Help! I'm Fat - *** Official Exercise and Weight Thread ***

[besserheimerphat]

Back on topic, I've been really struggling to get the diet in check. Workouts are going great (as expected when you feed the machine) but I'd like to be losing some weight. My struggles are mostly afternoon and evening:

1. My wife insists that our special needs 7 year old have a snack bowl available at all times. Goldfish, Nilla Wafers, Graham crackers, granola bars, frosted animal cookies, etc. Around 4pm it gets really tempting to grab something out of it every time I walk by.
2. At dinner, that same 7 year old will eat his snacks but not his dinner. I hate wasting food, so I end up eating my dinner AND his.
3. After he goes to bed, I continue grazing if there are any sweets in the house.

I basically do intermittent fasting "on accident" as I typically don't eat breakfast or lunch because I'm usually not hungry. In fact I'm pretty much never ever hungry. My meals are usually pretty good, but between the snacking and eating too much dinner I'm not losing anything.

 

[goody2012]

Yeah I’m really not, I’m in emergency medicine. Usually just see the people after the chiro has messed them up even more.

This isn’t a perfect video but it’s well made and should give you an idea of just how horrible the field is from its inception to current day.

There's a lot of things it doesn't cure that they claim does, but what I know is I spent $30 for 15 minutes to fix a problem that would have taken months and thousands of $$ to fix in your traditional medicine field. I'd say it has its place.

 

[RagingCloner]

Back on topic, I've been really struggling to get the diet in check. Workouts are going great (as expected when you feed the machine) but I'd like to be losing some weight. My struggles are mostly afternoon and evening:

1. My wife insists that our special needs 7 year old have a snack bowl available at all times. Goldfish, Nilla Wafers, Graham crackers, granola bars, frosted animal cookies, etc. Around 4pm it gets really tempting to grab something out of it every time I walk by.
2. At dinner, that same 7 year old will eat his snacks but not his dinner. I hate wasting food, so I end up eating my dinner AND his.
3. After he goes to bed, I continue grazing if there are any sweets in the house.

I basically do intermittent fasting "on accident" as I typically don't eat breakfast or lunch because I'm usually not hungry. In fact I'm pretty much never ever hungry. My meals are usually pretty good, but between the snacking and eating too much dinner I'm not losing anything.

I struggled with this too. I decided to do a “reset” so to speak, and participated in a water fast for 24 hours. When I broke the fast, 95% of my cravings were gone. I say 95%, because those welches fruit snacks that my 6 year old is fond of became very tempting, however I decided on a protein source instead

 

[FriendlySpartan]

Back on topic, I've been really struggling to get the diet in check. Workouts are going great (as expected when you feed the machine) but I'd like to be losing some weight. My struggles are mostly afternoon and evening:

1. My wife insists that our special needs 7 year old have a snack bowl available at all times. Goldfish, Nilla Wafers, Graham crackers, granola bars, frosted animal cookies, etc. Around 4pm it gets really tempting to grab something out of it every time I walk by.
2. At dinner, that same 7 year old will eat his snacks but not his dinner. I hate wasting food, so I end up eating my dinner AND his.
3. After he goes to bed, I continue grazing if there are any sweets in the house.

I basically do intermittent fasting "on accident" as I typically don't eat breakfast or lunch because I'm usually not hungry. In fact I'm pretty much never ever hungry. My meals are usually pretty good, but between the snacking and eating too much dinner I'm not losing anything.

The wasting food is a huge factor for a lot of people especially if you were raised in a “clean you plate household”. Sounds like a simple habit to break but in reality is very hard for many.

Also having a snack bowl constantly filled with empty calorie snacks is just going to lead to an obese child

 

[CascadeClone]

The thing with chiropractors is... sometimes they help. Sometimes your problem can't be fixed with adjustments though, totally depends what is wrong. But way too many are just there to get you on a program and keep you coming back and milk you. If you find one that says "ok now lets schedule 25 more visits" run far far away.

I have found with back problems, the diagnosis and treatment depends on who you see:
1. chiropractor? misalignment, let's adjust stuff
2. internal MD? inflammation, let's get you some meds
3. surgeon? you need surgery

That's not a dig on any of those fields, that's just their expertise. If you have 8 years of learning to use your hammer, then everything looks like a nail.

 

[CycloneSpinning]

I have a ..........lot........of chiropracters in my family and it's definitely a very big gateway into the anti-vax, take greens to beat pancreatic cancer type pipeline. But their profit structure allows for such a greater level of personalized and accessible care (if you have the discretionary income - and honestly depending on your health insurance, it may actually be more affordable). I see why people turn to it. The PCP you had to schedule five months out who has you in and out in 5 minutes because they have to move on get to the next one. Maybe you feel dismissed, maybe you have chronic issues you haven't been able to get taken seriously and addressed vs the person who can get you in next week, take 30 minutes, ask about your grandkids, you know from the local community and deep dives into the issues you are having (and prescribes many supplements to address them!!). And I do think the adjustments can help temporarily in some cases but........this quickly goes the Cave route. There are a lot of holes in the Western medical system and chiropractic gives the illusion of helping some of those who fall through.

I see where it can go that way. I don’t like when people are anti-vax or are pushing supplements for everything, but I also find traditional medicine to be woefully one size fits none and far too reliant on pharmaceuticals.

I should perhaps point out that my wife is a registered dietitian, and I definitely believe food should be used more as medicine. Not exclusively by any means, but when we have strong evidence of the benefits of things like garlic, turmeric, probiotics, etc for reducing inflammation and improving overall health via gut health, it seems silly that MDs largely ignore that in favor of pharmaceuticals.

I also don’t like that evidence based medicine is essentially a survey of what worked best/did the least damage for the “average” person, and yet a particular drug or treatment may not work for you at all. Worse, we have tests that check to see how well you metabolize a specific drug, but those are almost never given. They would rather give you a drug, see if it works (or hurts you), and then try something else if it doesn’t work the way they hoped.

I hope someday medical doctors move toward better understanding what works best for individuals patients, and also look beyond what foods you are allergic to, but also which your body best processes/benefits from so you can be healthier…not just surviving.

And to that end, I know you were just using pancreatic cancer as an example, but I would sadly probably work to come to terms with my fate/take a balanced approach to care for that diagnosis. The survival rate just isn’t good and I wouldn’t want to immediately have zero quality of life to hope to survive an extra 6 months. I hate that disease…

 

[FriendlySpartan]

Watermelon, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese sticks.

Ahhh yes, because in the medical world, medical doctors are the only ones who can help and fix people, signed and certified pharmaceutical reps. Got ya. So instead of addressing a root cause of something, let's just medicate and mask the issue to further create more issues. I don't know about anyone else, but there are times when going into the Dr, I feel like a number and they just push them through quickly to get to the next patient. Of course every industry has their bad apples, but I for one can account on numerous occasions where a chiropractor helped someone, including me.

Yep it’s totally a push them through quickly for primary care providers in many areas. Won’t get any push back from me there it’s what the system has come down to in a lot of cases.

I also totally agree with you about masking the issue instead of getting to the underlying cause. The problem is the vast majority of Americans are not willing to make the necessary life changes and stick to those changes to avoid the medications sadly.

Wish it wasn’t the case and wish preventative care and education was more heavily incentivized and promoted

 

[madguy30]

As someone who has had chronic back pain for 20 years and tried everything under the sun, the #1 exercise/stretch that alleviates my pain is doing dead arm hangs. Hanging from a bar, tree branch, etc. for as long as you can a few times a day will do more than a chiro - and it's FREE!

Does this extend the spine?

That's been a pretty big deal for me along with keeping it mobile.

 

[ScottyP]

Yep it’s totally a push them through quickly for primary care providers in many areas. Won’t get any push back from me there it’s what the system has come down to in a lot of cases.

I also totally agree with you about masking the issue instead of getting to the underlying cause. The problem is the vast majority of Americans are not willing to make the necessary life changes and stick to those changes to avoid the medications sadly.

Wish it wasn’t the case and wish preventative care and education was more heavily incentivized and promoted

I feel like most doctors would prefer to prescribe healthy lifestyle changes (healthy eating and exercise), but they know patients will ignore it and the patient would rather be given a drug instead.

I was listening to a trainer discuss about how he had to learn to be a psychologist of sorts to learn how each individual needs coached/motivated and figure out how to get the person to make positive lifestyle changes.

 

[MJ29]

I feel like most doctors would prefer to prescribe healthy lifestyle changes (healthy eating and exercise), but they know patients will ignore it and the patient would rather be given a drug instead.

I was listening to a trainer discuss about how he had to learn to be a psychologist of sorts to learn how each individual needs coached/motivated and figure out how to get the person to make positive lifestyle changes.

When my mom was a nurse practitioner, she talked to many patients who wanted to ask the doctor for whatever pill they saw mentioned on TV for weight loss. When she asked them what they'd done to try an lose weight already, most said, "nothing." They don't want to make changes, they just want to lose weight.

 

[ScottyP]

From a nutrition perspective, the low-fat diet changes (fat is bad, cholesterol is bad, less meat/eggs, more grains/carbs) has caused obesity to explode. Focusing on protein, fiber, healthy carbs (fruits/vegetables/whole grains), healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, etc) is a much better path.

 

[carvers4math]

Oikos seems like a good brand. Been buying a lot of their yogurt!

My favorite lunch is some of their vanilla or lemon on some mixed berries topped with walnuts, chia seeds, and ground flaxseed. I pretend it’s some weird ice cream sundae.

 

[MJ29]

My favorite lunch is some of their vanilla or lemon on some mixed berries topped with walnuts, chia seeds, and ground flaxseed. I pretend it’s some weird ice cream sundae.

I like to put a little peanut butter (or PB2 powder) in the banana one. So so good.

 

[RING4CY]

One thing I've noticed is that when I am craving snacks (usually when I get home from work), i'll drink water and my snack craving goes away. I really need to focus on drinking more water because I know I don't drink enough.

I drink water, but I could also vastly improve my daily water in take.

Also this...

 

[cowgirl836]

I see where it can go that way. I don’t like when people are anti-vax or are pushing supplements for everything, but I also find traditional medicine to be woefully one size fits none and far too reliant on pharmaceuticals.

I should perhaps point out that my wife is a registered dietitian, and I definitely believe food should be used more as medicine. Not exclusively by any means, but when we have strong evidence of the benefits of things like garlic, turmeric, probiotics, etc for reducing inflammation and improving overall health via gut health, it seems silly that MDs largely ignore that in favor of pharmaceuticals.

I also don’t like that evidence based medicine is essentially a survey of what worked best/did the least damage for the “average” person, and yet a particular drug or treatment may not work for you at all. Worse, we have tests that check to see how well you metabolize a specific drug, but those are almost never given. They would rather give you a drug, see if it works (or hurts you), and then try something else if it doesn’t work the way they hoped.

I hope someday medical doctors move toward better understanding what works best for individuals patients, and also look beyond what foods you are allergic to, but also which your body best processes/benefits from so you can be healthier…not just surviving.

And to that end, I know you were just using pancreatic cancer as an example, but I would sadly probably work to come to terms with my fate/take a balanced approach to care for that diagnosis. The survival rate just isn’t good and I wouldn’t want to immediately have zero quality of life to hope to survive an extra 6 months. I hate that disease…

Friendly can correct me here but my understanding is MDs don't get a ton of nutritional training. So their knowledge in that space is pretty light. Again, great convo for the Cave so I'm not trying to put this one there - western medicine has a lot of built in bias. Some of the tests done still have an adjustment for race based on......nothing at all. It's a field largely built by excluding women, people of color, and the Indigineous so anything that was led by them/came from them was poo-pooed. I think we're *just* seeing the tide come back to neutral on having midwives and doulas as legitimate birthing options - I know my city does a doula program specificaly to assist Black mothers during pregnancy with really great outcomes. I watched a really neat PBS presentation last week about the long-term benefits of heat treatment (ie sauna, sweat lodge) and psybocilin (sp?) in treating depression, addiction, and other mood disorders. These aren't new ideas - cultures have used some of this stuff for millenia but there was never a big motivation to study it for numerous reasons. And to your point - most of our medical studies are based on the average white male. Drugs and treatment may differ by gender, environment, access - but we don't have a system set up to individualize very well and understand the individual within their system.

 

[ScottyP]

Friendly can correct me here but my understanding is MDs don't get a ton of nutritional training. So their knowledge in that space is pretty light. Again, great convo for the Cave so I'm not trying to put this one there - western medicine has a lot of built in bias. Some of the tests done still have an adjustment for race based on......nothing at all. It's a field largely built by excluding women, people of color, and the Indigineous so anything that was led by them/came from them was poo-pooed. I think we're *just* seeing the tide come back to neutral on having midwives and doulas as legitimate birthing options - I know my city does a doula program specificaly to assist Black mothers during pregnancy with really great outcomes. I watched a really neat PBS presentation last week about the long-term benefits of heat treatment (ie sauna, sweat lodge) and psybocilin (sp?) in treating depression, addiction, and other mood disorders. These aren't new ideas - cultures have used some of this stuff for millenia but there was never a big motivation to study it for numerous reasons. And to your point - most of our medical studies are based on the average white male. Drugs and treatment may differ by gender, environment, access - but we don't have a system set up to individualize very well and understand the individual within their system.

I've learned with some of the research for fitness and nutrition is that a majority of the subjects they use for the studies are college aged males because they are the most willing to participate in those type of studies.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

Friendly can correct me here but my understanding is MDs don't get a ton of nutritional training. So their knowledge in that space is pretty light. Again, great convo for the Cave so I'm not trying to put this one there - western medicine has a lot of built in bias. Some of the tests done still have an adjustment for race based on......nothing at all. It's a field largely built by excluding women, people of color, and the Indigineous so anything that was led by them/came from them was poo-pooed. I think we're *just* seeing the tide come back to neutral on having midwives and doulas as legitimate birthing options - I know my city does a doula program specificaly to assist Black mothers during pregnancy with really great outcomes. I watched a really neat PBS presentation last week about the long-term benefits of heat treatment (ie sauna, sweat lodge) and psybocilin (sp?) in treating depression, addiction, and other mood disorders. These aren't new ideas - cultures have used some of this stuff for millenia but there was never a big motivation to study it for numerous reasons. And to your point - most of our medical studies are based on the average white male. Drugs and treatment may differ by gender, environment, access - but we don't have a system set up to individualize very well and understand the individual within their system.

Correct on pretty much everything you posted, some things are in the process of being changed in certain areas but this is a good summary.

MD’s get one nutrition class in med school, DO’s get the same but have options usually for a bit more but still isn’t anywhere near as qualified as an RD. That’s why all hospitals have RD’s on staff. I have a bachelors in nutrition as it was recommended by one of my advisors to help fill that gap. When I chose my specialty I realized I was like almost never use it but I always encourage it for anyone going into family med or pediatrics.

 

[nhclone]

My personal recent history with the impact of proper nutrition:
About 2 years ago, I had my blood results at my yearly check and my liver enzymes were slightly elevated but not overly concerning. Last year I got the results and they were even higher, so I discussed with my Dr. and she had me get a liver ultrasound. Ultrasound revealed I was in the very early stages of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). For those that aren't familiar, this is essentially where you develop excess fat deposits on your liver. If not taken care of, this can eventually lead to scarring of the liver and even cirrhosis and ultimately liver failure in extreme cases. As is typical for me, the first thing I did was read and watch every study, article, and video I could on NAFLD and how to combat.
Long story short, my studying led me to develop a conspiracy theorist like attitude towards High Fructose Corn Syrup, especially as it relates to NAFLD. I discovered HFCS was the main ingredient in my favorite salad dressing, which I ate almost every night on a lettuce salad with supper. I cut that from my diet, as well as focusing on fewer processed carbs and more protein and healthy fats at lunch. I have 3 kids under 6 so we still ate plenty of junk at supper time, although I did focus a little more on making those healthier also. I've had 2 blood draws within the past month (10-11 months from initial diagnosis), showing and confirming that my liver enzyme levels are completely back to normal. In addition, I lost 30 pounds without paying any attention to counting calories and without much of an exercise routine as I've been battling a lingering injury for the last year or so.

 

[ScottyP]

My personal recent history with the impact of proper nutrition:
About 2 years ago, I had my blood results at my yearly check and my liver enzymes were slightly elevated but not overly concerning. Last year I got the results and they were even higher, so I discussed with my Dr. and she had me get a liver ultrasound. Ultrasound revealed I was in the very early stages of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). For those that aren't familiar, this is essentially where you develop excess fat deposits on your liver. If not taken care of, this can eventually lead to scarring of the liver and even cirrhosis and ultimately liver failure in extreme cases. As is typical for me, the first thing I did was read and watch every study, article, and video I could on NAFLD and how to combat.
Long story short, my studying led me to develop a conspiracy theorist like attitude towards High Fructose Corn Syrup, especially as it relates to NAFLD. I discovered HFCS was the main ingredient in my favorite salad dressing, which I ate almost every night on a lettuce salad with supper. I cut that from my diet, as well as focusing on fewer processed carbs and more protein and healthy fats at lunch. I have 3 kids under 6 so we still ate plenty of junk at supper time, although I did focus a little more on making those healthier also. I've had 2 blood draws within the past month (10-11 months from initial diagnosis), showing and confirming that my liver enzyme levels are completely back to normal. In addition, I lost 30 pounds without paying any attention to counting calories and without much of an exercise routine as I've been battling a lingering injury for the last year or so.

I need to start making my own salad dressing with oil and vinegar. Most of the so-called "healthy" salad dressings (especially the low-fat ones) are loaded with sugar.

 

[cowgirl836]

I've learned with some of the research for fitness and nutrition is that a majority of the subjects they use for the studies are college aged males because they are the most willing to participate in those type of studies.

True AND until at least the early 90s, they were not required to include women in these studies. I absolutely get the logistical challenges of getting representative study participation! As a woman - I've also heard "well it's too complicated to take into account shifting hormones" that just........that sits so poorly with me. Here's a great one - it was the year of our Lord 2023 before *anyone* used actual blood to test with feminine menstrual products. 2023. After decades of women being like - these do not absorb anywhere near what they're telling us they do.

This feels a bit off track but circling back to the chiropractic thing - when people feel that a system is not giving them consideration and concerned with their perspective -they're less likely to trust it and more likely to seek out options that they believe do.