-- Not even freaking close. Ingesting nutrition is a necessary function to live, smoking, drinking, drugs is/are not. --
way to miss the point. the point was that for just about any other addiction (smoking, drinking, etc) you can completely eliminate the problem. with food you cannot do that. someone who is 'addicted' to food does not have that option. they cannot eliminate their coping mechanism. they MUST eat food to survive any length of time. someone who suffers from an addiction, and cannot eliminate the source of their addiction will always be at risk for a relapse.
-- I also haven't gained a lb since High school at my current weight and certainly eat way more than the average for whole fruits and veg's and exercise a lot --
congratulations. now if the rest of us keep pressing the issue maybe eventually you'll grasp the fact that a sample size of one doesn't make for reasonable conclusions or statistics.
Hey Atecexa, that's great for you man. Glad you're able to conquer overeating. Other people, however, are not you and are not so lucky. Try having some empathy.
so sex addicts should have their dicks chopped off???
Sexual reproduction is a deep seated primal urge that cant be overcome by will power for some people so just cut it off.
Maybe if peoples eating habits werent the equvilant of mainlining glucose,probably from childhood, obesity wouldnt be an epidemic.Its a rather profitable system....eat junk from childhood and then take otherwise unneeded drugs ect. I find it interesting how some people are anti "health food" or anything thats not mainstream are pro gastric bypass.
This proves you have absolutely have no idea what it takes to battle obesity. You have better genetics than most of the population and therefore think that what happens to you happens to the entire population which is not true.
yeah maybe I could eat almost anything i wanted to and sit around all day and not get fat, but eventually if i ate enough food and did nothing long enough i would get fat...eventually. however it is very hard to not eat processed foods, or foods with red 40 or blue 2 or yellow 5 or BHA, BHT, TBHQ, HFCS, artificial flavorings, white bread, certain fruits etc
yes food can become an addiction just like sex. sex however is not a necessary function for you as an idividual person to stay alive like eating. addictions like those two almost always stem from something much deeper than just the physical act of eating or having sex. let's say someone even had a physical problem where the valve that sends the signal to your brain that you are full and kills your desire to eat so you will want to stop eating doesnt work so you really never feel full and just keep eating and eating until there is no more food to eat...you still know as a conscious adult that 6 slices of pizza a pint of B&J's PB Cup Ice cream, 3 glasses of milk, and a can of coke is more than enough food for one sitting, whether you feel full or not you know (in your mind of what you are putting in your mouth) that it is enough food
I know my genetics are better than many and I thank God for that everyday hell my grampa at 80+ eats like crap always has always will and is still in OK health for 80+ and is damn near the same weight as he was in his 30's, same for my father who just recently crossed 60
I will say however tho that shortly after I got married and had a lot less time to devote to the gym I was on the couch one day and noticed that there was a about a half inch of gut over the top of my belt and I freaked out and for the next several weeks ate no junk food and worked out much harder even than before, few weeks later 6 pack back to normal. so i have done it, maybe not on the level of a 600lb guy but i have done it, i wasnt eating well i was getting lazy i saw the results and i made a lifestyle change. it's all about willpower, unless you are retarded, downs, autistic or have a major serious condition that would greatly hamper your mental ability, it all comes down to willpower and yes anyone can make a lifestyle change. if a person seriously wants to quit smoking they can stop. if a person seriously wants to quit drinking they can stop. if a person wants to seriously quit eating like a team of clydesdales they can.
Wow, this thread went a whole different way than I thought it would. The most I've been is maybe 50-60lbs overweight. As a kid I had a refrigerator in my room stocked with mountain dew...right next to an old lazy boy recliner a neighbor was giving away in front of a TV. I'm not even kidding.
I've seen alot of people get this surgery who could easily overcome this addiction to food without it..so I can agree with Atecexa. I've even seen some who stretched out that little bit of stomach and basically negated the surgery. The band seems like a better idea. Stapling the stomach into a small pouch seems like something akin to drilling a hole in a patients head to let the evil out. In 10-20 years we are going to look back at that operation and laugh at how primative it is.
Only gastric bypass, if you'll note the links I provided earlier, provides actual results whereas trepaning certainly does not.
Non compliance after surgery is an issue, this is true, but for people who comply a very elevated quality if life is usually experienced. What's so bad about that?
"Non compliance after surgery is an issue, this is true, but for people who comply a very elevated quality if life is usually experienced."
it seems like the whole idea is,
someone has no willpower
so, we'll make it hurt if they eat too much/make it harder to overeat.
but if they still have no willpower, they will stretch out their stomach and be back in the same position.
you guys have very legitimate points when it comes to the nearly terminally obese and this surgery, but it sounds like a lot of people need psychological and lifestyle counciling, not a surgery.
"Willpower and genetics aside, people dont get fat by eating the same amounts of food that people of normal weight eat."
I disagree with this one too. One interesting study I've read lately (which I can't find but can probably dig up if you want to read it) was basically a more scientific version of "Super Size Me." The participants were asked to double their normal intake of calories over, I think, a month.
The results were that on average the participants gained 10% of bodyweight, but some people gained none, and some people gained 20+%. Apart from the interesting result that some people apparently don't gain weight (they just get hot and respirate a lot), it shows very certainly that different people have different reactions to the same caloric intake. It also arranges itself on a nice bell curve, like most things do.
Personally, I can propose a thought experiment: Do you think it's more likely that people will have differing reactions to X amount of calories, or do you think it's more likely that every single person will have exactly the same reaction to X amount of calories?
I think the former is obviously much more likely than the latter.
"The participants were asked to double their normal intake of calories over, I think, a month."
Hold the press...your saying some people get fat easier than others...shocking!
So you think its possible to weigh 300lbs on 2,800 calories a day???Hmmm interesting twist on science.
"the study Jonwell posted does indeed seem to indicate that some people get fat eating the same amount of food that other people of normal weight eat."
["The participants were asked to double their normal intake of calories over, I think, a month."]
[The results were that on average the participants gained 10% of bodyweight,]
"I have no idea if there are many people who will reach 300lbs eating 2800 calories a day but that was never a part of your original statement."
[Willpower and genetics aside, people dont get fat by eating the same amounts of food that people of normal weight eat.]
The point, Charles, is that for any given caloric intake different people are going to have different reactions, so some people could indeed get overweight on a 'normal' caloric intake, depending on what you define as normal.
yeas but you still have to ingest an average surplus of 3500 calories over a given period of time to gain one pound no matter who you are. Basically to get fat you have to eat significantly more than you use, to get really stupidly fat you have to eat like a freakin elephant for a very long time and do pretty much nothing
being a little heavy I can chock up to bad genes being 5'9" and 762lb has nothing to do with genes
Ah the fun of large numbers. You don't have to eat like an elephant, especially when we're talking about people at an advanced age who've had declining metabolisms and reduced activity levels.
At an excess of 100 calories a day (which is what, 2 slices of bread, for example?), it only takes about 5 years to gain 50 pounds! That's assuming the 3500 calorie number is accurate.
When you take into account decreasing activity levels and reduced metabolism that generally accompanies age, then the problem just compounds as the person gets older.
But really, how people got there is not necessarily the question here. The fact is that they are there, and may not be in a position to fix it, or may not be able to fix it, or may need to take drastic action now-ish to avoid losing a foot to diabetes or something. It would be a far better thing if it weren't necessary, obviously, but medicine has to deal with what is, not what should be.
If it took 10 yrs to gain the 140lbs why would anyone think it should only take a few months to get rid of it? The problem is people are like "oh i need to lose weight, ive only been eating 10 twinkies a day instead of 5 and ive been walking to cupboard myself to get them and im not losing weight...need surgery"
I think one of the big problems I have with obesity is (99.999999% of the time) it just stems from sheer gluttony and slothfulness. Many people in many countries of the world couldnt even dream of ever having enough food to get obese and we not only have enough "food" but its still pretty cheap and people can get stupidly fat and then claim disability and sit around their apt all day collecting checks from the govt that you and I pay for.