Obesity crisis in Ireland Mod Note post 1

Pyr0

Lillyfae wrote: »

They couldn't fit on the normal seats, what a stark comparison to the natives- they knew it too. That's the worst thing, a person's self esteem and self worth must take an awful hit.

And the spiral continues and they get heavier due to that lack of self esteem and self worth.

Lollipops23

Augeo wrote: »

To be fair at least she is losing weight

True, but she's still nearly 300lbs (in fairness, she bravely posted her weight a while ago). I think she's trying really hard to be motivated, but she needs to join over eaters anon at this point.

Defo on the biscuits so.

Ariadne

Augeo wrote: »

Defo on the biscuits so.

Christ. Have you nothing better to do?

ohfa6muwtsvkc1

I wouldn't say I'm great (though I'm in the healthy BMI whatever that means) but I'm not fat. I was. And I changed. It was long and hard and not fun at all. I got into bad diet in college (didn't learn to cook properly and being away from home) but thankfully have turned it around.

It's a disgrace to hear some of the comments on plus sized people. How dare you.

I think every person should become fat once in their lives, just so they know how easy it can happen, how awful it makes you feel (physcially and from abuse from others) and how hard it is to shake off.

Ardillaun

Michael Pollan summarizes his dietary recommendations this way:

Pollan says everything he's learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

He also has some rules for eating:
https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20090323/7-rules-for-eating#1

A similar message about plants comes from the new Canada food guide:
https://www.bbdnutrition.com/2019/01/22/the-new-canada-food-guide-at-a-glance/

Succubus_

Succubus_ wrote: »

Christ. Have you nothing better to do?

I was overly fond of the biscuits myself, truth be told.

Dalomanakora

Skyla Rancid Plasterboard wrote: »

I think every person should become fat once in their lives, just so they know how easy it can happen, how awful it makes you feel (physcially and from abuse from others) and how hard it is to shake off.

The bit I've bolded. It's really sad to me, that losing THAT was my favorite part of losing weight.


Forget that I'm able to walk long distances, my throat doesn't burn, I can run around all day in work and still be full of energy, I can go into any shop i want for normal size clothes and am nowhere near the plus size sections now. Forget all of that.


The best part for me was noticing that little ****er kids don't shout abuse at me for being fat anymore and my relatives treat me as a human instead of gossiping about my weight.


And that's a horrible realization about how society is today. When your favourite, most memorable part of losing weight is of losing verbal abuse, rather than any health benefits, it says a lot about other people.

Ardillaun

silverharp wrote: »

willpower is overrated :pac: Part of the problem is that people end up on unsustainable diets , so they end up either eating very bland and anaemic food or they never really let go of the cr@ppy food in their diet and they slip back into old ways.

Does free will even exist? The closer one looks, the smaller it gets. Whatever about that philosophical question, weight loss regimes based primarily on ‘willpower’ generally fail.

eviltwin

Dalomanakora wrote: »

The bit I've bolded. It's really sad to me, that losing THAT was my favorite part of losing weight.


Forget that I'm able to walk long distances, my throat doesn't burn, I can run around all day in work and still be full of energy, I can go into any shop i want for normal size clothes and am nowhere near the plus size sections now. Forget all of that.


The best part for me was noticing that little ****er kids don't shout abuse at me for being fat anymore and my relatives treat me as a human instead of gossiping about my weight.


And that's a horrible realization about how society is today. When your favourite, most memorable part of losing weight is of losing verbal abuse, rather than any health benefits, it says a lot about other people.

The people who used to call me names when I was overweight made a point of telling me I looked ill once I lost it.

Funny that

Dalomanakora

eviltwin wrote: »

The people who used to call me names when I was overweight made a point of telling me I looked ill once I lost it.

Funny that

Surprisingly that hasn't happened to me. The few who bullied me for it in school keep repeatedly adding me on Facebook. I don't accept naturally. So they like and comment on every full body photo I post on Instagram, telling me how great I look (and I don't look great, I still have weight to lose!). But tbf, most of them now look a good decade older than me, so I revel in it tbh

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Lillyfae wrote: »

Was getting the bus home from work yesterday, I live in the Benelux region, and an Irish couple in their 30s or so got on to go to the airport. They were easily 18 - 20 stone each, if not more. They couldn't fit on the normal seats, what a stark comparison to the natives- they knew it too. That's the worst thing, a person's self esteem and self worth must take an awful hit.

In Ireland, I rarely see anyone on public transport who can’t fit in the seats. And public transport has been my main form of transport for the past 17 years. And it’s been a very rare occurrence for me to find myself beside someone who is spilling over on to my side.

Skyla Rancid Plasterboard wrote: »

I wouldn't say I'm great (though I'm in the healthy BMI whatever that means) but I'm not fat. I was. And I changed. It was long and hard and not fun at all. I got into bad diet in college (didn't learn to cook properly and being away from home) but thankfully have turned it around.

It's a disgrace to hear some of the comments on plus sized people. How dare you.

I think every person should become fat once in their lives, just so they know how easy it can happen, how awful it makes you feel (physcially and from abuse from others) and how hard it is to shake off.

+1

Thankfully, I wasn’t carrying extra weight for long but I totally agree. Especially when people start mouth-farting about personal responsibility. Please. Anyone who is human has areas of personal weakness. It’s easy to pontificate when your own weakness isn’t advertised on your person. And, boy, do people love to be sanctimonious.

MUFC91CS

Dalomanakora wrote: »

The bit I've bolded. It's really sad to me, that losing THAT was my favorite part of losing weight.


Forget that I'm able to walk long distances, my throat doesn't burn, I can run around all day in work and still be full of energy, I can go into any shop i want for normal size clothes and am nowhere near the plus size sections now. Forget all of that.


The best part for me was noticing that little ****er kids don't shout abuse at me for being fat anymore and my relatives treat me as a human instead of gossiping about my weight.


And that's a horrible realization about how society is today. When your favourite, most memorable part of losing weight is of losing verbal abuse, rather than any health benefits, it says a lot about other people.

Would you therefore attribute this to being a big part of the reason you were motivated to lose the weight?

As nasty and all as it sounds I think a lot more people find motivation to lose weight after suffering abuse as opposed to the other potential health benefits. Realistically before you lost the weight you wouldn't have known how much more energy you would have had or how much better you would feel but you would have had to assume the abuse for being overweight would have stopped if you were no longer overweight. Well done on losing the weight btw

Dalomanakora

MUFC91CS wrote: »

Would you therefore attribute this to being a big part of the reason you were motivated to lose the weight?

As nasty and all as it sounds I think a lot more people find motivation to lose weight after suffering abuse as opposed to the other potential health benefits. Realistically before you lost the weight you wouldn't have known how much more energy you would have had or how much better you would feel but you would have had to assume the abuse for being overweight would have stopped if you were no longer overweight. Well done on losing the weight btw

Nope. I assumed I'd still get abuse because Jesus, there's always something for idiots to give you grief over. I'm still called a "speccy cnut" on occasion, as an example. Nasty kids will remain nasty, nasty relatives will find something else to be nasty about.


I lost weight because I wanted to wear nicer clothes mainly. I was sick of spending a fortune on things that barely fit me and looked rubbish on me. I wanted to be able to walk into any shop and choose whatever I wanted. I can now. But now I want to lose more weight because I still am not happy with how I look.



And quite frankly, due to the sh!t I received for my weight, the sheer amount of times I was insulted for my appearance, I don't believe I'll ever actually be truly happy with how I look.


That's what abuse does to overweight people. It makes damn sure that they'll always question how they look, they'll always be unhappy with their weight loss, they'll always have low self esteem and they'll always question why people all of a sudden are nice to them. It destroys confidence. Fat people deserve to be confident too.

dartboardio

eviltwin wrote: »

The people who used to call me names when I was overweight made a point of telling me I looked ill once I lost it.

Funny that

Ah, childhood bullies.

I remember a fella i used to play on the street with used to make fun of my mams banger of a car. She was a single working mother.

Then i realised he was from a family of 5 and they never even had a car.

Really wish i realised and commented on that at the time.

Ardillaun

Leaving aside bullying, there are people who will tend to tell you when you’ve put on weight and others who compliment you on weight loss. Obviously, it’s nicer to hear from the latter category but both have their value. A GP friend of mine was told by a patient, “Doc, you’re some plimmed up”. He was irritated by such an observation travelling the other way in his direction but did start trying to lose weight thereafter.

eviltwin

eviltwin wrote: »

The people who used to call me names when I was overweight made a point of telling me I looked ill once I lost it.

Funny that

I've been asked quite a few times am I ill after losing 3+ stone.
Most of the queries are genuine though ......... I was never called names when I was north of 16 stone.
I think folk are just surprised to see a big/fat lad getting small quickly.

Lillyfae

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

In Ireland, I rarely see anyone on public transport who can’t fit in the seats. And public transport has been my main form of transport for the past 17 years. And it’s been a very rare occurrence for me to find myself beside someone who is spilling over on to my side.

Ya, because they're probably in their cars- whenever I go back to Ireland I really can't get over how many cars are on the road all day every day- even during the recession, when apparently no one had a job to go to! Nobody walks anywhere.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Lillyfae wrote: »

Ya, because they're probably in their cars- whenever I go back to Ireland I really can't get over how many cars are on the road all day every day- even during the recession, when apparently no one had a job to go to! Nobody walks anywhere.

I knew that’s how you’d respond.

My experience is different. Anyone within walking distance of work generally does walk, in my experience.

One key thing. Ireland even now is much less built up than the Benelux countries. Many more people are travelling to work from rural locations, sometimes quite far. They are hardly going to walk or cycle, are they?

Lillyfae

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

I knew that’s how you’d respond.

My experience is different. Anyone within walking distance of work generally does walk, in my experience.

One key thing. Ireland even now is much less built up than the Benelux countries. Many more people are travelling to work from rural locations, sometimes quite far. They are hardly going to walk or cycle, are they?

How else would I respond? I don't get it, this is a thread about the obesity crisis in Ireland, is there or isn't there one? I don't see my siblings walking or cycling to work within the same city, and I would wager that it's pretty much the same with people that they know.

If experience is what we're talking about then I have little to no experience of rural Ireland, I come from a city and only really visit there when I'm back now. Plenty of infrastructure there for walking and while the infrastructure for cycling isn't well connected, it does exist- this should be solved. As for rural Ireland, their definitely needs to be more bus routes and decentralisation should occur so that people have viable options and don't have to travel so far. Otherwise people need to take a bit of responsibility and if they decide to live in the middle of nowhere, they also have to realise that they're not going to have everything on their doorstep- maybe jog around the house a few times in the lovely, fresh, rural air.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

......... Anyone within walking distance of work generally does walk, in my experience. ...........

It takes 40 mins to walk two miles, there's very few folk walking anything over 20 minutes to work.

silverharp

Looks like a bit of a mashing up of cause and effect here, walking doesn't prevent obesity , all you can say is they obese people probably don't walk that much. The better advice is to lose the weight so you can become more physically active

Le Bruise

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

It’s easy to pontificate when your own weakness isn’t advertised on your person.

This is one of truest statements I've ever read! Some people just have an innate hatred of all things that don't fit into their 'perfect' size category....and it's usually down to massive insecurities of their own that aren't as noticeable on the outside.

When I was a huskier gent a few years back, I was best man at my older brothers wedding in Bali. My brother lived in Australia and competed in iron man comps and thus, had friends of a similar ilk i.e. very fit, bordering on the obsessively so.

Now I play a good bit of rugby, so would have a level of fitness, but I'd always been a fairly big guy. At that time, however, I'd let my weight creep up after being out with an injury for a season and not curtailing my large appetite to match my lack of movement.

Unfortunately, one particular triathalony chap I'd never met took it upon himself to make constant snide comments about my size. I was first introduced to him 10 minutes before making my speech (to a load of people I didn't know), and the first words out of his mouth were 'I was expecting a slimmer, better looking man'. Did my confidence and nerves the world of good!

He then referred to me as Shrek for the rest of the night, so I just stayed away as much as I could. Eventually, my brother told him I was going to hit him if he kept on (I wouldn't have), but at least he stopped. Never understood why he held his little campaign against me, and I never saw him again.

I've since lost the excess weight (most of it anyway)......but I'm quite sure he's still an ass-hat. People like that surely can't be happy in themselves.

In a thread about obesity folks are not pontificating as such, they're just saying it as they see it on the topic in question.

Lillyfae

Augeo wrote: »

In a thread about obesity folks are not pontificating as such, they're just saying it as they see it on the topic in question.

Couldn't agree more- that seems to be the norm around here recently, anyone expressing an opinion on a specific topic when asked is told to stop as soon as they do. No room for polite disagreement, just "no- you're wrong/ sexist/ a nazi/ triggering me".

It's obvious that there's a problem with obesity, more than in some other countries and less than in some other countries. I would never dream of shaming anyone for their size, hell I could probably do with dropping a few pounds, but if there's a conversation about it then I'm not going to stop offering my views on solutions in case I offend someone. I don't think it's constructive to throw obstacles in front of anyone else's ideas if I disagree with them.

Eat less, move more, leave the car at home if you can do without it. Leave out all the denial because it doesn't achieve anything.

Dalomanakora

Augeo wrote: »

In a thread about obesity folks are not pontificating as such, they're just saying it as they see it on the topic in question.

:pac:

For real?

You've spent most of this thread talking about "fat cnuts," "fat fcuks," "personal responsibility" and ranting about how you used to be fat but are now 85kg.


And you're saying there's no pontificating? Congrats, you lost 3 stone. You're still not an expert.

Cryptopagan

Lillyfae wrote: »

Was getting the bus home from work yesterday, I live in the Benelux region, and an Irish couple in their 30s or so got on to go to the airport. They were easily 18 - 20 stone each, if not more. They couldn't fit on the normal seats, what a stark comparison to the natives- they knew it too. That's the worst thing, a person's self esteem and self worth must take an awful hit.

Somehow I think the people of Belgium, a country famous for its beer, chocolate, and waffles, wouldn’t need to look for Irish tourists if they wanted to see an obese person.

silverharp

Cryptopagan wrote: »

Somehow I think the people of Belgium, a country famous for its beer, chocolate, and waffles, wouldn’t need to look for Irish tourists if they wanted to see an obese person.

good point, plenty of obesity in Belgium, they be driving obviously and not taking the Bus :pac:

DEFTLEFTHAND

Cryptopagan wrote: »

Somehow I think the people of Belgium, a country famous for its beer, chocolate, and waffles, wouldn’t need to look for Irish tourists if they wanted to see an obese person.

Quite right.

Most of Belgium is as common as fck.

Dalomanakora

Dalomanakora wrote: »

:pac:

For real?

You've spent most of this thread talking about "fat cnuts," "fat fcuks," "personal responsibility" and ranting about how you used to be fat but are now 85kg.


And you're saying there's no pontificating? Congrats, you lost 3 stone. You're still not an expert.

lolers

I only mentioned I lost weight as some knowfnckall claimed fatfolk are forever fat due to an insatiable hunger, that same person said they were never fat themselved iirc.