http://www.games24x7.com/

Thank you for the great post

Regards
Steve

I looked at your articles and I think you are right. And I already knew most of that, since I’m concerned about healthy eating habits and trying to gain some muscles etc.
You asked in the article what is the nature of different behaviors of obese and non-obese people and how to fix the feedback loop.
I think I can give one of the possible answers. Education and learning the proper eating habits. From my observations slim people have those, mostly from childhood, they ate healthy food from the beginning and that’s why their bodies know what is good and what’s not. My wife for example, she was growing up on a farm, mostly fresh food, no junk food at all etc. She eats quite much, but she doesn’t gain weight. When she eats too much she’s feeling sick.
Now myself… I was a bit on the fat side since childhood, eating sweets etc. Later I got slim cause I was into sports, but with the years going it stopped, work behind the desk etc. I started to eat fast foods, junk food, lots of sweets and got pretty fat. My feedback loop wasn’t working at all. I ate, got full and ate again after a short while.
Now, when I started to eat healthy food, small portions, etc. it got different. After Easter I started to eat more, I just felt hungry after two days of sitting behind the table with my family and eating food full of fat and sugar. But what happened, my body said “no way” and after a few days of overeating I got really sick, to the point that I couldn’t even eat anything the whole day, my stomach went crazy. That was the feedback loop working again. Do I have to mention that a year ago if I would eat that much I wouldn’t even feel ill? I would probably even eat considerably more.
So I think that even if you were not lucky enough to learn the right habits at home, you can still make it right with some effort, the body will learn, but it just needs some time, when the discipline has to be forced.

I know there are people who were fed with junk food since childhood and are entering adult life already with a big problem or sick people and I really feel sorry for them, cause it can be really hard for them to get rid of the that. But as for people who just got those extra weight over years because of eating junk and not moving, I think it’s more easy for them. Sadly many of them tend to say it’s genetics etc. cause it’s easier to blame it on something they can’t control, than make some effort to change.

2. Cigarettes: numerous essays I read in college when I had to write a paper on obesity in Canada described those who quit the tobacco as often experiencing a quick transition into obesity world. I quit smoking again about five weeks ago, and it’s been fine; however, I think maybe it hasn’t. I’m snusing now. About two a day (the Swedish kind, not the American shit), and yet I think the oral fixation of the cigarette was linked to hunger patterns. If I were to completely quit tobacco, I’d also get the metabolic disruptions too, which tobacco has so often been praised for, and I’m sure I’d gain some more weight. The reason I’m bringing this up at all is that the USA has this booming industry (tobacco) as it has had for so long, and it works through the addiction of both the nicotine and the marketing campaigns of the heralding companies; yet at the same time that industry’s always yelled at by the government and people are consistently told to “quit smoking.” NO SMOKING. The warning labels. The laws. Maybe smoking’s going down. But maybe it’s a ploy to aid the food industry. Maybe we’re going through so much stress that we bounce between the two. I know my stress is relieved most effectively through a) a cigarette; b) a shot or a beer or both; and/or c) a basket of fries with ketchup, mayo, and bbq sauce. So which addiction would you like? The industries may not necessarily be conscious of their effects but the systems do work, and if you can get the addicted personalities of all the viral-marketing-infected populous to be so confused and befuddled that they have no idea what’s happening but in reality are bouncing back and forth through so many addictions (addictions aided by the aids themselves, like the diet programs and the therapies and the support groups), well, now you’ve got some obese individuals. Obese in stress, repression, and maybe some extra fat content.

3. I’ve been to a few countries in my 24 years through trips and travels and the white/middle class privilege so I do understand that people not living in the USA will immediately see the weight issues in the USA. I know what it’s like to walk through Tokyo and experience a sea of very healthy, not-fat individuals. Or Galway. Or Toronto. Or Prague. Whatever. I think that what’s hard is to get Americans to look at how other cultures act. I can’t speak for any of the other national cultures out there, as I live here, and have always lived here, in the US, however, there are places that often get looked at as utopic or ideal. Regarding the issue of obesity and social issues, I turn to Sweden (I think it was already mentioned in this strand of comments). In the USA folks are often too ready or gullible and let themselves be led by the hand. They don’t make an effort to seek out the answers themselves because they’re being streamlined by whatever the latest is from the screen that’s in front of them. Television’s one thing, and it’s still a hugely subconscious tool that will be important as long as Sports exist in this country. Don’t let the Internet overshadow television. But yes, sites like Facebook/Myspace/Twitter created this faux individuality and control, this idea that you are the ruler of your universe, that you can play Mafia Wars when you want to, or put up your gallery of images and wrap it around you when you go to sleep at night. But really we’re just in control of the spectacle. We can arrange events and let everyone know we’re in control of who we have a relationship status with, but look beyond that. Go back to Sweden. Or France. Or Peru. Or Vietnam. Places where people exist but they go into their communities and get the answers because they have this capability to break free of the leash mentality. Even if it’s a love for a state, it’s an autonomous love. There’s the idea of being responsible for yourself. Even with all the messages that float around in the US that try to empower individuals into thinking with community in mind (look at the green movement, Whole Foods, et cetera, or even alcohol ads that talk about drinking responsibly), more leashes, leashes, everywhere. Cattle being herded. A great slave population. I’m sure that exists everywhere. You can take a place and sociologically deconstruct how the people are being controlled, but I think some societal states are more conscious and encouraging of freedom and knowledge building than others. Even calories are becoming the language of marketing here. Go into a McDonalds and you’ll see calorie numbers listed next to every item on the menu. What does it mean to the average person who goes to McDonalds? Do you think that the person who buys a Big Mac every day is going to stop buying a Big Mac when she/he sees the huge number next to it? Probably not. Well what about the next generation, the one that’s born into the calorie numbers listed, who thinks its normal? Do you think they even know or do you think it’s just part of the language of the people who put it up there? We’re shoving information down people’s throat but we’re not educating them, we’re not giving them the chance to develop their own tongue because the tongue doesn’t even have to exist with this model.

You don’t want to over generalize from your own case. Are you certain that all overweight people, especially the mobridly obese experienced the same thing that you did.

For example, in my college days I drank an inordinate amount, enough to put my probably in the upper 1% in not 0.1% in terms of rate of consumption. Yet, I never had a problem putting away the bottle even for a minute. No willpower no nothing. It was effortless to me.

I am guessing this is not the experience of those genetically prone to alcoholism.

Also, check out my pieces

http://modeledbehavior.com/2010/04/17/obesity-and-the-first-law-of-thermodynamics/

http://modeledbehavior.com/2010/04/17/obesity-and-genetics/

That’s why I wish everyone to find that willpower and try, cause it’s worth it and it’s definitely not close to impossible.

Good Luck!

You might want to check something out . . . a recent study came out here in North America about junk food and how it acts in the body:

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/health-well-being/stories/junk-food-junkies-are-real-addicts

I know that I am absolutely, positively addicted to sugar and because of this knowledge I’m doing something about it. Without this knowledge people just think they’re, lazy, lack will power etc. etc. The problem is as an addict the chemical balance in your brain is completely off. You’ve basically turned off the switch on your willpower. Where willpower really comes into play is when you hit rock bottom and realize that you’re an addict. That’s when you have to dig deep and pull out all the stops to start getting off your drug of choice.

Once you’re off your drug of choice your willpower gets stronger because your body chemistry comes back into balance. The key that most people miss is – to successfully stay off your drug of choice . . . you can’t ever go back on it. If you do your body chemistry goes out of whack, your willpower disappears and you end up back at square one.

By acknowledging that sugar/junk food is an addiction it can be treated as such. A new plan of attack can be created in order to tackle this problem. Once you know it’s your body working against you, not that it’s just your genes (which addiction is passed down through) or your lack of willpower, you can do something about it. It’s one of the biggest problems when people loose weight then gain it all back. You can’t go back to eating the sugary junk or it feeds right back into your old addictive habits.

Addiction is hard to beat, but by no means is it impossible to do so. I am working on not eating any sugar or refined flour, of any kind for at least a year. I’ve done this before and am back on the wagon. I know that I cannot have sugar or I’ll slip back into my old habits within a week. I know that I’ll never be able to eat sugar or junk food again if I want to stay healthy and happy. Period.

My biggest concern is the amount of sugar we feed our kids these days. It’s true as an adult . . . it’s pretty much up to you to fix yourself . . . as a kid . . . we have the responsibility to make sure our kids live long, healthy lives. Addiction is even worse if you start them young. We have to stop turning our kids into junkies before their 5th birthday.

One point you’ve made is very true. Loosing weight still comes down to the basics of eating real food, no junk and getting off our butts and exercising. That’s essentially what everyone should be doing no matter what they weigh!

By the way Dran . . . you didn’t make many mistakes . . . your English is rather good.

Next problem is when you start thinking about yourself as a fat person… You people here are talking about huge people, literally huge. If you are talking about 250-300 or 500 lbs people, thats really horryfying I’m like 5’7 tall and I was weighing like 204 pounds. And that was a big problem for me, some of my friends were making a bit of fun etc (and thank you very much guys). I lost 54 pounds and now it’s 154. And that’s the proper weight for me, where I feel slim. Ofc now i workout to get some more muscles, but that’s a different story than fat and I don’t think, that most of fat people are muscular under it.
All it took me was like one week’s evenings of looking through internet and less than 4 month’s of diet. And some willpower, but I knew I’m doing this for myself and I didn’t make any excuses. And for MOST people it’s really THAT simple, excuses and laziness are the only problems.

PS. Sorry for my english, but It’s not my motherlanguage and I never even was to any english speaking country, so try to focus on what I wrote, not on my mistakes

I’ve tried diet modification, and that has stopped me from gaining more weight. But, it is impossible to loose weight by diet modification alone and still stay healthy. I’ve been hospitalized 3 times for trying.

So, some people who are obese aren’t happy with their situation. It just seems like there isn’t a solution available.

The ones that caused you to gain the weight are most certainly not going to help you lose the weight.

We keep doing the same things expecting different results.
Change the habit, change the result.

Behaviour change takes time and it’s unfortunate that our impatience usually causes us to give up before the new behaviour becomes the norm.

I think that Americans have unhealthy environment around them. They like to use a car for moving from home to their office and back. May be it is ok to use the car everywhere. I don’t think that it is totally impossible to create and eat healthy food in America – I just think that you will look a bit strange for a society. Everyone used to eat a fast-food because they dont have a time for normal food.

And if you want to be a really healthy person in a corporate environment – you can not obey to their rules. I prefer to seems like a unsocial instead of eating unhealthy food – I bring the food from home(it is prepared by my wife), I eat 5 times per day due for some medical reasons. If I want to have a break and walk around for 15 minutes – I will not ask someone if that is allowed. And I try to work from home so I can make a break every hour and do a few physician exercises. That is a good side of programmer profession.

It is a never ending task for me to care about my health. My own habits, Computer which tries to root me to the chair , friends/family member who wants me to drink with them on a party/birthday, laziness, bad weather, dead lines on work so I should do an overtime – There can be tons of “reasons” to eat non-healthy and spend all the day without physician activity. So it looks like a fight, and I will have this fight all my life. That is mein kampf

Think on that a sec . . .

Yes I’m overweight and yes I’m working on it. This topic is complex. Most people don’t learn how to eat properly at home or at school and many Doctors either don’t or can’t take the time to properly discuss it with their patients. Often the Doctors think in the same way that many of you do . . . just stop eating the junk . . .

Part of the issue is the garbage that companies sell as processed convince food, especially the “diet” food.

Part of it is definitely a lack of getting up off our collective arses . . . you know . . . getting away from the computer now and then . . .

Finally part of it is something that’s finally come up in the news lately. Research has shown that junk food is just as addictive as hard drugs (apparently it’s only true if the lab rats say so, doesn’t matter how many people around the planet have said they can’t stop eating junk food). Sugar acts in a similar manner to alcohol in our blood stream. It’s addictive. Ever known an alcoholic or drug addict that’s trying hard to kick the habit? Imagine having your “poison” as close as your grandparents cupboards or the 7/11 down the street.

The comment about eating real food . . . that’s very true . . . but trust me . . . it’s not as easy as “knowing” what you should and shouldn’t eat.

Unfortunately when we eat Western Diet “Food Like” products and not real “Food” our bodies don’t function properly.

The sooner we realized that we need to make proper nutritional changes and eat real food, obesity and chronic disease will go away. By real food I mean a diet rich in veggies, fruit, and whole grains.