At work, a few days ago, I was sitting at the station alongside a new nurse; she's very young (about my age when I first started using a ketogenic diet for my obesity) and she is also very very overweight. In addition to being a young female (thus common sense that she prefers to be thin), observing her eating behavior made it patently obvious this poor girl has been trying for years to correct her obesity. She always refuses food if offered to her, and when she does bring food, she rarely eats it, and it's always healthy food like salads.
I suspect she may have the common problem of trying to starve herself and abstain from almost all nutrition, only to binge (and possibly purge) on insulinogenic obesigenic foods. Her weight is simply too high to be produced by the eating patterns she demonstrates publically. This type of food avoiding and carb binging behavior is quite common among overweight young women who don't understand or accept the endocrine hypothesis of obesity, which is to say most obese young women. For a description of how this eventually plays out in the end, please see the carbsanity blog. Cyclical bouts of starvation followed by exaggerated hyperinsulinemia from binging produces progressive cortisol + insulin mediated adipocyte hyperplasia, thus ever expanding body weight which is largely permanent. If one is to diet, it is IMPERATIVE not to binge afterward! The binge following starvation/weight loss is how new fat tissue is grown, and it is largely permanent.
People definitely get fatter after every failed (i.e. binge-producing) dieting attempt, which is why it is oh so crucially important to accept the endocrine hypothesis of obesity and maintain, indefinitely, an eating program that inhibits + controls the nature and quality of insulin responses. We do differ in our ability to "progressively fatten" after failed dieting; some of us have the potential to become very obese, some of us don't; most women who are prone to diet are already afflicted with low grade glucose metabolism dysfunction (slight excess weight, occasional hypoglycemia) thus they have a great potential for obesity/fat tissue new growth. It is unfortunately true these are the women who are most at risk to induce upon themselves severe obesity with bouts of starvation and binging, as purely obesity resistant women are less inclined to cylically starve and binge. The exception to this is of course anorexia nervosa, but that is almost the polar opposite condition and not relevant to this discussion (anorexia nervosa, often a manifestation of what can be considered "extreme obesity resistance" and even severe starvation will never provoke rebound weight gain/obesity)
Anyway, back to my unfortunate coworker.
Now I've been in this game long enough to know never, ever, ever talk about weight loss with an overweight person, especially a very young female. When they see me, they think I am some kind of obnoxious thin bitch that has no idea what it is like to be fat. They rarely believe my history even when i tell them I used to be obese, and they often think I am too young to know anything (and they rarely believe I am 10 years older than them). Sooner or later though the topic is bound to come up, because I will refuse obesigenic glucose food right along with them... which of course inspires their resentment and ire that such a neurotic, self centered arrogant bitch like me is trying to watch my weight.
I dread that conversation. It is inevitable, though. Women like this monitor the eating habits of all other females around them, especially thin/young women. I refuse to eat shit food to placate others, so it's going to come up .
The unfortunate thing is my instict is to sit there at length and educate these people regarding insulin and blood sugar and how body weight is endocrine mediated and everything you've been told about nutrition is a religiously motivated lie. However, I know *from experience* this is useless, it doesn't work, and our perceptions of weight and eating are heavily seeped in emotional religious dogma and not rationality or science. See the WHS blog for more info about that. Trying to get such a person to accept their body weight and eating behavior ist he product of the endocrine system, body fat growth patterns, leptin and adiponectin and GLP-1 and blood nutrient stability and above all else insulin stimulation of adipocytes ultimately determining fat growth?
I'd have better luck sitting down with middle eastern terrorists and getting them to accept there are no virgins after you blow yourself up, and it's silly to fight a jihad against the west, and these things can be handled in more productive ways.
It's just not going to happen, not from me by myself anyway.
So anyway, it came to pass someone offered us some kind of shitty glucose based nutrition at which point I said "no thank you, I can't eat sugar and only consume diet beverages" (I was eating something else so it was not reasonable to say "I am not hungry") .
I suspect she may have the common problem of trying to starve herself and abstain from almost all nutrition, only to binge (and possibly purge) on insulinogenic obesigenic foods. Her weight is simply too high to be produced by the eating patterns she demonstrates publically. This type of food avoiding and carb binging behavior is quite common among overweight young women who don't understand or accept the endocrine hypothesis of obesity, which is to say most obese young women. For a description of how this eventually plays out in the end, please see the carbsanity blog. Cyclical bouts of starvation followed by exaggerated hyperinsulinemia from binging produces progressive cortisol + insulin mediated adipocyte hyperplasia, thus ever expanding body weight which is largely permanent. If one is to diet, it is IMPERATIVE not to binge afterward! The binge following starvation/weight loss is how new fat tissue is grown, and it is largely permanent.
People definitely get fatter after every failed (i.e. binge-producing) dieting attempt, which is why it is oh so crucially important to accept the endocrine hypothesis of obesity and maintain, indefinitely, an eating program that inhibits + controls the nature and quality of insulin responses. We do differ in our ability to "progressively fatten" after failed dieting; some of us have the potential to become very obese, some of us don't; most women who are prone to diet are already afflicted with low grade glucose metabolism dysfunction (slight excess weight, occasional hypoglycemia) thus they have a great potential for obesity/fat tissue new growth. It is unfortunately true these are the women who are most at risk to induce upon themselves severe obesity with bouts of starvation and binging, as purely obesity resistant women are less inclined to cylically starve and binge. The exception to this is of course anorexia nervosa, but that is almost the polar opposite condition and not relevant to this discussion (anorexia nervosa, often a manifestation of what can be considered "extreme obesity resistance" and even severe starvation will never provoke rebound weight gain/obesity)
Anyway, back to my unfortunate coworker.
Now I've been in this game long enough to know never, ever, ever talk about weight loss with an overweight person, especially a very young female. When they see me, they think I am some kind of obnoxious thin bitch that has no idea what it is like to be fat. They rarely believe my history even when i tell them I used to be obese, and they often think I am too young to know anything (and they rarely believe I am 10 years older than them). Sooner or later though the topic is bound to come up, because I will refuse obesigenic glucose food right along with them... which of course inspires their resentment and ire that such a neurotic, self centered arrogant bitch like me is trying to watch my weight.
I dread that conversation. It is inevitable, though. Women like this monitor the eating habits of all other females around them, especially thin/young women. I refuse to eat shit food to placate others, so it's going to come up .
The unfortunate thing is my instict is to sit there at length and educate these people regarding insulin and blood sugar and how body weight is endocrine mediated and everything you've been told about nutrition is a religiously motivated lie. However, I know *from experience* this is useless, it doesn't work, and our perceptions of weight and eating are heavily seeped in emotional religious dogma and not rationality or science. See the WHS blog for more info about that. Trying to get such a person to accept their body weight and eating behavior ist he product of the endocrine system, body fat growth patterns, leptin and adiponectin and GLP-1 and blood nutrient stability and above all else insulin stimulation of adipocytes ultimately determining fat growth?
I'd have better luck sitting down with middle eastern terrorists and getting them to accept there are no virgins after you blow yourself up, and it's silly to fight a jihad against the west, and these things can be handled in more productive ways.
It's just not going to happen, not from me by myself anyway.
So anyway, it came to pass someone offered us some kind of shitty glucose based nutrition at which point I said "no thank you, I can't eat sugar and only consume diet beverages" (I was eating something else so it was not reasonable to say "I am not hungry") .
So of course my coworker turned to me and said "Oh ITW, you are ridiculous, you are so thin I can't believe you eat diet food" or something along those lines.
At that point I said "actually I used to be very overweight..." which is when I knew this conversation was going to tread on thin ice. She would probe me for more info, and I would explain I used to be fatter than she was, and then when she asked for help I would give vague answers that I don't exercise and don't starve myself, and I just follow a very carbohydrate restricted diet...which of course would provoke her to respond with incredulity that my story is genuine... because no way anyone could be as thin as me without exercising and starving themselves, right?
Or alternatively she would begin chastising me for eating meat and fat, which a lot of overweight women do when you even remotely suggest that carbohydrates are majorly implicated in the wild insulin excess & endocrine signalling disorders provoking obesity of her severity.
So, I would just prefer the conversation not even come up at all. This girl is doomed to starve, binge, and maybe puke until she is over 300 pounds. There is nothing I can do by myself to change her perceptions. She knows it all, she's an expert dieter, carbs are healthy and all the thin emaciated vegans eat them, and anoretics eat them, and asians eat them, and the government + nutritionists suggest we eat more of them and cut fat instead. Who am I but a person lying about their weight, lying about their age, lying about the fact I don't use drugs or starve or over exercise to stay thin? That's all I am; a crazy bitch telling her to eat meat and fat when this is obviously insane.
Again, see carbsanity for more info.
The most interesting thing about these kinds of dieters is they always have tried a very low carb diet before! And IT WORKED FOR THEM. But when they went off of it (because it's dangerous, because it can't be sustained, because the government + doctors + industry told them to go off it) they regained all of their weight. So clearly, I just don't understand. Everything in moderation.
Usually what happens once the conversation reaches this point (of me vaguely describing my history, and what I do to avoid it being my present reality) is I simply stop talking when they begin ranting about their own unique case and what one needs to do about obesity and how eating fat is terrible and blah blah blah. I just sit there, shut up, listen, and let the conversation humanely terminate a natural death.
I, by myself, have less than zero power to undo decades of poor information and brainwashing and zero social support structures / good resources for obese people.
I just sit there in silence, like an athiest in the back of a church.
Nigel asked me in my last blog post "what I hope to accomplish" (regarding food not being intrinsically evil/scary, and hunger body weight being endocrinologically mediated)
Nigel? ^^^^^THIS IS WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE. Young girl, my age when i found ketosis, is doomed to a life of extreme obesity. No help, no support, no real education even though I know she can lose some or all of her excess weight. She doesn't have my natural "crazy eccentric" ability to reject all major medical advice and independently pursue + see the truth, as most people don't. She has no ability to trust the reaction of her body (weight loss + low appetite on a low carb diet) over the monopoly of religious/ corporate brainwashing otherwise socially ubiquitous to her. She is DOOMED to cyclically starve herself and then binge her way up to gross adipocyte hyperplasia and terminal intractable permanent obesity.
Perhaps she will be lucky enough to discover + accept a "paleo" type diet and so be able to at least stabilize her weight gain on a moderate carb intake like carbsane. Paleo diets are relatively easy to accept for these types of people as they are not extreme and sort of common sense / almost compatible with CW.
But carbsane's story is actually a happier ending, as she has learned to stop yo-yo dieting and accept she needs to follow at least a moderately low carb insulin suppressive diet. Most fat women don't do that and continue to abusively self starve and binge eat carbs until shortly before frailty dementa and death takes them.
What do I want to change? This shit. This is what I want to change, Nigel... and seeing as you don't have the privilege of growing up in a severely mutilated cartoon of a body deformed by gross fat accumulation, you can't possibly relate to why I think it's important.
