^ since it's non-absorbent, didn't mean to include the "not"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sweat-wicking clothes with "drying technology" are a scam

Strange take. Try running outside for more than 30 minutes in a cotton shirt compared to any synthetic fabric and report back the results. The synthetic fabric materials last forever now-possibly indefinitely.

I do run in cotton shirts; they dry quickly. The synthetic stuff just spreads the sweat around your body, since it's not non-absorbent.

Anonymous wrote:Sweat-wicking clothes with "drying technology" are a scam

Strange take. Try running outside for more than 30 minutes in a cotton shirt compared to any synthetic fabric and report back the results. The synthetic fabric materials last forever now-possibly indefinitely.

Sweat-wicking clothes with "drying technology" are a scam

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Anonymous wrote:Being hungry all the time or everyday to stay “thin” and believing it is “willpower” is worse for your overall health than being overweight.

Who is actually, truly "hungry" all the time? Is your stomach doing that painful scraping thing??

No one eating more than 1500 calories/day is ever actually hungry, unless they're running 10 miles a day.

I think many people confuse cravings, boredom, or lack of fullness for "hunger." Because if you're eating a decent amount (say 1500 calories) and still feeling that painful scraping feeling in your stomach, you need to see a doctor.

1500 calories a day isn’t a lot.

Wasn’t there an Ancel Keys study during WWII where they restricted men’s calories to 1500 calories a day for six months, and they all went kind of crazy?

PP here, and I agree that 1500 isn't a lot if one is active and female. It's the amount many women should eat if they were at rest, all day every day.

But most of us get a bit of movement here and there. 1500, however, is fine if if you're trying to lose weight (and no sorry, I don't believe the "I can't lose weight on 1200 calories!" posters). Point being, you're not going to actually feel physical hunger if you're eating 1500 calories/day.

I don’t know. Those guys started hoarding food, got mildly depressed, stopped being interested in sex, and got obsessed with thinking about themselves and their health.

They also had a ton of trouble when they started eating normally again.

It doesn’t sound good.

Are those dudes like 6'10" and weight 250lbs? Well yeah, they should eat more than 1500 calories.

But a 5'5" woman? 1500 is perfectly healthy, if you're trying to drop a couple lbs. It's odd that you think 1500 is low. That's literally how much they'd feed most women if they were in a coma (and it would be perfectly healthy).

That is an inch taller than the average American woman. I’m 5’1” — apps telling me what I should eat to maintain my weight is 1500 calories if I strenuously exercise 5x a week. With no exercise I’d be at 1,200 calories. And to lose slowly they put me even lower.

With my stats (5'3", 130lbs, 43) my BMR is around 1250. But that's basically if I were in a coma, and *not* digesting food. Even digesting food burns calories, so that number is actually low-balled compared to real life.

Also, it points to the importance of exercise. With exercise 6 days a week, I actually eat about 2300 calories/day to maintain. My exercise includes running, weights, walking, cleaning my own home, and generally being quite active (and yes I have a full time job outside of the house). Exercise raises your resting metabolism, including of course the calories burned *while* exercising.

But if you're an averaged weight/height woman, and eat 1500 calories while putzing around (being active but not necessarily exercising) 1500 calories is perfectly sufficient.

But the point of the previous posts was that you're not going to feel physically hungry eating about 1500 calories a day, and most of the people who say they're "hungry" are having cravings or boredom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to fix bad posture is to do weightlifting to strengthen your back muscles.

Yoga, trying to stand up straight and improving your abs will do nothing.

False. All of the above will help fix bad posture.

Incorrect. I tried all others and none worked. I always had really strong abs but bad posture. Yoga was relaxing but did nothing to fix it. Started weights and I stand straight now. No slouching.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being hungry all the time or everyday to stay “thin” and believing it is “willpower” is worse for your overall health than being overweight.

Who is actually, truly "hungry" all the time? Is your stomach doing that painful scraping thing??

No one eating more than 1500 calories/day is ever actually hungry, unless they're running 10 miles a day.

I think many people confuse cravings, boredom, or lack of fullness for "hunger." Because if you're eating a decent amount (say 1500 calories) and still feeling that painful scraping feeling in your stomach, you need to see a doctor.

1500 calories a day isn’t a lot.

Wasn’t there an Ancel Keys study during WWII where they restricted men’s calories to 1500 calories a day for six months, and they all went kind of crazy?

PP here, and I agree that 1500 isn't a lot if one is active and female. It's the amount many women should eat if they were at rest, all day every day.

But most of us get a bit of movement here and there. 1500, however, is fine if if you're trying to lose weight (and no sorry, I don't believe the "I can't lose weight on 1200 calories!" posters). Point being, you're not going to actually feel physical hunger if you're eating 1500 calories/day.

I don’t know. Those guys started hoarding food, got mildly depressed, stopped being interested in sex, and got obsessed with thinking about themselves and their health.

They also had a ton of trouble when they started eating normally again.

It doesn’t sound good.

Are those dudes like 6'10" and weight 250lbs? Well yeah, they should eat more than 1500 calories.

But a 5'5" woman? 1500 is perfectly healthy, if you're trying to drop a couple lbs. It's odd that you think 1500 is low. That's literally how much they'd feed most women if they were in a coma (and it would be perfectly healthy).

That is an inch taller than the average American woman. I’m 5’1” — apps telling me what I should eat to maintain my weight is 1500 calories if I strenuously exercise 5x a week. With no exercise I’d be at 1,200 calories. And to lose slowly they put me even lower.

Anonymous wrote:The only way to fix bad posture is to do weightlifting to strengthen your back muscles.

Yoga, trying to stand up straight and improving your abs will do nothing.

False. All of the above will help fix bad posture.

The only way to fix bad posture is to do weightlifting to strengthen your back muscles.

Yoga, trying to stand up straight and improving your abs will do nothing.

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Anonymous wrote:Permanent weight loss without surgical or medical intervention is mostly a myth.

Yep. As a person who has done a million diets and not one that stuck, and now five years out of weight loss surgery that has stuck, this is a fact.

There are millions of people who keep weight off without surgery. Just because you can’t doesn’t mean it’s not true for the rest of us. Stop denying our lived experience.

x10000

NP sand actually there aren’t millions of people who lose weight and keep it off permanently. They have studied it and the people who successfully do this are the exception and not the rule.

It's not because it's not possible, but it's because those people aren't willing to do the work and make the long term changes.

Because newsflash, most people in life don't want to do hard things or uncomfortable things.

Okay. That’s fair. In order to lose weight and keep it off, you have to not only do the work to lose it, but to be willing to commit the rest of your life to working on it. Whatever else might be going on with you, this has to be one of your main priorities.

I would say this is true of the people I know who had lost weight and kept it off. It is part of their identity.

Or you could just more normally. That’s also a possibility. Once you learn how not to over eat and what works for you it might just happen without thinking about it.

Yeah. I don’t know anyone like this. I don’t know anyone who was just like, “I was overweight all of my life, and then I just realized that I was just eating an abnormally large amount of food at every meal for absolutely no reason. So, I quit doing that, the weight fell off, and now I never think about it.”

That's not how it goes. It goes something like this.

Something in your life gets to you, and you are forced to reckon with your emotions/past/feelings/etc. You realize that food has filled a void for you, and you learn that exercise is an awesome outlet for releasing feelings and emotions. So you eat a bit less. Move a bit more. You begin to feel better mentally, and that helps your body feel better physically. You keep it up, consistently, because it starts to feel nice. And slowly, you lose weight.

And your body even finds a new set point, after you cultivated some new habits. And you do it for a year. Then 2. then 5. Then 10. To break the old habits, you need to make new ones.

Of course diets don't work. To keep weight off, you need sustainable (NOT extreme) long term changes. It's completely and totally doable.

- lost 60 lbs, kept it off for 10 years after being obese for 25+

I don’t know what to tell you. This hasn’t been my experience. Most fat people do not have an emotional void, and most do not “feel nice” when they make these changes. For most people, a 5% weight loss over the course of a year is associated with feelings of depression.

I’m glad that this worked for you, and it sounds like you had some disordered eating habits, but I don’t think your experience is generalizable, attainable, or even desirable for most people.

Bullshiat. No one is overeating significantly (enough to become obese) just because they like food. There's something else going on, even if they haven't mentally untangled it yet. And of course it doen't "feel nice" immediately when you make (small, consistent) changes. But after a little bit, you do notice the positive effects of eating better quality food and moving more. That is biology, not exceptionalism.

But there's a mental hurdle pushing them to go back to the food that gave them comfort or security, and that's the thing you have to do to achieve success.

But please, go ahead and continue to make excuses. Trust me, I'm familiar with all of them and the stories we tell ourselves.

Wow you hated fat self so, so much and continue to hate fat people now. Your contempt drips off your post.

That sounds like projection on your part. I've been on both sides, and I know the stories we tell ourselves to keep the narrative going.

Nope. You’re authoring in a lot to protect yourself. But I would treat the part of you that despises your fat self, because you really just despise yourself. Your fat self was still you.

Anonymous wrote:My unpopular opinion is that eating fast food is not that bad for you. I probably eat it at least 4x/week with my kids. We are all healthy and average weight. I'm mid-40s with teens and maybe 5-10 lbs more than pre-pregnancy.

I'm sure no one will agree with me, though.

You nasty

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:African American women aren't naturally "thick" with "curves" and "thick thighs"; many of us are just plain overweight

Now this is going to be very unpopular: I think our weight issues have gotten worse since the rise of the natural hair movement

Another black woman here - disagree with first statement.

Second statement - please explain.

Another AA woman who also disagrees with the first statement. A lot of Black women are flat-out thick.

The weight issues coincide more with processed/fast foods than natural hair.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:African American women aren't naturally "thick" with "curves" and "thick thighs"; many of us are just plain overweight

Now this is going to be very unpopular: I think our weight issues have gotten worse since the rise of the natural hair movement

Another black woman here - disagree with first statement.

Second statement - please explain.

DP: The first and only thing that comes to mind here is the rise of the natural hair movement coincides with the fat acceptance aka "body positivity" movement. Otherwise no idea what the connection is.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Core training is always a good idea. That is at least one way to stave off a whole host of other issues, including lower back discomfort and pain. How it looks visually is a side benefit.

I believe this. Pilates or core specific training should ideally be done three times a week. For me, Pilates never gets any easier even after 20+ years, and core work is one of my least favorite things to do, probably because it's so hard, but I try to do one or the other two or three times a week.

When your abs/core are sore, you really notice how they are involved in many every day functional movements.

I agree too, based on my experience. I used to have regular back pain from about 25-38. More or less constant. Then I started some basic weightlifting, with deadlifts and crunches. Back pain — GONE. Every so often I’ll have a few days where it’s a slight problem, but nothing like before. I’m 42 now.

That was my first and most obvious benefit when I started working out in my 40s - daily back and neck pain disappeared!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Core training is always a good idea. That is at least one way to stave off a whole host of other issues, including lower back discomfort and pain. How it looks visually is a side benefit.

I believe this. Pilates or core specific training should ideally be done three times a week. For me, Pilates never gets any easier even after 20+ years, and core work is one of my least favorite things to do, probably because it's so hard, but I try to do one or the other two or three times a week.

When your abs/core are sore, you really notice how they are involved in many every day functional movements.

I agree too, based on my experience. I used to have regular back pain from about 25-38. More or less constant. Then I started some basic weightlifting, with deadlifts and crunches. Back pain — GONE. Every so often I’ll have a few days where it’s a slight problem, but nothing like before. I’m 42 now.

I’m the original poster. This has been my experience. I started having some lower back discomfort earlier this year related to multi sport training (triathlon). Since starting a new actually useful strength training program that includes single leg deadlifts and other core training functional lifting my back has not been an issue. And I have a pretty aggressive position on my bikes. I’m 42 as well.