Preach on, brother. It's very disconcerting to see well-intentioned people fail at losing weight because they don't go about it the right way.
Not at all...one of the smartest people I know is a Desert Storm vet and former SWAT officer who works for the State Dept. and is in amazing shape. He did Law School the whole nine yards. I am sure however, that even he has areas of weakness that are perhaps not immediately obvious. I'm not saying we should give glory and honor to human frailty. Society could stand to be a little kinder to heavy people, particularly women. I know so many intelligent, good hearted and beautiful, yes beautiful women who hate themselves because they don't look like Keira Knightley. Sure some people have a good balance of mind and body. But there is room on the planet for people who excel in one area and less in another. You definitely want Vince Young quarterbacking your college team, you might not want him as your English or History tutor.
Just because you see some weight on a person doesn't mean that person has no self-discipline. It's not like I eat everything I want, far from it. I often pass a restaurant or see some food that I want, fantasize briefly about it, and move on. Even for every time I do let myself have a treat, the vast majority of the time I don't. It gets complicated. Not only do people have different metabolism, but different levels of desire for food. I know some people who don't eat that much, ever, or who forget all about meals even if they haven't eaten all day. Of course it's easier for those people, they don't have these hunger signals messing them up all the time. So it wouldn't hurt to be understanding with each other, since none of us can truly walk in the other's shoes. We don't know what people struggle with.
It isn't about that. It is about educating yourself. And I agree with the post above who said not all calories aren't created equal. That has been proven. The typical american diet, and the reason we are the fattest country in the world by far, is filled with simple carbohydrates. If we were more educated, we'd learn that we don't have to deprive ourselves or starve ourselves to have a decent BMI (body mass index). When you eat simple carbs by themselves, they digest quickly and if you don't use them for energy then, hey they get stored a fat. Simple right? It should be. If you eat them with some protein, then the absorption slows down and you have more time to use them for energy, then they get used as fat. You can change your metabolism and change the way your body uses nutrients for energy. If you go low carb and increase your fat, and you stick with it, then you won't have much fat on your body, regardless of calories. If you do this, then you will TEACH your body to use fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates and your body will become a fat burning machine. You train it to use fat for energy based on the way you eat and then it WILL burn your own fat for energy. And even better, if you research it even deeper, then you'll learn that your body handles carbohydrates DIFFERENTLY pre and post exercise. If you eat simple or complex carbs AFTER your workout then they will go to restore the glycogen in your muscles and thus won't be stored as fat. Simple. So I pig out on carbs AFTER my workouts, and outside of that, I don't eat them, simple as that. And yes I crave them at all times, but I actually a have a bit of will power, ever heard of it? This is proven scientific material, and has nothing do with genetics or anything. Simple carbs get processed quickly and those that aren't used for energy get stored as fats. This is why people who drinks sodas every day are usually overweight. High fructose corn syrup gets converted quickly and stored as FAT. It isn't so simple as calories in and calories burned, it is WAY more complex than that. Nutrition is complex and most of us haven't had any educaiton from our parents or schools to know any better. The stupid food pyramid is a joke. If you really want to learn, you should visit John Berardi's sites (he has a phd in nutrition from UT) at precisionnutrition.com and johnberardi.com
