For those who have lost a large amount of weight through fasting and other means, how do you view obesity, the state of being overweight? How has your weightloss changed your perspective or way of life?
I think the main thing people do not understand is that losing weight for an overweight person is much harder than for someone who needs to lose a handful of kgs.
When you are overweight, you feel tired more often. Insulin resistance makes you gain fat easily but losing it is harder. It is harder to exercise: you are always out of breath, your knees hurt if you try to run, it is more uncomfortable to cycle and you get flat tires more often. This is what is so consequential about the “steady-state” theory of weight, that says that our bodies tend to converge to a natural weight naturally, ignoring the role of hormones. There’s a series/documentary called from fit to fat to fit, in which physical trainers get matched with overweight people, and to better understand their journey the trainers put on weight (like 60-80 pounds), and then lose it together. In one episode a trainer starts crying and says “I had no idea how difficult this is. I always thought the people I’m training were just lazy and needed motivation.”
In personal life, you are always sweaty. You need to bring an extra pair of clothes if your commuting requires walking uphill. You cover mirrors in your house, or look down if you see any reflecting surfaces so you don’t have to look at yourself. You get self conscious when buying food, and regret/shame only fuels binge eating. If you order a salad, people ask if you are on a diet. If you order something sweet/large/very caloric, people either comment “wow”, “are you sure” or just smirk. You leave a sweat mark on every equipment at the gym.
It is awful.
My biggest change (and keep in mind ive been 375, 360, 350 and on my latest weight loss starting date 343lbs) was that being overweight was because People are lazy and ate shitty. Even at my heaviest I picture it as my fault. Not as a disease. Now. After spending 7 months learning about insulin and hormones. And understanding how our food has been processed so heavily that it sets us up to fail and throws the hormones out of wack. I think of it more as a disease. I guess the difference is once you learn about it. You need to make the choice to change. That’s the hard part. Teaching people this and hoping it clicks in their heads to stop with all the refined carbs. It isn’t easy and most people want a pill to take. This change in mindset ive made. I don’t want to go back. Ive lost almost 100lbs and want to lose more. At 52. I can’t be 300+ and expect to live long.