finds themselves under attack as smear campaigns go into effect.

They spend a fortune, these Corporations, to quash reports like this. Read the history of the Sugar Industry eg.

The only way to combat those tactics is for more and more people to speak up in support of the messengers, because the smear campaigns never deal with the message, just the messenger.

Many are food addicts, and the food industry wants it this way...this is about the addictive nature of salt, sugar and fat...and how the food industry hooks us....Below is a Washinton Post Review:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kessler, David A. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite (2009) ISBN 1-60529-785-2

He went in the middle of the night, long after the last employee had locked up the Chili's Grill and Bar. He'd steer his car around the back, check to make sure no one was around and then quietly approach the dumpster.


If anyone noticed the man foraging through the trash, they would have assumed he was a vagrant. Except he was wearing black dress slacks and padded gardening gloves. "I'm surprised he didn't wear a tie," his wife said dryly.

The high-octane career path of David A. Kessler, the Harvard-trained doctor, lawyer, medical school dean and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration had come to this: nocturnal dumpster diving. Sometimes, he would just reach in. Other times, he would climb in.

It took many of these forays until Kessler emerged with his prize: ingredient labels affixed to empty cardboard boxes that spelled out the fats, salt and sugar used to make the Southwestern Eggrolls, Boneless Shanghai Wings and other dishes served by the nation's second-largest restaurant chain.

Kessler was on a mission to understand a problem that has vexed him since childhood: why he can't resist certain foo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/26/AR2009042602711.html\

___________________________________________________________________________________________

"His 2009 book The End of Overeating (a New York Times best seller) highlights for the consumer the amount of fat, salt and sugar in their food intake. He asserts that this trio of elements in restaurant and processed foods conditions us to eat more in a manner that changes our brain circuitry and that children may develop a pattern of overeating and obesity that they might retain for life. He stresses that this outcome of lifelong obesity is not genetic but environmental and avoidable."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Aaron_Kessler

when the public became a bit more informed about products that contained sugar.

It appears to have succeeded. Some of the diet sweeteners (never used them so I don't remember the names) were banned airc, but are now back on the shelves.

They fight fiercely to control what we eat.

And sadly, our Government seems to be willing to help them.

If you burn more calories than you metabolize, you lose weight. I knew a woman in college who ate a bowl of ice cream every night - but she exercised a lot, and had a well tuned metabolism, and didn't gain any weight from it.

Yes, obesity is growing because people are eating more calories - and NOT burning more. It's true, though, that if you intake enough, there won't be time in the day to do all the exercise you'd need to do to burn it off. Most folks don't have time enough to 'exercise off' the calories they take in, though, so yes, we need fewer calories in, in a society in which virtually every processed 'food' item on grocery store shelves has been designed in a lab to leave us craving more, often while providing few or no micronutrients.

Buit if you burn more calories than you take in, you'll still lose that mass even if you have no bodyfat. your body breaks down muscle tissue if you aren't getting enough calories and don't have easily taken fat reserves.

In aggregate, I think we all know that the availability of cheap, fattening, non-nutritious calories are lead to a rise in obesity. On an individual level, however, it seems to be misguided for the report to say exercise and activity levels have nothing to do with the obesity epidemic.

Energy in and energy out -- pretty straight forward equation.

For example, if I don't ride a bicycle at least 35 miles a week, I tend to start gaining weight, even with the same calorie intake. And even driving a manual transmission, rather than an automatic, can help to burn calories.

populace. (we still subsidize sugar so it is cheaper than carrots. should be pushing veggies and equating cows with ISIS but the beef industry owns the government's tongue, in that area.)

But this insures profit$$$$$$$ galore. For a few.

so you'll be hungrier....

think about how long it takes to work off 500 calories. Now think about
how long it takes to NOT put that item that totals 500 calories into your mouth.

Which do you think is more effective?

..... really argue with that.

In my late 50s I am for the first time in my life battling my weight. I have been used to eating whatever I want whenever I want and never gaining a pound but those days are over.

Between my job and other responsibilities, I don't have time for daily exercise although I do heavy physical labor on the weekends for several hours. But I have found that I HAVE to watch what I eat for the first time.

I'm not happy about it but I agree with the OP article, I have found the same thing... if you are stuffing your face with refined carbs you are not going to have enough hours in a day to work them off.

I've read on DU many times that doctors don't concern themselves with diet or nutrition and instead are only interested in performing surgery and prescribing medications that net them huge kickbacks.

Surely those stories can't be wrong, can they?!?

Because that very same doc left primary care to go work for Big Pharma! I was really ticked when he
did because I liked the guy. Very down to earth. His partners had become a 'concierge' practice
where people pay a fee to be included, and he didn't agree with the concept. You could still see
him without paying the fee. Then, he just up and left to go work for GSK and I later found out
he'd been gathering clinical data for GSK on one of their drugs in a study, using his patient population.

if I never exercise, then I'm prone to gain weight even if I only rarely indulge...If I exercise regularly, I can indulge more.

Obviously if I have an absolutely horrible diet, the amount of exercise I'd have to do to overcome it would become quickly prohibitive.

But in the end, as with most things, it's a little of both.

chocolate chip cookie from Starbucks weighs in.

It's unreal, how efficient the body is and how calorie-dense our processed foods are.

Very well put..outstanding explanation of millions of people who have this problem.

A slightly obese former friend of mine (haven't seen him in a long time since I moved) told me the diet he uses:
- a big breakfast with the calories you need for the day
- small lunch
- workout
- small dinner, lots of proteins and fibers (e.g. steak and salad), no fat

During workout, you burn the short-term fat-reserves inside the muscles.
The fatless dinner forces the body to refill the short-term fat-reserves inside the muscles from the long-term fat-reserves (belly etc.) overnight.

See my post below.

Assume that we ate the 1960s portions (but very little junk food). Now assume we're doing the same amount of exercise (hardly likely since we're much older) and eating the current portions - then the authors of the paper are correct.
How do you outrun those portions? The key is to revert to the original intake and continue to exercise.
One more thing - I well remember dad bring home a bar of Cadbury's chocolate and each of us getting a maximum three little squares. Now folks each eat an entire bar of chocolate.

It's madness.

Yes, in my opinion, it is an addiction. ....Here is a book that proves this:

Kessler, David A. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite (2009) ISBN 1-60529-785-2

He went in the middle of the night, long after the last employee had locked up the Chili's Grill and Bar. He'd steer his car around the back, check to make sure no one was around and then quietly approach the dumpster.


If anyone noticed the man foraging through the trash, they would have assumed he was a vagrant. Except he was wearing black dress slacks and padded gardening gloves. "I'm surprised he didn't wear a tie," his wife said dryly.

The high-octane career path of David A. Kessler, the Harvard-trained doctor, lawyer, medical school dean and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration had come to this: nocturnal dumpster diving. Sometimes, he would just reach in. Other times, he would climb in.

It took many of these forays until Kessler emerged with his prize: ingredient labels affixed to empty cardboard boxes that spelled out the fats, salt and sugar used to make the Southwestern Eggrolls, Boneless Shanghai Wings and other dishes served by the nation's second-largest restaurant chain.

Kessler was on a mission to understand a problem that has vexed him since childhood: why he can't resist certain foo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/26/AR2009042602711.html\

___________________________________________________________________________________________

"His 2009 book The End of Overeating (a New York Times best seller) highlights for the consumer the amount of fat, salt and sugar in their food intake. He asserts that this trio of elements in restaurant and processed foods conditions us to eat more in a manner that changes our brain circuitry and that children may develop a pattern of overeating and obesity that they might retain for life.[14] He stresses that this outcome of lifelong obesity is not genetic but environmental and avoidable."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Aaron_Kessler

Thanks

Reminds me of White Castle hamburgers in the '50s.

... I am astounded at the volume of food in restaurant servings these days. A couple weeks ago I had a burger/fries at a pretty popular relatively recent chain (around here anyway) starting with an M.

The burger was great and so were the fries but I swear, I ordered the small/regular version and there were enough fries for 3 servings.

As much as I hate to waste food I had to leave most of them. They won't really reheat so no point taking them home.

I wish I understood why they do this....

Lacking anything to differentiate themselves, restaurants started super-sizing everything, which worked for a short time before all other restaurants started doing the same and now it's the norm.

There is a point at which too much competition is unhealthy and nothing encapsulates that better than the fast food industry.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

The portions are absolutely ridiculous. But people start to think they're "normal" size.

BTW, you can revive french fries if you put them in a sautee pan with a little oil, heat 'em up, and add some salt.

I've gotten used to expecting two regular meals from one night out. People bags are the rule now rather than an exception.

The Men Who Made Us Fat. You can find it on YouTube.

One of the more interesting parts explores how portion sizes began to increase in the fast food industry. I believe it started in the sixties, as the brainchild of a McDonald's executive. Old McDonald himself didn't get how increasing portion sizes would increase profits (and frankly, I don't get it, either), but it did-- immensely. And they've been upping the portion sizes ever since.

... I will watch that.

The first thing I do is immediately cut off at least half the steak and put it aside for a later meal (requesting a container from the server at that time and not at the end of the meal). I then combine it with lots of veges that I have at home for a meal the next day.

Typical diet:

Breakfast:
Start with large spinach/endive/romaine salad with tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, onions - very low calorie dressing
Small grapefruit

Lunch:
Stir fry from night before over bed of spinach with some other vegetable like squash

Dinner:
Stir fry using low calorie ingredients such as soy sauce, tomato/tomato sauce with very lean cuts of steak, pork or chicken and lots and lots of vegetables - lots of seasoning, garlic

Snacks:
One or two low fat ostrich/beef sticks
Apple
Hard candies (10 calories and last 10 minutes in your mouth)
Occasional banana
Greek Yogurt



I have lost a 1/3rd of my goal since January. I am doing it with both diet and exercise (rowing 1 hr/day in two sessions of 30 minutes each in the morning and in the evening) along with at least 2 hours of walking per day. Strength training 3x/week.

Stay out of fast food places and all you can eat buffets. I only like to eat the food which I make myself now.

About 9 months ago my primary care provider told me I needed to get serious about losing weight. I was obese: 70 pounds overweight, BMI of 33. She suggested an exercise regimen, plus using an activity monitor (like Fitbit) and tracking food intake.

At first I did all 3. But about a month in, I pulled my extensor tendon (not even exercising; just took a funny step in a pair of loose shoes) and had to be in a stabilizing boot for about two months. At the same time, work got really busy. So exercise just stopped, and didn't restart after the boot came off.

So for eight months, all I've been doing is counting calories, following a routine where I shoot for eating 250 fewer calories/day than I burn. This hasn't been "dieting" in the usual sense; there's literally nothing that I've cut out of my diet, including booze, sweets, cheese, and carbs -- though I do tend to eat less high-caloric food, just because it takes up too much of my calorie allowance. My calorie allowance (as allotted by a widely-trusted calorie tracker) is also pretty generous; when I started, it was about 2200 calories/day. And while I do get some exercise just because I live in a city and walk a couple of miles a day, it's not what most folks mean by "exercise." This whole project has simply been calories in vs. calories out. (Edit: I should note, though, that I do have an advantage here, in that my wife and I love cooking and so I have more control over my food ingredients that a lot of people these days.)

9 months later, I've lost 40 pounds and am still losing. So, yeah, I think this study is onto something.

I just eat less of them, and I do faithfully exercise.

I call it my ELEM Diet. Eat Less, Exercise More. But the intake is the real key, especially since I can no longer run up and down the basketball court like I could when I was younger.

My weight has been pretty steady for the past seven years thanks to this approach.

I'm trying to lose around 30 to 40 pounds, and it isn't easy, although I know if I put my mind to it, that it is entirely do-able.

I work on a farm. I do very hard physical labor. Not kidding, I just chased down a lamb the other day trotting for about a mile and I was not out of breath. I hoe, dig, plant, carry. I purposely do not get an ATV because I thought I needed to keep up my exercise and walking instead of riding a noisy ATV is healthier.

I quit smoking about a year ago, when my husband was seriously ill. I did very minimal work around the farm and mostly just visited him in the hospital for about a year. I have gained 30 lb.

My hubby got better and I went back to farming this spring, the weight did not change. I purposely made my planting schedule very rigorous. Nothing, not a pound did I lose. So I'm looking at calories now and seeing where I can cut back. I average 1500 calories a day and the weight just wont budge.

I could never lose weight, either, despite doing a lot of walking on large campuses and gardening something like a small truck farm all by myself.

A friend dropped bread from her diet, so I thought I'd try it. I did, and without intending to, lost a lot of weight. Dropped all starches (potatoes, mostly), and grains. I learned how to bake using alternative flours, like almond flour, coconut flour, etc., so I use substitutes for tortillas, bread, etc. Food m'frs do make a 5-gram bread (Pepperidge Farm) and Trader Joe's has a good low-carb soft taco shell, also at 5 mg per serving.

Metabolism Miracle explains how it works.


Cher

All calories are definitely not created equal. I lose weight with the Fat Resistance Diet. Very healthy. Veggies, egg whites, low carb yogurt, fish, omega 3's.

Forget wheat, cheese, anything deep fried, potatoes, cereal, and learn to like almond milk, not cow's milk.

It's great how you were able to lose weight. Maybe there is hope for me yet.

I didn't even try. And I was enjoying perfectly wonderful food, food that made me feel so much better.

I'd never go back to bread, potatoes, rice, or sweets. After adjusting my taste buds, I don't even want them.

One other plus: after adjusting to no bread/starches, you find your appetite has adjusted, too. I was always hungry, but now I'm perfectly happy with 3 average-sized meals a day. Cravings disappeared.


Cher

And glad to hear your hubby is better.

From personal experience (I lost almost 40 lbs several years ago) I can tell you that with an intake
of 1200-1300 calories/day I lost weight at the rate of about 2 lbs/week. The key is loading up
on vegetables (not starchy ones like corn), limiting protein/meat portions to about the size of a deck
of cards, no sauces, trading in the bad carbs (potatoes/white rice/bread/pasta) for good carbs,
and drinking lots of water (at least 64 oz/day). No booze or wine. I happened to use Nutrisystem,
but you don't need diet products if you use a good calorie counting resource, like https://www.myfitnesspal.com/

AND log everything you put in your mouth. You might be surprised at how many extra calories you can consume
with a bite of something here or there, salad dressings, sprinkle of cheese on things, milk in your coffee, etc.

And also, give yourself time and try to set up your calorie intake to 4 or 5 much smaller meals throughout
the day. That keeps your body fueled. People make a big mistake in thinking if they don't eat, they'll lose
weight. Wrong. Your metabolism just shuts down to conserve resources rather than staying revved up
to burn calories. Good luck!

This is absolutely key. Having to do this has made me aware of how often I used to have "just a little something," and how much that added up to.

The other thing that's helped me is to have realistic goals and give myself time. I know I could lose weight more quickly on a lower-calorie diet, but I also know that I'd grow frustrated on such a diet and probably either give up or cheat (as Oscar Wilde once said, "I can resist everything except temptation&quot . I know I could lose weight more efficiently if I gave up some foods altogether -- but, again, I'd be almost sure to cheat or give up. What I'm doing is modest and it will take me a lot longer to lose the weight I want than many people have the patience for (I figure it'll take 18 months), but it's sustainable -- and that's the most important thing.

So, I should not expect to lose it in 2 months. But not even losing a pound despite a huge increase in activity level? It's just so frustrating.

Anyway, my 9 beds of vegetables will be ready to harvest soon and I can eat as many wonderful flavored veggies as I want. I'm thinking fresh homegrown veggies are so much more appetizing than frozen or grocery store stale. The sweet spicy radishes the sharp arugula the fresh snap peas - yummy. So that will help me increase my veggies. I think I'll cut out another 200 calories and see if next month I lose anything. I've just started writing everything down.

Thanks for the link. My daughter told me about it, I just never had the link for it.

I knew I would gain weight quitting, I always do. But now I think I've quit for good, it's like my body said, "Yeah, we can all get fat now."

Anyway thanks for the information. I'm going to keep up my exercise level and maybe cut a few more calories. I figure eventually my body has to give up some of the fat.

because your body gets used to a routine of 'dieting' or making the same food choices over and over again.

Try switching your lunch and dinner. It's a challenge to your metabolism.

If you are exercising routinely, change your routine. Do something different.

If you've sneaked alcohol--beer or wine or cocktail--into your diet, stop.

Drink more water! Lots of it! (At least 64 oz/day).

If you've been using yogurt or cheese sticks or nuts for a snack, change that. If you
eat meat, try turkey or chicken, instead.

If you are drinking juice for fruit servings, switch to real fruit.

Keep veggies around for snacking--carrots, celery, cucumber, yellow or red pepper slices.
Don't let yourself reach for any kind of carb (crackers or bread) for snacking.

Very often a plateau can be broken just by switching up what you're doing. Don't give up.

He works out for strength and cardio... not for weight loss.

Of course he eats and burns 2-3 times more than I do and I'm not a gym girl but the process is the same. Good protein, high fiber, good carbs, take it easy on the salt and fat, do you level best to avoid cheap sugars.

As far as "calories in calories out" it's not that easy either. Cheap carbs will overload your system and store as fat even as you are trying to stay busy and feeling tired and hungry. Shovel out the cheap carbs and it's amazing how much better the body runs.

If I get lazy and start eating out of a bag .... even if I'm watching the calories I'll pork right up in no time. My body is capable of gaining 30 pounds in a month and will only lose 3-4 a month at best.

The above my way of agreeing with what you said. The food is the starting point, not the exercise. That's important for a different reason.

The average diner of 50 years ago would be stunned at the food portions served in restaurants, now. It is what we have come to expect.

Quantity over quality pretty much sums up the American way of life. No?

along with so many "convenience" choices. I have kids and just as guilty as anyone else of buying a package of nuggets or stopping at Subway in a pinch. The better nights I'll serve lean chicken breast w/rice, brocolli etc.

I have always felt that if you strive for a decent balance of preparing food at home and exercising (whether that's walking to school etc) that most people would be ok. I don't think it's one or the other that should be emphasized more but people always seem attracted to the latest fad diet or looking for easy answers.

Thanks!

with as few as possible "prepared" foods.

We eat out at a restaurant once a week, That our splurge. Except for that indulgence, we eat only home cooked scratch meals..and many are meatless meals.

I noticed in one of our sons (the one who does not cook and has a wife who rarely cooks) he has a real gut that he never had when he ate here ..

It's a myth that it's hard to cook meals..fast nutritious ones.. If you have access to a stove and can get hold of a cookbook (if you are new to cooking), you are set..

I can put a complete meal on the table in less than 20 minutes.

Whenever I'm overseas and come back to the states, I'm always struck by how our food is huge, soft, sweet, and relatively tasteless. Even fruits and vegetables taste better in countries where they care about how food tastes. In Japan, for instance, grapes taste like grapes, not just sweet like they do here.

My daughter and I can share a burrito at Chipotle, or a footlong tuna sub at Subway, and it's perfect for both of us.

We encounter problems when my wife comes with, though, because she feels it makes us look "cheap" to not purchase her her own kid's meal (even though most kid's meals are crap taste-wise and nutritionally).

The portions are out of control. I went to Smoothie King the other day to get a nice, berry smoothie. I've never really been to Smoothie King, but it was right by the bead show that I attended. I ordered a medium berry smoothie, thinking that I'd get 16 ounces, or maybe 20. I got 32 freakin' ounces! Their "Small" is 20 oz.! Really, people! Even healthy food can be fattening!

Of course, I drank it all. I didn't want to waste it, of course. And got sick to my stomach from all of that sugar.

That helped me lose weight.

I have a friend who has been a personal trainer for something like 20 years, and he's always required his clients to get a physical before they begin. He once told me that, out of all his clients that came to him wanting to lose weight, at least 80% claimed to have some kind of medical condition that made it unusually difficult, and in 20 years, not a single one turned out to actually have such a condition.

It's ridiculously easy to overeat in today's food environment. Our modern, ultra-tasty foods are the caloric equivalent of rocket fuel.

My brother had some weight gain creep up on him. He already ate a decently healthy diet and jogged daily. After he gained quite a bit of weight, he cut out alcohol, most fat and cut his portions way down. He increased his running and workouts to 2 hours a day. He complained often that he couldn't understand how it was so difficult for him to lose weight when my SIL seemed to eat 3 times as much as he did and she stayed slim. He ate even less. He never cheated and was absolutely militant with his diet..and slowly the weight came off. He was still far from thin, however. One day he collapsed at work. Turns out his TSH was through the roof. Now that he's on medication, he finds he can eat a lot more and not gain. He still has to work out 2 hours a day though.

I always had issues maintaining my weight ever since I was on anti-depressants. Over 10 years on them I gained 80 lbs (And didn't lose the weight when I went off them). Plus, I have PCOS which doesn't make weight loss easier either. Hopefully I don't develop hypothyroidism like my brother (I'm tested regularly - TSH every 6 months and a full panel every year) because it's already hard enough for me!

My personal struggle in my life has been with my weight.

Despite being very physically active, I was obese in my youth because I was a gorge eater who had not been educated properly on the balance of fat, carbohydrates and protein.

Once I went to college and my access to food was a lot more limited, I was able to lose weight. I also started running several days a week regularly. While I played basketball and other sports recreationally, running is the most efficient calorie burn.

I went through a period where I focused on limiting the fat in my diet. This helped me to control my weight mostly, but in retrospect I lived a life where I suffered greatly from energy swings because of an excess of carbs.

I visited a nutritionist about five years ago and she helped me to refocus on good proteins and recognize that refined sugars were my BIG enemy (outside of deep fried fats).

I still am heavier than I should be, but in overall good health because I have had mostly limited my fat intake over my life while maintaining a regular regime of running and working out.

The problem with this complete dismissal of physical activity and absolute focus on diet is the assumption that everyone's metabolism is the same, that everyone can just have discipline in what they eat, it is as simple as that.

NOW, as some have noted, portion control is absolutely a vital component.

But, people are just different. I am a pretty disciplined person, but whatever it is about my body, I NEED to eat. A bit of it is because of my excercise, but I also have tension that is relieved by eating.

Many people don't have to worry about it, but to MANY people, there is something about eating that is bigger than they are. It is sort of like an addiction, but you can cold turkey not use drugs ever again. You HAVE to eat. No coke addict could every stay straight if they HAD to use it three times a day, they would binge like nuts.

Excercice or phsyical activity helps to burn some calories. It also serves to clean your head a bit, to relieve tensions that lead to nervous or habit eating. It also keeps you busy, and if you are physically doing things you aren't eating. Finally, it does help to regular your metabolism. You do have to eat more at times to replenish your body, but it just keeps your body humming at a little higher rate. AND, it keeps you healthier overall.

It is not one OR the other.

It is BOTH. For people who have not been blessed to not have to struggle with their weight, the more active you are, the better you can work to control your weight.

But, again, this complete dismissal of excercise and physical activity REALLY overlooks that there are many, MANY people who have struggles with this that are greater than just having "discipline."

I typically burn over a 1000 calories a day, six days a week, doing exercise. If I ate as much as I now eat without doing that exercise, I'd regain all the weight I've held off for two years (85 lbs) in around a year.

Yes, I could exercise less, but I'd have to eat less too. And it's hardly like "reducing the risk of developing heart disease, dementia and other conditions" are things to be casually dismissed.

you are tall and roughly 200 pounds). If you're short and roughly 100 pounds you'd need to run 10 miles a day to overeat by 500 calories.

However, I think the general observation is that for most people, calorie restriction is easier than running. For people who have poor diets, it's much easier to remove 2 cans of coke a day from your diet than it is to run 3 miles a day.

That being said, the health benefits of exercise are far greater than the impact on body weight, so I'd be saddened for any health expert to be counseling "just eat less" rather than "eat less and exercise".

You cannot outrun a bad diet. You cannot eat anything and think exercise will work off the pounds. Balance is the word -stop eating crap food.

At that time I was in my twenties, 6' 2" and weighed 155 lbs or so and was eating something over 3K calories a day plus a couple six-packs of beer.

But that will break you down after a while, I was getting sacroiliac pain because I was flexing my pelvis with the stress. My arms would fall asleep at night because the blood got cut off by the hypertrophied muscles in my arms. It was very painful. I can go on.

But yeah, Joe Yuppie is not going to run it off, he doesn't have the time.

Eating less is a much more practical way to go.

I was one of those kids who was skinny and struggled to put on weight no matter what he ate. I actually had to come up with a protein-intensive meal plan once I got to college to put on 20 lb of muscle to get where I wanted to be.

Even today, I routinely consume 2500+ calories a day at age 35, but I've only gained 10 lb in the past decade due to remaining physically active at home and at work. I'm 5'9", 160 lb, fairly athletic build.

Now that I'm reaching that age where I have to worry about my metabolism dropping, though, I've started looking at more vegetarian meals and smaller portion sizes to guard against future weight gain. Soda is almost entirely out now, and it helps a LOT that my 5-yr old daughter has inherited my love of physical activity and loves biking, playing soccer, running around the park, etc.

and burn a 1000 calories in an hour, which I've done before.

It's painful, but doesn't take nearly as long as running 10 miles.

Or you can do weight training combined with cardio to get there.

Doesn't burn much in the way of calories, but it's got a range of benefits, not least of which is improved posture. Posture problems alone cause a lot of long term pain issues.

If you are engaging in weight training that strengthens your heart, then I would agree. But increasing body mass without strengthening your heart is a bad idea regardless if the mass increased is from fat or muscle.

Wife and I eat out a minimum of 4 times each week. We order one supper with salad, main course and so forth. The diner specials do not include desert.

We ask for two plates and split the stuff. Average cost is $16.00 per meal with tax and tip, divide by two.

While I can still stand to lose poundage, I am still in good condition.

We crave certain foods with a vampire-like intensity. Kicking that habit -eating more for nutrition than taste- is important, otherwise the addictive behavior returns.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

Well said. Once you get off the bad stuff,_ you crave veggies, nuts and fish.

imo.

A healthy balance between a reasonable diet and a sensible exercise plan will go a long way.

If you do sustained aerobic activities for 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week, and take in less carbs and sugars, you will lose weight. That's what I did, and I cheated often.

But you have to do sustained aerobic exercises like running, biking, walking, etc.

and that's the point. You cannot eat anything and expect exercise to resolve the problems

and that is not true. If you do sustained cardio vascular activity on a daily basis, you will lose weight. I lost 50 pounds by going to the gym regularly, and even though I tried to eat right all of the time, I often failed. However, I did not put the weight back on, and in fact, I lost more.

Not all forms of exercise promote weight loss.

will show why there's so much obesity.

Too many snacks made with flour and lots of salt line the aisles, and products with sugar and corn syrup fill half the grocery section, from cereal to candies and cookies and cakes... The packaging is so colorful and beautiful that kids can't resist begging parents to buy them, and some parents are just as tempted.

It should be required that stores buy a costly license to sell some of this garbage that is known to be bad for your health. Less money spent on this stuff would leave more money for the purchase of meats, cheeses, fruit and juices.

Are salt and sugar free?

I work out daily, but I don't have my six pack yet.
I accept it though since I barely get sleep and I don't eat properly.

Most of them live in places where you can't take a proper walk, in apartments that are too small for exercising, and can't afford gym membership. They also don't have time - or the energy - to take an hour here or there to exercise. And the time and energy problem makes it impossible for them to eat healthily too. They live in places without kitchens, without refrigerators, without grocery stores nearby. Their money is better spent on cheap, processed food that doesn't need refrigeration and/or preparation to get the calories they need while at the same time working incredible hours with incredibly bad schedules. Their metabolism is whacked from the food they were raised on, the food they are eating now, and the sleep schedule (or lack of sleep, more like it) that they are forced to keep.

And as a result, they are much more likely to be obese, and therefore to be seen as lazy, when in reality they are exhausted both physically and mentally from the fact that they live on a knife's edge, where every step is as convoluted as hell, and just one misstep will land them in homelessness, if it hasn't already.

And more and more Americans are becoming poor. Calories in and calories out is perfectly fine for middle class Americans that can drive to Safeway's and buy plenty of vegetables, but if you only have $29 to feed your family of four for the week, and no refrigerator, do you think that salad will keep for long and feed your kids for a week?

99.6% of American households have refrigerators.

places where you can't take a proper walk
What kind of place is that?

apartments that are too small for exercising
How small does it have to be before you can't do push ups/sit ups/jumping jacks or run in place?

What about those living out of their car, or on someone's couch, motel rooms or spare room above someone's garage. If they have refrigerators, they're most often dorm room sized, and have practically no fridge unit.

I spend parts of the year in the US, and while there, the only place to walk is roads with long stretches of no sidewalk, unless I have a car so that I can drive to outdoors areas. If I bike, I risk my life every time. Half the year, it is far too hot to walk during the day, and it doesn't cool down until after dark. Too much street harassment to risk it. During the winter, the snow isn't shoveled but in the car lanes.

Where I live in Norway, I only need to walk out my door and amble down the street, and I find a lane that leads to hiking trails. Should I want to go somewhere else, bus routes are deliberately set up so that I have access to trails on all sides of the city - departure every 10 minutes, and if I want to bike, bike lanes in and out of center of town. Both bike lanes and sidewalks are cleared of snow within 12 hours during winter, of course. If it is medically necessary, but you cannot afford it yourself, a gym membership can be prescribed by your doctor and the payment falls under the same rules as other medicine (poor people get medication for free, those who can afford to pay, pay only up to a certain sum.)

As for apartments, yes, those living in motel rooms, on people's couches etc have trouble finding space enough to exercise. What's more, they often also have trouble finding the energy to exercise. America's poor have the deck stacked against them, and too many don't want to admit that keeping fit is much harder to do for many people than for their own suburban, middle-class self. It's a very peculiar American blindness to anything but bootstrap thinking. I despise it.

I have never met an overweight person who also didn't eat way too many carbs.

I did, in fact, outrun a bad diet.

I'm back in the gym, but at age 53 and again in a mostly sedentary job, it's difficult to work out hard enough to be meaningful.

Exercise can put you in a better state of mind so you are more likely to eat healthy foods. It can also tone you so you feel better about the way you look in clothes, regardless of your weight. And, of course, there are a bazillion other health benefits from it. But, as the saying goes "your can't outrun your fork."

Nice post

It's simply easier to monitor diet than drag yourself to a gym or a jog. When I'm in a cutting phase, I monitor calories vs cardio religiously. There are times, when I know I'll be eating poorly, that I'll go burn 1200 calories on a machine. Whatever goes in my mouth must be accounted for at the gym.

It works just fine. I still lose steadily when I'm trying to (I'm mid-30s).

Figure out your TDEE, watch your macros, monitor calories in and out. It's not magic. Excepting medical conditions, medications, etc., I've never met a person who this didn't work for.

which are essential if you are going to change your diet enough to lose weight.

Now I know, some people out there don't need discipline and can change their diet whenever, so they'll be the first ones that disagree with me, but the majority of americans lack the self-control and discipline to do this, so exercise is a good way to get them into a different way of thinking.

I thought exercise and dieting went hand-in-hand?

With today's ridiculously calorie-dense foods, it takes about ten minutes to eat enough calories to fuel a 4 hour run. The only way to control weight is to eat the proper amount of calories, and the only way to do that without feeling like you're starving all the time is to eat healthier, or at least less calorie-dense foods that fill you up without overloading you with calories.

I'm always amazed at how weight loss is portrayed in this country. It's always shown as something tortuous, something that requires regular, intense, extended physical exercise. The truth is, it just doesn't. A smart diet is enough to control weight. Add a 30 minute stroll every other day and you'll be fit, too.

If a fat person is healthy because they get exercise, WHO CARES IF THEY ARE FAT?

From the article:

"The truth, they say, is that while physical activity is useful in reducing the risk of developing heart disease, dementia and other conditions, it “does not promote weight loss”. "

First off, that's horse shit. Elite athletes devour thousands of calories a day and do not gain fat. They are burning it up.

Secondly, is the goal health, or conformity to some unreasonable ideal?

I think we should all strive to eat well, get exercise and let the waistline fall where it may. Strive for good health, not a tiny waist. The obsession with fat is silly.

even marginally obese person who exercises a lot is far healthier than a couch potato who doesn't eat.

The ties of obesity directly to health is the product of the diet industry which makes BILLIONS every year convincing people they aren't good enough.

Further - the age range of the elite athlete is between late teens and late 30s.
One more thing - there are overweight folks who cannot walk because their bodies are too heavy for their legs.

However, the body burns a certain amount of calories regardless of whether you exercise or not. If you reduce your daily caloric intake enough, you will lose weight even without exercise.

Moderately stressful hiking will burn about 185 calories in 30 minutes. A heavier person will burn somewhat more. That's slightly less than one glazed doughnut.

It's certainly possible to control your weight with excessive alone. Tour de France riders will lose weight during the tour despite eating as much calorie dense food as they can hold down. It's just a lot easier to control your weight primarily with diet rather than primarily with exercise.

Vascular health. It increases the HDL also

In order to have a significant cardio benefit you need to increase your heart rate well above normal. But pretty much all physical activity has a benefit over the couch and is a good idea.

I think the idea of the OP is not that exercise is bad, it's just that the vast majority of people aren't going to be able to overcome the effects of a bad diet by exercise, and I tend to agree.

That doesn't work in the long run

high protein diets with lots of fresh organic fruits and vegetables. Create drive through fast food healthy restaurants, get people hooked on healthy food. If it was as readily available as garbage food is, people would begin switching over.

And STOP subsidizing big ag, gmo, junk food industries! That will begin to solve the problem

heart disease, dementia and other conditions, it “does not promote weight loss”. Preventing disease is the most important part. I'm about to turn 40. I'm past all the bullshit of wanting to flaunt a skinny body around for other people's approval. I just want to prevent disease. I struggle constantly with my eating. I do try and will continue to try, but I am past caring what other people think about my weight.

Those things are good in and of themselves. Obesity is the price we pay for a society where there is enough to eat (for most people most of the time) and most jobs are sedentary. Over the past 100 years, the fatter we get as a society, the longer we live. (Even AIDS didn't slow the increase in life expectancy very much.) Not that obesity is good for you--quite the contrary--but all the other beneficial effects of living in such a society are more important than the accompanying downside of obesity.

Oh, and losing weight doesn't necessarily fix obesity. It's a simple matter of math--if you weigh 300 lbs and lose 50 ibs, you are still obese.

Maintaining that loss is extremely hard: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html

Although two great books about the food industry are 'Salt, Sugar, Fat' by Michael Moss and 'Pandora's Lunchbox' by Melanie Warner.

“In the past 30 years, as obesity has rocketed, there has been little change in physical activity levels in the western population

Physical activity by children has dropped like a rock in the last few decades. Anyone who does not know that is blind. Just yesterday when that stage collapsed in Indiana they interviewed three kids on a TV news report. All three were obese. That did not exist in my high school (mid 1960s) and it was the largest high school in the state.

and get regular exercise. This will generally help maximize someone's chances of being and staying healthy and minimize the possibility of becoming obese.

Still, there's no denying that genetic inheritance is also a factor in everyone's personal body constitution.