MSU Red Cedar Message Board

Pretty amazing, right? If you eat less and exercise more you lose weight. Who woulda thunk it?

He's actually the solution. If Hoke continues at his current voracity scientists project a global food shortage by 2015.

Did you even read the fucking article before making stupid shit responses that the article laughs at? Read it then come back with something a little smarter than "eat less, exercise more".

There's some really good stuff posted in here. I think there's some good points to be made about a lot of it, and I don't disparage anything anyone has offered thus far. I want to share a few things I observed as a kid growing up with a mother and absent father who were both grossly obese, and my efforts to eschew that seemingly genetic "destiny."

I saw that part of my famliy and hated it. I loved sports and being active, so when I realized as a teen in the 70's that this was a way to avoid this, I tried out for teams, and ran, cycled, worked, kept active. Little did I truly know that this was the right path to be on until I learned a few things from a learned friend who knows much more about this than I know.

When you are young... say 21 or 22 years old or so and younger... the path of activity you take SETS your metabolism for life. You may agree or disagree with me, but I have seen enough examples on both sides of the equation to know there is merit in this.

Apparently I set my metabolism quite high, and have not had to deal with weight issues until I'm now in my late 40's, and then it's just the 10 to 15 pounds or so in the winter and shedding that in the spring.

I see so many kids now that are gelatinous blobs. I see their gelatinous parents. We all see how much of our workforce has moved away from actually doing the work to sitting in a cube. We know how portion sizes are through the roof... especially at restaurants, but now seemingly at home too since what I see from friends I visit is platefuls beyond what we would ever need. We know how parents just hand over the game controllers to the kid so they can SIT in front of the TV playing some video game. We know how the forces of job demand wear down parents to compel them to go to McDonald's and other places like that out of sheer weary. We realize the foods we eat are processed, or pumped full of steroids in the hopes of making the farmer a profit, and how that might impact the whole scenario we're discussing.

We understand all of that.

But what happened to telling the kids, "go out and play?" What happened to cooking wholesome and balanced meals? What happened to setting an example as an adult to maintain your health, including your weight, so the kids know what to do for themselves?

*sigh*

I don't have a lot of answers with my post here, just a lot of questions it seems. But I do see some things in this world that just don't make sense. We wonder how to control obesity, but we give people too much to eat and they wander back to their cubicles only to be leashed to their phones and computers for the next 4 to 5 hours after that over-sized lunch? And while they're there, they munch comfort food because of the job stress, only to go home to eat a full sized dinner? And then sit on a couch watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy before packing the kids off to bed who have been gaming on the basement TV all day after drinking too much pop and eating too many munchies?

And we wonder how to solve this?

It seems too simple to me.

Sorry, not trying to be judgmental. Just pointing out what seems a little obvious, and appreciating at the same time the matter that might cause the issue we're discussing.

Best to all.

Lot of it is cultural, especially with families. I know a family that struggles with weight. The mom works until 5. Dad commutes an hour, home around 6:30. She runs the kids, sometimes with family help, to dance or sports. She tries to make dinners for the week in advance, but sometimes can't, and too often they get dinners out. With work schedules and the near-constant availability of high calorie food, it is a daily battle that can be really hard to win consistently.

Exactly. I drank pop every day as a kid. Hell, I would go outside and play basketball and soccer for hours and then go inside and chug Pepsi. I enjoyed being active and never was in really bad shape until MSU when I was drinking and eating shit food all the time. I knew I was at a point when I would need to either start losing weight or be a real fat ass. So I buckled down and lost 30-plus pounds.

I was at the gym earlier and some fat woman (like 300-plus pounder) was going soooo slow on one of the leg machines, all while texting her probably fat friend. People like that need a weight coach. Some people just need the motivation too.

The company I work for runs a program called PreventObesity.net which is a communications networking tool to help people working to prevent childhood obesity connect with each other. We're not a diet or exercise site, but instead a communications resource. We are kinda like a LinkedIn for people who are creating healthy environments and policies for kids (ie: healthy school lunches, food marketing reform, walkable communities). We call these people Leaders and provide free tools and services to help them do their work better. We also run campaigns to help get our network to take part in issues like submitting signatures and comments to help support healthy policies. While we aren't the content and issue experts, we're the communications experts helping those who are. I'm pretty proud of the work the people in our network are doing and definitely think some of the people in this thread would appreciate the information on the site. I was just at a conference this week and there are great groups doing amazing work in the field. We have over 100,000 people registered with us across the country.

We're working with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, whose mission is to reverse childhood obesity by 2015. It's a lofty goal, but having people work together and share resources will help the movement.

I never work out but I eat healthy and I actually lost 5-10lbs. I'm 6 foot, 175 now. Definitely proportional.

Portion control.

Portion control.

Portion control.

A good example. We visit my overweight nieces who are being fed dinner by their overweight mother. Momma plops down a heaping pile of spaghetti big enough to feed a lumberjack. I was shocked - I'm not joking when I say that portion was enough to feed TWO of my kids. And yes, my kids are skinny as a rail.

They have a term for that - gluttony.

A good article, but over-simplified.

I would be interested in the author's explanation as to why countries- other than the US- that traditionally eat a lot of pasta, rice, and other foods with simple sugars in it are not anywhere near as fat as we are.

What Obesity crisis?

Working out is great for overall health. Strictly losing weight very much depends on what one consumes.

Of course, you can be skinny and unhealthy.