Overweight but doesn't eat apparently - possible?

[Mozismyhero]

So, my DM is massively overweight. She is also diabetic. She says she doesn't eat, 'I've only had one piece of toast all day. I couldn't possibly eat all that (when eating out/at our house). And yet she doesn't lose any weight. Is that possible? Surely the weight would be falling off her if she didn't eat? Or do I just not understand diabetes?

AIBU to think that she must do it for attention and that she's secretly eating packets of biscuits and crisps?

yuckyuck are you a thyroid specialist? You seem to know an awful lot about it but it doesn't seem to chime with most people's experience of the condition.

why does she feel the need to say, at EVERY meal
could she be scoring points over you, emphasizing that her excess body mass is not due to overeating, as a way of drawing attention to your overeating
a kind of veiled criticism?

Come on now. Even if it is possible in rare cases for people to become overweight without over-eating, how likely is it actually that the overweight person in the OP is a) really getting by on just a piece of toast in a day and b) not losing weight by doing so? I have no medical knowledge whatsoever, but some stories just don't add up. Yes maybe she COULD be a rare case, but the alternative reason is infinitely more probable.

She probably feels rubbish about her diet.
At work there are a significant number of overweight people who don't eat lunch, but I assume may eat evening meals.
I do think if it was so easy to lose weight everyone would. Once it is on the effort involved in reducing calories and increasing activity is pretty tough.

I know i am coming to this late and haven't read all the previous posts. I'm a state registered dietitian and I would make 2 comments: it is not possible to maintain a very overweight body without eating. Studies have shown that if you hospitalise obese persons and give them a 1500kcal/d diet they will lose weight.
Things which make weight loss difficult are reduced activity , for instance being in a wheelchair/ having significantly impaired mobility. Also a messed up metabolism, i have come across a few women who went on drastic 1970s type diets with added prescription LSD and lost stones, but then went "off the wagon" and through cycles of bingeing and restricting, and now put weight on if they eat more than say 1200kcal/d.
I am sorry but i would suspect your mum is over eating at home. She may not even realise how much she is actually taking in.

Not read the whole thread but it's definitely possible to wreck your metabolism and stay overweight despite not eating. Dm eats barely anything and is several stones overweight. And no she doesn't binge eat or secretly eat. She's just wrecked her metabolism.

Whataboutbob you say it's not possible and then mention several ways in which it is possible.

Yes, Backing what i meant is in the normal course of things you cannot not eat and yet gain weight. However if you are in a wheelchair; or have a history of alternating very restrictive diets and over eating you will have messed up your metabolism, and past the menopause that is going to translate as being overweight with a very low resting metabolism, so that if you take in say more than 1200 kcal/d you'll gain weight. Hope that makes sense.

You're not suck with your metabolism you know?

It changes based on what you're doing and eating.

A post menopausal woman who takes up sport in a big way will speed their metabolism up, they're not stuck with a fixed "post menopause" metabolism rate!

Yes its harder, but it's not a fixed number that's out of your hands (illness and disabilites aside)

Good point Yuck but I think you do have to work harder at it as you get older, and be more discipline with food to prevent the spread. It's a fact that calorie requirements go down as we get older. So your choice is to eat less or walk/ cycle/ swim etc more. Do nothing/ eat more and the weight will pile on. A lot of people do not go out and make the lifestyle changes.

and my metabolism was "wrecked" due to illness, it was practically at a halt! I built it back up over years. Walked a little further, moved a little more, initially I wasn't able to exercise at all but I worked up to it by moving more around the house etc until I could

Now my metabolism is about normal, I have too keep on top of it as I could easily slide backwards and I have to push myself to stay there

but your metabolims is a reaction to your activity and intake, so you can change it, even if in small ways like getting up and walking around the house when you feel like you can't.

Well done, many don't have the discipline to turn this kind of situation around.

A lot of people do not go out and make the lifestyle changes.

yeah well a lot of that is cultural. "over 50s" gym classes etc implying that over 50s can't cane it in spin. The idea that you shouldn't exert yourself with illnesses associated with aging, when actually, you need to to rehabilitate from lung or heart problems etc.

In other cultures older people stay much more active, in our culture there's an expected "wind down" which IMO contribues more to metabolic changes than actual age

It's changing a lot, but only recently. Doctors and HCPs are being much more blunt about the importance of exercise in the over 50s particularly in relation to disorders that would previously be an excuse to give up exercise

prescription LSD

Whaaaat?!? Isn't LSD the one that makes you hallucinate? I know an older guy who tells a story about a friend he was at college with in the 60s, who died because he jumped off a roof due to an LSD hallucination.

Yes that does make sense bob and also described my mum. Disabled, little mobility, history of vlcds, post menopausal etc. It's just frustrating when people suggest it's lack of effort or willpower. Most of us would really struggle on my mum's daily diet.

Many of today's health problems are purely down to inactivity and poor diet. To make matters worse the NHS just prescribe pills and more pills which cause side effects requiring more pills. For the vast majority of those people who are overweight and suffering related problems pills are not the answer. Very interesting documentary - slightly off topic but it addresses the health epidemic facing us and the need to address this simply with changes to lifestyle

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07wwd9d/the-doctor-who-gave-up-drugs-episode-2

Yes, "speed" was prescribed in the 80's to help with weight loss.

I saw that program FarAway and also found it very interesting. He's right, a lot of people would be massively healthier if they just got out more. This summer I spent 10 days on an island with no public transport, just one road, 2 little shops and most locals walked or cycled. You could tell the tourists, they were heavier, the locals were nearly all lean.

Talkin - our body loses internal energy, the energy can go—to heat transfer, to doing work, and to stored fat.

Energy cannot be "lost" or gained"
Newton's laws.

There's an aticle from BMJ about "where does the fat go" when folk lose weight (mostly lost thru respiration).

GPs should give out step counters on perscription instead of pills. People are generally more sedentary than ever before and just not aware how little they move each day. I firmly believe that if everyone walked briskly for at least 30 mins a day we would all be a lot healthier and happier.

I realise there are exceptions to this and those with certain health issues are not able to do this but many many are.

ilove sorry just seen your question
How; no breakfast just drinking black tea to stave off hunger. A small dinner (like a veggie Dahl) no pudding.
I was also very active.

but honestly, within 3 months of eating again (a low fat yogurt, a buttered roll, small dinner) I've lost weight and become 2 dress sizes smaller my moods are better and my gynae problems are gone.
Purely anecdotal, I found one article on pcos and blood sugar links but eating more worked, it was the only thing I changed.