Morbidly Obese in the Public Eye, Is It Possible to Look Professional?

[globetrotter]



umm...ok. i don't consider it an idiot answer and i don't understand why you would. i do not work in a zero stress retail job. i've never been obese, but various times i have been significantly heavier than i would like to be and have done research to figure out how to counteract that. after reading such research, the above is a condensed version of what i've learned (and is not obvious, if that's the reason why you think it's an "idiot answer"...many supposedly reputable sources of information on nutrition will tell you not to eat meat and to eat a lot of whole grains).
Also, you can't really call something an "idiot answer" and then claim later that it's not an insult.

sorry, but it's like saying to somebody who is a drug adict, "hey, just have a little puff, I'm sure it will be ok"

I am not going to say "hey, it's not our fault we're fat, its our fate blah blah blah," but people get to be obese because they get addicted to food. the body and the mind work together to make it very hard to lose weight, and very hard to not eat.

the way to beat it isn't by cutting down on bread and dessert, you don't lose 100 pounds by only having half your dinner roll. sorry.

look, one of the guys I work with now is obese, and he eats an insane amount of food. looking from the side, I can't believe that I used to eat like that, but I understand his position. and cutting that consumption down isn't that easy, he can do it, but it is a major life change.

I'll give you and example - I eat in some of the best resteraunts in Asia and south america on a regular basis, and some pretty good resteraunts in Europe too. in at least half the cases, some body else orders the food, and they are trying to honor me and show off to me. I am simply not in a position to say "sorry, less bread and fat, more whole grains please" in each of these cases, I need to be on the top of my game, as millions of dollars in business are being discussed. and, frankly, I am very atracted to food. so, saying "eat less bread, more whole grains, you should be ok" is an idiot answer. its like saying to somebody who says to you "I'm an adict who has been sober for 6 years" "hey, just have a couple of drinks, I'm sure it will be fine"

 

[globetrotter]



Late 20s.
And do you know what his job is?
PASTRY CHEF!!!! No ******* kidding.
Hard to believe? 100 pounds in a year is losing 2 pounds a week (The Mayo Clinic diet is very nutritionally and medically sound and it states that one will loose 1-2 pounds a week). There are people on The Biggest Loser (which admittedly is extreme) that lose 300 pounds in six months. Usually when one is that fat the first 100 comes flying off because they are no longer gorging to the point that it takes to maintain a 400-weight.
I think it is admirable that you lose 110 pounds in four years, but I think you are the one with atypical results if you stuck faithfully to a reputable diet plan. That would average out to a half a pound a week. I know that the last 40 or so can be difficult to get off, but sorry-the first 100 flies off for most people.

interesting, but the 20's does explain it. good for him.

I would, again, say that Christie is 20 years older than your friend, and probably has less control over his time and is under a lot more stress. but good for your friend

 

[unbelragazzo]

You completely missed the point of my post. My point is that you don't have to eat less. In fact, trying to eat less is almost certainly counterproductive. You can eat as much steak and other healthy fats as you want. It would be almost impossible for you to eat more than 3500 calories a day without eating carbs. But even if you could, it likely would not be bad for you. Instead the things that you might think are healthy (grains for instance) are instead causing weight gain. So I'm trying to emphasize two points, that I think work against the idea of "eating is bad, and you have to punish yourself for it, and always feel like you are a sinner for eating":

1) You can eat as much as you want of certain things, including some that some people will say are bad for you, including meat and other saturated fats. Enjoy them! Eating is good, eating is necessary! You don't need to punish yourself by eating less and being hungry.

2) Some things that are often perceived to be healthy, mostly grains, are really not very healthy, and are likely to hinder your weight loss.

If you have people ordering for you, then it is indeed difficult to stick to a diet plan. I'm surely much more junior and insignificant at the meals I'm going to than you are, and am usually left to order for myself.

 

[Achilles_]

Hmmmm I don't think it would be healthy to eat steak non-stop

 

[globetrotter]



You completely missed the point of my post. My point is that you don't have to eat less. In fact, trying to eat less is almost certainly counterproductive. You can eat as much steak and other healthy fats as you want. It would be almost impossible for you to eat more than 3500 calories a day without eating carbs. But even if you could, it likely would not be bad for you. Instead the things that you might think are healthy (grains for instance) are instead causing weight gain. So I'm trying to emphasize two points, that I think work against the idea of "eating is bad, and you have to punish yourself for it, and always feel like you are a sinner for eating":
1) You can eat as much as you want of certain things, including some that some people will say are bad for you, including meat and other saturated fats. Enjoy them! Eating is good, eating is necessary! You don't need to punish yourself by eating less and being hungry.
2) Some things that are often perceived to be healthy, mostly grains, are really not very healthy, and are likely to hinder your weight loss.
If you have people ordering for you, then it is indeed difficult to stick to a diet plan. I'm surely much more junior and insignificant at the meals I'm going to than you are, and am usually left to order for myself.

ok, I get what you are saying but I have to smile - I haven't eaten 3500 calories a day in years. I spent a lot of my time trying to keep below 1200 calories a day when I'm not traveling.

but I do agree with you mostly - you have to be able to enjoy what you are eating, and you have to eat the right things. I haven't had a piece of bread bigger than an olive at one meal in years, I hardly eat rice or potatos, mostly I eat protien and fruits and non startchy vegitables.

I just think that it is a simplistic answer when you are talking about a situation like morbid obesity. you can't underestimate what an addiction is like. I am not tryihng to justify the situation, I'm just saying that it isn't easy to say to somebody "just don't eat a lot of bread"

look, I live my life with a lot of tools and tricks - I'll order almost anything at a resteraunt, or I'll taste almost anything, but I get to the resteraunt full (that is where the protien and fiber shake comes in) so no matter how delicious the food is, I only take a taste. I usually tear off a small peice of bread, and then send the bread away so I don't have to sit looking at it.

now, with me, I made a decision a few years ago to do this. I actually did it at a time that I felt I coudl, career wise. Christie hasn't decided to address this, and maybe this isn't the right time for him to, or maybe he never will. but cutting back on his bread isn't going to get him down 100 pounds.

 

[globetrotter]



If you have people ordering for you, then it is indeed difficult to stick to a diet plan. I'm surely much more junior and insignificant at the meals I'm going to than you are, and am usually left to order for myself.

we all have differnet situations. I am sure that, 100 times a year, somebody gives him something to eat and would get insulted if he didn't eat it

 

[JayJay]



we all have differnet situations. I am sure that, 100 times a year, somebody gives him something to eat and would get insulted if he didn't eat it

I only weigh 158 lbs., but last week I'm afraid I insulted my host during a lavish meal in Asia. They brought food nonstop, good food, but I was full. I refuse to gorge just because the food is on the table, so I declined. The hostess made a comment later about me not being willing to simply taste everything. I felt badly, but why stuff myself? Many people on business and in politics face similar dilemmas.

 

[Lear]

The solution appears to be so obvious, yet impossible. Some of you are simply too cruel

Lear (larding in at 220 lbs)

 

[globetrotter]



I only weigh 158 lbs., but last week I'm afraid I insulted my host during a lavish meal in Asia. They brought food nonstop, good food, but I was full. I refuse to gorge just because the food is on the table, so I declined. The hostess made a comment later about me not being willing to simply taste everything. I felt badly, but why stuff myself? Many people on business and in politics face similar dilemmas.

 

[unbelragazzo]



ok, I get what you are saying but I have to smile - I haven't eaten 3500 calories a day in years. I spent a lot of my time trying to keep below 1200 calories a day when I'm not traveling.

Well, I very much admire your success in bringing down your weight. Obviously you know your body better than I do, but given the state of scientific knowledge, it's likely you could consume significantly more calories - like twice as much as you do now - and not gain weight, provided they are calories of the right sort. In particular if you don't try it already, coconut milk is an excellent, and slimming, source of short to medium chain ***** acids.

 

[unbelragazzo]



Hmmmm I don't think it would be healthy to eat steak non-stop

Untrue. There was actually a couple of people I think sometime in the 40s or 50s that put this to the test by eating nothing but red meat for a full year. They did not gain weight or have elevated blood pressure or any other negative health effects. Of course, it's significantly healthier to eat fruit and vegetables along with your meat. But eating only steak is much much healthier htan eating, say, only bread.

 

[Nicola]



Untrue. There was actually a couple of people I think sometime in the 40s or 50s that put this to the test by eating nothing but red meat for a full year. T.

That's a huge sample size.

 

[unbelragazzo]



That's a huge sample size.

Obviously not, but if you are claiming that red meat is terrible in large quantities, then you would expect something to happen to these people if they ate nothing but that for a year. There are also peoples throughout the world who get large fractions of their calories from red meat that are very healthy

 

[Nicola]



You completely missed the point of my post. My point is that you don't have to eat less. In fact, trying to eat less is almost certainly counterproductive. You can eat as much steak and other healthy fats as you want. It would be almost impossible for you to eat more than 3500 calories a day without eating carbs

You're kidding right?

3500 calories is just 1lb of butter. Zero carbs.

Or not much more then 1litre of vanilla ice cream. Not many people eat a pound of butter a day but plenty have a quart of ice cream or more.

 

[unbelragazzo]



You're kidding right?
3500 calories is just 1lb of butter. Zero carbs.
Or not much more then 1litre of vanilla ice cream. Not many people eat a pound of butter a day but plenty have a quart of ice cream or more.

It's pretty difficult to eat 1 lb of butter by itself. Much of the calories in ice cream comes from sugar.