Overweight and Obese Children Eat Less Than Their Healthy Weight Peers

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

TSD: I upped my caloric intake to 2,000 because I was losing too much weight at 1,500... my doctor told me to slow it down or stop. At 2,000 I'm staying steady at 165. Even though I added 500 I am now breaking even. What I'm not happy with is that I'm burning 1,000 in exercise via swimming and other cardio. So if I am eating 2000 and I'm burning 1000, then my base metabolism is only 1000, which is severely screwed up.

Only reason I want to get to 163 is because then I figure I can order pizza and not feel insanely guilty about it.

There's no guarantee you're calculating calories in and/or out correctly. If it's been a few weeks/months and you're stuck in maintainence then you either have to increase expenditure or decrease intake. I'm sure you know this.

[Devils'Advocate]

My issue is more that I'm tired of getting up at 4am to exercise. What if I just want to get up at 5:30 and just do a half hour of cardio before going to work? Am I going to have to live the rest of my life on 1400 calories a day?

I've been trying to keep my meals simple so that they are easy to count. Going to a restaurant is almost impossible since you have no idea of the ingredients. So I'm making everything myself and measuring everything down to the teaspoon. Don't know how to be more accurate. Perhaps I'm not burning as much as I think, but I would THINK that 2 hours of *ANYTHING* would be sufficient to lose weight @ 2000 calories in.

[Pinner]

I can imagine how scary that must be Devil's, I have screwed my metabolism by eating 1 large meal late at night for years. (work related)

Last fall, for about 5 months I was gaining 1 lb a week at about 2000 cal. I'm now eating 3 times a day and getting more exercise and hoping I can get things burning.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

My issue is more that I'm tired of getting up at 4am to exercise. What if I just want to get up at 5:30 and just do a half hour of cardio before going to work? Am I going to have to live the rest of my life on 1400 calories a day?

I've been trying to keep my meals simple so that they are easy to count. Going to a restaurant is almost impossible since you have no idea of the ingredients. So I'm making everything myself and measuring everything down to the teaspoon. Don't know how to be more accurate. Perhaps I'm not burning as much as I think, but I would THINK that 2 hours of *ANYTHING* would be sufficient to lose weight @ 2000 calories in.

have you gotten your RMR tested by an oxygen intake test?

From what I have read it is supposed to be the most accurate way of testing metabolism

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

My issue is more that I'm tired of getting up at 4am to exercise. What if I just want to get up at 5:30 and just do a half hour of cardio before going to work? Am I going to have to live the rest of my life on 1400 calories a day?

I've been trying to keep my meals simple so that they are easy to count. Going to a restaurant is almost impossible since you have no idea of the ingredients. So I'm making everything myself and measuring everything down to the teaspoon. Don't know how to be more accurate. Perhaps I'm not burning as much as I think, but I would THINK that 2 hours of *ANYTHING* would be sufficient to lose weight @ 2000 calories in.

It's definitely rough to keep weight off once you're really heavy. As you gain weight you also gain more fat cells (as well as gaining fat within each cell). When you lose weight, you never lose the fat cells.

If one person who weighs 180 pounds and has never been a pound over can eat 2500 calories a day without exercise and not gain weight, someone who was once 350 pounds and is now at 180 pounds would gain weight at 2500 calories a day.

That's where some of the discrepancy is seen between people. That's why skinny-his-whole-life guy can eat more than dropped-alot-of-weight guy.

That's also why it's about lifestyle and why we need to target the young population before they're obese.

Unfortunately there's no way around it, devil. Hopefully your lifestyle and knowledge has changed enough so that even if you lose motivation to work out that early you'll still be able to be a healthy and fit individual, even if it means being a little bit heavier.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

It's definitely rough to keep weight off once you're really heavy. As you gain weight you also gain more fat cells (as well as gaining fat within each cell). When you lose weight, you never lose the fat cells.

If one person who weighs 180 pounds and has never been a pound over can eat 2500 calories a day without exercise and not gain weight, someone who was once 350 pounds and is now at 180 pounds would gain weight at 2500 calories a day.

That's where some of the discrepancy is seen between people. That's why skinny-his-whole-life guy can eat more than dropped-alot-of-weight guy.

That's also why it's about lifestyle and why we need to target the young population before they're obese.

Unfortunately there's no way around it, devil. Hopefully your lifestyle and knowledge has changed enough so that even if you lose motivation to work out that early you'll still be able to be a healthy and fit individual, even if it means being a little bit heavier.

Is everyone born with the same number of fat cells to begin with?

[bcb]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

It's definitely rough to keep weight off once you're really heavy. As you gain weight you also gain more fat cells (as well as gaining fat within each cell). When you lose weight, you never lose the fat cells.

If one person who weighs 180 pounds and has never been a pound over can eat 2500 calories a day without exercise and not gain weight, someone who was once 350 pounds and is now at 180 pounds would gain weight at 2500 calories a day.

That's where some of the discrepancy is seen between people. That's why skinny-his-whole-life guy can eat more than dropped-alot-of-weight guy.

That's also why it's about lifestyle and why we need to target the young population before they're obese.

Unfortunately there's no way around it, devil. Hopefully your lifestyle and knowledge has changed enough so that even if you lose motivation to work out that early you'll still be able to be a healthy and fit individual, even if it means being a little bit heavier.

So just to confirm, metabolic rate plays no part in why, say a 35 year old could weigh 180Lb vs. 350Lb?

No genetic component? It's all a choice?

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by bcb

So just to confirm, metabolic rate plays no part in why, say a 35 year old could weigh 180Lb vs. 350Lb?

No genetic component? It's all a choice?

No one is saying that there is absolutely no genetic component to obesity.

The fact is that you cannot control genetics (at this point in time, anyway). You can control your lifestyle and whether you wolf down 6000 calories a day and don't exercise and claim it's "just genetics".

Your body is not stupid enough to hardwire in enough energy conservation to
make you 350 pounds despite exercising and eating healthy and well.

Genetics hasn't made 25% of the world obese.

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Is everyone born with the same number of fat cells to begin with?

Of course not. If everyone ate the exact same and exercised the same we'd still see some people with a little more fat than others. That genetic diversity does not even begin to account for the obesity-related diseases we see.