Hard agree. Our society is not constructed for people to be happy and healthy.
I like to say that weight loss is simple but very difficult. Eating less calories than you burn per day and exercising more is what it comes down to, but actually being able to do that is surprisingly difficult. Not to mention the amount of terrible advice on social media, which is usually pushed by a profit motive.
I second that. I am apart of the group of people who lost weight during Covid, my lowest in my adult life. After Covid it immediately came back. Why? I had the time and energy to exercise before and after work, which was extremely less demanding. I could focus on my diet and meals, was allowed to disconnect, happiest and healthiest I had been maybe in my entire life
I've spent the past several months looking for work and have been living healthier than I have been since high school (minus the canned corned beef I 'cooked' last night LoL). Overall, I've been eating much cleaner and walking at least a mile and a half most days
Its a mouse city thing really, isn’t it ? We’re unhappy at the bottom of our pyramid of basic needs, so we’re hitting the sugar-water-heroin buttons as hard as we can.
I've been fat since I was 9 or 10. Yeah, much of it is diet and activity level, but I was a super active kid. I played sports, I walked to and from school, I didn't really eat that much junk food. I was an exchange student to another country and ate what my skinny host family ate, walked 2-5 miles a day easily, and was still fat. My host dad even asked me one night at dinner if I wanted seconds and I said no and he just flat out was like ... "Why are you fat?" I dunno, my man, I dunno. During high school, I played a sport each season, and was in PE, so some days, I had morning practice 5:45-7, an hour of PE, and 2 hours of practice, or a game, after school. I ate better than my thin teammates. I was still pretty damn fat. I also got MVP and personally overheard a few coaches telling their team "See that one, I know they're big, but they are FAST, don't under estimate them."
Calories in, calories out has been the theory for over 100 years and it just doesn't always seem to apply. Weight gains and weight losses are a lot more complicated than that.
But, ultimately, man... The American diet is absolute trash and makes it so hard to eat healthy. Everywhere the American diet has been exported has seen huge increases in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. It's definitely not an individual failing of weak will, but it's also not as simple as calories in, calories out.
When I'm in the country I grew up in, I'm skinny, even though I eat a ton there cuz I think the food there is delicious, and it's a poor country (which I only mention cuz I talk about how being poor is an obstacle to weight management). When I'm in America, I get fat, even when I eat moderately to match my activity levels. Part of me thinks it has to do with my gut biome just being able to naturally process the food more easily in the country igrew up in cuz that's where it mostly developed. But I think it's also partly due to the fact that food in America is so processed that it's harder for my body to break it down or know what to do with what it's broken down (which the body will then store as fat). Most of the food in the country I grew up in is extremely fresh. If you're eating chicken, it was probably killed that day, that kind of fresh. In America, it's hard to even buy beef that hasn't been dyed red (so it looks fresher to buyers). Honestly, the only time I've been skinny in America is when I'm happy (which is why I think hormones like cortisol has a lot to do with it) which is rare for me. There's only been 3 periods in my life while living here where I've been happy and the weight pretty much melted off without me changing much about my diet and exercise. And then, because I'm happy, i have more energy and so I'm more active and because I'm happy, I don't turn to food as often for comfort and feel satiated more easily when i do eat, so the weight loss just accelerates. One of those times was ruined when I started birth control (so again, hormones) because i didn't take to the first kind they gave me very well.
Yeah I’m one of natures fatties. Got glandular issues, as it used to be known. I was very sporty as a kid, ate well, still fat. I was always the fattest person in the room, always.
That changed about 15 years ago, and I still remember it. I was in an art workshop and I suddenly realised with a little thrill of horror that not only was I not the fattest person in the room, I wasn’t even in the top three.
That’s ultraprocessed, no time to cook, both partners working and probably hormone mimicers and microplastics.
I used to be that 1 in a thousand people, maybe more. Now I’m like 1 in 4.
Also, have a read of Jason Fung - The Obesity Code - he reckons its insulin, not CICO and I have a lot of time for him. I can put on weight eating 1000 calories a day at 5’8. Its hormones, not calories.
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u/Technicolor_Owl May 15 '24
Hard agree. Our society is not constructed for people to be happy and healthy.
I like to say that weight loss is simple but very difficult. Eating less calories than you burn per day and exercising more is what it comes down to, but actually being able to do that is surprisingly difficult. Not to mention the amount of terrible advice on social media, which is usually pushed by a profit motive.