different diet than their parents, an "americanized diet" weighed quite a bit more than their parents. The genetic percentages, whether it is alcoholism or heart disease or obesity, sometimes seem "off" to me. That is they may involve a certain base (ie maybe my mother eating her box of cookies would weigh even more if she had had heavier parents) but I don't believe our destinies are locked in from birth. In the studies did they account for everything...including habits like fidgeting or the number of hours they slept...maybe we tend to go back to a set weight over time if our "diets" are not habits that, for whatever reason, last. Maybe when researchers talk about genetics they are talking about genetically inherited tendency toward certain behaviors that creep back up on us over time? I keep getting stuck though on the phrase "no matter what." This kind of we used to tell you one thing about your health, and now it turns out to big a big fat lie and will make you die (like hormone replacement therapy!) tends to give scientific research a bad name.
For the record, I think that America's "obestiy epidemic" has been exaggurated (ie people who are not unhealthy in any other way but their weight, which at times is not really so terribly heavy-- having the dangerous "medically recommended" stomach stapling procedures and doctors telling them that it is to "save their lives"--vicious, pointless maniuplations of people--mostly women, since this surgery creates a whole host of other health risks), but, still, this kind of "no matter what" data is just going to discourage us all, and we might as well, at the very least, wait a little longer to be discouraged, since after the results of another big study, it may be proven (so sorry, ladies and gentlement, it turns out we were mistaken) alas, untrue.
I should also say that I am also a person who lost thirty pounds in my early twenties and has "kept it off" for more than ten years now. is it because I don't eat a box of cookies after dinner and I like to walk, fidget, and climb stairs, or because of my thin grandmother or both? my mother has also maintained her added fifty pound weight gain for almost 35 years.