How does one start losing weight?

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There are very few people who cannot lose weight due to a medical condition. Most of the time it's just laziness and lack of discipline. Yes, some people have naturally slow metabolism, but that simply means you have to eat even less and exercise even more than the rest of us.

The iron clad rule is: if you burn more calories than you take in, you lose weight. It's that simple.

Right. Then how come even if i diet and exercise, sometimes I'll still gain weight? So what you're saying is that I shouldn't eat at all and exercise all the time then?

Whats your diet look like? We can't help you if we don't now what your eating.

Scam - Invented solely to sell books.

Those medical conditions account for less than 5% of overweight conditions; and for that 5%, consulting a licensed and degreed medical physician is the best option, while consulting random strangers on a social website is the worst!

Some illnesses may lead to or are associated with weight gain or obesity. These include:

- Hypothyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid gland fails to produce enough thyroid hormone. It often results in lowered metabolic rate and loss of vigor.

- Cushing’s syndrome, a hormonal disorder caused by prolonged exposure of the body’s tissues to high levels of the hormone cortisol. Symptoms vary, but most people have upper body obesity, rounded face, increased fat around the neck, and thinning arms and legs.

- Polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition characterized by high levels of androgens (male hormone), irregular or missed menstrual cycles, and in some cases, multiple small cysts in the ovaries. Cysts are fluid-filled sacs.

A doctor can tell whether there are underlying medical conditions that are causing weight gain or making weight loss difficult.

But once these illnesses are eliminated, nearly the only causal factors left are too many calories taken in, and too few calories burned off.

Last edited by Fnord on 28 Jun 2011, 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Some of us can't really afford to see a physician for every little thing. We only visit the doctor when I need a physical to apply for something.

Fat doesn't just magically accumulate by itself. If you're gaining weight, either your diet is wrong, your exercise program is wrong, or both. Anything else (save the rare medical condition) is just an excuse.

That right there tells me you're just too ignorant to reason with. If you weren't on the spectrum, you'd be one of the people insisting that all impairments can be overcome and compensated through will power, and there's no excuse not to act "normal."

So what "rare" medical condition is that? Thyroid problem that standard blood test doesn't reveal? An imbalance of leptin, cortisol, or ghrelin? A body type that accumulates fat unless you stay under 800 calories a day, and won't relinquish the stored fat accept in cases of starvation? I've been to the doctors. Medicine doesn't even know how to address those yet. There are a lot of cases that some people just are not meant to be thin. Seriously, are you calling this many people liars? Walk a mile in their shoes- you'd be shocked as HELL how hard it can be to lose weight, and fight to keep it off.

*yawn*

A friend of mine is a nutritionist and he regularly consults fat people who all seem to have these mystical fat-building diseases that modern medicine just can't seem to detect. When pressed, they'll eventually admit that they just eat too much. It's just that wallowing in self-pity is so much easier than not giving in to your temptations and exercising.

Nowadays, 64.5% of all US citizens is overweight or obese; back in the 1950's, it was not even 10%. Remarkable how these mysterious fat-building diseases weren't around back then, huh? The rise in obesity is suspiciously parallel to the gradual emergence of fast food chains and other variables that encourage unhealthy eating habits.

I don't care what your stupid friend thinks. He doesn't know me, or the struggled I've endured all my life. And I'm not making an excuse- I deal with it the best I can.

I see you conveniently ignored the second part of my post.

You may be one of the few who cannot lose weight due to a medical condition, I don't know and I don't care. It doesn't matter anyway, because that wasn't even my original argument. What I was trying to get across is that the overwhelming majority of fat people only have themselves to blame. And you're not exactly doing a great job of convincing me otherwise.

To bring some pleasantry back into the conversation...yes,most people who are overweight can have control over it.However there is a small minority of people whose DNA is genetically overweight.A family around the corner from me is one such family;everyone weighs over 200 lbs at the least.No matter how healthy they eat or how much they exercise,they are still overweight,to a dangerous extent.They cannot afford medications to lower their weight,or drastic surgery.For a while one of the children was coming to the YMCA,where I was assisting in a swimming class.He was eating so healthfully and exercising,but could not get to a healthy weight.
So,sometimes it is not always within a person's control.However,generally the cheapest food in this country is junk food and fast food.Let's face it,it's more convenient to buy cheap canned food than organically farmed vegetables and fruits.Aside from that, most people growing up do not get much education in nutrition,lifestyle and exercise.PE is only offered a few times a week,not every day,most schools cannot afford that.So the basis of a healthy lifestyle is only taught at home,not at school.It's a lot more than a person is aware of.

Ignorance is no longer an excuse in this day and age. There's tons of information about nutrition and exercise online. It's not Uncle Sam's responsibility to spoon feed it to those too lazy to look for it.

Secondly, there are lots and lots foods that are both healthy and cheap: rice, potatoes, dairy products, pasta, oatmeal, eggs, nuts, certain apples etc. Depending on where you live, a Big Mac is 2-3 times as expensive as a head of broccoli. Most of my meals are under six dollars.

I'm not trying to be overly argumentative here, but there's no excuse for being fat in America unless you have some serious medical condition.

I've been tested out the wazoo. Nothing.
Eating an "appropriate reduced calorie diet and getting a sufficient amount of exercise" naturally *isn't* going to help-
I've always done those things.
I have a low-functioning thyroid, but it still tests in the reference range, so no one will give me meds.
It took my mother getting up to like 350+ before they stopped insisting she was just a glutton.

Well, yeah. I can empathize with saying "f*ck it" when you've struggled for years and nothing works,
or the only things that do are considered excessive by the same pop culture that demands people be thin.

advice is simple. You have to have 3 fixed meals. If you can't have them just try harder, because more then 3 meals a day is very bad and will make you gain weight. If you don't have gym or anything just run around town 3 times a week. I prefer running over walking because running really drains those calories and wastes less time than walking. Run as long as you can then when you can't slowly transition into walking. Then after you gain your breath back go running again. Do it in intervals.

The whole excerise shouldn't really take much time, something like 20-30 minutes of it is enough for starters.

After you excerise eat protein. Before, make sure you eat fruit or something sugary to give you strenth. Don't just excersize when you're hungry and powerless, it feels really crappy.

This is actually the exact opposite of common sense,
that being to space out your caloric and fat intakes throughout the day, with meals with higher amounts being toward the beginning of the day, and tapering off before the end.