fatties, you can stop blaming your genes for your weight problem

Page 4 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

dighn

Lifer
Aug 12, 2001
22,820
4
81
Meh, not to side with the fatties, but it IS about genes... I dont do any exercise whatsoever and I dont go out of my way to eat healthily either, yet Ive always been super skinny,,, My sister on the other hand has to be on constant diets to keep her weight at an acceptable level, how is this not genes?

genes are a contributing factor, but in most cases it's not a sufficient condition for obesity. a person can adjust their life style according to their genetic disposition e.g. eat less if one's prone to gaining weight. people aren't animals and should use their heads once in a while.
 

rcpratt

Lifer
Jul 2, 2009
10,433
110
116
Here are some obese athletes, although some of these I don't know if you consider some of them athletes (i.e. Tony Stewart from Nascar is in there).
http://sportsmanagementdegree.org/2010/top-10-obese-athletes-who-dominated-their-sport/

There are plenty of obese people who exercise on a regular basis. They probably still take in more calories than they burn off though, but there is definitely many reasons why people are fat. Exercise and diet are just 2 of them.
Racing, golf, and wrestling aren't sports. There goes 4. I, personally, wouldn't consider Bettis or Barkley obese.
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
Yes, obviously it is. However, 6'1" 180lb is in the normal weight range for BMI. Barely, though.

rcpratt, yeah I don't disagree, but I have a bigger build than most people. thick shoulders and chest etc. I'm not saying me being out of shape right now is because of my genetics, that's solely my fault for being lazy, but I would be pretty sickly looking if I tried to get into an acceptable BMI for my height. At best I'll be overweight for my height and that's me being in shape and healthy.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,553
834
126
What about skinny people that don't exercise and eat shitty food? Shouldn't they be fat then?

I know quite a few people that fall into this category. I guess they are just magical.

I never work out, and I eat probably more food than anyone on here, my calorie intake is easily between 4-6k a day. I'm not skinny but at 5'11 205# I'm not fat either. Genes definitely play a big part. Because honestly with my diet they way it is, I should be 600lbs. My nightly "snack" is around 1,500 calories, sometimes more. And for anyone who brings up BMI, I use to be 170#, which was was the charts said I should be. Everyone who knew me said I looked like I needed to eat, BMI = WTF. And my logic tells me if I can eat 6k of calories a day and stay at 205 (been this weight for years) if I start eating a normal amount of calories or exercising I will lose too much weight. I couldn't get to even 250lbs if I tried, as it is I stuff my face all day long. Meanwhile I have a friend who has a normal breakfast, lunch and no dinner yet she's considerably overweight :D My situation makes me feel for people who only eat a bit more than they should, yet they're still way overweight.

I'm magical!
 
Last edited:

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,960
8,204
126
A fat person diets and his metabolism will immediatly plunge, forcing him to eat fewer and fewer calories for any kind of gains to be made. I was once able to lose 45 pounds by eating about 1500 calories a day, I bottomed out at 195 pounds but didn't go further than that as the diet was already having severe effects on me (such as lying awake for hours, unable to sleep because of hunger).

Do you lie awake for 3 or 4 hours a night thinking about food? Do you consistently lose focus at work because your mind keeps jumping to food? Do you lose coordination and the ability to do things that you used to do very well? If not, then you staying thin is very different from me staying thin, and either way, your comment about not drinking soda and taking the stairs at work makes little sense. FWIW I've played adult league ice hockey for 5 years and am consistently one of the fastest and best conditioned players...

...except for when I diet, then I'm weak, slow and pretty ineffective.

"Dieting" is part of the problem. To make a real change in your life, it has to be slow and steady. If you're 25 years old, and fat, you've had a lifetime of bad choices to overcome, and setting target weights, with drastic diets will lead to failure. Instead of trying for 5# a week or whatever, how about 1#, or even less per week? It takes time to lose weight in a healthy manner, and rushing things, with unsustainable diets will almost inevitably lead to failure. Eat just a bit less at meals. Instead of 3000 calories per day, cut back to 2800 for awhile. That's an almost insignificant drop, and you'll start losing weight without triggering survival storage.

It comes down to people wanting the easy way out, and there isn't one. Pills don't work, and crash weight loss doesn't work. It took a long time to put the weight on, and for sustainable loss, it'll take a long time to remove it. You can't think about what you want to look like in a month. You need to think about what you want to look like in 2 years.
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
PS leading a sedentary lifestyle is far more dangerous than being overweight. being overweight and active is much healthier for you than being thin and sitting on your ass all day.
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
"Dieting" is part of the problem. To make a real change in your life, it has to be slow and steady. If you're 25 years old, and fat, you've had a lifetime of bad choices to overcome, and setting target weights, with drastic diets will lead to failure. Instead of trying for 5# a week or whatever, how about 1#, or even less per week? It takes time to lose weight in a healthy manner, and rushing things, with unsustainable diets will almost inevitably lead to failure. Eat just a bit less at meals. Instead of 3000 calories per day, cut back to 2800 for awhile. That's an almost insignificant drop, and you'll start losing weight without triggering survival storage.

It comes down to people wanting the easy way out, and there isn't one. Pills don't work, and crash weight loss doesn't work. It took a long time to put the weight on, and for sustainable loss, it'll take a long time to remove it. You can't think about what you want to look like in a month. You need to think about what you want to look like in 2 years.
I've been trying to eat like a little bit all the time so i stop eating so much at once. It's actually started to work, I eat little bits here and there and I'm starting to get full besides just sitting down and devouring a meal. I'm almost always taking something to go when I go out and get something to eat. That includes just a regular sandwich. I'll eat half then I'm done.
 

Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,686
126
"Dieting" is part of the problem. To make a real change in your life, it has to be slow and steady. If you're 25 years old, and fat, you've had a lifetime of bad choices to overcome, and setting target weights, with drastic diets will lead to failure. Instead of trying for 5# a week or whatever, how about 1#, or even less per week? It takes time to lose weight in a healthy manner, and rushing things, with unsustainable diets will almost inevitably lead to failure. Eat just a bit less at meals. Instead of 3000 calories per day, cut back to 2800 for awhile. That's an almost insignificant drop, and you'll start losing weight without triggering survival storage.

It comes down to people wanting the easy way out, and there isn't one. Pills don't work, and crash weight loss doesn't work. It took a long time to put the weight on, and for sustainable loss, it'll take a long time to remove it. You can't think about what you want to look like in a month. You need to think about what you want to look like in 2 years.

This is the same advice that's been offered to the overweight/obese for at least 20 years. It hasn't worked before and it won't work now because it's wrong.
 

MJinZ

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 2009
8,192
0
0
Here are some obese athletes, although some of these I don't know if you consider some of them athletes (i.e. Tony Stewart from Nascar is in there).
http://sportsmanagementdegree.org/2010/top-10-obese-athletes-who-dominated-their-sport/

There are plenty of obese people who exercise on a regular basis. They probably still take in more calories than they burn off though, but there is definitely many reasons why people are fat. Exercise and diet are just 2 of them.

wtf most of those are not obese people. Not even Babe Ruth is obese. Glenn Davis? Charles Barkley? Shaq? No, they are not obese. I don't think Charles Barkeley is even overweight (maybe after he retired). Race car drivers and golfers are not athletes...
 

AznAnarchy99

Lifer
Dec 6, 2004
14,695
117
106
And, along with environment, a pretty substantial fraction if you're paying attention.



Right, and our lifestyle is also highly dependant on our genetics and our environment. But no, let's not try to understand the problem, lets just call obese people fat lazy pigs and gawk at them.




So if they want to lose weight, all they have to do is overcome one of the strongest and most basic biological urges they have? Wow, what losers!



Oh, ok, so it is genetic? Thanks for clarifying, article.



In other words we're going to try to stop just telling people "eat less and exercise more", and look for things that might actually work.

There's money to be made selling the drugs.
 

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
"Dieting" is part of the problem. To make a real change in your life, it has to be slow and steady. If you're 25 years old, and fat, you've had a lifetime of bad choices to overcome, and setting target weights, with drastic diets will lead to failure. Instead of trying for 5# a week or whatever, how about 1#, or even less per week? It takes time to lose weight in a healthy manner, and rushing things, with unsustainable diets will almost inevitably lead to failure. Eat just a bit less at meals. Instead of 3000 calories per day, cut back to 2800 for awhile. That's an almost insignificant drop, and you'll start losing weight without triggering survival storage.

It comes down to people wanting the easy way out, and there isn't one. Pills don't work, and crash weight loss doesn't work. It took a long time to put the weight on, and for sustainable loss, it'll take a long time to remove it. You can't think about what you want to look like in a month. You need to think about what you want to look like in 2 years.

It took me way too long to realize this. I remember a year or two ago wanting to get ripped and lose fat as quickly as possible. Luckily, research and the advice of successful people took that out of my head. Now I'm setting longer-term goals and learning to be patient. For example, I want to lose a decent amount of fat, mainly around my stomach and butt. I do, however, want to put on a significant amount of muscle, and since I'm weight training 4-5 days a week, I need the extra calories. I'm not going to lose weight by taking in extra calories, so I'm focusing on muscle building first, then losing the fat.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,418
1,599
126
This is the same advice that's been offered to the overweight/obese for at least 20 years. It hasn't worked before and it won't work now because it's wrong.

it doesn't work because one thing has stayed the same: fat people are lazy
 

MJinZ

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 2009
8,192
0
0
It took me way too long to realize this. I remember a year or two ago wanting to get ripped and lose fat as quickly as possible. Luckily, research and the advice of successful people took that out of my head. Now I'm setting longer-term goals and learning to be patient. For example, I want to lose a decent amount of fat, mainly around my stomach and butt. I do, however, want to put on a significant amount of muscle, and since I'm weight training 4-5 days a week, I need the extra calories. I'm not going to lose weight by taking in extra calories, so I'm focusing on muscle building first, then losing the fat.

You're just not doing it hard enough... Sparta wasn't created in 5 years. It took a few months because our human bodies are not that pathetic. ;)
 

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
You're just not doing it hard enough... Sparta wasn't created in 5 years. It took a few months because our human bodies are not that pathetic. ;)

Well, when I don't have 23 hours of class + 16 hours of work + however many hours of homework every week, I'll have more time to go harder at the gym and eat better. :p
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,418
1,599
126
I know lots of fat people that aren't lazy at all. Most of them, in fact, in my experience, are not lazy.

Do they work out everyday? Do they count calories? Do they even care that they're fat?

Don't get me wrong, fat people can be very productive, they're just lazy when it comes to you know, not being fat.
 

Wyndru

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2009
7,318
4
76
wtf most of those are not obese people. Not even Babe Ruth is obese. Glenn Davis? Charles Barkley? Shaq? No, they are not obese. I don't think Charles Barkeley is even overweight (maybe after he retired). Race car drivers and golfers are not athletes...

Babe was a big boy.

Babe_Ruth.jpg


Much bigger than I, and I'm considered obese by today's BMI standards. I bet if you calculate those athletes' BMI they will measure as obese. Morbidly obese? No, but still classified as obese. As has been stated though, that scale sucks, but these people who surely exercised regularly are definitely not thin.
 
Last edited:

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
I have been skinny all my life, (gained a bit in my 30s and started weight lifting) and never had to starve myself. But I gotta tell you this, if your body wants food, it will drive you CRAZY until it gets it. There's no way to fool it, or distract it. It will consume ALL your thoughts. Now imagine having this overwhelming compulsion while surrounded by food everywhere you go, but you have to force yourself to not eat. Good fucking luck.

I've done it, unfortunately, I'm starting to realize what I did may have been borderline anorexia. Which oddly enough is probably applause-worthy in our current society.
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
Well, when I don't have 23 hours of class + 16 hours of work + however many hours of homework every week, I'll have more time to go harder at the gym and eat better. :p

I'm reading some of the thread in reverse, so sorry if this is missed sarcasm, but you will always have an excuse not to work out.
 

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
I'm reading some of the thread in reverse, so sorry if this is missed sarcasm, but you will always have an excuse not to work out.

Yeah, I'm not perfect. I am pretty busy and because of my other obligations and work I tend to neglect healthy eating and exercise every now and again. Shit happens. :p
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
Racing, golf, and wrestling aren't sports. There goes 4. I, personally, wouldn't consider Bettis or Barkley obese.

BMI doesn't take excessive muscle definition into account. So for your average athlete they are probably 1 category off. An average athlete is probably listed as overweight. An overweight athlete is probably listed as obese.

Now that's an average athlete, if you get into the ripped athletes, athletes that specifically go for mass muscle, the scale is entirely useless.
 

Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,686
126
Do they work out everyday? Do they count calories? Do they even care that they're fat?

Don't get me wrong, fat people can be very productive, they're just lazy when it comes to you know, not being fat.

Most of them work out more than the skinny people I know, who by and large don't work out at all.

No one counts calories... at least not accurately, unless they're taking into account the bioavailability, utilization, and other complex factors. Simply adding the number of calories listed on the side of the box is laughable.

Finally, in my experience, the primary concern of any fat person is to not be fat anymore, so it doesn't make sense for a person to be lazy in that aspect but not in others.
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,266
126
So why do some people exercise and eat 1200 calories a day tops and don't lose weight?
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,655
687
126
So why do some people exercise and eat 1200 calories a day tops and don't lose weight?

I'm overweight but I would lose weight quickly if I only ate 1200 calories per day, even without exercise.

For me, I have no problem losing weight. The problem I've had with my last two diets is that I start off well, lose 20 to 30 lbs in two or three months, and then I lose interest.