If Iraq REALLY annoys us...

[The PIT]

I saw one documentry about obese people and it started by showing this very large gentleman who ran a full marathon nearly everyday. He couldn't loose weight either.

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup. There was also a bit on the TV last night about Lynne Cox. At 5' 6", 180 lbs and 36% body fat she is obese by any standard you care to name, yet she is one of the worlds most amazing athletes in the world.

She was the first to swim across the Bering Straits (between Siberia and Alaska) in water that was only 38F. It took her 2 hr 6 min, yet 99.99% of all other humans would of died from hypothermia in 10 minutes or less.

She has an amazing list of other deep water swims that would tax any olympic swimmer to the breaking point, if they even dared attempt them.

Dr. Mordrid

[The PIT]

I wish they's make slimming beer that way my growing beer belly would go.

[Fat Tone]

I guess the thread stays then

[agallag]

I'm sure there are many people out there who are overweight due to glandular problems. However, the vast majority of obese people eat too much. For them I recommend the diet plan presented by comedian Richard Jeni. It's called "Stop Eating You Fat Bastard".

[Dr Mordrid]

Richard Jeni is an ignorant ****ole.

Harvard medical school/public health;

...weight-loss researchers recognize that all three of these factors, genetics, environment, and psychological issues can contribute to weight disorders. Most overweight people are genetically predisposed to being overweight.....

Because of these genetic and environmental influences, most people who become overweight have trouble losing weight and keeping it off....

These three factors — genetics, environment, and psychology - do not affect all overweight people to the same degree. For some people, the cause is so strongly genetic that they would be overweight regardless of other factors. For others, the genetic predisposition to be overweight is less powerful, and environmental factors have the dominant role.

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian R.]

I heard of a diet for people who are very overweight. It is one Big Mac a day and all the unbuttered unsalted popcorn you can eat.

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by Brian R.
I heard of a diet for people who are very overweight. It is one Big Mac a day and all the unbuttered unsalted popcorn you can eat.

That's a nasty nasty diet!

Edit: I like Big Mac's and I like popcorn but I would get sick of eating them both within a matter of days.

[Nuno]

The hilarity of the image aside; yes, most of those morbidly obese people I've seen actually take in fewer calories than persons their build/height of normal weight.

What mostly varies is activity and metabolic rate, which of course can be but are not always tied together. Conditions that can affect metabolism like thyroid disease etc. are often involved and just as often under-diagnosed.

Because of this far too many people with "borderline" hypothyroidism are untreated because their thyroid stimulating hormone level is slightly above "the line" set by insurance companies or the medical societies, even though they are otherwise symptomatic in terms of weight gain, depression and fatigue. Then there is the involvement of the immune system through diseases like diabetes, which is also very under-diagnosed and under-treated.

I know one 450 lb. man who is very active, even to swimming and riding a bike several miles a day each, but only consumes about 2000 calories/day. He eats a low fat well balanced diet and still cannot lose weight. He's been this way for over 20 years, but shows no sign of heart disease or diabetes. His doctors are totally stumped and can only offer him gastric stapling as the next option, but admit it probably won't work given his already limited intake.

He is not alone.

Why so many people are this way is a mystery, but recent research implies genetic components as well as possible environmental factors unrealted to nominal fat/caloric intakes. In short this is going to take a lot of research.

That´s all anecdotal report and you know it. I can assume there are some people with endocrine diseases and/or genetic predisposition to obesity - leptin seems to play a big role on it. But all this theories are also a BIG excuse for many fat people that can´t face they have a problem and blame it on nature, fate, god, you name it.
If that´s so, why the gastric reduction or banding surgery has such a great success? Their metabolism is the same. They just eat less because their tied stomach says "hey, I´m done!". And they lose weight.
And as for thyroid disease, a TSH, fT3, fT4 thyroid tests can easily rule it out. As a matter of fact, many obese people are mildly hyperthyroids, not hypo.
The vast majority (99%) of fat people eat wrong - 2 or 3 times a day, too much each time, too carbohydrates and saturate fat, no vegetables or fruit.
I am not saying that it´s easy to loose weight, I´m saying it´s a disease and it must be treated, but not searching for a misterious gene or something before one rules out all alimentary errors people do.

[agallag]

Lose: To be unsuccessful in retaining possession of; mislay: He's always losing his car keys.

Loose: Not taut, fixed, or rigid: a loose anchor line; a loose chair leg.

[Nuno]

Fixed

I bet your portuguese is a bit rusty to

[Jon P. Inghram]

That's "too" Nuno, not "to".

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by Nuno
I am not saying that it´s easy to loose weight, I´m saying it´s a disease and it must be treated, but not searching for a misterious gene or something before one rules out all alimentary errors people do.

See my Harvard post above. Genetic predisposition is a MAJOR factor in weight retention, not a minor one.

Dr. Mordrid

[Nuno]

That's "too" Nuno, not "to".

*cough* That one was on purpose

See my Harvard post above. Genetic predisposition is a MAJOR factor in weight retention, not a minor one.

Of course. It predisposes people to eat more than they need. But all of us have this gene. It mounts back to when the mankind was a hunting nomad bunch of hairy guys We evolved a bit faster than our genome. That´s why diabetes is so prevalent. On those days, the ones that were able to maintain high glucose blood levels were those who survived.

If genetics is so determinant, why type 2 diabetes and obesity vanished completely from Paris on World War II?

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by ayoub_ibrahim
I wonder why no one has bothered to postulate how much mechanical stress is being applied to the surface of that jet!

I was wondering why no one mentioned the wind resistance she would cause.

And why aren't those huge folds of flesh distended radically backwards, flopping wildly in the 1000 mph breeze?