To think "hurrah" when Pauline Quirke admits that when she was huge it was down to general greediness!

[hubbabubbabubba]

Just sick of people not being honest!
i dont believe in people being a size 0 at all, but surely being that large is not good for your health.
She has done brilliantly!

Am i the only one who actually thought she looked better bigger?

She looks wizened now and loads older....i don't know how much she lost but maybe she lost a bit too much!

Pom, the reason why doctors insist on patiets losing some weight before a gastric band being fitted is because the gastric band will only work if changes are also made to the diet. If patients were eating large amounts before the op and continue to eat large amounts after, although they may vomit some of the food back up, eventually the pouch created will stretch and it can be possible for the new pouch to end up having the same capacity as the originial stomach - making the pouch pointless. I've seen patients gain weight post gastric band. It's essentially to make sure that the patient is at a place in their life where they are able to lose weight, because the gastric band is an aid to weight loss - it won't make you lose weight on its own. It would be dangerous and pointless to put someone through surgery that wouldn't have the desired outcome.

After all the virtual cake earlier I was craving the stupid damn stuff , so as I'm ill I decided to treat myself and I bought a Banoffe loaf cake. This is the first thing i have wanted to eat for two days! And I am damn well going to enjoy it!

I am aware that the above has no relevance whatsoever, just wanted to share and this thread seemed appropriate!

Side burns - I agree, she looks old and scraggy now, which seems to happen to a lot of people when they lose a lot of weight. There's another diet advert with a guy on it and I always think his before pic is much more attractive than the after!

In response to the OP I don't think that people are overweight because they are just greedy, it is far more complicated than that. Its an addiction like any other and as complicated as any other. Saying to someone with an eating problem just eat less is about as helpful as saying to an alcoholic just drink less alcohol. If it was that simple there wouldn't be a problem in the first place.

Also a few people mentioned support groups - there is a 12 step fellowship for overeaters - OA or overeaters anonymous www.oagb.org.uk/
I've not been myself but I had a friend who found it really helpful.

Oooo that makes it even weirder then aero what's the point of trying to push me get me to have one with no advice on diet and nutrition and support I'm glad I stood firm now!

hubbabubbabubba

I am not huge I admit, but I am larger than I want to be right now, and carrying too much excess. However, it isn't just a case of eating too much. I am on steroids and they are known to cause increased weight gain and, even worsem increased appetite - combined not great.

I am coming off them but it is a gradual process, but it does mean that I find it very hard to keep weight off right now and have done for the past year. And it is going to be hard to lose it all.

It isn't always as simple as you make out.

A little bit of weight is good for a more youthful look. That's what I'm telling myself. Why worry about all those creams and lotions, a few cream cakes and pies and all the wrinkles smooth out anyway.

That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Also, steroids, depo injection and other medications, plus limited mobility. Baaaad combo!

I was on valproates for a while (anti epileptics) and my weight distinctly increased when as far as I could tell my diet and exercise were the same... fortunately found a different drug which didn't have as many side effects, but like Hula, definitely found that drugs could make a difference.

Penhen, do you know for sure that those women were 'choking down' those pasties and not enjoying them because they were ashamed and embarrassed? Perhaps it was because that is how the have become accustomed to eating al the time (read Paul McKenna's 'I Can Make You Thin', it makes so much sense!)

Sideburns and TheEpliator, so you cannot comment on someone who is overweight as that is 'fat bashing'. However, it is ok to slag off a woman who has taken control of her life and probably added several years onto it - nice. FWIW, i think she looks fantastic.

I?m fat. I blame no one other than myself. I put the food into my mouth, no one else.

I?ll mitigate by saying that, for me anyway, food is as much a weakness and way of self-harming as cutting up or drinking alcohol or smoking/sniffing/injecting drugs. I hate myself and so I eat to punish myself. I?m fat because I eat destructively, and so the perpetual circle continues. If you honestly and truly can?t identify or at least empathise with that reason for overeating, then congratulations for being the perfect human.

I hate not being able to wear nice clothes. I hate being looked at with a mixture of pity and disgust for ?letting myself go?. Most of all, I hate that although my children think my wobbly bits are a novelty now ? breasts that are squashy comfort pillows and a tummy that makes a brilliant instrument on which to blow bellyachingly-funny raspberries ? that they are probably going to lose their mum earlier than they otherwise should.

It?s easy to make jokes about fat people, easy to say ?they should lose weight?, easy to pontificate that fatties are a drain on resources, particularly the NHS. I?m an easy butt of jokes, an easy target. I?m not housebound or have any major health problems, I?m just fat. 34 years old, almost 20 stone and a dress size 24-26. Apparently I hide it well. I cry at the same things you cry at. If you cut me, I bleed the same as you, same colour blood and everything. When you make jokes about my appearance they hurt in the same way that similar jokes about your weak points would hurt you. Most fat people do want to lose weight and be healthier. When you have a drug or alcohol ?issue? you have the benefit of your personal demons staying hidden from public view until such time as you are ready to do the big reveal (though some people are forced to do it sooner than they otherwise would due to, for example, hospital admission). Fatties don?t have that luxury. We know society thinks we?re weak and pathetic, and for the most point we probably are. However, we don?t have the luxury of overcoming the self- loathing and hatred in private.

If I could give my 16-year-old self advice for the future it would be:

• exercise at least twice a week ? keep up the badminton and swimming

• learn who are important in life ? mum, dad, sis, they?re important. The eejit in the schoolyard who called you fat and smelly, he?s not important. You are 5?7?, 9 stone dripping wet, a curvaceous size 10-12, you shower every morning and change your clothes every day. You are not fat and you do not smell anything other than normal.

• crisps satiate crisps salty cravings transiently. Celery does the same.

I will lose weight. I?m working on ?project me? to stop a lifelong campaign of self-hatred and punishment and I will get there, as I?m sure many fat people will. For me, the first step is admitting why I eat the way I do, the rest is piecemeal after that. I wish Pauline Quirk well in her weight loss, but I?m sceptical about her public reasons as to why she put the weight on in the first place. She has a public persona and I guess it?s hard to admit that you?ve deep rooted psychological issues that drove you to eat like that in the first place, but that?s not my business.

Most fat people do know they?re fat, and they?re reminded on a daily basis just how fat and hideous and grotesque and pathetic and disgusting they are without threads like this championing ?beat a fatty day?.

I think I have an issue with the expectation that people should 'admit' their greed. That it is not good enough to have simply lost an impressive amount of weight, women must also confess their gluttony and ask for absolution from the public.

samstown I came to that conclusion because they looked guilty, were huddled in a corner and kept looking around furtively as if checking that no one was watching them. I have read Paul McKenna's book (years ago), but I prefer Clarissa Estes' philosophy of accepting the body one has and enjoying it, whatever its size. I do like the idea of mindful eating though and I think that you should eat whatever you want as long as you enjoy it because that's the point.
Sadly, too many people have pointed out that they are judged on their size, which is no one else's business at all.
GrownUpNinjaWarrior, I agree - a little fat does smooth out the wrinkles

I genuinely believe any product of the diet industry is counter-productive, whether it be LL, SW, WW - whatever.

I've lost 6 stone through addressing the actual psychological issues that were keeping me fat.

In the past I've used diets and diet foods. They don't work. If you want cake, damn well have cake. Low fat is a myth and unsustainable.

All of the diet industry biggies rely on us being obsessed with food, and frame it in ways that reinforce that. Getting away from that was hard. People find it hard to believe that I lost weight eating the way I do now, but it works. There is no low fat or diet food in the house - real butter etc.

I would love it if grown women would stop referring to food as "naughty." It's just food. SW is the worst, with the "syns." Wankers.

Samstown, this whole thread is fat-bashing, so evening the balance with an honest opinion about how saggy skin looks older than skin with a layer of fat under it is absolutely within the spirit of this whole conversation. You may think she looks fantastic now, we both agreed she looked younger when bigger. Equally relevant and valid opinions.

Pom, that is very strange, it must vary by PCT. In my area (Sarf East London) the vast majority of our patients who we see for weight loss surgery have had dietician input - usually 1 years worth. Does seem very odd to leap straight to expensive surgery but the NHS is like that sometimes

CrunchyFrog.... can I ask how you addressed the issues? Did you seek counselling or was it just something you 'got your head round'?

Cheeky to ask I know.......

But its does hurt when people make rude comments, whatever your size. Unfortunately it tends to be women who are worried about their own weight who most often feel the need to comment. Women who I would consider perfectly fine looking.

This is the problem I have. My weight is fine. More than fine. I am very lucky. But I get stressed about it when others make comment about it and how much I eat. I feel the need to explain and defend myself when really I shouldn't. I do have a real problem with this - as it adds to the problem of people in general being overweight.

Why?

Well I feel like I have to be quite strict with myself when I'm full, not to have more when people make a comment about me eating very little. I'm sure that others will almost feel obliged to finish whats on their plates. You ARE pressured and thats wrong. I eat enough FOR ME. It probably wouldn't be enough for someone else. I shouldn't be put in this constant guilt trip over that. Its not a competition, and I actually think people want to make it into that, or want to pass comment in someway to belittle others who do not belong to 'their' group - eg slim v fat or fat v slim. And yes, I do think it very much does happen both ways. There are examples all over this thread.

I have never been 'fat' (I dislike the term a lot, as its a descriptive word in my head - but others take it as being an insult when its not intended like that). But that does not mean I am not acutely aware of how easy it would be to slowly put on weight bit by bit and then bam suddenly you are 3 or 4 stone overweight or even more and its a hell of a lot more difficult to loose it. Taking your eye off the ball as such in some way - whether it be because of life events or problems or just a gradual creeping thing - just seems so incredibly easy to do. Hindsight is 20 - 20. Its easy to see how it happened after the fact. Not so easy when its happening more slowly or you have other things on your mind. I don't look at people and think 'weak' for one second, for that reason.

I do think it is something that you have to work at and be aware of all the time. And it requires education, which some people have and some don't. And thats before you consider the world in which we live with standardised portion sizes, fast food (and drink) available everywhere and overall a culture designed to make us consume more and more. And don't get me started on the misleading labelling saying women should eat a recommend 2000 calories a day.

If anything its fairly amazing that we don't have a bigger problem than we do in this country.

I do think that 'greed' DOES come into it at some point, for SOME people. I'm cautious of using the word, so I'll try and explain as sensitively as I can. I think it would be quite wrong to go down the politically correct route and say it doesn't play a factor. When you've got a lovely looking steak on your plate screaming 'eat me', even if you are full, it is difficult to go "NO!". I don't care if you are fat or thin we've all overdone it at one time or another. Our culture supports that "just one cake won't hurt you" type attitude. Thats my problem - the problem that was my original point in this post.

You can't escape it. The fact is that the latest stats suggest that people only overeat by 10% of their calorie intake - that cake can be the difference - if its a regular thing. Thats hardly stuffing your face type greed. It is overeating (and therefore by definition 'greed' unfortunately), but I find it entirely understandable, minor and difficult for anyone to be saintly over. Its bloody hard to ignore. I think if you have difficulty understanding the sentiment you have an entirely different type of eating disorder, to be frank.

And then theres the one factor that everyone forgets and ignores when it comes to weight - one that I consider overall to be the biggest influence. Just how much pure luck comes into it on every single contributing little factor.

apologises for longer post than originally intended!

never it was quite gradual. I had a few conversations with a friend about mindfulness (not WRT to food, but just general living.) Starting using some of the techniques to relieve anxiety. Then I did some writing and some thinking. Didn't tell anyone I was going to diet, didn't consider it a diet actually.

I don't use it now, but for about the first 6 months, every time I ate, I ran through a checklist -

Am I actually hungry? Or am I tired/ cold/ sad/ angry/ depressed/ bored (all my reasons for eating shite.) If I still wanted to eat after that, I would wait 5 minutes to see if the urge passed. I never "told myself" I couldn't have something, never felt denied. With diets in the past, my inner fucking stupid rebel would kick in as soon as that sense of denial occured and I would eat e.g. a family pack of maltesers.

It was also important to replace food with something else. So I started new hobbies and made new friends. My life is unrecognisable now, and fantastic compared to where I was 18 months ago.

Thank you CrunchyFrog....

I'm trying to follow Paul McKenna and only eat when I am hungry.

This: With diets in the past, my inner fucking stupid rebel would kick in as soon as that sense of denial occured and I would eat e.g. a family pack of maltesers. Rings huge bells with me.... DH wants to lose weight too so we are keeping food diaries but I keep eating biscuits or whatever and then NOT writing it down in a sort of rebel kind of way....

Off to google mindfulness..... I am a very stressy anxious person at the best of times!

But Peahen, if those women were aware enough of what they were eating to be embarrassed about it, why choose a cornish pasty (which is probably well over half the recommended daily calories and was originally designed as lunch for men who worked down mines all day). No one put a gun to their heads at the bakery and made them buy it - where is the personal repsonsibility?

mrsd I am genuinely sorry if I offended you, that wasn't my intention at all.

I am sick to the back teeth of womens weight being used against them!

I will run and hide once I have posted this but...... Being extremely overweight is simple - you eat far too much and you don't move your arse.

For the past 6 weeks I have exercised 3 times a week and reduced my portion size. I have a BMI of 31+ so am a heffer. I have managed to lose 9 lb so really can back up initial statement.

When you watch supersize v super skinny and programmes of that ilk and see these enormous people eating absolute crap it is totally evident that they just don't care.

And as for kids of 11 weighing 11 stone plus don't get me started.

I'm off ( running shoes on :) :) )