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?

I know some people like this, constantly on a diet but somehow always grazing and consuming vast amounts of calories in drinks and alcohol.

It's also about calories in/ calories out. If you only move from the couch to the fridge and back again then the weight will pile on.

anzu
T1 does not equsl t2

and as for the rest of you who seem to think that people can get fat without eating too much

I am not your problem
and I care just about as much
learn science - stop talking carp

stop talking carp

Maybe you should care about learning to spell.

Maybe you should care about learning to spell.

or about being a decent human being, but I suspect that is far beyond him/her/it.

My mother is overweight (not very) and sees to eat very little and often makes a fuss about how she is full etc. However, when I stay with her and have gone downstairs for something after she thought I was in bed, I often have found her with a plate of cheese, butter and biscuits... which she is then embarrassed about.

lmgtfy.com/?q=type+2+diabetes

Your "data set", Talk1n? Oh do give over. Can't you spot when someone knows better than you?

I get how certain conditions can cause the body to hold on to fat and that evetyones metabolism is different, but ultimately it will run out. So where is the additional energy, that isn't coming through food, coming from?
if these people have the ability to create energy from nothing then we need to harness that for other purposes

AIBU to think that she must do it for attention yes YABU and judgemental. she has a life threatening condition. Why would anyone do that for attention?

There's a show called Secret Eaters.

Haven't read the full thread but there are conditions which cause weight gain without over eating.

It isn't fat causing the gain but fluid gathering in the body due to various organs not functioning properly, for example ascites in liver failure (gives appearance of beer belly/pregnant) or leg swelling/lung congestion in cardiac failure.

I know someone like this. In the six years I've known her she has announced she's been on every type of diet. Weightwatchers, Dietchef, Slimming World etc. She is still the same size as when we first met. When she eats in front of people she just picks at healthy, low cal stuff but I'm sure she eats huge amounts when not being observed.

people who overeat compulsively often underestimate how much they eat and how many calories they eat. i did. it would be like i was in a kind of weird daze where i would be cramming in food. i'd spend massive amounts on food in one sitting- going from shop to shop, takeaway to takeaway and eating to fill this void. and when as part of my recovery i tried to list what i had eaten in a single day i would often remember foods i had eaten enormous amounts of and just hadn't recalled as i would do it in a short and "spaced out" period of time

ThatsWotSheSaid i agree. no way is it for attention. people don't want to be fat or have issues with food.

IWasGintyMarlowe - I know the daze you're talking about! In my case, sometimes (very very seldom) I eat sugary carbs (I'm low carb otherwise) and once I start, I can't stop! It's like all or nothing.

Some of the people on this thread are in for a shock when they go through the menopause.

Bloody hell some people really hate fat people. FWIW as I said earlier, excess weight is often eating but is also sometimes not. All the 'it's Newtonian' and 'it's a closed system' people, there are absolutely disorders that mean that people need fewer calories. Prada Willi (spelling?) for example. Just because they're rare, doesn't mean they don't exist.

But also, calling people lazy and greedy won't actually help the epidemic obesity health issues we have.

yes. Prader Willi, PCOS, Cushings, thyroid? also being on certain medications as well, especially psychiatric medications. and considering that 1 in 4 of us will have mental health issues at some stage of our lives that is a lot of people at risk of being fat....

It's highly likely to be secret overeating, but that doesn't mean that she can "help" it. Telling overweight people to "eat less, move more" is like telling poor people to "earn more, spend less" or telling an alcoholic to "just not put the wine in your mouth". I don't subscribe to the "physical addiction" thing on food, but I do recognise that the reasons people overeat are complicated and emotional and the negative associations with being obese make it harder to lose weight (weight shaming is pretty ineffective in making people lose weight). Even long term health isn't that much of a stick (if it was, people would have stopped smoking way before the government effectively forced them to) because you're expecting the abstract (diabetic coma) to compete with the concrete (delicious plate of cake).

I can honestly say that every single person that I have encountered over the years that say they 'never eat' or eat 'very little' are invariably lying or seriously misguided. One example was the mother of my DD's friend. At her heaviest,she weighed 29 stone,and was a dress size 36. But apparently she 'barely ate',and when she did eat,it was only 'salads and vegetables' my arse. She was rumbled when my DD went out with her friend one day,then went back to her house at lunch time. Her friend's mum obviously hadn't been expecting them,as they found her just about to sit down to eat a plate of 6 bacon rolls and a family sized bag of crisps. My DD couldn't believe her eyes. About a year later,she underwent a gastric bypass op,and to date,has lost 18 stone,and is now a size 14!

And just in case anybody thinks I am being judgemental re.the above post,I am overweight myself. But I do get irritated by overweight people saying they hardly eat,or only eat salad. I know that occasionally weight problems can be caused by medical conditions,but they are in the minority. I know I am overweight because I eat too much!

99% chance,secret eater.

1% chance, medical condition.

I'm a T1 diabetic but when I did an education course they talked about T2. T2 can be a side effect of life saving cancer drugs; my nurse recalled how bittersweet it had been for her to tell patients they had the all clear, but to also tell them they were left with a medical condition that people always judge negatively. It CAN be caused by weight - and doctors will also just assume that is the case - but specialist nurses and consultants who deal with T2 could show you a whole host of other reasons. My grandad is T2 for example but has never been overweight- this has been caused by a lifetime of medical issues. He's on tablets to counteract the side effects of the side effects from the other tablets, and one of the side effects is insulin resistance = T2. It's more complex than "just lose weight and it'll go away".

This article on 'the Fat Trap' explains why, if you've been overweight and then dieted, your body can work very hard to cling on to any calories you give it, meaning you put weight on quicker/keep weight on even on lo cal diets: mobile.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all&referer=

It's not as simple as calories in bs calories out.

Rookiemere if your uncle and Dad had late onset diabetes, that is type 1 and has nothing to do with weight.