To be pissed off about the so called healthy eating advice we've been given for years ?

[Scarletohello]

I did the Atkins diet about 8 years ago when it was considered faddy and dangerous. Low fat was the healthy way to go. I got so much hostility about it, almost like I was a climate change denier. To my surprise,I lost 2 stone easily and quickly. Unfortunately I got scared by all the health warnings about how bad it was for you so eventually went back to a ' normal' diet. And put it all on again. Am currently watching the C4 doc about how sugar is bad for you. Of course it bloody is !!

Why can't the authorities wake up and realise its not fat that makes you fat? It's sugar and fast acting carbs.

It's time we had a major overhaul in our thinking about what really makes us fat...

Until companies like coca cola stop selling their crap sugar and chemicals mixed with water and advertising it everywhere, claiming it's fine to drink when really theyjust want to get you hooked its a problem.

Nobody is forced to drink coca cola just because a crap/unhealthy food or drink is available doesn't mean anyone has to put it in their mouths

People have to take responsibility for what they eat or don't eat

A good pork scratching is great - until I find a hair ... They make me gag and I can't contemplate eating them. Anyone found any without?

It could go the other way. The trend for 'clean' eating and less sugar could grow stronger. So it's no longer seen as odd / different but the norm as it was.

And people view it the same as seeing greenery, walking in fresh and sunshine. As necessary to well-being.

Also we might get more people standing at their desks at work or moving during the day on purpose, instead of sitting for so many hours a day.

Or... yep it could get worse.

It could get better of course.

If more and more people could resist whatever it is that leads them to overeat junk food and if they could find the time/motivation to exercise

I think people lose weight eating clean/paleo/primal because we are all so much bigger these days. I'm not just referring to obese people but people considered a healthy or normal weight too. Just thinking back to the 80's/90's and a size 10 then was so much smaller than it is today. And I really can't recall any fat adults from my 70's/80's childhood. So we are all a lot bigger than our ancestors would have been.

I really don't agree with the calories in=calories out theory either. It's too simplistic. I'm sure our bodies deal with different foods in much different ways. 1000 cals of alcohol will be processed and used differently to 1000 cals of chicken and veg for example.

And I also don't agree with the eat less, exercise more adage. If it was that simple to lose/maintain weight then why is it such a struggle for so many people? I don't think it's a case of willpower at all. We all stick out boring jobs because we have earn money to live/the care of children is often relentless/boring/thankless yet we stick it out, there's probably lots more examples where we do things that are hard because the benefits are worth it...so why don't people eat less and exercise more? Especially when the benefits are health/fitness/attractiveness? Because it doesn't work.

Do you remember snacking when you were a child? We didn't at all and didn't feel deprived. Our diet was typical 80's stuff too like waffles and crispy pancakes and frosties. School lunches were white bread, crisps, club bar. But we weren't always searching out our next meal. We didn't exercise for health, sport was for fun (if you like that sort of thing!)

Food today has changed. There is sugar added to so many products. Try finding a full fat natural yogurt in your local supermarket, there's a challenge!

'Try finding a full fat natural yogurt in your local supermarket, there's a challenge!'

Yes, that's one of my personal bugbears, 90% of yogurts are low fat or fat free. What does a girl need to do to get a reasonably priced full fat coconut yogurt!

The US is worse. Well it was when I was there many years ago for a year. Zero fat everywhere.

...so why don't people eat less and exercise more? Especially when the benefits are health/fitness/attractiveness? .... Because it doesn't work.

People don't eat less and exersie more because exercise is hard work, and quite frankly pretty boring, not because it doesn't work!

Everyone wants a quick fix, which is why processed food that are bad for you are so popular, and why 'fad diets' are also so popular.

People want to think there's an easy, quick fix and the only real way is eat less (and eat the right stuff) and move more, boring, but true

Do you see professional athlets who are unhealthy and over weight? No, because they eat nutritionally balances diets and do a lot of exercise, which keeps them heathly and not over weight

Try Pork crunch instead of crackling. It's lighter/crispy but not teeth breaking
Usually on the end of aisles or hung on those strip things in crisp/alcohol section

I think comparing professional athletes to ordinary people is a bit extreme - being fit and strong and healthy is their job after all! If all of us had all day to exercise, someone advising us on the correct diet for our needs/aims and (generalising but most athletes are young and don't have families to look after) plenty of undisturbed sleep, then I think there would be a lot fewer obese people!

The calorie reduction/increased movement thing usually works well for weight loss the first time, but its not sustainable (the biological urge to eat will eventually beat most people's willpower) and gets less and less effective every time it's undertaken.

Lets not forget that people who become elite athletes come pre equipped with the genetics/bodytypes required to succeed in their chosen sports.

And there are people who are naturally lean despite not being especially active.

And I also don't agree with the eat less, exercise more adage. If it was that simple to lose/maintain weight then why is it such a struggle for so many people?

I think it's a struggle to lose weight because

1. We are programmed to eat and enjoy food that is high fat, high sugar etc. incase there is no food tomorrow.
2. Leaving aside the benefits of not being fat, the act of losing weight and eating a low calorie diet will eventually lead to death so we are not designed to be good at it.
3. Food is actually not just fuel and we enjoy eating, preparing and sharing it.
4. Technology, culture and innovation has made food readily available many countries so there are no natural barriers to not eating.
5. Many foods have addictive qualities. (e.g. sugar)

In summary, I don't think people eat less and move more and struggle to lose weight, I think they struggle to eat less and move more.

There's a lot of interesting information online by Zoe Harcombe about how not all calories are the same and what happens inside the body when we eat fat, carbs etc. It is not as simple as calories in = calories out, it seems. Eating less/exercising more doesn't work in the long run (excuse the pun).

Our bodies are programmed to hang on to fat if we are starving ourselves, hence why diets don't work after a while (see the experiments referred to in the tv programmes "the men who made us fat").

Very interesting topic.

I believe sugar is evil and why we have an obesity problem.

People don't eat less and exersie more because exercise is hard work, and quite frankly pretty boring, not because it doesn't work!

But you have to work out for ages to burn off a small amount of calories.
Lookee here It's not efficient at all as a way of losing weight. It obviously has other benefits like enhancing your mood and toning but weight loss?

And as I said earlier, if the reason people don't exercise is because it's hard then how come we can all motivate ourselves to do other hard activities?

we can all motivate ourselves to do other hard activities?

we can?

Yes we can motivate ourselves to do hard activities - studying for difficult exams, learning a trade or skill, going to the gym for hours on end....

I'm joking, because I am sitting here on MN rather than getting on with the million and one things I should be doing. but I don't see exercise as being more or less hard than any other hard activity and many people find it enjoyable, not hard. It is also something that can be incorporated into everyday life (although I can see that this is not equally easy for everybody).

I think exercise is an efficient way of loosing weight sustainably but slowly. I would guess that many people would be looking for a weight loss of about a pound a week? It would be unlikely that you would achieve that through exercise alone.

Sorry, there's been so many posts on this thread about people not losing weight due to lack of motivation that I'm getting touchy!

I meant that people are often criticised for having no willpower with regards to exercise but manage to have the willpower to turn up to work everyday, or clean up a toddler's poo smeared arse for the millionth time or...or...you get the gist.

All these things are hard but beneficial. So why is exercise, and restraint around food the one we let slide? The one that benefits us the most we don't bother with? It makes no sense.

Why are so many people overweight? Are we all just bone idle?

I don't believe this at all. I believe that a lot of people are sensitive to the high carb/hidden sugars aspect of our recommended healthy eating and it's this which causes the cravings. Exercise for the sake of losing weight can be hard and boring and the results are so minimal or hard to maintain that it seems pointless.

It's unfair to label all obese or overweight (or skinny fat) people as lacking willpower.

as people get fatter and fatter they become metabolically more and more disordered dysfunctional, it becomes harder and harder to get back to normal.

Fat is not just an inert storage depot, it secretes all kinds of things which have a detrimental effect on the whole body....thats why things can snow ball out of control

I think they key to normal healthy eating is by taking responsibility yourself.

Many people blame the big bad industries.

Yes, they ARE big and bad, but we can vote with our feet. I find it no challenge at all to simply not buy crap. And if I DO buy crap, and I do, I take full responsibilty, as nobody put a gun to my head.

One more thing: Really fancying something (sugary) does not equal addiction.

All these things are hard but beneficial. So why is exercise, and restraint around food the one we let slide? The one that benefits us the most we don't bother with? It makes no sense

Yes, it does make sense - if you think how we evolved, I'd guess our forebears ate when there was plenty, and didn't exert themselves more than they needed to catch/gather their food.

it's to do with the relative power of long and short term rewards and the ability to defer gratification.
If you dont go to work or do onerous domestic chores things get out of control very quickly and the rewards are relatively immediate, you have money to live on and an orderly life.

On the other hand eating cake gives you an immediate reward, not eating the cake means losing the pleasure of eating the cake for a reward that only comes sometime in the future and depends on hundreds more acts of cake denial.

Same with exercise, if you find it unpleasant you have to endure regular bouts of it for weeks on end before you see any change in body composition.

Jimmy, Lazy is right but I also saw some research the other day about 'willpower' suggesting that we have a finite amount of willpower (or focus, or ability to defer gratification, or however you want to phrase it). If you are already using your willpower to cope with a shitty job, or shitty stuff like, I dunno, worrying about how to pay the bills, or to do 1001 other unpleasant but necessary things, you have little left for taking up a new exercise regime. Indeed, you will be drawn to treat yourself as a reward for doing the other unpleasant but necessary stuff.

Of course, you can try to persuade yourself that exercise may be a hassle at first but you will come to enjoy it and look forward to it and get a natural high from it - but that's not necessarily a compelling argument if you need to get up at 5.30 on a cold winter morning in order to run before work...

I can totally believe that Edam

I often think part of the social class divide when it comes to weight is that it is easy(er) to say no to a $1 treat when a $50 one is coming your way anyway.