Maggie's Farm

Obesity is genetic. It isn't caused by eating carbohydrates, sugar, fat, HFCS, or protein. You get obesity from your parents and their parents etc. not from your food. If you are not genetically predisposed to be obese you cannot physically make yourself obese. If you are genetically predisposed to be obese then dieting won't cure it and the best you can hope for is a temporary weight loss or a lifetime of a starvation diet.

A genetic predisposition is not the same as being born with blue eyes. In the case of obesity it can vary from individual to individual in the same ethnic group and even between siblings. Some may start becoming obese in the first grade others become obese after their first or second baby. Most simply get larger all their life. But it isn't just "one thing" like blue eyes or red hair.

Second point is "gaining weight" is not the same as being or even becoming obese. Right now obesity is defined arbitrarily and inaccurately such that Mel Gibson was considered obese when clearly he is not. The BMI is a extremely poor measure and has only one virtue; it is easy to calculate. Are you obese at BMI 30? maybe unless you happen to be a weightlifter. As for gaining weight when you stop excercising that is normal!! That is exactly what your body is designed to do. Just as gaining weight when food is abundant. But, unless you are obese or genetically predisposed to be obese you probably cannot gain enough weight to become obese.

Most people who have little to no experience with excess weight and diet assume it is all about eating too much. Ironically and happily the odds are that once they pass 50-55 years old they or their spouse will prove them wrong. I await their smart alec comment once the benefits of youth are gone and the wisdom of age has arrived.

Be describing it as "cheap highly processed foods" your bias is clear. But I don't know what "cheap highly processed foods" are. Do you mean junk food, fast food, prepared foods, packaged foods, all of the above??? If they cost more and are then "expensive highly processed foods" does that make them good? If they are cheap but only processed a little is that better? In fact none of this matters. Your body breaks down everything you eat to the smallest molecues. Your body does not know if your carbs were highly processed before you ate them or raw. It doesn't know if the protein you ate is cheap or expensive. It doesn't know or care what the glycemic index was. It turns 100% of the carbs into sugar (glucose) and burns it to power your muscles and brain. If your genes predict you will be thin then eating all the cheap, high calorie dense foods you can stuff into your mouth all day long won't make you obese. If your genes predict that you will be obese then you WILL be obese and cutting out wheat or high glycemic foods won't prevent it. Everyone has food biases and every generation tends to have their own biases. The trick is to realize that all/most of the books on food (good food bad food) are written to make the author rich and rarely have anything of value in them. That fad diets at best are useless and at worse can hurt your health. Eat a varied diet and don't exclude aany food group because of bias and you will be eating a good diet.

Flyover:
Whatever works for you but when it comes to fad diets most of them will work for awhile to some extent. Carbs don't make you fat anymore then protein or fats do. Fad diets work partly because it disrupts your normal eating style and mostly because you are following a strict regimen.

Don't forget that being overweight and being obese are generally speaking to very different things. If you aren't obese you will have a better chance of losing weight on a diet and keeping it off. The odds are not in your favor. Your body wants you to be overweight and it will take a lifetime of committment to beat the odds.

I agree that calorie counting works. It is after all a diet. The problem is trying to apply something that works for you and others to everyone. Most obese people have tried calorie counting and for one reason or another it doesn't work for them. Of course you could lock them up and feed them 1200 calories a day and then indeed they would lose weight. But within a month or two of letting them out they would gain most or all of the weight back. They have a genetic problem that makes their body store fat. They aren't fat because they are lazy or eat bon bons they simply cannot lose the weight and keep it off. People who are not "blessed" with an obesity gene don't understand it. They try to apply their own experience to the problem and of course it does not work. Just as you said; you can cut calories and lose 15 pounds. So by your experience anyone should be able to so they must just be lazy or uncommitted. But it is simply that you have different genes.

I totally agree. My diet consists mostly of junk food, prepared food and chocolate (if I can't get chocolate I will eat most any candy) That is MY fad diet and I can prove it works. I am 70 years old and in good health and my weight is about perfect for my height. Typically cereal for breakfast and coffee. Pizza for lunch or McDonalds. Hot dog for midday snack. My dinners are usually meat and potatoes (or rice). Then chips, cake , chocolate, cheese crackers, etc for forth meal (can't really call it a snack because it may well be my biggest meal). Proof positive that my particular fad diet works! Just as convincing as the proof that any fad diet works.