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Obesity crisis in Ireland Mod Note post 1

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Comments

  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 15,226 Mod ✭✭✭✭FutureGuy


    "Don't eat after 6pm" - why? What if you go for a run or to the gym after 6pm? That rule is completely arbitrary. And it is starving oneself too. What if you finish your dinner at 6 and go to bed at 11.30? And i finish work at 6 so I don't eat dinner until nearly 7.

    What if you just eat salad after 6?


    Starving yourself is a disaster so I agree with you there. Your body reacts poorly and keeps fat. I'm saying that you would have your calories eaten by 6-7 pm. For some people, it might be 8pm. So you are not starving, you are just decreasing your window for feeding.

    We have an undiagnosed epidemic of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in the country. A 14-16 hour fast each day (most of which occurs in the evening and when you are sleeping) allows the liver to take a break and allows the body use other fuel sources.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 466 ✭✭c6ysaphjvqw41k


    I don't think McDonald's is the problem exactly, its just the amount of anything that people eat. I'm quite slim and if I want to eat 6 chicken nuggets from McDonalds every once in a while, let me. Shouldn't be banned. Its people eating McDonald's or takeaways etc. a few times a week. My sister recently put on a lot of weight, and she eats takeaway or fast food almost every night.

    I think portion sizes are a major problem too. Most of the time eating out I wouldn't finish my meal. And all the sides everyone eats. People eat lasagna with chips on the side. Why??? Carbs with carbs. The lasagna alone is enough. Curry with chips and rice. Most of the time if I make curry I wont even make rice its the curry with a LOT of vegetables.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 608 ✭✭✭Dalomanakora


    FutureGuy wrote: »
    Stop drinking fruit juices and fizzy drinks.
    Cut out white breads and pasta and keep carbs in check.
    Don't eat or drink after 6 pm except water and black coffee (no sugar).
    Eat good fats.
    Drink water.
    Exercise 3 x 30 min/week where you build up a sweat.

    It's not rocket science.

    Eating after 6 won't have any bearing on your weight. A calorie is a calorie, whether you're having it at 9pm or 9am!


    I've lost just under 5 stone (weighing tonight, hoping to only be 1-2lbs away from it tonight) and I sure as hell don't limit my eating to before 6pm. Sure I don't get home from work til 7pm!


    I eat when I want to eat. If I'm hungry, I'll eat. Whether that's breakfast time or 3am, I don't care. What matters is what I'm putting into my body.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,783 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    taxAHcruel wrote:
    So it seems that behaviours do change with a tax quite often - but sometimes the wrong people or the wrong way - or that behaviour is balanced off by a secondary change elsewhere that simply reverses whatever positive effect the tax itself was hoping to engender. So taxation is a useful tool to have in our arsenal it seems - but actually deploying it correctly or usefully is probably something we are not yet all that good at.


    I'd say increasing taxes sometimes works at changing attitudes, but my gut says, it kinna doesn't. The human mind is a strange thing, particularly when it comes to addictive substances, our behaviours become more grey than black or white, I'm always wary of research that supplies absolute evidence to support that increasing tariffs causes a drop in usage, we truly are an odd bunch when it comes to this kinna stuff, it's also hard to know what to do about it


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 608 ✭✭✭Dalomanakora


    FutureGuy wrote: »
    Starving yourself is a disaster so I agree with you there. Your body reacts poorly and keeps fat. I'm saying that you would have your calories eaten by 6-7 pm. For some people, it might be 8pm. So you are not starving, you are just decreasing your window for feeding.

    We have an undiagnosed epidemic of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in the country. A 14-16 hour fast each day (most of which occurs in the evening and when you are sleeping) allows the liver to take a break and allows the body use other fuel sources.

    Intermittent fasting is very different to "don't eat after 6pm," though. When I do IF, my window is 6-10pm because that's what suits my lifestyle.


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    Dtp1979 wrote: »
    The time of day that you eat has no bearing on your weight gain/loss. It’s all down to calories

    I helped a guy lose a lot of weight recently. I wrote about it a few weeks ago. And I did it entirely by not changing a thing he ate as he was already eating very well and excercising. I merely changed how and _when_ he ate it. He was eating his calorie rich foods for example nowhere near the times he was doing calorie intense activity. He was sedentary at his desk when he was taking on the carlorie heeavy foods. And this also led to afternoon fatigue issues or "crashing". Merely by moving his diet around on a time table he lost weight, became more alert when he was actually working, and generally feels much much better.

    Calories are indeed a huge thing but I would be cautious to say it is "all" down to calories. For example some studies on the effects of chemicals that are in our day-to-day- world have been interesting.

    Yes some of them were only done in rats but what we observed is that rats exposed to those chemicals became heavier despite been fed significantly _less_ calories than the control group not exposed to those chemicals. Clearly telling the fat rats to eat less calories while they sit there watching the slimmer rats gorge themselves is not likely to help them.

    Calories are a huge factor. I will say it again just to be clear I am not undermining any notions there. But what our bodies do with calories and why is also a massive thing. And things that affect that naturally and artificially are part of a rainbow of influences we are becoming more and more aware of.

    But it also seems that many seminars in places like the US that were held and led to many reporters going back to their news papers to write that it is exercise - not calorie intake - that was the issue were funded by - wait for it - Coca Cola. Secretly. And when it came out Coke started finally to publicize what seminars it was funding. But usually only years _after_ the seminar was held. So the memes in our head saying fatsos just need to move more - much of them come from the industries invested in them eating more.

    It is so easy to focus on one factor. For our brains and for our research. But the truth appears to be so very much more complicated than that.


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 15,226 Mod ✭✭✭✭FutureGuy


    Intermittent fasting is very different to "don't eat after 6pm," though. When I do IF, my window is 6-10pm because that's what suits my lifestyle.


    Yes but I have to generalize somewhat so the advice is based on someone working 9am-5pm.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Intermittent fasting is very different to "don't eat after 6pm," though. When I do IF, my window is 6-10pm because that's what suits my lifestyle.

    totally agree, intermittent fasting is not starving yourself. Fair enough you would go through a few uncomfortable days getting used to it. I am not on day 32 on IF, i start eating at 12.30 and finish by 20.30. I still have 2 cups of americano in the morning. I havent actually been doing it correctly as i eat the same really and am totally guilty of eating biscuits but i have shed 3.5kgs since i started. I do exercise but i was stuck at 82.5kg that was like a wall but the IF helped me get through it.

    I have friends who moan about their weight but dont do anything to help it. Intermittent fasting has been far the best and easiest lifestyle change i made. It took a few weeks before i started seeing other health benefits like sleeping and alertness but i am starting to feel it more and more now.


  • Registered Users Posts: 20,336 ✭✭✭✭Rikand


    Wibbs wrote: »
    We drink more from what I've read. Quite a bit more and more regularly. For all the stereotype of the Irish as drunkards, up to the 90's we had one of the lower rates of liver disease in the EU. In the past the pub was where you had a drink, home drinking was much less a thing for most people. It tended to be in spurts too. So a guy(usually a guy) would head to the pub of a weekend, and he might get hammered, but during the working week he was mostly "dry". Lent was a big thing too and many gave up the grog for lent. These days it's more a bottle of wine of an evening. It's only a few glasses your honour.

    So really we have to blame the government for our obesity. Their way-to-strict drink driving laws are taking people away from their one day a week few pints and driving home carefully and instead encouraging them to drink every day at home. This saves lives on the roads but leads to more deaths on the homes

    The knock on social effect is also changed. Had a person been drinking 4 pints of lager or a bottle of wine in the pub each night of the week, they'd be the talk of the town. But do it at home and no-one has a clue and the drinker can pile on the pounds without any social judgment.

    Strict drink driving laws are a big part of the reason why our waistlines are reaching scary new widths


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,065 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    A calorie is a calorie.
    It's not. The whole calories things is too simplistic. A calorie from neat vodka is very different from a calorie from fat, or a calorie from protein or a calorie from carbohydrate. For a start the calorie from neat vodka won't put a gram of weight on you. It simply can't. If you took three people ingesting say 2000 calories a day and one ate 80% of their 2000 as fats, another ate 80% of their 2000 as carbs and the last 80% of their 2000 as proteins they will have very different effects on the body and different results.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 608 ✭✭✭Dalomanakora


    keeffo2005 wrote: »
    totally agree, intermittent fasting is not starving yourself. Fair enough you would go through a few uncomfortable days getting used to it. I am not on day 32 on IF, i start eating at 12.30 and finish by 20.30. I still have 2 cups of americano in the morning. I havent actually been doing it correctly as i eat the same really and am totally guilty of eating biscuits but i have shed 3.5kgs since i started. I do exercise but i was stuck at 82.5kg that was like a wall but the IF helped me get through it.

    I have friends who moan about their weight but dont do anything to help it. Intermittent fasting has been far the best and easiest lifestyle change i made. It took a few weeks before i started seeing other health benefits like sleeping and alertness but i am starting to feel it more and more now.

    I really like IF just because it fits into my life easily.

    I'm also in Slimming World, but the two combined work for me (before anyone complains about SW's war on fats, I use my "syns" and dairy allowances on full fat dairy), because I don't generally get hungry before 2-3pm. At that stage, I've already gone past my lunch break, so I just hold out a few hours til I'm home and voila, I can have a big ass lovely meal that fills me and keeps me happy.


    It's more difficult when I'm bored on days off, but ultimately that's just me wanting to eat from boredom :pac:


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,264 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    IF to lose weight is purely a way of achieving calorie deficit. The other "benefits" of IF, are only potential benefits at this stage, as although there's some studies that suggest benefits, it's not proven.

    Back to the original topic - portion control and personal responsibility are the main things. I don't hold out much hope, as even a number of obesity specialists are on the "not the persons" fault bandwagon, largely on the basis of studies done on rodents not humans.

    When I was prop forward weight talking shíte about BMI being rubbish because a small percentage of athletes skew the figues, no one was forcing me to eat too much; I already knew I was eating too much and too much rubbish; I just wasn't bothered. No tax would've changed that. No education campaign or home ec classes was going to change that - I already knew how to cook, and good and "bad" foods, I just ate too much. Until I decided to do something about it, it wasn't going to change.

    There's a whole different debate about how those families that provide a chicken fillet roll for national school childrens lunches, and chipper/ takeaway several nights a week afford it. I don't believe they don't know it's bad - it's whether they care and just want the convenience. There's a lot of bs about "healthy" being more expensive, which isn't my experience. Maybe if you're swapping something processed for something processed.

    So to say again, it's just another thing that a large proportion of the population won't take personal responsibility for.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 608 ✭✭✭Dalomanakora


    Wibbs wrote: »
    It's not. The whole calories things is too simplistic. A calorie from neat vodka is very different from a calorie from fat, or a calorie from protein or a calorie from carbohydrate. For a start the calorie from neat vodka won't put a gram of weight on you. It simply can't. If you took three people ingesting say 2000 calories a day and one ate 80% of their 2000 as fats, another ate 80% of their 2000 as carbs and the last 80% of their 2000 as proteins they will have very different effects on the body and different results.

    For sure. I don't even bother counting calories when I drink vodka tbh because I know it won't hold on my body :o


    My point was more in relation to when you eat. Obviously a 2000 calorie diet of fats and protein would yield better weight loss than 2000 calories of carbs, because the keto approach encourages your body to eat into fat stores and such, as opposed to the carb-heavy approach.


    But the time you have those calories isn't going to make an enormous difference to your weight, what will make a difference is what, specifically, you're eating.


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 15,226 Mod ✭✭✭✭FutureGuy


    I helped a guy lose a lot of weight recently. I wrote about it a few weeks ago. And I did it entirely by not changing a thing he ate as he was already eating very well and excercising. I merely changed how and _when_ he ate it. He was eating his calorie rich foods for example nowhere near the times he was doing calorie intense activity. He was sedentary at his desk when he was taking on the carlorie heeavy foods. And this also led to afternoon fatigue issues or "crashing". Merely by moving his diet around on a time table he lost weight, became more alert when he was actually working, and generally feels much much better.

    Calories are indeed a huge thing but I would be cautious to say it is "all" down to calories. For example some studies on the effects of chemicals that are in our day-to-day- world have been interesting.

    Yes some of them were only done in rats but what we observed is that rats exposed to those chemicals became heavier despite been fed significantly _less_ calories than the control group not exposed to those chemicals. Clearly telling the fat rats to eat less calories while they sit there watching the slimmer rats gorge themselves is not likely to help them.

    Calories are a huge factor. I will say it again just to be clear I am not undermining any notions there. But what our bodies do with calories and why is also a massive thing. And things that affect that naturally and artificially are part of a rainbow of influences we are becoming more and more aware of.

    But it also seems that many seminars in places like the US that were held and led to many reporters going back to their news papers to write that it is exercise - not calorie intake - that was the issue were funded by - wait for it - Coca Cola. Secretly. And when it came out Coke started finally to publicize what seminars it was funding. But usually only years _after_ the seminar was held. So the memes in our head saying fatsos just need to move more - much of them come from the industries invested in them eating more.

    It is so easy to focus on one factor. For our brains and for our research. But the truth appears to be so very much more complicated than that.

    A very good example and saves me a response.

    We also have certain food brands talking about that "3pm crash". That 3pm crash isn't natural, it is a sign of something wrong with how we are feeding ourselves.

    Many people work 9am-5pm, have their most calorie-laden meal at 6pm and then sit down in front of the TV for the night.


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,468 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    Your body acts like a savings account with energy.

    You eat excess over expenditure and you save the energy as fat.

    You eat less than your expenditure of energy and you loose fat as it’s used up.


    That’s it, it’s not about what time you eat or what colour foods you eat. It’s simple maths.

    For your health you should of course eat as wide a variety of foods as possible.


    To add to that.
    We have a problem with personal responsibility, the facts above place the responsibility with the person and the current population don’t like that. They roam social media looking for foods to blame, it’s the wrong colour, wrong time etc. That excuses their responsibility. People need to step up and realise they are eating themselves fat, they’re doing it to themselves.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,783 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    _Brian wrote:
    That’s it, it’s not about what time you eat or what colour foods you eat. It’s simple maths.


    What if your brain is wired differently, and has a different kind of maths machine, that continually says, feed me? There's nothing simple when it comes to food addiction


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,420 ✭✭✭Lollipops23


    Honestly, so much comes down to personal responsibility.

    I gained a large amount of weight a few years back (I was eating my feelings after being diagnosed with a life changing illness).

    I wasn't happy; I wanted to feel good about myself. So I copped on, weighed myself New Year's morning 2016 and promised myself I would never see that number again. I changed my eating habits and shed 2 stone within 9 months. Have kept it off, too.

    I'm still slightly overweight, but no longer tipping into Obese (I was about 3lbs shy of that when I started). I have different ways of coping with stress and upset now (ie, I don't look for the answer at the bottom of a packet of biscuits). I still enjoy my grub, but have discovered a whole new world of dishes that I love to cook.

    Honestly, I've been there and it's hard to make the change; but if you're a grown up, you have to just do it and bite the damn bullet.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,264 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    The science still supports a calorie being a calorie. The science doesn't support that you'll lose more weight on low carb. In fact, the most recent studies suggest (suggest, not proven, like IF, Keto etc.) that low carb is bad for in particular gut health, and that it's hard to get enough fibre by avoiding cereals.

    The "solution" for most people is still eat less (largely portion control) and move a bit more. But mainly eat less. Overly complicating it with IF and other "diets" based off people trying to sell books isn't the solution population wide.

    It sometimes feels like diets have replaced religion for some people - placing faith in unproven benefits.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 608 ✭✭✭Dalomanakora


    Macy0161 wrote: »
    The science still supports a calorie being a calorie. The science doesn't support that you'll lose more weight on low carb. In fact, the most recent studies suggest (suggest, not proven, like IF, Keto etc.) that low carb is bad for in particular gut health, and that it's hard to get enough fibre by avoiding cereals.

    The "solution" for most people is still eat less (largely portion control) and move a bit more. But mainly eat less. Overly complicating it with IF and other "diets" based off people trying to sell books isn't the solution population wide.

    It sometimes feels like diets have replaced religion for some people - placing faith in unproven benefits.

    A lot of people don't see the likes of IF or keto as a diet though - for many people, it's a totally attainable, long term, sustainable change in how they eat.

    I've lost a good bit of weight and I certainly wouldn't consider myself to be on a diet, I'm just making wise choices each day and I never feel like I'm on a diet either. What I'm doing is something I can easily do for life.


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,468 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    Wanderer78 wrote: »
    What if your brain is wired differently, and has a different kind of maths machine, that continually says, feed me? There's nothing simple when it comes to food addiction

    Your still getting fat because your overeating.
    It’s stikl something your doing to yourself.
    It’s still your responsibility to change something or get help.

    It’s anbit like “it’s jist my metabolism”
    The actual number of people with these conditions is minuscule, the vast majority of obease people are that way because they don’t take responsibility for their actions, they’ve convinced themselves it’s not their fault but some wider conspiracy against their thinness.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 9,264 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    A lot of people don't see the likes of IF or keto as a diet though - for many people, it's a totally attainable, long term, sustainable change in how they eat.

    I've lost a good bit of weight and I certainly wouldn't consider myself to be on a diet, I'm just making wise choices each day and I never feel like I'm on a diet either. What I'm doing is something I can easily do for life.
    I completely accept that it works for some people, and I have zero problem with that. Whatever is sustainable for an individual is the best option.

    However, I do have a problem with people pushing it based on unproven benefits, studies on rats, psuedo science. Some of it is verging on anti-vacc level "science".

    There's some interesting potential benefits of IF, for example, but they're so far not proven. I'm not dismissive of those, I've followed the science to see if it's something I might follow, but there just isn't the support there. Yet.


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 15,226 Mod ✭✭✭✭FutureGuy


    _Brian wrote: »
    Your still getting fat because your overeating.
    It’s stikl something your doing to yourself.
    It’s still your responsibility to change something or get help.

    It’s anbit like “it’s jist my metabolism”
    The actual number of people with these conditions is minuscule, the vast majority of obease people are that way because they don’t take responsibility for their actions, they’ve convinced themselves it’s not their fault but some wider conspiracy against their thinness.

    It is worth noting that there is a small fraction of people whose mechanism to lose weight is fundamentally broken in their body.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,065 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Macy0161 wrote: »
    The science still supports a calorie being a calorie.
    What "science"? A calorie is a unit of energy, how different substances are utilised by the body varies quite a bit. A simple carbohydrate "calorie" is metabolised in a different way and has different effects in the body than a "calorie" of fat, or a "calorie" of protein. Charcoal is high in calorific energy and while sprinkling powdered charcoal on your food will give you black poo, it won't put on an ounce of fat on you. This is a biological fact.

    A "calorie" of alcohol is different again. The body treats it as a mild toxin and breaks it down to excrete it and no fat can be laid down by consuming it. Yet you'll regularly read and hear people say "alcohol is fattening". This is a nonsense. Now a pint of beer or a couple of glasses of vino does contain "calories" that the body can absorb in the form of sugars, but the alcohol has nada to do with it and if you drink a bunch of vodka and tonics your weight won't and can't go up.. It can cause insulin changes and a lot of people get an attack of the munchies for greasy takeaways afterwards, which will make you fat, but the alcohol itself can't add fat to a fat cell.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    _Brian wrote: »
    That’s it, it’s not about what time you eat or what colour foods you eat. It’s simple maths.
    Macy0161 wrote: »
    The science still supports a calorie being a calorie.

    The idea that a calorie is a calorie - and it does not matter what you eat but how the maths work - can be correct or incorrect depending on what you are talking about. So you are not wrong - you just have to be more specific.

    If the body at the end of the metabolic processes of breaking food down actually receives 2000 calories say - then yes absolutely a calorie is a calorie. Here it is pretty much correct to say that.

    However when we are actually eating our food and we have two choices before us both of them labelled as containing 2000 calories - then a calorie is not a calorie there. Because how many calories are _in_ the food does not tell us how many the body will get out of it.

    If one option is 2000 calories mostly glucose, another mostly fructose, and another mostly protein - then it absolutely matters what you eat. Your body will at the end of the mathematics receive different amounts from each. Some foods involve the Liver in the way others do not - wasting energy. Some result in much more loss of energy in heat - the way others do not.

    What compounds the issues there is something else that also goes on. Different foods affect appetite in different ways. Some foods make you feel satiated sooner and so eat less. Some give short term spikes in blood sugar leading to a crash that gives food cravings later. So in another sense - quite separate from calorie mathematics - what a person is eating and when can have a lot of behavioural impacts on diet too. If a particular food group is more likely to leave you with cravings an hour or two later for example - then having that early in the day when you will be left with those cravings to deal with is likely to have more behavioural impacts than - say - having it before sleep when you will sleep through dealing with those issues.

    We can shout at people about "responsibility" of course - and there has to be a strong element of personal responsibility in play for sure, no one disagrees with you there I think - but if we absolutely know that eating a particular food, or eating it a particular way, or eating it at a particular time is directly going to impact the impulses, cravings, motivations, will power, and other attributes of self-control and compulsion that make up the human process - then that should be part of it too. Personal Responsibility can be augmented and supported by knowledge and data that facilitates it and reduces constant attacks and tests of will power and motivation.

    But looking at a fat person and a slim person and simply assuming one has more will power than the other is a bad conclusion we could reach for example. They might have _exactly_ the same level of will power but differences in mere timing and behaviour might mean one has more stresses and tests of it than the other. For example.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,149 ✭✭✭Ariadne


    I've recently been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Addictions are part of it. I'm just very glad my addiction has been to food and not to drugs so I'll just ignore the pontificating and be on my way.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,065 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Macy0161 wrote: »
    There's some interesting potential benefits of IF, for example, but they're so far not proven.
    Actually calorie restriction(with optimum nutrition) as a major influencer on longevity in organisms has a very long history going back nearly a century with countless studies backing it up. Including a fair number of studies in primates and humans. Indeed it's one of the few mechanisms where longevity can be reliably increased in an organism. Quite a few of these studies noted that intermittent fasting had similar, if not as dramatic effects and came with fewer negative effects than "strict" calorie restriction(increased susceptibility to cold, negative effects on fertility). The insulin mechanism seems to be a large part of it and studies into very long lived people has thrown up a few possible mechanisms, but one that is strongly implicated is their genetically superior insulin mechanism.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 608 ✭✭✭Dalomanakora


    Succubus_ wrote: »
    I've recently been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Addictions are part of it. I'm just very glad my addiction has been to food and not to drugs so I'll just ignore the pontificating and be on my way.

    Hey, I'm not trying to pontificate at all, just as someone who's had enormous issues with over eating and binge eating, I just want to say that when you get more stable (I know it takes a while with borderline and other disorders), you can lose weight if you want to with the right support. Ultimately you have a more difficult journey ahead though IF you choose to try lose weight.


    Best of luck with your treatment. :)


  • Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 195 ✭✭GAA Beo


    JupiterKid wrote: »
    If you look at old newsreel footage of 60 or 70 years ago, most adults used to cycle bikes as cars were an unaffordable luxury to most. People, usually men, did binge drink at weekends in pubs but home drinking was very rare until the 1970s/80s and nowhere near the extent it is done today.

    True they did cycle more back in the day. I thought they drank more too but it appears that isn't true and we are actually drinking more now. It's odd considering there was way more pubs around back in the day than now, but as you say the home drinking wasn't a thing really. Now it's big business for the supermarkets and offies.


    McDonalds was a rare treat back then - now some families eat fast food every single day.
    I suspected as much by the amount of families I see in McDonalds everytime I'm in there. I'm not a parent, but surely having fast food every day is very poor parenting?


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,065 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    But looking at a fat person and a slim person and simply assuming one has more will power than the other is a bad conclusion we could reach for example. They might have _exactly_ the same level of will power but differences in mere timing and behaviour might mean one has more stresses and tests of it than the other. For example.
    Or they simply have different appetites. I'm thin because food is mostly fuel to me, I don't eat much and have little of an appetite, unless I do a lot of moving around in a day. Some days I nearly forget to eat. Now when I am hungry I'd eat through the door of the fridge to get to the food and if I was like that everyday I'd be the Goodyear blimp in a month. I've near zero willpower on that score. I'm just lucky my willpower doesn't get tested.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,149 ✭✭✭Ariadne


    Hey, I'm not trying to pontificate at all, just as someone who's had enormous issues with over eating and binge eating, I just want to say that when you get more stable (I know it takes a while with borderline and other disorders), you can lose weight if you want to with the right support. Ultimately you have a more difficult journey ahead though IF you choose to try lose weight.


    Best of luck with your treatment. :)


    I'm glad that you're managing to overcome your issues with over eating and binge eating, I know what it's like. I actually have lost 1 stone 4lbs/8.2 kg in the last few months so I'm on my way, with more to go! It's just that in the past threads like this have sent me off on a self-hating binge and I don't think people realise that saying ''personal responsibility'' only makes you feel more sh1t about yourself for not being ''disciplined'' enough and it makes people more likely to eat to comfort themselves. Not everyone who overeats does so for these reasons of course but it helps to be mindful of it.


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