I just saw the documentary “Super-Size Me” by Morgan Spurlock. He makes a lot of great points, and I think you should go see it. If you’re an American, like me, you should definitely see it.
I’d like to make some points of my own about weight problems here. If you’ve been reading this site with any frequency, you know that I spent a year in Japan recently. And in the entire period I was there, I think I perhaps met 5 Japanese people who were overweight. As in, you can walk down streets and not see a single overweight person; take a look at some of my old photos if you don’t believe me. This is a pretty sharp contrast with the U.S., where if you take a stroll in a mall you’ll see overweight and obese people left and right. So why is that?
Be warned, I’m going to tell it like it is. Using adult language. Viewer discretion and all that.
So you’re fat? You want a no-bullshit weight-loss program. Here’s what you’re doing wrong:
1. Stop eating so much goddamn food.
It’s amazing how many miracle diets I’ve seen around here, each with its own narrow dietary path, and all of them claiming “Eat as much as you want!” Well I have bad news for you. If you eat or drink enough of pretty much anything with calories in it, you’ll probably get fatter. In Japan, people eat a diet largely composed of rice and noodles (oh no, carbs, Atkins is gonna have my spleen). But when they eat, they eat reasonable portions. I swear my stomach got smaller over there. I came back, and meals that used to just barely fill me up were far too much food. Not to mention we have such marvels as 64 oz. Double Gulps and Double Quarter Pounders (with Cheese, no less). You realize that Big American Sodas are the laughingstock of the rest of the world, don’t you? Do you really need to eat or drink that much? NO! Stop being such a damn pig!
2. Pay attention to what you take in.
So you find yourself at Taco Hell for the 3rd time in as many days? Here’s a small hint: something’s wrong. Do you honestly think eating all that fast food is good for you? Hell, write that shit down if you have to: what did I eat today? The other half of this is reading the labels, if you have enough wits about you to make it to a supermarket. A lot of it is little stuff that you don’t realize builds up. Soda is one of these things. There is a metric assload of sugar in soda. And you don’t want to know what’s in the diet stuff. That’s probably why you aren’t reading the label. High-fructose corn syrup? Yeah, that’s sugar, dumbass. In Japan I ate fast food maybe 3 times total (of course it helped that we didn’t really have any fast food restaurants close by), and I drank green tea instead of soda (unsweetened tea, you tool). And the result: lost somewhere between 10 and 15 pounds. And it didn’t kill me.
3. Get off your fat ass.
I can guarantee you’re probably not getting enough exercise. If you’re like me, you live somewhere where it’s impossible to walk or bike anywhere useful; in that case, as long as you get your ass moving out of the house it’s better than sitting and watching the worthless shit that passes for TV these days. What, is missing a half hour every day gonna kill you? Try running, cycling, swimming, shoveling snow or sand, having wild rampant sex, chopping logs, beating dead horses, I don’t care as long as it gets your heart rate up. Yes, your heart. That thing in your chest that feels like it’s gonna explode when you walk to your car. Move.
Let me restate all of those, for those of you who can’t read bold print. If you eat a lot, you get bigger. Open your eyes and read about what you eat and drink. Get off your lazy fat ass and exercise.
And in the end, it’s up to you to say to yourself, “I want to change myself.” You don’t even have to tell anyone else, unless you think it will help. And then when you aren’t so damn flabby you can laugh in the faces of all your friends as they have triple-bypass surgeries.
Dr. Jeff, how can I gain weight? No matter how much fatty food I have, I’m not getting fatter.
Dr. Jeff you made me laugh my ass off at work today. Thanks you very much.
Mits, I’d say eating fatty foods won’t make you gain weight; it’ll just put sludge in your arteries. Eat lots of pasta, rice, bread, noodles and what not. That will help. Some of us are just cursed with a high metabolism. Oh damn.
I couldn’t agree more. You listen to Americans complain about things like “low metabolism” and being “big boned”–and, sure, there are a handful of people for which that is true–but for the vast, vast majority of the fatsos in this part of the world, it’s for the reasons you stated. You don’t realize that until you go somewhere else in the world–anywhere else, any other country–and you see that, wow, people don’t normally come in those sizes!
-l
Jeff, This is all well and good for you to say this, but you have never been overweight. Things seem so straightforward on paper, but are more difficult in real life. Just because I am overweight, does not mean that I am a lazy ass who eats too much and never gets off the couch. I resent the assumption that you have made that all fat people are lazy. Until you have been there yourself, you may want to keep your advice to yourself.
Not to mention that weight can be hereditary, as well as thyroid problems, etc. You assume too much.
check out this link…
http://newmedia.medill.northwestern.edu/global/globalarticlepage.asp?article_key=335
hey dumbass, have you ever been fat? Do you actually exercise a half hour each day? I doubt youd last a week going through what some overweight people go through every day . shut up until you are over weight and experience it.
You know what? You don’t have any fucking clue what you’re talking about. I ‘m overweight for my age and I have tried several things- exercise, eating less, watching all those stupid intakes. None of it works anyway. I’m a big fan of Japan and I’ve tried eating in their style, rice-noodles, sushi- none of that Resturant stuff either- I learned to cook it right. You’re lucky to have been ble to spend time there, but that doesn’t give you the right to drag your sorry ass back here and start critizising. You claim to be an American yet here you are demeanig the lifestyles of other Americans. Some people just can’t lose weight- their body chemistry wont allow it. Just like some people have the over active metabolisms that keep them from putting on any weight dispite eating whatevere they want. Obviously you’ve never been fat or you’d have more proof and less excuses.
I think that you are very biased and you do not understand what an overweight person goes through. If you would take some time and think about what you are saying , maybe this article wouldn’t be percieved the way that it has been. For someone who is attending a university, you do not display the ability to examen all aspects of a situation. You show little respect for other people and you are very arrogant. Until you have experienced obesity first hand, then you may have a valid opinion…
— a concerned citizen
You do have some good points there about exercise and and plan of eating. But you don’t have to be such an ass about it. I mean seriously the comment on laughing at your friends as they have triple bipass surgery. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? Yeah, maybe some people are overweight, and yeah, maybe it’s from eating too much, but that gives you no right to suddenly be the god of weightloss. All I’m saying is you need to learn some tact and not criticize people for something that they might not be able to control.
i think that are very out of hand and that you need to do somemore sesearch on what you are writing. not everyone can loss weight by being active or not lazy… ! i know for a fact !!!! when you have a problem with weight then you can say something. everyone is different and not all of us are lucky to be skinny! i think that you should not assume that all fat people are fat and that many people though out the world are lazy! instead of you just talking shit about how fat people are lazy you should find a way to help prevent this or even stop it .i want to see what you have to do or say about that.. you need to do MORE research on this before you post something on the internet. get your facts and then you can write it .
what the hell is your problem?!? What makes you think you have the right to criticize other people’s weight when any of those people could walk up and kick ur sorry ass? I feel sorry for you that you have nothing better to do than sit around and criticize people about their weight. Maybe you could use ur time more constructively and write about butterflies!
you dumB ass moron yu can just kiss my white ass you are so fucken ignorent and stupid what the hell do you know about being fat you shit face it is not as easy to say your going to oss weight then actualy do it you fuck face. and by the way who in the hell do you think your are saying dumb shit like that you asshole go kiss a big fat ass so shut the fuck up you donkey
You should have no say in how people live. You’re ‘all mighty knowlage’ is a bunch of garbage. Do you even have a degree in dieting and the such alike? I take care of myself, I’ve lost weight but that was becuase MY body is diffrent from others who are having weight problems. So what do you think of someone like me? I’m not fat and I’m not skinny I’m in the middle. I walk two miles a day and watch what I eat. Have you ever thought about people being big boned and MAYBE you ‘r e egotistical ideas shouldn’t be posted up. Oh…wait…you have nothing better to do then critize …when really you should look at your self and point out your own defalts.
pick on someone your own size!
I have to give you credit, the way you present this is very comedic, but try not to be too harsh
do u honestly think people r going to lose weight by beating horses? my goodness mr. low self-esteem, i think YOU are the one who needs help!
I just noticed a few of the angry comments by some of you overweight guys. I used to be fat myself; I had been all of my life. I always wondered what it would be like to NOT be fat, to be like, as I saw it, everyone else. Going to Japan for two months changed all of that. I wouldn’t have written an article like that personally, simply because I have little contempt for the victims of what I see as a grand American institution. America has essentially institutionalized obesity; everything from the dynamics of our national food culture, to the way we tend to live our lives to the overabundance of paid advertisements proclaiming that exercise is never enough, that you need to pop some miracle pill or buy a special machine, to the salience pf research proclaiming that genetic factors are mostly to blame for obesity. You have in this two things: a culture of poor eating and exercise habits, and a culture of learned helplessness. Nevermind that the media is meanwhile bombarding people with ideals of physique. I had thought for many years that I, as well, must have some genetic predisposition to obesity, but as I stand now, at a slim 160 easily kept after 2 months in a radically different environment and subsequent two years of consistently changed habits, it seems all but obvious that I did not. Being fat isn’t easy, nor is coming to the realization that no, though it is possible, you are relatively unikely to be fat due entirely to genetics. And while that doesn’t make your plight any less dire, it affords you a great deal more hope. “Dieting” and “exercising” alone — spurts of effort in what is often preordained by the individual themself as a vain struggle — don’t cut it; restrictive diets do little good in the long and exercising habits among those physically indisposed to it tend to be sporadic, have insufficient emphasis on correct cariovascular development, and in turn lead to overstrain and failure — both of which merely affirm ones suspicions of powerlessness. It requires a fundamental life-style change, a change that will most likely in direct opposition to the complex fabric of influences that has lead the average overweight individual to be overweight in the first place. And that is not easy at all. It requires time, effort, and support.
I can’t help but notice that most of the angry comments here are, in fact, worded a great deal more harshly than Jeff’s (admittedly) harsh post. It’s also interesting to note that, rather than offer some sort of proof that Jeff is incorrect, you’ve simply fallen back on the very excuses he so rightly criticized in his post.
I, like George before me, am not in any way trying to say that there is no such thing as genetic obesity – clearly, there are people who are predisposed to such problems. The problem comes when, yes, you compare America to other countries – just because Jeff is an American does not mean he can’t do that.
Americans are not genetically unique; on the contrary, we are a collection of most of the world’s genes. If you compare America to any other country in the world you will find a vastly disproportionate amount of obese (not just slightly fat) people than genetics would imply. The only way you can support the claim that the majority of overweight Americans are, in fact, genetically incapable of doing anything about it would be to show similar statistics in Europe and Asia. Unfortunately for your case, the percentage of obese people outside America is significantly smaller. You can only draw one reasonable conclusion from this fact: something about our lifestyle here is what makes us fat, not our genetics.
I won’t bother to go into America’s instituion of obesity since George nicely covered it except to offer an interesting line featured in Supersize Me!, the documentary that touched off Jeff’s rant. In it, the author mentions that it’s considered perfectly okay, even laudable, to outright accuse smokers of destructive and irresposible behavior. And yet when it comes to obesity, which now kills far more Americans than cigarettes due to heart failure and diabetes, we are expected to tread softly and cry on each others shoulders.
Yes, Jeff was overly harsh – no doubt there. But ask yourself this: if this rant had been about idiotic smokers would your reactions have been so vitriolic? I think not.
Do you even have any professional knowledge on what you are talking about? That is so rude telling people how to lose weight. What if its genetic huh? What if they have a certain disease that causes obesity? You can’t just sit there and tell people how to do something unless you are a professional and really know what you are talking about! You can’t just say do this and do that to lose weight when you yourself have never experienced obesity. Yes, it is good to exercise and eat somewhat healthy, but to tell people to get off their fat ass is just wrong! You don’t even know how sensitive some people are about this stuff. You are not some magical Dr. Phil that can say these kinds of things to people. You don’t have the right, nor the place to say these things. Some of the sweetest people I know are obese. You can’t just say that they are lazy and don’t even try. Everybody’s body is different and works differently; you can’t just tell them to do this and garuantee that it will work. You are an arrogant jerk- you just need to keep your advise to yourself.
I think that it was the whole “get off your fat, lazy ass” that sparked most of the controversy here. Although it is true that obesity is far more prevalent in the US than in other countries, I still think that there is a difference between reporting “facts” and reporting that “fat people are lazy.” Out of respect to people that we know who are obese, there is a difference between saying “I love you and I care about your health; what can I do to support you in your weight loss efforts” than saying “get off your fat ass and exercise so you can make fun of your other flabby friends who are having bypass surgery.” I am Jeff’s sister, and I am obese. Hearing him talk like this on a public forum sickens me. I would never insult his acne, his lack of sexual experience, or any other faults that he might have, because I am capable of being sensitive to other people. Apparently, Jeff is not.
It looks like Norm summed up about everything I could have said before I got home to say it.
I noticed that the majority of negative comments came from my sister’s class. This is all fine and dandy, and I think it’s definitely something that should be discussed. However, it seems a good portion of you still have to learn the art of not flaming on message boards. I’ll ignore the blatantly emotional reactions and try to address those of you who brought up some valid points.
No, I have never been overweight, obese, or “fat”. But I do have a lot of friends who are. I don’t think any less of them, because half of them are actively trying to make better habits and decisions (which I applaud) and the other half have accepted their own bodies and are happy, satisfied people (which I am cool with).
What I can’t stand are those who whine and complain endlessly about how they are victims of the system, or those who expect some miracle pill or diet (read Atkins) to solve everything for them. Perhaps you do have to fight an uphill battle. But are you actually fighting it? Or do you expect someone else to do it for you? If you’re a guy like Jared from the Subway commercials, you have several personal trainers kicking your ass to get you to work out. If you’re the average Joe you have to kick your own ass. Nobody said it wasn’t hard.
Do I exercise half an hour each day? Actually, it takes me half an hour to walk TO class from my house, and half an hour to walk BACK from class. I have class 5 days a week. Twice a week I walk that walk more than once.
Does eating unhealthy foods affect my weight? It actually does, quite a bit. Note the original statement: I “lost somewhere between 10 and 15 pounds” after changing my habits in Japan.
Do I inherently despise overweight individuals? Not really. Like I said, I have quite a few friends that are overweight, and I don’t attack them for it. I could make the argument that overweight people drive up my healthcare costs, but I think that would be adding insult to injury.
And Jen, that jab at “sexual inexperience” might have gotten me incensed a year ago, but now it’s no longer even remotely accurate.
So you’re wondering why I wrote such an inflammatory piece of prose. The truth is, I intended to piss you off. Now where are you going to direct that anger? Are you going to direct it at me, the person who pointed out the flaws in how we’re all thinking of this problem? Are you going to direct it at the folks who make your food? Will you try to blame your parents for your genes? Or are you going to use it to fuel the struggle to change your life and make it your own?
The simple truth is that not many of us DO exercise or eat healthy foods. If your response to this was “I’ll show him, that arrogant son of a bitch, I’ll show him that exercise and a good diet won’t work for me” then kudos to you. You’ve made a step towards a healthier lifestyle, whether you’ll admit it or not.
On the other hand, if you took this as some kind of personal attack, you should read some works by satirical authors. I recommend Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange), Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451), Joseph Heller (Catch 22), and Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest).
And I recommend “A Modest Proposal”, by Jonathan Swift.
â€I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled…â€
Nevertheless, I find cause for alarm in singling out those overweight folks who whine about being victimized by the system. Their torment is a very real one, their feelings of powerlessness a direct manifestation of the system itself, and their distressed whining a call for help; in a general sense you’re asking that people with problems they seem unable or unwilling to muster the willpower to solve should just shut up already unless they’re going to go out and do something about it. One might imagine the consequences of giving such advice to a depressed person. Don’t forget that the kind of defeatism that conveyed by endless whining is a primary symptom of depresssion. All I’m really saying is that your annoyance (if it is to be taken entirely seriously, which I really can’t vouch for) may simply be unwarranted.
But of course, true all of that might be, thinking about it that way is often just no fun, and if time and circumstances permit, a mature, overweight adult well nursed is in early adulthood a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled…
I will give you that, Mr. Charles. Perhaps I am being a bit too hard on people. And having been through the throes of my share of depression, I can see your point. In any case, defeatist victimist folks can have a tendency to bring others around them down, to the degree that people who might have made that choice for self-improvement now say “What’s the point, it’s all determined by genetics anyhow,” and just give up. It’s the dark side of determinism.
I love reading these reponses because they just prove to me that most people miss the point. What is Jeff’s point? It’s simple: A person burns X calories just by sitting on their ass (fat or not) regardless of any conditions. This is simple thermodynamics (and yes, I have the background to make this claim). In addition to the X calories, a person burns Y calories through activity for a grand total of X+Y calories. If that same person eats less than X+Y calories, they must get the missing calories by burning their fat reserves. Hence, anyone can lose weight by exercising enough compared to how much they eat.
The genetic, disease and other components may effect the value of X (depending on how hot a person’s body temperature is, for example), but X is always some positive number, and the above argument still holds.
A style point on responses: when you go into a pissed-off rant, at least check that the things you are saying have something to do with the original topic. For example, Jeff makes no claim about whether or not fat people are nice. Hence, the comment “some of the sweetest people I know are obese” is irrelevant.
And finally, run a spell checker on the shit you all write and learn the correct spelling of a new word every couple days.
Jeff,
I apologize for the general slamming done by my class- it was a topic of discussion and I invited them to give their opinion, not to respond as immaturely as some of them did. I did agree with the general ideas behind the language.
However, I still think that your post was insensitive. Saying fat people are lazy is like saying people with acne don’t wash their face. It is a weak generalization of a population that you don’t understand because you have never been there. I do not blame my weight on genetics perse, but I know that genetics can contribute to the likelyhood of my being overweight. I know what my problems are- most overweight people do. We just don’t need to hear it the way that you posted it. I resent you telling me and others to get off our fat asses and do something when you don’t even know anything about us. You don’t know what I do for exercise. You don’t know how much I eat. You don’t know what I eat. You know even less about me than any other person in our family, who don’t really know me either. You overstep your bounds in the name of “helping people” when all you are doing is being a hypocritical little shmuck.
I suggest that before you get on your high horse next time that you think about what you are saying and the affect that it will have on the people that you supposedly care about.
I’m done. This is a dead horse.
Again, I don’t believe so much that fat people are lazy as much as I believe that most Americans are lazy — my “weak generalization” extends over a much larger population than you might think. Overweight and obese people simply suffer the effects of that more than others; sure, it sucks, and life isn’t fair, but as I said, I’m of the tack that hard work and personal initiative do pay off, overcoming even the most dire circumstances. Alcoholics can beat alcoholism and smokers can kick the habit, and they do this despite a large corpus of evidence indicating predispositions to these are hereditary. If I were you, I would get more pissed at those who tell you losing weight is impossible because of genetics or a disease or whatnot. If you are of the mindset that you will beat this thing, and you put in the time and effort (and yes, it’s HARD) then I’ll back you up all the way.
Jeff, you are redundant and narrow-minded about this issue. You have offended many people yet refuse to acknowledge the fact that you nothing about this firsthand, you are not a medical professional and that you should not be posting such “advice” on a public forum. Your opinion, fine, but lose the advice. You are not qualified in any way, shape or form to be giving anyone advice in this area.
Actually… your body will prefer to burn carbohydrates and protein before it burns fat, so exercise doesn’t help in some cases. It really depends on a person’s genetic makeup and their bodily functions (i.e. how effective each cellular pathway functions in their body). Personally I don’t like to see it as being fat. I like to see it as being “stored energy.” :D Gives me energy for those times where I need it. Like sex. Or badminton. Ok, I’m getting a little off track here.
Anyway, I eat whatever I want and my weight is stable (in fact I keep losing weight). I lost 40 lbs after not drinking soda. A lot of people say diet soda is bad for you, but I don’t think they know what they’re talking about since I still drink a buttload of diet soda. So in other words; soda == bad. Also, taking a walk after a meal helps with food digestion and uses up those excess carbs which you don’t need. Also, don’t eat after doing heavy exercise since it overstimulates your body and makes you want to eat more than you need. Also, the molecular signals from the cells in your digestive tract to the brain (forgot which hormone it is) doesn’t reach there until 20 minutes after the ingestion of food to tell you you’re full, so eat slowly (even though I just like to consume, not eat). Likewise, some people’s bodies produce hormones which always tell them they’re hungry. People like me. Or maybe I just have a high metabolism. Ok I don’t have anything else to say. P.S Hi Gerg.
P.P.S. I like the word also.
P.P.P.S. I am aware I have no organizational skills, but then again this is in response to board trolls and not a paper on the philosophy of the science behind obesity.
People need to take responsibility for their own actions. Stop being a victim and make excuses for your weight gain. Most of us are not going to be a fatass if we use more calories than we consumed. Granted that some people have slower metabolism because of certain body types, but people are not going to be obesed if they choose a healthy lifestyle. Yes, it’s not a diet, it’s a life long way of eating and exercising. If you resume your old habits after losing some weight, you will regain the weight that you’ve lost. Also, you didn’t get fat overnight. If you’re 300lbs, you probably took months/years to get there. It’ll probably take as long to lose the weight so tough it out. He’s doing you all a favor by giving you that wake up call.
Lastly, a large diet soda is not going to save you if it’s accompanied by a quarter pounder with cheese and fries.
Like I said before, the coments here are very generalized. You are entitled to your opinion, but you don’t know what I eat, how I live, etc. Being an insensitve jerk is not going to help anyone in the least. Does anyone like listening to people preaching to them in such a negative way? I sure don’t. Stating things in a positive way is not “coddling” someone, it is just being sensitive to their feelings.
Quarter pounder?! It’s all about the double quarter pounder baby!
Oh, and I went to Mickey D’s the other day and found out they got rid of Super Size. That makes me sad. :-(
DAMN YOU MORGAN SPURLOCK!
Jeff,
Why are people so angry at what you write on YOUR site?
Let them come up with excuses to justify their obesity. The longer they stay fat, the more susceptible they are for many impending health problems.
It is curious that Americans now are much fatter than the Americans in the 50s. I guess people back then didn’t have hereditary or thryroid problems thats why they’re smaller.
I think people are angry at him for what he writes on his site because his sister directed a ton of people to his site to be angry at him. I wonder if that makes any sense. In either case, I want food. Darn it Jeff. When are we going to go out to Applebee’s or TGIF or maybe even Wendy’s or something sometime again? Blah.
I agree that a lot of the posts were from my students- I did not intend that to happen, only to induce a discussion. However, I also think that when you have your own site, and you present your own opinion, you should be careful how you say things that may be read by people who you care about who may be offended. I think that the things he had to say have some validity, however the way they were presented makes him sound like a jerk. That is why I always have someone read my letters, etc first before I send them, especially if I am writing about something I feel passionate about. There are other ways of getting a point across without sounding condesending.
I am also not trying to justify my obesity, I just don’t need some skinny person telling me what to do if they have never been in my shoes. I am entitled to my opinion just as much as anyone else. I know what my issues are without being talked down to about them. What I do with my issues is my concern, not anyone elses.
Thank GOD someone had the balls to finally say it! I am in total agreement with you on this point. Anyone who says they can’t lose weight and they exercise all the time and eat right is lying to themselves. It’s simple math, you fat fucks… less intake, more output = LESS OF YOU! To think that you have some “fat gene” that wont ALLOW you to lose weight is as funny as it is ridiculous. Have a thyroid problem? Then you have to eat less! Not everyone can use the same eating plan, retards. Get serious. Quit making excuses and suing fast food when your own disgusting habits are to blame for your horrible examples as parents, Americans, teachers, or whatever pathetic excuse of a life you have.
The post above is just another example of an insenstive YOUNG person who knows it all. Are you qualified to make such judgements, you pathetic little nobody?