• Keep up to date with Ausbb via Twitter and Facebook. Please add us!
  • Join the Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

    The Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum is dedicated to no nonsense muscle and strength building. If you need advice that works, you have come to the right place. This forum focuses on building strength and muscle using the basics. You will also find that the Ausbb- Australian Bodybuilding Forum stresses encouragement and respect. Trolls and name calling are not allowed here. No matter what your personal goals are, you will be given effective advice that produces results.

    Please consider registering. It takes 30 seconds, and will allow you to get the most out of the forum.

Obesity: Genetic or Poor lifestyle choices

You guys tried eating 800 calories a day? One of my clients can not lose on 1200kcals a day. Just because it can be worked out theoretically does not mean it is easy to do.

800 calories is a mouthful.

I have done 6000 calories today and still counting.

My point was even with genetic conditions while it may be harder to lose weight you can't cheat the laws of thermodynamics.
 
I've done 800 Cal's a day. It was called the tony Ferguson diet.

Keep it up forever? Not so easy as it sounds.

In regards to thermodynamics that is not the issue. It is threads ability to feel full and not continually hungry, then there is also micronutrient concerns, psychological effects of eating such a small amount. And you have to do this for life or you put on weight. There is a lot more to weightloss than just the basic physics of it.
 
Dave and Bella are both correct.

i mean really...can you expect someone to exist on a severely restricted diet, not get their micros and function properly day to day?

Another aspect is that the medications aren't necessarily totally effective either so it's not as though they are a total solution.
 
What is the % of the population who have thyroid issues compared to general obese population?
Hand on heart, I survived 3 months on 800 Cal's a day. Impossible.
 
Somewhere long ago I came across a quote in a similar discussion. Someone was blaming genetics for their weight problem and the comment was made," Genetics may have loaded the gun but you had to pull the trigger.... repeatedly." Basically that accounts for 90%+ of the obesity issue. I understand that thyroid conditions exist but many that claim hypothyroidism are undiagnosed and looking for excuses.

For the majority of people (without medical conditions) weight is a simple choice. People choose what they want more, the cream bun or the body of their dreams. I don't have much of a problem with overweight people who accept their choice but those who complain about weight issues and then grab a big bag of potato chips shit me to tears.
 
You guys need to lose the fucking 'little train that could' mentalities. Not everyone can look like Brad Pitt, even if they eat '6 clean meals a day' and work out with 'intensity'

I've been on medications for a while and have had a tremendous amount of weight gain - 15kg since I started. 1500 calories a day sucks.

I eat like a little old lady and am perpetually hungry - I wake up at 4-5 in the morning every morning with hunger pains. It leaves you feeling like a bag of dead cats, and I'm not even eating to lose weight...
 
lol I know! I meant it as a rhetorical...ie very low kcals for extended period and hectic demanding life is hard, is all I meant. :)

Ahhhhh!
I was just saying I only lasted 3 months on such low calories, after that I ate the house down while dealing with thin brittle hair and low muscle mmass because of it.
Clearly understand medically diagnosed Thyroid problems.
 
you're absolutely correct, Oli.

it's not all within our control, sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently.

I don't like the assertion that all obesity is a simple In vs Out equation. It most certainly is not. Lots of things contribute to weight gain ... hey, even natural life change events like menopause can have effects on weight that cannot be counteracted by diet and exercise.

We just need to respect our bodies and keep fit and healthy.
Not everyone wants or needs to be a Mr or Ms universe :)
 
You guys need to lose the fucking 'little train that could' mentalities. Not everyone can look like Brad Pitt, even if they eat '6 clean meals a day' and work out with 'intensity'

I've been on medications for a while and have had a tremendous amount of weight gain - 15kg since I started. 1500 calories a day sucks.

I eat like a little old lady and am perpetually hungry - I wake up at 4-5 in the morning every morning with hunger pains. It leaves you feeling like a bag of dead cats, and I'm not even eating to lose weight...

So true. My medications, cycled over 5 years, saw me gain so much weight, I didn't even know how or where to start, to get it off! And I was barely eating because I was so sick, but still I gained so much :(

After I came off the med's finally...I ate everything in sight, I was ravenous like I never have been in my entire life. 5 years of illness and deprivation and the loss of almost all of my dignity in the process...had left me famished for pleasure again. The sheer pleasure and joy of food and taste and nourishment.

I managed to gain 20 more kilograms, all on my own, through out of control eating and huge portion sizes and absolute inactivity.

Good post Oli.

There are a plethora of conditions and medications that people have and are prescribed, that make maintaining a healthy weight or losing weight, incredibly difficult. Steroids/anti psychotic meds/depression meds/anxiety meds - they all make weightloss a much harder process.

Hypothyroidism, was just an example.

I think the point is...judging others, so harshly and so completely, is more of a reflection of who you are, than who they are?

Every body has it's very own story. And no two, are ever alike or the same.
 
So true. My medications, cycled over 5 years, saw me gain so much weight, I didn't even know how or where to start, to get it off! And I was barely eating because I was so sick, but still I gained so much :(

After I came off the med's finally...I ate everything in sight, I was ravenous like I never have been in my entire life. 5 years of illness and deprivation and the loss of almost all of my dignity in the process...had left me famished for pleasure again. The sheer pleasure and joy of food and taste and nourishment.

I managed to gain 20 more kilograms, all on my own, through out of control eating and huge portion sizes and absolute inactivity.

Good post Oli.

There are a plethora of conditions and medications that people have and are prescribed, that make maintaining a healthy weight or losing weight, incredibly difficult. Steroids/anti psychotic meds/depression meds/anxiety meds - they all make weightloss a much harder process.

Hypothyroidism, was just an example.

I think the point is...judging others, so harshly and so completely, is more of a reflection of who you are, than who they are?

Every body has it's very own story. And no two, are ever alike or the same.

What was your medical diagnosis?
 
Thyroid isn't the only health issue that can force weight gain. There are lots of common medications that cause you to stack on weight. Anyone ever had to take prednisolone? A few people close to me have had to take it for long periods to various health issues and it makes you stack on fat. There is a look to cortisosteroid fat - its puffy and soft.

You cannot contravene the laws of thermodynamics, but in looking at calories in vs calories out equation, you in looking at the calories out side, just cannot ignore (1) there are hormonal drivers which influence hunger response (eg dopamine receptors - there's a though that the number of dopamine receptors, which is genetic, is correlated with obesity); (2) there are hormonal drivers which influence what use the body makes of excess calories (heat? building bone, muscle etc? conversion to body fat?) (3) the calories out side of the equation is not just about exercise, and can be manipulated by the body's own mechanisms.

There are plenty of unhealthy, lazy people who eat like shit but are skinny.

Our metabolisms all strive for homeostasis and drive our weight to its set-point. While the set-point can be influenced/changed by environmental factors and eating, genetics is clearly a factor. Taking a look at the opposite end of the spectrum to obesity, there are those who force-feed themselves 6,000 calories a day and still fail to gain weight. The more they eat, the more their body ramps up metabolism attempting to achieve homeostasis.
 
It's not the cards you have been dealt with, it's how you play your cards.

I was 50kgs pre-training at 17 years old and 5 foot 10. A very skinny Ecto.

I was 175kgs at 36 1/2 years old and 5 foot 10.

Only thing that changed was my lifestyle, I didn't change my Mum and Dad.
 
It is extremely hard for some to maintain levels of body fat throughout ones lifetime.

It is extremely easy for us to sit here behind our monitors and judge.
 
Im sorry, but if your fat, for whatever reason, you should not eat shit foods.

If you hang out at maccas, you will be judged.
 
Thyroid isn't the only health issue that can force weight gain. There are lots of common medications that cause you to stack on weight. Anyone ever had to take prednisolone? A few people close to me have had to take it for long periods to various health issues and it makes you stack on fat. There is a look to cortisosteroid fat - its puffy and soft.
Disagree with Prednisolone.
My brother has maintained a healthy weight after 5 years on the drug post transplant.
 
Disagree with Prednisolone.
My brother has maintained a healthy weight after 5 years on the drug post transplant.

Do you realise how ridiculous that reasoning sounds, arguing against the well documented body of scientific evidence of prednisolone's effect on the body based on a sample size of 1?

I know someone who smoked for 50 years and never got cancer. Smoking doesn't cause cancer.**

**Individual results may vary.
 
Top