Reply to: Why is losing weight more difficult now?

[Zero Liability]

Well, I recall reading that your body goes into "standby" mode when sitting for too long, even if you have a moderately active lifestyle outside of work. As such, a small break from sitting to walk around a bit every 30 mins/1 hour makes sense to me.

[Sysman]

Also one thing that is ignored is if you are busy doing something e.g. walking/cycling from A to B at a reasonable pace to go to work, digging the garden, playing out you are less likely to be stuffing your face.

This is why the small bits of daily activity are important rather than just going to the gym for an hour.

We had a visiting elf'n'safety girl in the mid-90s who recommended regular breaks from your desk. What she said made sense - I made a concious effort to get away from the place for lunch for example rather than eating sandwiches at my desk.

When working from home I discovered that having a proper breaks every now and again helped significantly, even if those were just a cup of tea in the garden or lunch in the dining room rather than at my desk. Better for concentration too.

[d000hg]

Cup cakes and Minis have ballooned, but muffins, scotch eggs and profiteroles are often miniaturised. And of course wagon wheels and mars bars have dwindled.

[unixman]

It's all the fault of cupcakes.

Back in the 80's a cup-cake was the size of ,well, a cup. Now they will feed a family of four.

Quite so. "Cup cake" is the US name for a fairy cake in the UK. Fairy/cup cakes were small items in the 70s, often with a thin layer of solid icing on top, or dab of cream. I suppose that explains the fairy name. Today's so-called "cup cake" is the size of your fist, with half an inch of wobbly, unset butter icing on top. Yuk. It's like Moore's law in reverse.

[darmstadt]

That could well be a contributory factor. Unheated bedrooms were pretty much the norm when I were a lad, and as this chap found, a lot of weight loss happens during your sleep.

I noticed that but I thought it was due to tulipting the bed after a night on the curry and ale

[darmstadt]

Nothing bigger than the palm of your hand every ~4 hours between 8am and 8pm.

Must explain why the skinny bloke here keeps sloping off to the bogs

[MrMarkyMark]

Coconut or almond milk (basically soy milk infused with either of those) is nicer, IMO.



Fizzy drinks were the easiest thing for me to drop. What I find really hard to drop is pasta and white bread. I've largely cut both out of my diet, but I still eat more of those than I should. As for soups, always best to check their salt content, because just 2 a day can fill your 6g quota. Unless you make them yourself. I'm not really very prone to putting on weight but I stuck to soups for a while for other health reasons. It's probably one of the more manageable dietary plans. Except broccoli and kale soup. Hard to force that stuff down...

Another option is to stick to good quality chicken, rice and salad.

Good points. I have managed to drop a lot of the pasta and poor quality breads out too.
I usually go for good quality fresh made soups and would hope they would need less salt.

Now, if only I could cut down on the booze .

[Zero Liability]

That could well be a contributory factor. Unheated bedrooms were pretty much the norm when I were a lad, and as this chap found, a lot of weight loss happens during your sleep.

Why your bathroom scales are lying to you and how to find your true weight



I've never liked skimmed milk so seek out stuff that's more like the genuine article. I don't consume nearly as much of the stuff as I used to, so it's it's no longer a significant part of my diet, but when the so-called "low fat" milk costs more and is 7% rather than 9% fat, nuts to that - I'll go for the "full fat" variety instead.

I'm probably misremebering the actual percentages there, but the actual difference didn't seem to be very much and you'd probably achieve more by having fruit instead of cornflakes for your breakfast, for example.

Coconut or almond milk (basically soy milk infused with either of those) is nicer, IMO.

Managed to lose well over a stone this year purely by dropping snacks, fizzy drinks and just having soup at lunch time.

Pretty much at my "ideal" weight now. .

Fizzy drinks were the easiest thing for me to drop. What I find really hard to drop is pasta and white bread. I've largely cut both out of my diet, but I still eat more of those than I should. As for soups, always best to check their salt content, because just 2 a day can fill your 6g quota. Unless you make them yourself. I'm not really very prone to putting on weight but I stuck to soups for a while for other health reasons. It's probably one of the more manageable dietary plans. Except broccoli and kale soup. Hard to force that stuff down...

Another option is to stick to good quality chicken, rice and salad.

[tomtomagain]

It's all the fault of cupcakes.

Back in the 80's a cup-cake was the size of ,well, a cup. Now they will feed a family of four.

[AtW]

A rather heavy question to answer...

[SpontaneousOrder]

Well the article was suggesting they might be finding things of that nature, suggesting it's in the early stages of research.

However genetics is only one possibility. I mean, that genetics has an impact is known but that our genes are changing that rapidly seems unlikely (although given the spike in autism it can't be ruled out).
Pollution/pesticides/additives/ingredients being different could be an avenue of research. You could run similar experiments in countries with very clean and very dirty air for instance.

Genes change slowly, but the ways in which they are expressed can change much faster - and, supposedly, there is evidence that inheritance of those gene expressions is not necessarily insignificant. I.e. if you suffer some horrible experience you can pass that trauma down to your unborn children's genetic mechanisms.

[FatLazyContractor]

And the reason lots of adults remember why they avoid McDs is because the quality of the food makes them feel ill afterwards.

Not sure about McD but every time I eat at Burger King, I fall ill

[SueEllen]

Yes, you need a balanced diet, therefore getting the right mix of carbs, fats etc.

Also, the more nutritional food you eat the less you will need to consume.
Thats the reason why people are hungry half an hour after eating McDonalds, as it is nutritionally poor. .

And the reason lots of adults remember why they avoid McDs is because the quality of the food makes them feel ill afterwards.

[meridian]

Well, seeing as it's something I spend a lot of time discussing (although I am by no means a qualified nutritionist), it's like most things in that on the surface yes it is simple: regularly consume more calories than you burn and you will put on weight.

The complexity lies in how to best manage your calorie intake to stay healthy and maintain body weight, which is where macro-nutrient breakdown, meal timing etc. does have a bearing. Someone said earlier that "not all calories are equal" but I think what they meant was you get different amounts of calories per gram of fat, carbs and protein. (IIRC roughly 10 cals per g of fat and only 4 cals per g of protein). Which is why a protein-rich diet is likely to keep you slimmer than a fat-rich one, because if you consume the same quantity of each, you'll get 2.5x more calories from the fatty diet than you do from the protein one.

Of course what you really need is a balanced mix of all macros which is where it breaks down further (saturated fats versus mono- and poly- unsaturated, starchy versus sugary carbs etc.)

And that's where most people get fed up and head to Maccy D's to make themselves feel better

For "not all calories are equal", the difference is in the quality and type of food as well. Just to take carbs as an example, the glycemic index is well known - different carbs have a different effect on absorption, metabolic rate, and release of hormones such as insulin.

[MrMarkyMark]

Yes, you need a balanced diet, therefore getting the right mix of carbs, fats etc.

Also, the more nutritional food you eat the less you will need to consume.
Thats the reason why people are hungry half an hour after eating McDonalds, as it is nutritionally poor. .