Some weight carrying thoughts, or questions

Once you understand how food works, how your body processes certain foods and how to boost your metabolism, it becomes crystal clear how to achieve the body weight you want. Is it easy? Not by a long shot! Is it worth the effort? Most definitely! After awhile, it just becomes second nature, you don't eat certain things, your body craves the endorphins of metabolism boosting exercise and you feel spectacular in a fit body.
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If we are going to over simplify; calories in(+), plus calories out(-) equals body weight. If all the fat people would just eat less they would all be fine.

I don't agree at all. Is it an excuse? No. But genetics and medical conditions have an effect. I have hypothyroidism, which slows my metabolism. My family all has a tendency of being over weight. I also have been fighting with arthritis in both knees since 16, and a reoccuring shoulder problem since 18.

I eat healthy, probably 95% vegetarian, tons of fruits and veggies, only lean proteins, limited carbs, avoid wheat, dairy, sugar and anything processed. I eat about 1200 calories a day. I ride 2 days a week(4 days a week in the summer, fast rides of 10+ miles), bike, hike, walk, jog, kayak and do yoga. Some form of excercise an hour + per day. I'm over weight.
My cousin has a fast metabolism, a family prodisposed to be thin and no arthritis. She is 100#, eats 1800 calories a day and excercises the same amount.

If genetics and health problems have nothing to do with weight, then do explain the difference between my cousin and I.

The thing that always gets me in these discussions, we as horse people are always happy to recognize that different horses have different metabolisms, hard keepers and easy keepers are very familiar to all of us. It's just the same as people, easy keepers, hard keepers, fast burners, quick burners.

While of course I accept the very simple, calories in balance with calories out, different formulas are needed for different people.

My balance isn't achieved simply by counting calories, I have to watch the make up of my diet, I know that 'bad carbs' are the ones that cause me issues, but a high protein, moderate fat, low carb diet makes me lose weight the best.

My husband though can't lose weight on that, he needs carbs, so he does better on simple calorie counting.

I speak in very broad generic terms but no matter what type of diet you follow, no matter what type of metabolism you have, if you consume more calories than your body needs, the result is weight gain. 100% agree with everyone who says 'one size does not fit all' in relation to diet. Totally correct so if you need to diet then you have to follow one which works for you and your body. I could start and quote research, give examples of various underlying chronic medical conditions which do predispose (not CAUSE) certain people to gain weight. And yes, there are some people who are restricted in movement through no fault of their own which limits exercise. However, this forum is not appropriate to go into that amount of detail and individual cases. At the end of the day, if we are overweight, we need to look at what we are eating. You can live on salads, fruit, vegetables and still put on weight - because they still contain calories and it is down to the amount you eat versus your bodys ability to break things down into useful byproducts. Any 'calories' the body can't use is stored as fat. Regardless of all the advice, information etc there is out there about weight and dieting and weightloss, the only person who can ensure that we lose weight or stay the way we are is us. For ordinary people who don't have access to personal trainers, personal cooks and chefs or freebie diet products (because we're not famous), weightloss is down to sheer will power. I make no bones about it, it is really, really hard to lose weight....and I am now just off to Waitrose ( a psoh grocery shop in the UK) to buy their New York Vanilla Cheesecake ( made with double cream) which is divine and they don't put the number of calories on the portion size which to me means IT'S CALORIE FREE...LOL

Yeh my last 50 mile endurance ride was pretty rough on General Beauregard. I finally decided I needed to do something about my weight.
So I bought a bigger horse.
Then stopped at Hooters on the way home. Mmmmm chicken wings and fried pickles.

SNOB

Didn't read the food description, *SIGH* I put on weight just reading the description!!

Wrong

Want to watch a person blow up like a balloon? Massive doses of steroids will do it. I often am put on steroids due to a medical condition and even though part of the reason is FOR weight gain, my Dr's are very careful to monitor how fast I am gaining weight. I am on a very specific diet, the only thing that changed was the meds and I packed on 40lbs in 2 months. May not seem like much but at a very petite build I went up about 5 clothing sizes.

Read my post properly! You have just said yourself that the reason for medication was weight gain and you also said diet. Diet is not always about weight loss - diet also refers to what you eat. So actually I am correct. I also stated that my comments cannot be used in the context of individual cases otherwise we could be here for a year and a day. I am speaking in very general terms about calories, weight gain and weight loss.

Metabolism means muscle, the more you have of it, the more calories your body requires to sustain itself. Unfortunately as we age, we lose muscle mass, at a rate of 5% every few years after age 40. So, you must build that muscle mass, ergo, spend time in the pain zone, no other way, sorry. You want results? They don't come for free.