It Used To Be Hard To Get Obese

[bulldog9899]

@T3hPwnisher

Dan John has spoken that the 3 most effective fat burning activities we can engage in are sleeping, walking and sitting. No one likes to hear that

Its counter intuitive to most. But most people dont have understanding of energy pathways regards to metabolism.

[RT_Nomad]

@T3hPwnisher

Dan John has spoken that the 3 most effective fat burning activities we can engage in are sleeping, walking and sitting.

When people were asking me how I stayed in shape without doing cardio, I would tell them that I burn more calories asleep than they did the same amount of time doing cardio. I know this is hyperbole, but they weren’t doing cardio for 8 hours either. Muscle burns calories just trying to stay 98.6 degrees.

[T3hPwnisher]

@bulldog9899 and @RT_Nomad Absolutely! It’s very frustrating to accept. Everyone wants to “do” things to achieve their goals, but when it comes to getting lean, it’s a lot of “NOT” doing that gets you there.

DON’T eat so much. DON’T try to burn off everything with cardio. Hell, I put on 7lbs when training for my first half marathon, and if you go to any half marathon, you’ll see a LOT of chubby runners. Energy goo might be good at keeping you from crashing during a run, but they aren’t doing the physique any favors.

[mnben87]

@jskrabac

I’ve gotten as high as 235 lb and was eating the best I’ve ever eaten as far as micros, but was by far at my worst across all healthy metrics, even my mood. And each time I’ve gotten my leanest and had best bloodwork to date, I was eating cheetohs, skinny cow ice cream sandwiches and diet coke pretty much daily.

Pretty similar here. I just try to control calories and protein. I like my no or very low calorie drinks like the ocean spray diet 5, and diet sodas. I eat fast food, but with a different pattern compared to most. Stuff like burrito bowls from chipolte, or the pot roast dinner at Culver’s. Hardly ever fries or regular soda. I’ll pay extra to substitute a different healthier side. Sometimes people are surprised by my food choices, but if you add it all up, it is a lot of protein, and the right amount of calories depending on my goals. I do try to have dinner be meat and a vegetable of some kind, and usually during the week, I have an iced coffee with zero sugar creamer and vanilla protein powder for my breakfast.

[T3hPwnisher]

@mnben87

Culver’s

They’re my go to fast food spot. I order plain burger patties. They charge me $1.90 each for them. I’ll get a few packs of whipped butter instead of mayo, and if I’m really trying to gain, I’ll get some swiss cheese too. Outstanding value, great food, really tastes quality. In n Out is amazing too, and will do a similar thing with “pup patties”, but I only get to eat there when I’m visiting family.

[mnben87]

I got one about 5 minutes from work. If you’re feeling adventurous, try their pot roast dinner. Fairly generous amount of pot roast on a slice of sour dough bread, gravy on top. I usually get it with the mashed potatoes and gravy and the steamed broccoli (which TBH isn’t very good).

[T3hPwnisher]

It sadly doesn’t fit in with my current way of eating. It sounds quite yummy though.

[DoesTheHeavyLifting]

@T3hPwnisher

Your 2 cents is more like a 95 Theses!

They call me Lats Luther…

[Njord]

People are just more sedentary now, from childhood through adulthood.

Dietary fads have come and gone over the decades and they’ve all worked as long as calories were properly accounted for, with a bend for high protein in strength and muscle training.

Nearly everything is automated now. From groceries and any consumer good you want on Amazon to even alcohol delivered right to the front porch to smart homes with programmed lights or an ability to change them from a phone app, and a lot of instances between, you barely even have to lift a finger. Not that grocery shopping and flipping light switches was ever strenuous, but in a world where measuring steps is considered aggressive exercise by many, it’s a sign of the times for sure. Hell, cars park themselves. You don’t even have to turn the steering wheel. Kids bikes and scooters are electric and so on.

In tandem with nutrition points already made, both sides of the calories in & out equation are fucked and it shows.

There’s also the phenomenon of social acceptance lately. Not only is “bullying” a high crime, but being fat is flat out accepted and even propagated as beautiful. With no guard rails or societal pressure in place the path of least resistance is easy in our automated environment.

[zecarlo]

@T3hPwnisher

you’ll see a LOT of chubby runners.

So I’m not the only person who has noticed this.

[Dani_Shugart]

I often wonder how nicotine (an appetite suppressant) affected things. Did obesity rates skyrocket when cigarettes fell out of favor? And would more people have struggled with their weight if smoking hadn’t been such a huge trend?

[The_Myth]

Timely post as I try to bulk but continue to suck at it. Mentally I struggle to wrap my head around the fact that eating and training are friends, that the food will be converted, mostly, to LBM and not fat.

Muscle burns more than fat, training increases BMR for hours post training, and eating whole foods makes it difficult to overeat calorically - at least for me.

[TrainForPain]

We notice similar things with kids in general, just kind of observing across the board as mine have grown.

1. They have something “else” to do. When we were younger, there just wasn’t anything to do inside. That forced us to get outside.
2. They don’t love their sports the way we did. Some of this might be social media conditioning? But they don’t have the same comfort just doing it for the sake of doing it… God forbid just drilling on their own.
3. There’s no level of peer pressure that would eventually give way to personal accountability. I don’t mean I’m celebrating bullying. What I mean is, I’ll see kids be last in every drill and not care and none of their teammates ever give them crap about it. They never end up internalizing that it’s their problem to get faster (and that it also hurts the collective when they don’t).
4. Obviously instant gratification, domaine hits, junk food, etc., but this is kind of secondary… at least in terms of delta from my youth. I mean, I wanted happy meals and a toy right now too, so that’s not a “kids these days” thing for me.

[burt128]

@T3hPwnisher

This is, once again, where CICO misleads people. So many folks in the fitness sphere are engaged in this race to try to burn off all the calories they consume in the pursuit of achieving a desired body, and frequently they employ exercise as a means to do this. In doing so, they tend to work against their own goals: the appetite generated through hard training tends to significantly outpace the energy consumed from it.

This is so true. Especially since if one is relying on this to either create a deficit or stay at maintenance, one is at the mercy of the accuracy of the calories burned estimates.

@T3hPwnisher

Especially when we factor in that many folks try to burn calories through HARD training, which tends to rely primarily on sugar as a fuel source. This leads to a vicious cycle of burning sugar, craving sugar, eating sugar, spiking insulin, which then perpetuates craving more and more sugar.

I struggled with this as I got into cycling. But once I started properly fueling my rides, I didn’t eat everything that wasn’t nailed down when I got back.

[Njord]

Yeah for sure. I think it’s an overarching mentality issue with kids. We’ve demonized competition and winning to coddle literal losers. Instead of helping, this takes the spark of drive and self-improvement away. And not just in sports. Everything is relative and nothing matters, until it does and they’re not equipped to handle challenge.

[TrainForPain]

And then they shoot up a school when they get turned down for prom. I can definitely get on this soapbox, and often do, but don’t want to derail this topic too much further.

I do think food quality is significantly worse than it used to be, but I think I’d err on the “ease” side of the argument: everything from being sedentary to easy food acquisition to simply having nothing better to do than eat.

[zecarlo]

I’ve seen some episodes of the 600 pound show. There is definitely something more going on. The people are grimy looking because they can’t bathe regularly. They smell bad. Some have actually admitted this. The doctor told one patient he could smell that she isn’t taking care of her hygiene. They’re ok with having people hose them down like a zoo animal. I know that sounds mean but it’s the best description of it. In short, they have no sense of dignity. But this is something that’s pervasive in this country. The way people will divulge private matters on social media or go on Dr. Phil or whatever.

As far as food, which seems to be the main idea in this thread, you would think someone who overeats and has an intense “love” for food, would be eating good food. These people eat food that’s gross and tastes like crap. Boxed macaroni and cheese, for example. I get that this food is relatively cheap so you can afford to eat a lot of it, but it doesn’t taste good. And the way they eat, I don’t think they even taste it. We can blame our food supply, lifestyle, technology, etc., but I think it’s a psychological issue. Obesity, drug addiction, gender confusion, antisocial tendencies… we’re suffering from mental illness on a national level.

[TrainForPain]

@zecarlo

you would think someone who overeats and has an intense “love” for food, would be eating good food

You’re making a solid point: this is certainly an indicator they’ve crossed from passion to addiction.

[jdm135]

While I don’t have time to read all the comments or engage much with this, I wanted to express my support for you putting this out there, @T3hPwnisher . You read the rant I put up about my MIL at one point so you know I’m right there with you on the way our society has changed… to the point that “fitness” = “fat loss” in nearly EVERYONE’s mind, because nearly EVERYONE is too fat.

It’s crazy. And yeah, the abundance we have created for ourselves… ridiculous.

[The_Myth]

@zecarlo

I know that sounds mean but it’s the best description of it.

I believe it is a mental health issue.