Comments on: You're the One for Me

You're the One for Me

The Jesse Helms — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:42:14 -0800

Obese and overweight people do not want to lose weight.

By: ozomatli

ozomatli — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:43:39 -0800

This will not end well...

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:45:05 -0800

*sets up lawn chair, opens bag of chips*

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:46:21 -0800

*puts on football helmet, says quick prayer*

By: Postroad

Postroad — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:46:33 -0800

Is that why the diet industry is in such bad shape thewse days?

By: Frasermoo

Frasermoo — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:47:38 -0800

".... get the kids in the basement!"

By: Yer-Ol-Pal

Yer-Ol-Pal — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:48:17 -0800

Very easy answers from people who never had the problem.

By: nola

nola — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:48:52 -0800

i knew it!

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:49:24 -0800

If we had that "cheseburger bill" then wouldn't it just encourage people to eat at McDonalds until they got fat, and then sue? Or maybe restaurants could refused to serve fat people. Now that would be funny.

By: Miko

Miko — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:50:38 -0800

The link title omits the rather important preceding words "One quarter of..."

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:50:49 -0800

I lost like 70 pounds since July. It wasn't that hard. Now I'm going to be like one of those irritating ex-smokers. bwahahahaha.

By: Manhasset

Manhasset — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:51:15 -0800

"More than half of the 4,000 people polled were overweight or obese, but 26% of them said they did not want to lose weight." I don't understand this sentence. It's saying that more than 2000 of the interviewed people were overweight. However, it's also saying that close to 2000 were of proper weight or under weight. It's also saying that just over a quarter of all people surveyed said they didn't want to lose weight. So, if almost half of them are not overweight, would it not make sense that those people do not want to lose weight? Am I completely misreading the sentence or is it providing bad (or useless) data?

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:51:19 -0800

hahaha! nonsense! of course obese people want to lose weight! who would ever want to be ugly and gross?! no no no. what obese people don't like is work! they want to be beautiful like the rest of us, they just don't want to work for it! stupid, fat and lazy people.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:51:32 -0800

*throws flag, waits for TJH to be hauled off the field*

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:53:09 -0800

(oh, and that cheeseburger bill strikes me as a good thing. shall we sue popular music and the creators of "Friends" for making people stupid, next?)

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:54:13 -0800

Hey, everybody! Let's all get really fat and sit on The Jesse Helms! It'll be the Ultimate MeFi Pile-On! call ESPN. or the Food Network. or something.

By: Miko

Miko — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:54:40 -0800

"More than half of the 4,000 people polled were overweight or obese, but 26% of them said they did not want to lose weight." Manhasset, the phrase "of them" could be intended to mean "of the half who were overweight or obese".

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:55:21 -0800

Posters to Metafilter do not want to have rational discussions.

By: Jairus

Jairus — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:55:28 -0800

JESSE HELMS GET OFF THE STAGE

By: NationalKato

NationalKato — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:55:51 -0800

Typically because one would rather take bong hits and play Space Invaders than jog and eat rice cakes. Or is that just me?

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:56:24 -0800

Off-Topic: Any tips, delmoi?

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:56:29 -0800

George Bush doesn't care about fat people.

By: Item

Item — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:57:01 -0800

It could be broadcast live from ESPNZone in Times Sq. Think about it: fried food + obese MeFi pile-on = fun for the entire family!

By: furiousthought

furiousthought — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:58:28 -0800

But do the obese and overweight people use Macs.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:59:05 -0800

I don't want to lose weight. I want to lose volume.

By: keswick

keswick — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:59:50 -0800

I personally think fat people should be melted down for soap.

By: incomple

incomple — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:01:38 -0800

Love the Morrissey joke in the post headine.

By: jrossi4r

jrossi4r — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:04:20 -0800

Fat women love diamonds. Eat 'em by the handful.

By: Faze

Faze — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:05:58 -0800

It's true! I'm five pounds overweight for my height and age, and I have no desire to get down to what the so-called "experts" say is normal. And I'm gonna shake these five great big blubbery pounds right in the face of anyone who doesn't like it. I'm gonna wear my huge, five-pound burden of avoirdupois with pride, and wobble and wiggle like the great big mound of dimpled, puckering suet that I am, and anyone who doesn't like it can watch me add to my Crisco overcoat by devouring a whole package of Hostess Ho-Hos. The day I lose five pounds just to please some health-crazed weight fascist, is the day I cease to enjoy squeezing my five, fat extra pounds into a speedo, and watching the horror on everyone's faces as the shimmering mass of pearly, gel-like blubber cascades over the waistband, jittering and lurching like a choking manatee.

By: hal9k

hal9k — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:07:22 -0800

I'm not scared a heights. But widths bother me.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:08:17 -0800

inside every thin person there is a fat fucker just crying to get out.

By: schroedinger

schroedinger — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:13:05 -0800

I demand more histrionics in this thread. I demand it.

By: AspectRatio

AspectRatio — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:13:57 -0800

Let's fight for freedom!!! (Except for fat people, liberals, gays, brown people, etc...)

By: nixerman

nixerman — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:14:48 -0800

So what is the medical definition of obese? On the one hand, the pathologization of being fat has to be making a lot of the food companies nervous. I wonder if there'll ever be arguments over the links between obesity and other diseases the way there's arguments over over climate change.

By: freebird

freebird — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:17:34 -0800

Man, I stay out of these threads, but I must say: I am totally on Faze's side. I don't even know for sure which side that is, but I am on it. Damn. You should bottle that rant and sell it.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:18:23 -0800

Off-Topic: Any tips, delmoi? not him, but I lost 50lbs over 5 months by in 2003 by: 1) eating less 2) exercising more 3) drinking 1/2 gal+ of water a day 4) weighing myself daily and using the moving average: today's weight x 0.25 + yesterday's average x 0.75 to give my "true" notional weight for purposes of tracking weight loss trends. For my experience, I found it useful to think of the loss program as a marathon and not a sprint. I wanted a slow and steady 2lbs/week loss rate, and I found it wasn't hard, by using the moving average, and the fact that 1lb of fat is worth ~3500kcal, to keep to that loss rate over the 5 months. Basically keep to a 500kcal/day deficit to lose 1lb/week, and a 1000kcal/day deficit to lose 2lbs/week. I found that replacing lunch with a 200kcal (1 oz) snack of almonds allowed me to get from breakfast to dinner without too much stomach grumbling. Related to this is that with a restricted diet you need to apportion your protein, carbs, and fat intake to match your calorie budget (1g of protein and 1g of carbs = 4kcal, 1g of fat = 7kcal). Don't be afraid of fat, as long as you can fit it in your daily calorie budget. Fat tastes good, and your body needs it.

By: FormlessOne

FormlessOne — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:20:20 -0800

And, please, include both "Classic" and "Diet" versions of that rant.

By: 327.ca

327.ca — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:21:47 -0800

Hmmm... This map looks familiar for some reason.

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:23:46 -0800

Fat people want to be fat. Poor people are fat. Poor people want to be poor. Someone needs to tell poor people that they are making bad choices. Stupid poor people.

By: TheDonF

TheDonF — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:26:06 -0800

In the top 50 books on amazon.co.uk's top 100 at moment are: I Can Make You Thin Dr (cough) Gillian McKeith's Ultimate Health Plan You Are What You Eat Cookbook Low GI Cookbook I Can Make You Thin 90-Day Success Journal Antony Worrall Thompson's GI Diet You Are What You Eat Rosemary Conley's GI Jeans Diet The F2 Diet The Food Doctor Everyday Diet Cookbook The Food Doctor Everyday Diet As well as that, there are 5 cook books and several self-help books. Maybe it's the post-Christmas diets and new year's resolutions having an influence, but that's still not for people who don't want to get thin.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:28:31 -0800

Off-Topic: Any tips, delmoi? Well, having your driver's license suspended so you have to bike everywhere helps.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:28:37 -0800

BEINFG FAT IS A CHOICE FAT PEOPLE ARE FAT FUCKS WHO CANT PUT DWN A FUCKING BAGS OF CHEAP PLZ STOP EATING AT MCDONASDL!!!! -GEOFF.

By: TheDonF

TheDonF — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:28:51 -0800

...still not bad... I just can't post well at the moment

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:32:30 -0800

but beyond that, basically I just counted calories, regardless of food type and tried (at first) to shoot for 1,000 Food Calories per day, eventually that slipped to about 1,500 per day. Then I would hit the gym and work off the calories I'd eaten, almost 100% of them. By the end of the summer I could go on the elliptical for three hours, burning of three thousand calories at a time. Since November 13th, I've been a lot more lax, but I still lost about 8 pounds between the 13th and dec 28th or so, which is the last time I weighed myself at the gym. Finally, I kept almost no food in the house at all, and couldn't drive anywhere to get food. When I did go shopping, I could only buy what fit in my bike bag, which wasn't much. Being able to drive would have made it more difficult to lose the weight, but not impossible, IMO.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:33:56 -0800

Study confirms you can’t be fat — and healthy.

By: alumshubby

alumshubby — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:35:11 -0800

I'm not overweight, I'm underheight!

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:36:51 -0800

The other thing is that I got a good paying job and had much less stress. No "homework" or whatever, and access to a nice gym, which I wouldn't have if I was poor.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:37:23 -0800

Of course, if they really want the underclasses to be skinny, they should legalize coke.

By: drstein

drstein — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:40:34 -0800

This really isn't a surprise. Don't forget the recent "Fat is Beautiful" movement. Y'know, the term "Big Beautiful Woman." It's like reading an old BBS profile. You could always pick out the fat chicks because they were the ones that used descriptions like "Reubenesque" and "voluptuous" and tried to draw more attention to other features. Example: "long, thick, flowing brown hair." There are a lot of people that think being fat is beautiful, healthy, sexy, and something to be envied. So, reading that 26% of a group of people don't want to lose any weight is no surprise to me whatsoever.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:44:01 -0800

* sorry I'm late guys, did I miss much? I brought jerky for everyone! *

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:44:24 -0800

* munch, munch *

By: allen.spaulding

allen.spaulding — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:45:48 -0800

This fat, it jiggles?

By: Justinian

Justinian — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:48:05 -0800

How To Lose Weight can be summed up very simply: 1) Count your calories and limit them to between 1200 and 1800/day depending on your sex, height, and current weight. 2) Exercise for an hour a day. 3) PROFIT! Two tips to help: Do not drink any soft drinks at all and greatly limit your consumption of alcohol and juice. You should be drinking mostly water. Secondly, walk everywhere it is possible to walk. Walk to the store. Walk to the movie theater. Walk to get your hair cut. Walk to work if you can. Walk, walk, walk. That's it! That's the list! Unless you have a severe metabolic problem (perhaps one percent of overweight folks) you will lose weight by doing this.

By: mouthnoize

mouthnoize — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:50:06 -0800

I like being fat. There, I said it. Let the hatred flow. Thanks for the cheers mefites.

By: CynicalKnight

CynicalKnight — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:50:48 -0800

>50 comments and no NSFW links to feeder fetish sites yet? Focus, people!

By: allen.spaulding

allen.spaulding — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:54:01 -0800

limit your consumption of alcohol Nah, forget that. Or, as Slate put it: Wash out your fat with liquor, then rinse out your liquor with coffee.

By: allen.spaulding

allen.spaulding — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:54:49 -0800

Not that I actually believe any of these studies, but I certainly prefer the ones that let me keep drinking.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:58:17 -0800

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:01:55 -0800

I just finished a fattie five minutes ago.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:04:17 -0800

I don't want to be thin. I want to be rich.

By: docpops

docpops — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:04:33 -0800

IRFH wins.

By: lemonfridge

lemonfridge — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:05:15 -0800

SHUT UP FATTY!

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:12:00 -0800

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:14:25 -0800

This obese person has wanted to lose weight for a long fucking time now -- but some diabetes meds actually hinder attempts to lose weight. At the start of this year I made a resolution and started tracking weight/blood sugar/exercise/food daily... and have lost 4 pounds already, without starving myself or doing anything particularly strenuous. Having a concrete goal and tracking it makes all the difference.

By: modernerd

modernerd — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:19:05 -0800

keswick: anything is possible

By: countzen

countzen — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:32:59 -0800

Drink water and sugar-free squashes and be aware alcohol is high in calories What the hell is that as a weight management tip from BBC? (Look on the little right inset column)

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:36:33 -0800

You could always pick out the fat chicks because they were the ones that used descriptions like "Reubenesque" and "voluptuous" They were usually the hot ones. Only a dog wants a bone.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:38:55 -0800

What is it? Hurf durf butter eater? There, I said it and I meant it.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:46:24 -0800

There seem to be an awful lot of post titles that invoke the Morrissey. I can't decide if he'd be pleased or nonplussed.

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:47:00 -0800

They were usually the hot ones. Only a dog wants a bone. Oh..and Jon lays down the first trap...who will jump at the bait? Stay tuned.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:48:02 -0800

Well, this is a plussed-sized thread, shoepal.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:55:57 -0800

squashes Squash = Soda (Pop)

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:57:51 -0800

Orange squash is popular in the U.K. Some use the term more broadly, as in some parts of the U.S. "coke" is used to denote all kinds of soda.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:57:55 -0800

Fat women love diamonds. Eat 'em by the handful. Ke-riced that's stupid. They could be eating plasma TVs for the same price.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:58:29 -0800

Whom Can You Believe? -- There is real science behind nutritional advice, but no single study is definitive.

By: Decani

Decani — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:01:28 -0800

Well, I don't want them to lose weight either. If they do that they might be able to get up and catch me when I go tubby-tipping, and that'd be no fun at all.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:05:47 -0800

By: LittleMissCranky

LittleMissCranky — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:05:56 -0800

Part of the reason might be that a huge number of overweight people don't know that they're overweight, or at least to what degree they're overweight. We've gotten so used to obesity in the US that it's tough for most people to accurately assess how many extra pounds they're carrying. This seems to be especially true for men, since there are fewer social consequences for being overweight, they are less inclined to pay a whole lot of attention to it until they are tipping the scales. ::looks around:: I mean, shut up fatty-fatty-two-by-four.

By: TimeFactor

TimeFactor — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:17:33 -0800

Forced circumcision for fat people! It's the easy way to instant weight loss.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:17:45 -0800

Well I don't even know how tall I am, so I'm not likely to know how many pounds I'm supposed to lose. Anyone have a link to a good BMI calculator?

By: TimeFactor

TimeFactor — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:22:50 -0800

BMI calculator (javascript and knowledge of your height required).

By: Zack_Replica

Zack_Replica — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:39:54 -0800

lemonfridge, I'm sure you mean "Lip Up, Fatty." [it's Buster Bloodvessel from Bad Manners, for the uninitiated. You Fat Bastard. (yousendit linky)]

By: pieisexactlythree

pieisexactlythree — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:42:47 -0800

Oh, dear. I have trodden in monsieur's bucket.

By: lemonfridge

lemonfridge — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:51:59 -0800

actually no. I didnt.

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:54:46 -0800

70lbs. Well done, delmoi.

By: Zack_Replica

Zack_Replica — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:55:58 -0800

um. ok. you didn't.

By: gagglezoomer

gagglezoomer — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:56:07 -0800

According to the BMI calculator I am about 1 pound from being overweight. In order to be classified as being "underweight" I would have to lose 45 pounds. Thats completely outrageous. I may have a little bit of a belly but if I lost 40 pounds I would defintely look like a straw.

By: Decani

Decani — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:00:52 -0800

The BMI is a pile of arse. It makes no allowance for people with decent muscles. When I was in my thirties I was a superfit, honed motherfucker with a six pack and barely an ounce of fat on me. And according to that ridiculous measure I was just overweight. Absolute rot.

By: TimeFactor

TimeFactor — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:04:22 -0800

Using machines at the gym that display calorie output has given me a new-found empathy for fat people. I run on the treadmill for half an hour and burn only about 500 calories and I'm wiped out. 500 calories is nothing; it's a bean burrito, it's a milk-shake, it's a Casesar's salad. I need to pig out for about, oh, 500 calories-worth immediately after working out because frankly I'm starving. But I'm not fat so nobody cares if I pig out. Losing fifty pounds means working out every day for a solid year without any pigging out. No thanks, I think I'd choose to be fat too.

By: Drexen

Drexen — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:08:29 -0800

Um, squash (e.g. orange squash) is more like a synthetic cordial or syrup (i.e. concentrated fruit juice and E-numbers) that you dilute in water (6:10 is quoted, but it's generally drunk pretty weak, like 3:10). So there you go!

By: Justinian

Justinian — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:13:59 -0800

TimeFactor: The reason 500 calories is a milkshake or a Caesar's salad is because of the ridiculous portion sizes in the USA. It's not that burning 500 calories isn't very much, it's that we should be eating much smaller portions of food.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:16:09 -0800

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:16:28 -0800

superfit, honed motherfucker Love it! (We're you chiselled as well?)

By: Justinian

Justinian — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:16:50 -0800

(oops. Just shoot me and get it over with. You did say "half an hour". There's your problem, you need more than half an hour's exercise. Try an hour on a bike)

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:17:59 -0800

I know you're being a bit tongue in cheek, but those studies are showing correlation, not causation. It's quite possible that people who drink "one drink a day" are just people who take their health more seriously than others. Perhaps they also exercise more, for example. That doesn't sound very rational at all. However, I have noticed that drinking hard liquor takes away my appetite and makes being hungry much more bearable.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:20:12 -0800

TimeFactor, try an elliptical, and build up your tolerance. I can burn 500 calories in just 30 minutes on one of those things.

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:20:26 -0800

Oh, for what it's worth, if you're only burning 500 calories in an hour and a half you are doing something very wrong. You burn 500 calories in an hour and a half of WALKING. Running for an hour and a half should be more like 1500. Totally agree. The readout is wrong! Don't lose heart. Plus, your metabolism stays raised (ie. burning calories) for quite a while after you stop running. Plus, PLUS, exercise causes your muscles to grow (not just weight training - even running will give you gains) so your base metabolic rate is permanently raised (ie. you're burning more calories at rest) simply coz there's more muscles to "feed". NOW DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY!!!

By: TimeFactor

TimeFactor — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:23:57 -0800

...I run on the treadmill for half an hour... half hour = 30 minutes (and about 500 calories if you're 170lbs and running 7 minute miles for those 30 minutes)

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:24:56 -0800

Decani: The BMI table worked for me. I saw it in the newspaper, looked up my height and weight, saw "borderline obest", and started the diet the next week. It doesn't work for everyone, but people who are buff aren't going to be confused, unless they have rocks in their head. Losing fifty pounds means working out every day for a solid year without any pigging out. No thanks, I think I'd choose to be fat too. That's a pound a week, 500kcal/day deficit. Or 1000 kcal on weekdays and pretty much anything goes on weekends.

By: pieisexactlythree

pieisexactlythree — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:26:49 -0800

TimeFactor, try an elliptical, and build up your tolerance. I can burn 500 calories in just 30 minutes on one of those things. posted by delmoi at 5:20 PM PST on January 10 [!] Really? I rarely get much more than 400 on that thing in 30 min. I have it set to cardio and target heart rate =160.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:30:46 -0800

I'm overweight and don't want to lose it. But I have a 20-pound cock.

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:31:37 -0800

Sorry, TimeFactor. I took Justinian's mistake and ran with it. Didn't double check with your post. But everything else I said remains true.

By: Decani

Decani — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:36:11 -0800

We're you chiselled as well? No, but I was frequently hammered. Cheers!

By: jfuller

jfuller — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:51:35 -0800

At a riding stable down the road from me they have a thing they call "the fat paddock." Pasture grass is lush around here and some of the horses are pretty lightly exercised. When one starts to get rotund it moves to ye fat paddock, where other hungry horses have eaten everything down to dead bare earth (and seriously chewed the fence posts.) NO horse that goes into the fat paddock has ever failed to lose weight. I think there's a diet book in it.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 18:11:37 -0800

If you assume everything I say is a mistake from the start you won't have that problem in the future, uncanny hengeman.

By: Peach

Peach — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 18:19:38 -0800

I believe inside every young person is an old person trying to get out. And a very hairy person, too, and a couple of small dogs. And inside every fat person is another fat person, only denser.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 18:26:02 -0800

"And finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint."

By: konolia

konolia — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 18:37:24 -0800

Long term exercise teaches the body to use its fat as fuel. So just because you only burn a certain amount of calories in an exercise is no reason to be discouraged. And trying to diet without exercise is a fool's errand. You lose muscle as well as fat which means your metabolism drops. (written after a Spin class and a chicken burrito from Taco Bell.)

By: Medieval Maven

Medieval Maven — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:03:26 -0800

Re: skinny guy running on treadmill burning 500 calories: A chick in my office was quite overweight, and she went on a serious diet-and-exercise plan. She told me one day that according to her personal trainer (so this may be horseshit) you burn fewer calories as you get skinnier, or rather, they become more difficult to burn. So when she was more overweight, she routinely burned 3K calories in a work out, but as she got thinner, the number of calories burned dropped, so she had to work harder and/or longer to burn the same amount of calories. Which, upon preview, apparently has to do with how much fat there actually is for your body to burn off.

By: piers

piers — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:10:36 -0800

I know that most of the machines at the gym that I go to ask you to enter your weight - as well as your sex and age - in order to compute calories burned. While my heavier boyfriend can often burn 400 calories or so in 30 minutes on an elliptical, I'm lucky to top 200. Again, that feels pretty depressing when you consider that's less than a single bagel or muffin some places.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:13:20 -0800

Really? I rarely get much more than 400 on that thing in 30 min. I have it set to cardio and target heart rate =160. Well, different machines give different readings, according to my schwin 418 at home, I can do 1500 calories in 50 minutes. I don't believe it. The one I was using at the gym was a Life Fitness. (forget the model number, but a used one is like $3k). But I was on a pretty high resistance level, ~14 or so. My heart rate would be around 150-180 But I think I have a small heart. I also have a high tolerance for pain, so I can really make myself suffer on that thing :P

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:14:27 -0800

Timefactor: how tall are you? 170 is my goal. Although if I got to 165 I'd have lost 100 pounds :)

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:16:06 -0800

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:16:48 -0800

plus, the lighter your body is, the less leptin you have in your body, and your hypothalimus will really want you to eat.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:19:43 -0800

and now I'm "eating" some diet moutan dew and vodka. And boosting the fuck out of my metafilter contribution index by posting so many comments serially rather then including everything in one post I've got a 4.77 and I need a 5.06 to get into the top 21! I'm still the #10 poster of all time, though :P

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:22:41 -0800

er, by 'top 21' I mean 'top 25' of course. And I'm not seriously trying to boost my score, just posting a lot because I'm drunk and a moron. Losing weight really lowers your alcohol tolerance, by the way. When I was a fatass I had to drink a ton to get drunk. Now a couple swigs of booze and I'm plastered. Wow, really plastered. I realized that on January 1st of this year, by the way ^__^

By: stagewhisper

stagewhisper — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:24:38 -0800

So when she was more overweight, she routinely burned 3K calories in a work out, but as she got thinner, the number of calories burned dropped, so she had to work harder and/or longer to burn the same amount of calories. Which, upon preview, apparently has to do with how much fat there actually is for your body to burn off. delmoi has it right- it's a greater work load to move more mass, thus the lower amount of calories burned for the same distance. I'm pretty certain the effects are quite small, but a better trained (or more experienced) runner will also burn fewer calories over the same distance as a less well trained (or newbie) runner of the same weight since there's less inefficient motion involved. Less extraneous energy used.

By: TimeFactor

TimeFactor — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:31:04 -0800

...she routinely burned 3K calories in a work out... I'm not disputing this and, yes, the more you weigh the more calories you burn performing a specific task (all else being equal*) but, WOW, 3000 calories in a session is an incredible amount. I guess that explains how someone truly obese could lose signficant amounts of weight, maybe even with a little pigging out. ...how tall are you?... a little over 5'11". You might as well shoot for 165. 100 lbs is a very nice round number. Congrats on your accomplishments so far. *but thinner people tend to burn more calories just sitting around. Because of a higher surface area to weight ratio thin people use more energy maintaining steady body temperature.

By: kryptondog

kryptondog — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:35:03 -0800

In line at KFC Some hope and some despair It was only after I accepted myself for who I was (after a fairly unhappy chubby childhood) that I was able to effectively lose weight. I'm not skinny now, but I've lost quite a bit and am content with myself. I don't think that obesity should necessarily by championed, but mentally tortuing people for it is quite counter-productive. At least, in my experience.

By: slapshot57

slapshot57 — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:39:07 -0800

jonmc They were usually the hot ones. Only a dog wants a bone. meh, more power to you. I'll take the chick who's toned and does yoga three times a week any day. Nothing sexier than a woman who does yoga

By: Medieval Maven

Medieval Maven — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 20:06:59 -0800

TimeFactor: From what I was given to understand, and honestly from her weight loss, this kid spent at least 75% of her time outside work at the gym. I gathered what little time she had left over was for sleeping, showers, and going to the organic foods store. Clearly, I only have her word, but whatever it was she had, I need some of it, anyway.

By: Woney

Woney — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 21:34:08 -0800

well, in the past year, I've lost 80 lbs. Got separated and acquired a puppy. I walk him three times a day for about a half mile per time, and do a treadmill run most evenings. I also hold up two households, so am completely broke most of the time. The lonely broke guy diet works! besides, my puppy looks comical on the treadmill with me.

By: Woney

Woney — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 21:35:34 -0800

oh, that 80 lbs would be 320 to 240. BMI be damned, if I can break 200 I'll be happy.

By: Meredith

Meredith — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 22:07:54 -0800

Got a treadmill for my birthday last month and down 20 so far. Still about 80 to go, but hey. It's a start. In the meantime, I'm gonna smother all you haters with this tummy.

By: Balisong

Balisong — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 22:36:39 -0800

What do fat girls and mopeds have in common? Your friends will laugh at you if they see you riding either one of them!

By: blendor

blendor — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 22:45:16 -0800

There are studies that say being slightly overweight may not have significant negative impact to health. Some studies disagree, and really it probably just depends on the individual. Negative body image, however, can most certainly have terrible consequences. Here's to taking a walk down to the park once in a while and being comfortable in your own skin.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 03:21:39 -0800

TimeFactor: "*but thinner people tend to burn more calories just sitting around. Because of a higher surface area to weight ratio thin people use more energy maintaining steady body temperature." Is that true? Interesting. I'm always after explanations as to why I eat alarming amounts of food and yet remain alarmingly thin. This is probably not the best place to ask for tips on gaining weight, though...

By: wilberforce

wilberforce — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 03:37:50 -0800

I wackyparsed delmoi's comment as 'cheeseburger pill'. Man, I'd take that medicine. (Mmm, time for lunch.)

By: Peach

Peach — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 04:35:12 -0800

My husband has to drink Ensure Plus just to maintain his weight. I think his weight-loss method is just what the skinny -snobs need--smoke like a chimney, eat a high-fat diet, sit on your butt all day, and choose your grandparents carefully.

By: matteo

matteo — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 05:10:05 -0800

NO horse that goes into the fat paddock has ever failed to lose weight. extraordinary rendition for horses! I hear those poor fuckers also give up made-up names of Equine Al Qaeda agents.

By: magpie68

magpie68 — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 06:01:13 -0800

Sorry I'm late, the original survey is here and if you find the question "Would you like to lose weight" you'll see that 26% of "overweight/obese/v obese" people do not want to lose weight. So Miko was correct, yesterday.

By: konolia

konolia — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 06:52:02 -0800

Jack_mo, you must be alarmingly active or have a very high ratio of muscle to adipose tissue. In other words you are highly adapted to burn fat as fuel, or to not store your food as fat to begin with.

By: glenwood

glenwood — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 07:11:37 -0800

What do fat girls and mopeds have in common? Your friends will laugh at you if they see you riding either one of them! The correct answer is, either one would be fun to ride, but you wouldn't want anyone to see you. * *This correction was posted for informational purposes only. It is no indicator as to whether or not I think this mean joke is funny.

By: bitter-girl.com

bitter-girl.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 07:16:23 -0800

klangklangston: I'm overweight and don't want to lose it. But I have a 20-pound cock. (giggling) Admittedly, I'm no Kate Moss, but I think those BMI calculators are more or less crap. When I was at my lowest adult weight (maintained from junior year in high school til I got out of college and found a stupid desk job, with nary a jiggle anywhere), my insane gyno thought I needed to lose 30+ lbs based on BMI. If I'd done so, I'd have weighed less than I did when I was in the 5th grade. Creepy. Tall people with hardcore muscle mass like me aren't very well served by physicians who find it easier to read a chart than to reason. BTW, Woney -- how on earth do you get your puppy to walk the treadmill with you?!?

By: iggychaos

iggychaos — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 08:06:49 -0800

Woohoo! They say eskimos find fat attractive. In other words, attraction is at least at some level, sociological. Maybe fat people will be the hot item in 10 or 20 years?

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 09:08:21 -0800

Walk to the store. Walk to the movie theater. Walk to get your hair cut. Walk to work if you can. Walk, walk, walk. I guess I'm screwed because all of these entail crossing at most 2 streets.

By: Miko

Miko — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 09:26:11 -0800

Walk to the store. Walk to the movie theater. Walk to get your hair cut. Walk to work if you can. Walk, walk, walk. This is great advice. But it does provoke thinking about how our culture has changed in such a way as to undermine physical activity. All of my usual destination points (home, work, errands, haircuts, groceries, bars, volunteer gigs) are within a 3-mile radius of one another. I enjoy walking and try to do a lot of it. I don't consider 3 miles far. And yet, I'm fighting the culture. It takes at least 36 minutes to walk 3 miles; and that means more than an hour round trip. It comes into conflict with the expectations we now have for how much a person can do in a day. I think nothing of going to work, running 3 different errands at lunch, leaving work, doing the grocery shopping, going to a meeting, having a drink with friends after, and then going back home -- covering perhaps 12-15 miles in a day, though all within the same city. I could never do all this stuff in a day if I walked. It would force me to slow down the pace of my life. Which is fine, it just means that I'd accomplish less, have less of a profile in my community, and be less valuable to the projects I'm involved with. I'm not saying it's a good thing -- just that we need to think about how our cultural priorities have shifted away from physical health and toward other means of measuring an individual's value. It's no surprise that modern people pack on the pounds; our expectations for efficacy have increased so much as to reduce the amount of time available to us for making choices such as walking more. Something has to be sacrificed in order to make room for the walking. Then, too, I'm in a very fortunate position because for the past 10 years I've insisted on living close to where I work, and living in an actual town. With our urban planning in the mess it is, many people couldn't walk to places if they wanted to because they live in sidewalk-free, cul-de-sac land 20 miles from the nearest commercial center.

By: bitter-girl.com

bitter-girl.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:33:43 -0800

Y'know, Miko's got it right there. I started gaining weight after college. In college, all I had to accomplish each day was going to class, coupled with feeding and grooming myself. In the working world, if my gym's hours can't accommodate me, well, I need to find some other way to work out, and can I? It's tough given the fact that I work a PT editing job (deskbound), run a primarily web-based company (also mostly deskbound), write books (again, deskbound) and manage a household. Cleaning and running errands have to do double duty as a workout sometimes. I know the first response of some people would be "well, find the time to work out" -- easy to say, not easy to do. I've tracked my time management down to a fairly exact science -- short of a little bit of internet goofing-off, I'm more or less busy ALL DAY. Until someone can figure out a way to build a treadmill that'll let me type on my laptop AND walk at the same type (both at a reasonable speed), I'm kinda screwed. Nutritionally, my acupuncturist friend wanted me to do 6 tiny meals a day instead of 3. I laughed! I don't even get to eat three meals a day with this schedule, I'm fortunate to manage 2. This isn't meant to be whining so much as point out that I'm surely not the only one with this dilemma.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:35:16 -0800

Miko: biking works well at the 15-mile scale.

By: mouthnoize

mouthnoize — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:39:09 -0800

Right on Miko - I too have moved to within walking/biking distance of my work and groceries, but it was a challenge to find this spot. The car culture certainly doesn't help. Even so, I don't mind being overweight except when it's time to find clothes, which again is an industry rife with prejudice against large people. As the anti-smoking campaign is counter-productive when it attacks the individuals who smoke, insulting us large people is not the way to encourage change. But then remember I've already stated that I don't want to change.

By: Budge

Budge — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:40:22 -0800

How about that people are fed up with diets that dont work and dont want to shell out endless money? We are a society expecting people to stay thin on badly processed food, that is low on nutrients. Those who can afford Whole Foods, organic and a cartload of vegetables a week have a chance, those who dont, are fighting a losing battle. One thing that disturbs me is how they are literally POURING HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP into everything, even foods that dont need it, and INCREASING the AMOUNT. It has been proven that High Fructose Corn Syrup has a definite link to obesity. Companies that know high fat and sugar, lead to more cravings, have been taking advantage. I pray for the day I can afford things like a juicer, and buying all my food straight from the farm, then I may actually have a weight loss chance. Shelling out hundreds of dollars to the diet industry is a roller coaster that many people are obviously growing tired of. The American lifestyle is not one that is conducive to a controlled weight--lack of exercise opportunities--somehow a treadmill in a lonely suburban living room doesnt match walking the veranda in Europe to socialize, BAD food, where companies profit off taking as many nutrients out of it as possible, thinning it out, overly processed, pumped full as much sugar and fat as possible, and high stress, increasing insulin and cortisol levels so people pack the weight on.

By: Miko

Miko — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:46:19 -0800

Miko: biking works well at the 15-mile scale. That's absolutely true, and I do bike during the warmer 6-8 months of the year. But I live in Northern New England, and it's not practical between December and March when the road's shoulder is covered in perma-ice and the days are short. It's also hard to do groceries on the bike, and takes a ton of planning and organization to arrive at work looking presentable. I'm not making excuses, mind you -- I'm pretty active despite the obstacles. It just goes to show how low a priority we've made activity -- you have to really plan it out and work at it to get enough movement into a day. It won't just happen, because we've planned our bodies right out of our lives.

By: Woney

Woney — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 11:07:06 -0800

how on earth do you get your puppy to walk the treadmill with you?!? it's not really that I have to GET him to do it. I can't seem to keep him off of it when I'm on it. I get on the treadmill and start walking, and he just thinks that it's time for him to be walking too. these are good, wide treadmills, so it's pretty easy for me to move over a bit. I'll have to put a picture up - it's incredibly cute, but I really detract from the picture... *laugh*

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 11:39:00 -0800

I don't want to lose weight, but I want other fat people to lose weight, because they're disgusting.

By: gen

gen — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:52:20 -0800

Semi-related... I grew up in the US but have spent the past few years in Japan. When I went back to the US last year on a business trip, I picked up a few packs of Hanes undershirts- the same ones I've been buying for years. It turns out that last year Hanes changed their sizing down one level. I used to purchase XL shirts. Now I have to purchase Large. I haven't changed but Hanes has. This was yet another sign to me, among so many, that America is in a crisis of obesity. If Hanes, of all companies, has to adjust their t-shirt sizing nationwide to compensate for growing waistlines, that is a clear indication of a crisis.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 23:00:40 -0800

327.ca, your comment/map rules!

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 23:05:48 -0800

"But do the obese and overweight people use Macs. posted by furiousthought at 4:58 PM EST on January 10 [!]" No--they are too small and too fast to be caught.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 06:06:55 -0800

Wait a minute...I buy Haines tee-shirts, always XL, and I haven't noticed that they've gotten...I'm FAT!!!!!!!!

By: Miko

Miko — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 06:50:54 -0800

This was yet another sign to me, among so many, that America is in a crisis of obesity. If Hanes, of all companies, has to adjust their t-shirt sizing nationwide to compensate for growing waistlines, that is a clear indication of a crisis. This is nothing new, really. Sizing in the US has increased gradually but consistently throughout the 20th century. What would've been a women's size 16 in the 1950s is a 12 now. In addition, proportions have changed. Armholes and sleeves are much wider, and the introduction of "relaxed fit" jeans starting in the late 70s was really a way to make bigger asses and thighs sound comfortable and casual rather than tubby.

By: JohannStrauss

JohannStrauss — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 06:50:11 -0800

let them die young then. just don't expect the non-obese to pay for their medical bills. idiots

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 11:37:18 -0800

This was yet another sign to me, among so many, that America is in a crisis of obesity. If Hanes, of all companies, has to adjust their t-shirt sizing nationwide to compensate for growing waistlines, that is a clear indication of a crisis. Bicycle jerseys are supposed to be snug fitting, but not sausage like. They are often sold in two styles. "American fit' aka 'club fit' and 'European fit.' European fit works for regular skinny bike riders types around the world while American fit only fits Americans.

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 21:25:25 -0800