Average size of women-a statistic that does more harm than good.

lostinrates

MandM90 wrote: »

It's hard to know if previous posters talking about large 'healthy' women they know are talking about particularly broad/tall women or - to put it bluntly - fat women. If it's the latter, I have a hard time believing they truly are healthy. Health isn't just the absence of disease, and all the science shows that the extra fat does you no good. The number one cause of death in the UK is CHD so we are literally dying of being overweight.

I agree with this, but, have something else to throw in the ring.

As a previously 'fatist' person i have got my comeuppance when i got a health problem which saw my weight rapidly and astoundingly increase. I was putting on a stone a week at one point, and stopped eating much to my husbands horror and my doctors fury, causing even more problems. I now eat, but not as i used to, and i remain overweight.

I have had much extensive investigation into my condition and while 'slow metabolism' is indeed laughably used often enough, it is also real for a few. As well as my particular oddity (which is a neurological condition that impacted on parts of my brain which control metabolism....like hypothalymus) i delveloped or discovered i had compounding things which have subtle influence on this, like PCOS and then my thyroid gave up too! i feel like it has been a conspiracy of my body against me:rotfl:

My intake has been looked at over several years now and while i do eat, and not only lettuce by any means, i do not eat 'normal' amounts of calories and have had to limit some of my favorite and healthy foods, like brocolli and cabbage, which have a small negative impact (one of my doctors when i was initially ill introduced me to the cabbage soup diet, under medical supervision, and thats when we discovered that something really was wrong besides the initial issue, as i put on weight while eating only the cabbage soup, which i found delicious). i have to take a cocktail of pills to bring upto requisite levels of vitamins and minerals that i cannot take in through diet without taking more calaries....because i cannot do it other way. This by the way is not ' holland and barra' prescribed, but has been worked out for me as necessary by my 'medical team'. Actually relying on pills for part of your nutrition, especially when you like food and cooking, is pretty depressing!

Coincidentally, there is dramatic ioncrease in impact of metabolic issues with horses too, (right now we have three hoprses on restricted calorie diets to avoid equine metablic issues, and a fourth with a more serious form) i think this is for several reasons, and with my medical history it fascinates me, one because horses do less work than they did, two because they eat differently ( often with food sources highlighted by human research as being influencial in thyroid disorder) and because they live longer.....so would have always experienced it if they got older.


I am constantly embarrassed by my weight and feel sad that so many people will assume i am simply lazy and greedy, and also sad that my very legitimate and real medical issues are riduculed because pf people who could have a real impact on their weight. But it seems more and more people are having thyroid malfuction, or other metabolic impacting issues, or perhaps, like with horses we are getting more aware of them, and seeing the results more dramtically in times of greed and comparitive ohysical lack of challenge?

FatVonD

adelight wrote: »

One minute the focus is on health and the next it's on confidence in your own skin.

Usually in the same magazine, (along with 'enjoy being a single independent woman' alongside 'how to get a man'.) Cosmopolitan is the worst for that :mad:

lostinrates

FBaby wrote: »

That's the equivalent of one healthy breakfast and that's about it. No drinks but water. I very much doubt that you would remain a healthy weight having so little. People inevitably underestimate their calories intake like forgetting to add all their cups of tea of coffee which can add a few hundreds calories.

Well, i certainly used to, for a year i lived under medical supervision on around calories out of a sachet. It maintained my weight, and met nutritional needs, but it was ruddy boring and the stuff tastes ghastly and artificial. I prefer to cook myself, eat small portions, and perhaps manage things less healthily but in a real way, but

FatVonD

lostinrates wrote: »

Well, i certainly used to, for a year i lived under medical supervision on around calories out of a sachet. It maintained my weight, and met nutritional needs, but it was ruddy boring and the stuff tastes ghastly and artificial. I prefer to cook myself, eat small portions, and perhaps manage things less healthily but in a real way, but

I can understand that, I've never understood why people would go on those diets where you replace two meals with a calorie-laden drink (I think they're about 300 calories.) I just don't understand why anyone wouldn't rather have a meal to the same number of calories and feel fuller!

FatVonD

lostinrates wrote: »

one because horses do less work than they did,

One of my cats used to be an indoor cat and was quite tubby compared to her sister who has always gone out (via the downstairs loo window which the fatty was too lazy to jump up to.) When we had to replace the back door after an attempted burglary we had a cat flap installed in the new one and within weeks the weight had fallen off the fat cat now it was easier for her to get out. It's not even like she's out as much as the other one but the exercise she now gets has made a huge impact on her weight.

lostinrates

FatVonD wrote: »

I can understand that, I've never understood why people would go on those diets where you replace two meals with a calorie-laden drink (I think they're about 300 calories.) I just don't understand why anyone wouldn't rather have a meal to the same number of calories and feel fuller!

Well, i choose food because its better for my emtions and i cannot feel its healthier in someways. I like chewing, my husband and i can eat basically the same stuff, i find it depressing not too and i know he does too. but the sachets i lived on were more filling than the equivalent meals colorifically, and ofcourse, meet more nutritional needs, with the right mins and vits. I had to replace all food with the sachets, and actually i find that very hard to manage. With the drinks i was having three a day at sort of the right tipmes. To get my calories right now i know i firther damage my metabolism right by 'calorie hoarding' often skipping eating, and often not eating healthilyin other ways for ease. I have a few standby meals i can make without having to calculate calries (number one fall back is poached or dry fried egg on a crumpet - crumpets are of course far from ideal, because i know the approximate calories, its quick and easy but real)

lostinrates

FatVonD wrote: »

One of my cats used to be an indoor cat and was quite tubby compared to her sister who has always gone out (via the downstairs loo window which the fatty was too lazy to jump up to.) When we had to replace the back door after an attempted burglary we had a cat flap installed in the new one and within weeks the weight had fallen off the fat cat now it was easier for her to get out. It's not even like she's out as much as the other one but the exercise she now gets has made a huge impact on her weight.

I am sure exercise makes a huge amount of difference. Before i was ill i was extremely sporty. I ran at least three times a week, did at least an hour of other cadio daily plus less intensive stuff like yoga. (i also did not eat brilliantly then).

It is certainly a working theory of one of the consultants taht i always had metabolic problems but they were concealed by the fact that i was so very active, did not eat much and so was slim and energetic. When i could no longer exercise to the tune of expending significant numbers of calories that was part of why the weight increase was so very drmatic for a while.

I am able to walk almost all the time now, i sometimes use a stick, but i will never go running again. I know i feel better when i have exercised, but sometimes being unwell or imobile means i cannot say, walk for half an hour. I know even that small amount of exercise 'boosts my metabolism', sometimes i can almost feel it.

I have some times where it feels like a blockage clears from the system. E.g. Thursaday evening and night, and it was notable, i ran up the stairs, i didn't even notice i had, just that i felt good, it was by husband wjo was a amazed,.....then i was awake much of the night, and the next morning still full of beans....but its subsided now. This morning dh and i were discussing what was different about thursday, and the only thing i can say was i had some rubbish food.....probiotic yogurt drinks ( something i never usually have) for breakfast and supper, and a piece of pizza, (again, something i would not have usually) for lunch. Tbh, that is no more a way of eating for life than sachets imo, and might not have been related, but i would love to know what cleared the old pipes for me that day!

Exercise is key imo, when i can do it.

FBaby

Exercise absolutely doesn't do it for me! I've never been fitter. I do zumba 3 times a wk at a club and do it the energetic way in addition to this I sometimes do mountain biking on hills tennis with my soon sometimes tin on treadmill yet I've list no weight this way and no it is not fast replaced by muscles! I can lose weight quite easily by reducing my calorie intake but I would have to do at least an hour a day intensive workout for the same result.

MandM90

FBaby wrote: »

Exercise absolutely doesn't do it for me! I've never been fitter. I do zumba 3 times a wk at a club and do it the energetic way in addition to this I sometimes do mountain biking on hills tennis with my soon sometimes tin on treadmill yet I've list no weight this way and no it is not fast replaced by muscles! I can lose weight quite easily by reducing my calorie intake but I would have to do at least an hour a day intensive workout for the same result.

I've done a couple of Zumba classes and didn't think they were very effective at all - the same time spent spinning or in a Body Pump class will get me going much more. I think they are nice as a fun way to move a bit but I don't think they are very intense.

lostinrates, I hope I didn't offend. I do absolutely believe that in some cases extra weight can be due a medical problem but having met one too many people (my own mother, included) who eats rubbish, hardly exercises and makes awful excuses as to why they are overweight I think it is too easy for the average person to hide behind imaginary 'metabolism' problems, having never actually had these diagnosed. In fact recently, on the train I overheard two teenage girls complaining about their weight whilst eating Burger King meals...they then went on to talk about how yummy McDonalds milkshakes are - bleurgh - and from my pre-vegan days I know these to be full of sugar and about 500 calories...and that's before even eating the greasy meal itself!

sophief333

FBaby wrote: »

I can lose weight quite easily by reducing my calorie intake but I would have to do at least an hour a day intensive workout for the same result.

You say that like 1 hour is a lot! 1 hour is less than 5% of your day!