As I’m very much overweight myself I really have to roll my eyes at this story.

A “FAT pride” conference starting today will hear how “fat subjects” are presented as “enemies of the state” and “weightism” is used to deny fat people their human rights.
The New Zealand conference features Australian speakers, including keynote speaker Samantha Murray from Macquarie University. Dr Murray describes herself as a “Fat Studies scholar… engaged in an ongoing fat activist project… a feminist who remains (and identifies as) fat.”

Despite dire warnings from the scientific community that obesity is one of the biggest health threats of our times, fat acceptance and fat pride movements are big in the US, and have been growing here, particularly through online communities referred to as the “Fatosphere”.

Activists argue that the obesity epidemic is more of a panic; that people can be healthy at any size; and that discrimination against fat people is a social justice issue.

I’m really quite disgusted by the last paragraph I quoted, i.e.”...that people can be healthy at any size”. It seems to me these activists are in denial. No idiot is going to tell me I can be healthy at the size I currently am.

I guess it depends on your definition of health.  After all, there are overweight people out there who have healthy levels of cholesterol, low blood pressure, etc., and the only real health issue caused by their weight is the stress placed on their bones and muscles.  Not to mention the general negative body image that most overweight people have of themselves.

Dave actually found an interesting article about what happens to people after they lose a significant amount of weight.  Apparently their bodies are changed in several ways, all of which are geared toward regaining the previous weight. The article is called The Fat Trap.  Interesting read.

It really gets back to my old problem with this. I do belief all people deserve to be loved and respected no matter how much they weigh.

The problem I have is when people say it’s OK to be fat. It’s not OK to be fat. You do put yourself at risk of living a shorter life. I know it’s possible to overweight and not have “weight related disease” but to me that’s a gamble I think people should try to avoid.

If there is unlawful discrimination against people simply because of their weight then I am all for some group being formed to combat that. But I will not tolerate any kind of notion that being fat is free from any kind of health risk.

I just had a look at that fat trap article and what strikes me about it is that it’s based on what seems like an unhealthy way to lose weight. To me it looks like a starvation diet and I’m not surprised some of the participants started putting the weight back on.

They behave like ostriches. Head in the sand.

I worked as a dietitian for a period of years as well as having my own exercise and diet studio.  My mother put me on diets as a very young child, the first when I was in fourth grade, then again in seventh grade.  I, myself went on weight loss diets during the rest of my adult life.  This is an issue that I have lived with for over 60 years with myself and with others so I think I know a bit about what I’m talking about and what I’ve seen and felt.

The ‘Fat Trap’ IS very real. 

1.  The first fact is that once you have gained a specific amount of fat tissue/cells, the best you can do is shrink them.  The number of cells you grew to begin with remain there and are just as numerous as they were when they were fully blossomed. 

2.  Just as with any consumed chemical product your body grows used to having such as nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, medications, drugs etc., so does it grow used to foods and weight metabolically.  Once your body is ‘taught’ that a specific level is what is determined as healthy (even when it’s too much), so it also responds when that amount and kind is removed.  Metabolically it eventually ‘believes’ it is starving and will produce hormones to savagely encourage the consumption of what it is accustomed to having. 

3.  There are also genetic predispositions to specific body weight in family lines and levels of metabolic caloric use.  Some bodies burn calories rapidly and others simply do not. 

4.  While these can be tampered with, the body’s original design is not going to change.  In fact, too much tampering over time puts that body at peril. 

While exercise is good for everyone, and while reducing carbs, calories and amounts are healthy, ‘going on a weight-loss diet’ involving pressed and stressed ‘tricks’ etc. is NOT a good idea.  For those who cannot exercise normally, this is especially difficult. 

I have always balked at the phrase:  ‘I LOST .... number of pounds’ because you have lost nothing, you have only ‘SHED’ the weight but not the cells (of course you could always cut those away I guess). 

hulitoons - 13 July 2012 12:58 PM

The ‘Fat Trap’ IS very real.

I can agree with that. I’ve been overweight nearly all my life.

Peter, I’ve spent a great deal of my life on a yo-yo.  As an adult my highest weight was 200 pounds (91 kg) dropping to 76 pounds (34.5 kg).  Bear in mind I am 5 feet tall.  I went through bouts of extreme anorexia and have physical damage as a result.  My sustained, more natural weight is from 135 to 145 which is considered overweight though not morbidly (I have small bones), yet this is a sustained platform for me which means my diet, exercise etc. is not propelled by anything other than normal, unthinking, comfort and not designed by intellectual plan on my part.  I do pay attention when I shop for food to obstain from too many desserts and size portions.  I have learned that if it isn’t in the house then I am safe from consuming it.

Since Erik lives by the code that bearing a gift of muffins, cakes, candies are loving tributes, I have had to change his selections to ‘take me somewhere where I can walk around’, ‘buy me a pair of socks’ etc.

Exchanging one kind of known fattening food for something less so is another healthy and doable plan.  Deliberately using a smaller plate and only filling it once is another doable.

To stay healthy you won’t shrink an enormous number of fat cells, but you also won’t miss those extra ‘garden blossoms’ either nor will your body rebel and press you to water those wilted ones.  It’s also important to NOT give up favored foods either, just the sizes and frequencies of consumption.

I agree.  I’ve managed to drop about 30 lbs since the beginning of the year.  I did cut back on the amount I eat but not to the extreme they mention in that Fat Trap article.  That is just an invitation to fail.  When you eat too little your body will go into starvation mode and will start to store up energy by whetever means possible.  A caloric intake of the amount they mention in the article will certaily accomplish that eventually as your body adapts. 

I’ve managed to shed my excess weight with a combination of exercise and a change in eating habits.  When I started to track my food intake and realized exactly how many calories I was taking in, a lot of them useless, I understood why I was never able to reduce my weight no matter how much I exercised.  Once I started cutting out a lot of the unnecessary calories and started eating healthier along with my normal exercise routine the weight started coming off.  I still consume about 1700 to 2000 calories a day and I am still losing weight.  I feel great and my energy level is higher than it has been for a while.  I think the secret there is that as long as you are burning more calories than you are taking in each day you’ll she the pounds.  And you don’t have to go on a starvation diet to accomplish it.  I still have the occasional ice cream cone or piece of pie and it doesn’t affect me but I know if were to go back to my old eating habits no amount of exercise would stop me from gaining the weight back.

Yes Gray.  A lot folks want to shed weight quickly….they set a goal on a calendar or a specified number of days and that becomes a game, one they will not win even IF they shed many pounds in time allotted because once the game seems complete, they don’t keep the recipe or cannot keep it because it was not healthy (for them- their mental and physical design) to begin with.

Many other people are amazed they’ve lost weight over a year period when they pull out seasonal clothes and discover they are too big.  These are people who, over the course of a year have cut out very simple foods like ‘that second piece of bread’ (which can, if added to a normal person’s diet, cause a gain of 1-5 pounds over the course of a year or a loss of up to 5 pounds if that second piece is removed!). 

While exercise certainly keeps you healthy by working the heart and lungs or building up muscle, exercise does not typically ‘cause’ weight loss.  Especially for men because muscle weight is higher than fat weight.  Exercise WILL help ‘sculpt’ however. 

Also, men do better at shedding weight and shrinking fat cells than women because they have higher levels of testosterone which provides higher levels of metabolic burn to assist in natural fight, flight (a natural provocation to attract, defend and provide sustenance for the female).  Estrogen deliberately and naturally plumps fat cells to provide both padding and consistent nourishment to fetus needs in incubation (child-bearing age women).

Knowing and understanding your own individual behaviors and ways to manipulate without causing natural stress is key. 

I think the main thing is that exercise burns calories.    You aren’t going to lose weight unless your calories out is more than your calories in which is why a combination of exercise and proper eating is the best way to go.  Whether you build up a lot of muscle by working out depends on what sort of exercise you do.  Aerobics aren’t going to build a lot of muscle but they will toneyour muscles, raise your metabolism and burn calories.  If you work out on the weights all the time then you will build up more muscle mass and the weight loss will be slightly less for the number of calories burned.  I vary my routine so I do a bit of both, mainly cardio stuff though.  It still comes down to the fact that most successful weight loss methods have a combination of diet and exercise and people who follow them will have a better chance of keeping the weight off over the long the term. 

That’s right Gray.  For a lot of people though aerobic exercising becomes problematic after the age of 50 and 60 and onward.  Interestingly though, this is also the group that begins to lose muscle mass AND bone tissue so weight-bearing exercises, where and if it can be done, increases both of these structures.  This is also the group that becomes problematic on another platform:  inability to properly or completely absorb and process nutrition from what they eat.  Reducing calories for this group is hazardous unless it’s restricting or removing specific foods (candy, cake, soft drinks, fried etc. ALL of these) and pressing only fruits, vegetables and grains so that nutrients are concentrated.  But this is a problem if they cannot chew it (which many to most can’t because they have fewer or no teeth) then it has to be cooked or liquified (both of which destroys many nutrients)  Other health variables also plunder in.  While taking supplements help, many times these are not processed well either.  Drinks such as Boost are extremely high in calories and only those elderly who have waned seriously far should use them.  Diabetics only under the care of a physician. 

So much of this depends on the individual’s age and physical ability.

Extra accumulation of fats in human body make him a time BOMB which can kill you. These fat deposits are not a matter of days but it takes years. But to remove these extra fats take some time. But not equal as it took to accumulate. Fortunately if you take right and safe choice to tackle this problem this is easy to handle.