Free Republic

No, your intent was to look like a superior person by doing two things:

- Condemning me for being honest
- Condemning me for not talking about the article, even though you never posted about it.

That’s probably because you are intellectually incapable of addressing the merits of what I posted, therefore your only recourse it to attack me for having the audacity to say them. And likely you can’t come up with a cogent thought on this research and the implications it has on weight loss, because your intellectual capacity for logical thought is less than that of the common titmouse.

In summation, you’re a brain dead moron whose only contribution was to attack me for actually engaging in a discussion on several facets of the subject, all in an effort to make yourself feel better because you’re kind and goodhearted and don’t judge behavior like I do. Yeah, you’re something special there. You’re very liberal in that regard. No ability to talk about the nuts and bolts of the subject at hand, but more than willing to attack those who do it if they’re not as warm and fuzzy and non-blaming like you.

You did have one positive effect- you made me realize I’ve wasted far too much time trying to talk logic to people who emote instead of think. I’m done trying to teach pigs how to sing.

I read it. It still is largely meaningless especially in light of the responses I’ve received from you and others.

They have found a gene that MIGHT control weight gain. What does that mean? That people are no longer responsible for their weight? What implications does that have now for overweight people?

In fact, it makes what people eat and how they exercise MORE important. If I was genetically predisposed to high blood pressure, wouldn’t I bear more responsibility for watching my salt intake, not less???

And as far as talking about the article, you haven’t even done that yourself. In fact, your only comments up to this point have been to ME talking not about the article, but talking about how I’m not talking about the article!

That could be because you’re incapable of having an actual intelligent discussion, and instead are a specialist at being offended on the behalf of others. Maybe because you’re such a good and superior person. A superior person that commands another poster to talk about the article, but has never done so himself.

What a load of sanctimonious BS you have been piling on this thread.

There’s not only one way - as in your case, there may actually be underlying medical conditions that lead to more weight gain. Medical, not genetic like this article was addressing. Additional, some people may not be able to exercise at all, and that can contribute to it.

But what I’ve been talking about is the 99% of the population that is fat because of what they do (or don’t do) and what they eat. I’m sure you’ve known people like that in your life. It’s almost impossible not to. For the VAST majority of people, adjusting their food intake and finding some way to get physical activity will be the key to their weight loss, but they simple refuse to do it.

You just don’t get it. You probably don’t want to.

If you’re fat because of genetics - so what? What then? Wait for a miracle cure that may never come?

In psychiatry, there’s a newer school of thought called Solution Oriented Brief Therapy (SBT). In a nutshell, it focuses on solutions rather than causes of problems. Traditional therapy has focused on long term digging out of past problems to uncover the ‘root cause’. But once you do that, the problem is still there. What most patients need is not to find the root cause, but a solution to the actual problem. THAT is what I am talking about, and what you refuse to see.

Going on and on about “it’s genetic” or “my cousin could eat a gallon of chunky monkey ice cream a day and not gain weight” won’t make a lick of difference in anyone’s life today. If this does pan out, how far away is treatment - a decade? More? How is that going to help one single person right now?

The truth is it won’t. In fact, in the short term it will hurt more than it will help because it will give them an excuse to shrug their shoulders and “I can’t lose weight because it’s in my genes” instead of doing the work. Just like the drug abuser will say “I can’t change because my dad was a drug abuser” or “I had a rotten childhood so I’ll always be this way.”

Right now this research is like traditional therapy - it may be interesting for academic and intellectual purposes, but any benefit is purely coincidental. The real solution is in the present, and it starts with saying “Ok, there may be outside factors for my situation but I can’t do anything to change those things. What can I do NOW to improve things.”

Of course, I doubt that you are actually capable of grasping that, because you’re too interested in being offended on behalf of others and reacting instead of thinking.

No, not a weight problem like michael moore, but I’ve had periods where I’ve gone up to weigh more than I’d like. When that happened, it was a result of what I ate and what I did, not any genetics.

It’s like how rush says people tell him he can’t understand what it’s like to be poor because he’s rich now. But he was poor, and he knows what it takes to get out of it. I know what it takes to lose weight. I’ve done it and I’ve helped other people do it. I helped someone who was “chronically overweight” and lose a good deal of weight by designing an exercise plan and going over their diet. When they followed it, they lost weight fast and looked great. When they fell off because they “just didn’t have the time right now” they gained it all back. It wasn’t the fault of genetics, if was their fault. Some people don’t like to hear it but it’s the truth.

Rush has said this in the past, and I’ll echo it here: The absolute BEST thing you can do in your life is to refuse to let anyone or anything take credit for your circumstances in life. Once you blame genetics, being ‘big boned’, or whatever for your lot in life, you cede control over that part of your life. That thing got you into it and only that thing can get you out of it. You lose power and control over your life when you do that. The most liberating thing is saying “I got myself into this, so I can get myself out of this”. In weight, work, whatever.

Now the usual suspects on this thread will bash me for saying that and tell me I’m being an anti-fat bigot or I just don’t understand, but if someone were to heed my advice, they’d be able to free themselves. But I know I’ll be attacked for speaking the truth. Fudge ‘em.

What dumb things? Everything I’ve said has been correct. I’ve put on and taken off weight myself,and every time I’ve added weight was because my diet became poor and I wasn’t doing enough activities to burn calories.

I’ve known, worked with, and lived with overweight and fat people all my life. WITHOUT EXCEPTION, they have either had poor diets or failed to get exercise, or both. I’ve worked with people telling me how they can’t lose weight scarf down a couple whoppers and onion rings at lunch. I’ve seen people who got their stomach staples say they just can’t lose weight because they’ve tried the latest fad diet for a couple weeks and then went right back to the grande meal from taco bell when they didn’t get results or sticking to it became to hard. When asked what they do outside of work, it’s either watch tv, sit on the internet, or go out with friends. Physical activity? That’s something they “used to” do.

I can go on and on citing actual experiences, and you can keep saying I’m making assumptions, but it’s based on personal experience and all the health books I’ve read over the years. I’m right. For about 99% of the ever increasing overweight population, the problem isn’t their genes, it’s what they chose to do to their bodies.

And there are others who refuse to read and just like to be victims.

Honest question: Are you trying to lose weight?

Maybe you should push away from the table then.

What do you want to bet that there are some overweight people posting on this thread?

Further, of those people, would you bet that there are some of them that will spend more time reading and posting on this thread about “fat bashing” instead of actually going outside and going for a walk?

That’s my point. People make choices with their time. If they have problems losing weight, perhaps they should be making different choices. Posting on some internet forum doesn’t matter. Spending time on their health does.

Maybe they could find a link to the fat gene and the ‘no sense of humor’ gene.

My first gene was a joke. You may have thin (or actually thick, who knows) skin and you didn’t get it. I haven’t changed since I actually started a discussion on the subject post initial joke comment.

Here’s the bottom line: The majority of people blaming genetics just don’t want to get off of their butts and exercise or change their diets. They want to eat whatever they want, sit around like they want, and wait for some magical pill to change their lives.

Could some have genetic component? Possibly. But any definitive link and hard evidence to the actual extent of it’s effect is a long way off. In the mean time, even those people can benefit from changing their diet and doing more exercise.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. You look at people who are in shape. You see them walking, riding bikes, participating in sports in their spare time. You see people who are fat, and their leisure time activities usually amount to sitting around at home, either watching tv, sitting on the computer, or waddling through the aisles at the store.

If you actually refuse to play the victim game, you might start to think that the reason the people are thin is that they chose healthy diets and activities, not that they exercise because they are thin.

But from knowing plenty of overweight people over the years, their mindset generally has been that they’re not the kind of people that exercise or eat healthy. In fact, I’ve known two that went so far as to get their stomachs stapled rather than voluntarily change their diet or become active.

But hell, that TV ain’t gonna watch itself.

No, I’m not rejecting scientific findings. I’m pointing out that even IF everyone who claims to have some sort genetic weight problem does have it, they could benefit by watching what they eat and actually getting off their butts and taking a walk instead of watching tv or sitting on the computer all day.

What you’re proposing sounds like some kind of radical “Eat less and exercise more” plan in order to regulate weight.

You must be insane to think like that!!!

And height is also determined by diet over the years. As people overseas adapt ‘western’ diets, they tend to gain height and also weight.

But so what? If you find your diet makes you fat, change it. If you find you have to do a little extra exercise than your rail thin neighbor to stay thin, do it. Don’t complain and don’t act like a victim.

But now everyone is a victim. But by playing the victim card, they’re turning themselves into the victimizers by ceding control of their own lives and bodies to someone or something else.

“What might fix it is early childhood education and conditioning about good eating habits and exercise, along with bans on the use of food ingredients found to be harmful, such as trans-fat and corn syrup.”

Hillary and bloomberg couldn’t have said it better themselves.

I used to have that one. I’d scarf down whole pizzas or 4 hot dogs and fries and not even blink. Now if I try that I’d be sick, not just fat.

The best thing I did besides getting rid of the fatty foods was splitting up my meals into 4 smaller meals instead of 2 or 3 larger meals. Easier on the digestion plus it makes it possible to enjoy a wider variety of foods every day.

High horse? Few people play the victim card more than the ‘obese and offended’.

It’s pretty simple for all involved, no matter what excuse they use:

If you find that you’re gaining weight by doing X, don’t do X. If you have trouble losing weight, get away from the keyboard or tv and take a walk.

I lost 10 lbs by doing nothing more than cutting out soft drinks and sweets. I’ve lost another 5 lbs just in a month by getting rid of cheese. Not a problem. I don’t get to eat everything I like, but I make decisions and I live with the consequences.

But hell, if you can blame genetics or something else, it makes life so much easier.

You’re “fat bashing”!!!

Play the victim card. It burns calories.

awwwww.

Scientists discovered this gene is responsible for control the movement of the arms to the mouth region. In overweight people, the gene refuses to stop working, and they keep shoveling food into their mouths.