I think this thread will do nothing productive and just lead to more problems. Topics like this are very obviously heated and very highly debated all over.
That said, the world has changed in many places, as far as technological advances. No more physical work done. Machines replace humans. Humans become watchers instead of actively working. Exercise replaces hard work, but the difference is that exercise is optional, not mandatory to immediate survival, so it does not work. No incentive to continue with it for a lifetime. Eating becomes more than just for need, more for things like boredom, desire and decadence, just like other aspects of the modern lifestyle have become. No answers, as we do not and never will police ourselves, so we degrade. Fruitless to sit around and talk about it, as nothing ever comes of it. Really, that is the answer, nothing ever has come of it. People never really learn, or all of this would have been settled long ago.
Obesity is a byproduct of lifestyle and as one member said, it used to be a problem for the rich and idle, but with technology, most everyone in developed countries, are now idle. Big difference there. Diabetes is now the leading cause of health issues, more than heart attacks. Type 2 diabetes is self inflicted through eating wrong and lack of exercise. You notice nothing is working to fix that problem. There is no fix. Well, the fix would not be acceptable to humans, but that's another topic to avoid.
My job, for the last 15-20 years, has been basically, sitting in a chair. I am naturally lazy now. After sitting in a chair for 20 years, I don't want to do anything. I am not going to change it. What for? No reason to now, at 60. No reason to worry about it now, when I never worried about it before.
Carbs don’t make you gain weight, its the sugar molecule in them in its simple form which we call Simple Carbs.
Protein is great for you but the male body digest about 30grams per serving max and even than it should be low fat Protein like chicken, turkey, fish, ect… stuff that you likely wont enjoy as much as a fat juicy steak.
Than just mix as much steamed veggies as you like in each meal.
I used to weigh and measure my foods for lowering my body fat, but its a lot of work and expensive to do. Just a heads up.
Each meal should consist of 25g Complex carbs and 35g Low FAT protein. Just do this for 4~6 meals, with the last being before 6~7PM and you are solid. Heck you don’t even need to work out and the results will be amazing.
You can eat Complex carbs and be ubber healthy and likely loose weight, but not many people will dig those ex: brown rice, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, grits, whole grain, ect…
Veggies are empty calories so eat as many as you want.
The more you eat healthy you should become a fat/calorie burning machine which is great but your cravings go crazy, you feel hungry all the time, and it takes months to get used to the overall low calories that you may feel weak and un-energetic, but for me its typically 4 months before I can tolerate and be successful and feeling normal with reduced calories.
One thing I did was stay away from fruits, they carry a lot of simple sugars and while folks claim they are healthy they are still 100% SUGAR. Some in competition will cheat 1 a week by eating fruit 1 meal a week.
I tried a low carb diet for about 6 months. Lost about 4 kg. I even did extra excercise... That one just does not really work for me. And I was pretty strickt about it. Less than 5% energy from carbs. No sugars.
I just overeat. All the time.
I can easily finish 5 plates of food in the same time other people eat 1.
This comes from a sugar junkey…If there is one thing that rises my blood pressure it is the low carb diet.Why isn’t it called a low energy diet? Then again I truly believe we are not all the same,metabolism is only one of the factors.
Some may advise to listen to your body and 1000 ice creams later you get the clocked arteries…
An old saying that a calorie is a calorie should be left in the eighties,it just doesn’t make any sense.If anyone want’s to disagree I advise you to try one (1) month with table sugar only and one month with fatty meat for example(amount of calories being equal)an adventurer can go with the green stuff (I never understood it personally).Report back…
To answer one of your questions… “Are any of you who aren’t overweight over the age of 40 and still eating all the carbs you want?” : I do eat all the carbs I want and that is less that I want to eat,to be honest…
Just to make everything I said more confusing,last month I ate irregularly,mostly carbs,lost 5KG,feel like a Mickey Mouse with mid body fat,lost my apetite,I’m a bit tired and want to apologize if I sound too harsh
Eating smart helps. Carb up in the morning to allow your body to burn energy throughout the day, and eat less carbs at night. If you really want to lose weight, the only way is to HTFU and start training IMO.
My weight tends to go up and down, mainly because I eat way too much and eat too many fatty foods, however I’m also very active so when I put on weight, I train more intensely to burn it back off. A low carb diet and intense exercise works, but breaking down protein into energy is hard work for your digestive system and if you’re not used to it, you will feel low on energy after a couple of weeks. Your body however is very clever and can adjust, I’ve found after 2-3 weeks I start feeling good again, and you can lose a lot of weight that way very quickly. I’ve managed to do this several times for about 6 week periods.
Otherwise, it’s healthier in the long term to exercise and just carb up, you won’t lose weight as quickly, but you’ll retain energy and it’s more feasible long term, just do it smartly and carb up in the morning, not at night. “You need carbs to burn carbs”, although this contradicts my previous paragraph this is also true. And always aim to better your performance, least you end up waddling around and fail to make any real change.
That’s true. It takes so much commitment and discipline to maintain your diet like that, and you are going to do this everyday, every month! I eat out everyday due to my work and lifestyle, which is unhealthy but I know I am not gonna change it at the moment - it is a priority thing. The approach I take to overcome this issue is trying to force myself to go to gym as frequent as possible, and try to include the HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) concept in all types of workout I do.
We see these professional body builders and athletes having very good figure, and they have put a helluva effort to get there. I once read a saying from a bodybuilding website: For professional body builders it is 30% about training and 70% about dieting and sleeping.
I know that my posting was going to be confusing.It’s mostly about my love hate relationship with carbs…
The thing is I adore carbs and sugars,then again I moderate the amount of carbs all year around.I newer drop the carb intake very low and I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’m on low carb diet as I have physically active work and I do exercise so I feel the need of carbs as fuel(am I fooling myself ?).I do courage people to eat their proteins,try to avoid the fast carbs,bad fats and so on…
If someone offers me a lunch or dinner I would newer say no thanks just because there is mostly carbs on the plate.
Last month was just a proof that eating irregularly mostly carbs I lost weight OK,but dont feel any good at all.So there we go.
A conclusion: carbs are just a fuel,don’t over eat them,watch the type of carbs you eat and when you eat them.We need good fibers anyway.
And for overweighted people on diet,don’t let anything I said make you go to that sugar bowl,it’s poison
Low carbs for me (in my diet) just means primarily carbs from non-starchy vegetables (no potatoes or corn) but I eat a lot of vegetables otherwise. I eat protein and good fats (avocado, nuts, etc).
You body probably doesn’t need carbs for fuel unless you run marathons. You body can use fat as a fuel if you eat high quality fats.
If you eat carbs, don’t use them and let the resulting glucose be stored as fat then it’s hard to get rid of that fat unless you really cut down on carbs.
Your body isn’t going to burn fat when your insulin levels are high (as they will be after you’ve eaten sugar and other carbs).
It seems that your gut bacteria can have *some* influence. When "transplanting" bacteria some normally fat peaple loose weight. Some normally skinny people gain weight.
I very much agree with what you just said.My preference is still carbs for energy instead of unnecessary amount of good fats.Intentionally spiking the insuline levels is ofcourse not advised,on a diet or not,but when the levels drop back the fat burning will continue.
When a person feels the need for burning the bodyfat or “dieting” the things were made wrong in the first place.
I encourage everyone towards healthy eating and exercising,Life isn’t all about loosing weight.
Sometimes I stop modding to eat, that gives me time to think about my project and be ready to attack it again when the brownies are gone. If I eat a couple of platefuls of spaghetti or pizza really quick, I don’t even have to turn off the iron.
I’ve gained more weight than I like. I’m still pretty average, only about 3 flashlights and 2 knives more than I used to be. My billfold is considerably lighter, but not thinner, as it now carries receipts instead of cold hard cash. I don’t like the taste of money, so I avoid greens.
I noticed that when I passed 45 years of age, I gained weight. Like 50 lbs of weight. But then, I’d always been skinny, so it’s not such a bad thing unless I wear shoes that have laces. And my jeans make my butt look big now. And lumpy. Why don’t they put bigger pockets in jeans for flashlights and knives and stuff?
When I carry 2 BTU Shockers, I feel tired after a few hours. But it’s all good, cause the batteries are dead by then anyway and we all need recharging, so I eat ice cream and cake while they charge and I count LED’s and stars. I know, I’m an addict. But like O-L says, at 52 why worry about it now? I’ve only got about 34 more years so they might as well be fun…
One thing I’ve noticed that is pretty consistent with many people who are overweight and that is that they don’t think they eat very much and think there is something unique about them that is causing the increased weight gain.
Usually it’s something along the lines of “I exercise and exercise and still I gain weight” or “I know people who eat much more than I do, they’re skinny and I’m fat”.
The reality is that exercise is not the issue and eating sugar and simple carbs is and they just don’t/can’t reduce those foods in their diet.
