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Sep. 28th, 2010 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickMore thoughts on our (national) relationship with food... I've been doing some reading. I started by googling (I recall once swearing that I would never use that as a verb. Silly me.) "Why are Americans so fat?"
I'm not sure. I found lots of theories floating around out there on the internets.
We eat too much HFCS.
Obesity is really a virus.
Too much time in front of screens, not enough time in Big Blue Room.
Portion sizes out of whack.
Bad-for-you food cheaper than fruits, vegetables.
Big Agriculture Lobby.
Toxic Food Environment.
Hormones in the meat/milk supply.
I don't know which explanation is correct. It doesn't much matter. We're still fat, and we diet. A lot. It's a huge industry. Hell, I diet. I've been dieting for almost a year now, even. Unlike a lot of dieters, I've actually lost weight and everything. This is interesting because a surprising number of people on the internet suggest that diets do not work at all. According to them, no diet can work if you're genetically programmed to be heavier. They say that every single diet is doomed to failure, that every single dieter is doomed to regain all the weight that he or she has lost. I'm not sure I can get behind those assertions because if you put people in situations where they physically cannot eat as much food as they want, they lose weight... even the ones who are "genetically programmed" to be heavier. (No fat people came out of Bergen-Belsen.)
My thing is that no matter what the hell your genetics say, if you eat enough less, you can and will lose weight. Yes, you, too, my little special snowflake, even you. Everyone has a caloric intake level below which he or she will lose weight. Guaranteed. Is it pleasant? Hell, no. It fucking sucks. You're hungry all the time. Your head hurts. You get very cranky and focused about mealtimes. Why? Because you are STARVING YOURSELF. Yes, you're doing it slowly and gradually, but still, that's what you are doing. It's not going to be fun; please don't expect it to be. Don't whine that it's *hard* or that you don't *like* it. It's not easy for anybody and nobody likes it.
Does it work? Yes. It works. You can be less fat by eating less food. The thing is, you have to do it continually, every day, every week, every month, every year. (People are not good at this level of ongoing commitment.) You will have to do it for the rest of your fucking life, exactly like a diabetic has to monitor his or her insulin. You don't get *better* from being fat when you're at your goal weight any more than you are *better* from being diabetic just because your sugar is at an acceptable level right now.
If you have ever been fat, even if you look thin now, inside of you, forever after, there is a fat person trying to get out. That fat person will grab hold of every brownie, every rice krispie treat, every no-bake cookie, every baked potato, every spoonful of macaroni salad, every ladle of gravy, every biscuit, every slice of pie, every piece of cake, every grain of freaking rice. All of those things, and more, are fuel for the fat person inside you. Too much fuel for the fat person inside and he or she will start to come out. You are never, ever done dieting. Ever. You don't get to go back to eating the old way unless you want to look like you did then, which is to say fat.
I'm not sure. I found lots of theories floating around out there on the internets.
We eat too much HFCS.
Obesity is really a virus.
Too much time in front of screens, not enough time in Big Blue Room.
Portion sizes out of whack.
Bad-for-you food cheaper than fruits, vegetables.
Big Agriculture Lobby.
Toxic Food Environment.
Hormones in the meat/milk supply.
I don't know which explanation is correct. It doesn't much matter. We're still fat, and we diet. A lot. It's a huge industry. Hell, I diet. I've been dieting for almost a year now, even. Unlike a lot of dieters, I've actually lost weight and everything. This is interesting because a surprising number of people on the internet suggest that diets do not work at all. According to them, no diet can work if you're genetically programmed to be heavier. They say that every single diet is doomed to failure, that every single dieter is doomed to regain all the weight that he or she has lost. I'm not sure I can get behind those assertions because if you put people in situations where they physically cannot eat as much food as they want, they lose weight... even the ones who are "genetically programmed" to be heavier. (No fat people came out of Bergen-Belsen.)
My thing is that no matter what the hell your genetics say, if you eat enough less, you can and will lose weight. Yes, you, too, my little special snowflake, even you. Everyone has a caloric intake level below which he or she will lose weight. Guaranteed. Is it pleasant? Hell, no. It fucking sucks. You're hungry all the time. Your head hurts. You get very cranky and focused about mealtimes. Why? Because you are STARVING YOURSELF. Yes, you're doing it slowly and gradually, but still, that's what you are doing. It's not going to be fun; please don't expect it to be. Don't whine that it's *hard* or that you don't *like* it. It's not easy for anybody and nobody likes it.
Does it work? Yes. It works. You can be less fat by eating less food. The thing is, you have to do it continually, every day, every week, every month, every year. (People are not good at this level of ongoing commitment.) You will have to do it for the rest of your fucking life, exactly like a diabetic has to monitor his or her insulin. You don't get *better* from being fat when you're at your goal weight any more than you are *better* from being diabetic just because your sugar is at an acceptable level right now.
If you have ever been fat, even if you look thin now, inside of you, forever after, there is a fat person trying to get out. That fat person will grab hold of every brownie, every rice krispie treat, every no-bake cookie, every baked potato, every spoonful of macaroni salad, every ladle of gravy, every biscuit, every slice of pie, every piece of cake, every grain of freaking rice. All of those things, and more, are fuel for the fat person inside you. Too much fuel for the fat person inside and he or she will start to come out. You are never, ever done dieting. Ever. You don't get to go back to eating the old way unless you want to look like you did then, which is to say fat.
