It's a combination really. You can eat fairly freely (portion-wise, and of course, not eat tons of breaded/fried/fast food), and as long as you exercise regularly, you are fine. As long as I'm on a regular 6 day a week exercise plan, I can eat fairly crappily quite honestly. But to obtain optimum weight, eating well and exercise is the way to go.

BUT... diets are crap, imo. The sole reason people are so plump anymore, is their utter lack of anything exercise. TV, computers, and lax (exercise-wise) jobs are what cause the fat to pile on. In the 1600, kings and royalty often were fat. They didn't have McDs or processed foods. Why were they fat? They didn't do much.

The best diet is: smaller portions. Not to cut off ALL breads, or to eat like a caveman, or any other fancy-schmancy diet, but eat sensibly, and exercise regularly. That is the most sure way to fit.

When I was in the Army, I and my fellow soldiers ate like CRAP! Just terrible. Yet we were in excellent shape. PT 6 days a week, twice a day on 3 days, and a fairly active lifestyle ensured that folks stayed in shape.

There are a lot of bad foods out there, but imo, lack of exercise is a much greater reason for obesity, than the food people eat. Of course combine lots of crappy food + no exercise, and it's no surprise that people are vastly overweight all over the place.

Originally posted by fleabit
When I was in the Army, I and my fellow soldiers ate like CRAP! Just terrible. Yet we were in excellent shape. PT 6 days a week, twice a day on 3 days, and a fairly active lifestyle ensured that folks stayed in shape.

Maybe you can be in shape while eating crap. But I really doubt you can be healthy long term. Eating like crap will make your body crap.

[edit on 25/6/2009 by FreezeM]

Originally posted by DevolutionEvolvd


Besides, the point that Gary Taubes is making is, don't eat so many carbs, eat fat and protein because there is no evidence to suggest that they are bad for you.

-Dev

[edit on 24-6-2009 by DevolutionEvolvd]

Well, he basically just pointed out what bodybuilders have known for the past 50+ years. Geez, you could just pick up an issue of FLEX magazine at the seven eleven for $3.00 instead of wading through this guy's monster of a book!

Originally posted by badw0lf

Only if you can include the formula for :

Skinny female + lots of fatty fast foods + lots of alcohol + no exercise + smoker = skinny person who never gets fat or puts on weight & looks almost anorexic.

If you can work that out, in conjunction with your previous evaluation, then we can agree.
[edit on 25/6/2009 by badw0lf]

She has a low insulin level. She probably gets shaky and weak when not consuming large amounts of high-carb/sugar foods.

Originally posted by ravenshadow13
I've always heard that some forms of obesity are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. When you eat, chemicals signal your brain to let you know that you're full and should stop eating. Some people don't receive these signals properly and eat past the point that they are full without feeling discomfort. And therefore become obese.

I've seen it happen, I don't understand how some people can eat plates and plates of food without feeling full or even ill. I can't eat past when I'm full, it's physically impossible for me.

It has a lot to do with either metabolism or your size. When I gained a lot of weight, I had been able to eat quite a bit more than I was when I was originally lean, but once I cleaned up my diet and started exercising, I didn't require as much food. Plus, by eating that much all the time, you make your body believe that you need all that food, but all you're doing is satisfying your taste. You have to be able to be aware of the difference between being actually hungry and your taste buds wanting to be satisfied. However, if you are an athlete, you would need more than the average person because of the muscle tissue damage you have done, and the depletion of other nutrients you lost during your workout, practice, etc. However, obviously athletes or anyone who is a workout fanatic puts better food in their bodies than the obese person cramming all that junk down their throats.

Originally posted by FreezeM

Originally posted by fleabit
When I was in the Army, I and my fellow soldiers ate like CRAP! Just terrible. Yet we were in excellent shape. PT 6 days a week, twice a day on 3 days, and a fairly active lifestyle ensured that folks stayed in shape.

Maybe you can be in shape while eating crap. But I really doubt you can be healthy long term. Eating like crap will make your body crap.

[edit on 25/6/2009 by FreezeM]

Well, keep in mind those in the Army usually are younger and have a young person's metabolism. I too don't recommened eating like crap, I was just saying that with regular exercise, you can overcome much bad eating.

It's almost all portions though. People could probably survive comfortably on about 1/3rd of the food they eat. When you go to a restaurant, it's amazing... people usually have eaten enough for an entire day just on appetizers and drinks (calorie-wise), before their main course even arrives! To anyone seriously wanting to lose weight, good advice to start on is regular exercise, and you can probably eat about half as much as you are right now. Portion sizes are ridiculous these days.

Oh.. and while it's true that lack of exercise imo, has just as much to do with gaining weight as overeating, overeating most certainly DOES cause weight gain. Saying overeating doesn't cause weight gain is just silly imo.

[edit on 25-6-2009 by fleabit]

Eh -- it's just a question of semantics...

So Gary Taube says that a hormonal imbalance is the cause of obesity -- because this hormonal imbalance is what causes overeating.

That's like saying falling off of a cliff doesn't kill you, it's the landing on the ground that kills you. -- Or -- the gun itself doesn't kill you, it's the bullet that kills you.

So, the hormonal imbalance may be the gun, but overeating is still the bullet. People just need to figure out a way to keep that bullet from leaving the gun.

[edit on 6/25/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

Have you noticed how few Americans posted replies here. It seems to upset the Aussies, and the people in the UK more than the Americans. Very interesting. Could it be Americans are more tolerant of each others foibles.

Jack Spratt could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean.
So between them both they licked the platter clean. (Nursery Rhyme)


Some people need to to eat low fat to stay slim and some people need low carb. We are all not the same.

Watched the video, what an informative piece. Very close to what I have read in Atkins book.

As an aside, I went on the low carb, no sugar diet about 5 months ago. I've lost just over 40 lbs and not once did I go to the gym.

Originally posted by DevolutionEvolvd
There is no evidence that shows eating fat increases cholesterol which causes heart disease.

sorry, i wasn't clear. ignoring the details of the mechanism, insulin and all that, as far as i can see, the theory here is that when the body burns carbs, in the form of glucose, a molecule is produced which allows the body to store fat by combining with fatty acids to lock them into a fat cell. the trick is to not burn carbs and therefore the body has to burn fats for energy as well as losing the ability to easily lock these fatty acids into fat cells.

what i am suggesting is that because the fats aren't stored in fat cells and because they are being pumped about for use in the body as energy there are more of them in the blood stream. not from eating more fats but as a normal side effect of a lack of carbs.

conventional wisdom says this is a bad thing. if not, then why not. any ideas?

Best I can recommend from personal experience:

1) Eat carbs in the morning (body gets energy from carbs during day time)

2) Eat whatever you want at lunch (but moderate portions)

3) Eat no carbs AT ALL at dinner (besides you can eat what you want) and do not eat anything after 7 p.m. (to keep the insulin level low. The body burns fat during night time, BUT ONLY if the insulin level is low)

4) Moderate exercises 2-3 times (min. 30 to 45 minutes) per week

And you will be fine!

Great stuff in the OP.

And horrible stuff from some others who simply wish to relegate anyone overweight to being selfish, gluttonous and lazy. The demonization of the overweight is a grotesque propaganda by a system that not only wants to make us fat, but to then mortify us for being so. Now the overweight have become a target of selective segregation being blamed for societies ills.

Fact: Some people are 'lazy' (ie they are not very physically active).

Fact: Some people eat 'bad' food. But in either fact not everyone who is lazy and eats badly is overweight.

A friend of mine who was slightly underweight drove cars for a living and lived on fast food.

I grew up on a 'welfare' diet in the '80's. Don't know what a welfare diet is (or was before fast food became so grossly cheap)? Well, I can tell you that it did not include 'fast food' or much junk food. It did maintain a high level of what were then cheap foods such as bread, potatoes, rice, cereal and other carbohydrates which for the ill-informed are nothing more than concentrated sugars.

What it did not include were many foods high in protein, such as meat, which are more expensive.

Guess what? I was absurdly overweight. I still am overweight despite maintaining a caloric intake well below the recommended 2000 calorie diet.

Wonder what is in a 'fast food' hamburger that makes it 100% Grade A beef? Filler. Not meat. The standards dropped, the fillers increased, the food became cheaper and people got fatter.

Is it the potatoes the french fries are made from or the 'lean' vegetable oil they're fried in that make you fat? Not to mention the added sugar that makes those McD's fries so distinct and tasty.

The question of why people overeat is a matter of nutrition. Ever notice how easy it is to eat a large bag of potato chips? Try eating the equivalent weight in meat. And notice the difference in feeling full. What's the difference in nutritional value of potato chips over meat? Huge.

How about the lazy issue. Try drinking an 'energy' drink and see how long you can sit still. More 'energy' equals more movement, not less. Energy motivates. A lack of energy stagnates. Why aren't the people who eat more doing more and therefore not fat?

Get it?

No, probably not. It's too easy to tow the government line that instigates hatred and discontent.

In closing, I'm not saying there is only one cause for obesity, and emotional and psychological factors play a role for certain as well as a build-up of toxic material in the digestive tract.

What I am saying though is that the bottom line, the FDA recommended guidelines for nutrition, is a farce at best and at worst a conspiracy to create a nation of complacent, overweight consumers lacking the nutrition and subsequent energy of good nutrition to want to do anything more than sit and watch TV which perpetuates the consumer model.