If someone can't grasp the fundamentals of what's good or bad for them then I don't know what hope there is for them anyway.

High fructose corn syrup. That is all. :thumb:

The problem is that people are bombarded with mixed messages. Every popular weight loss book seems to have the message of "eat all you want as long as you don't eat carbs, fat, etc". I see "calories don't matter" all the time on the internet.

I think most people realize that that stuff leads to obesity. Part of the problem, though, is that people think just eating Snackwell cookies will help them lose weight because they have no fat or eat bacon and hamburger because it has no carbs.

The calorie message can get drowned out in the sales pitch. I've seen boxes of Red Vines with big "0 FAT" stickers, as if that makes them healthier. Pork rind bags have "O CARBS" stickers on them.

None of this stuff should fool the health conscious but it does seem to fool the masses.

Actually, I can remember discussing that in 2nd or 3rd grade when we learned about food groups. I wrestled in junior high & high school, so managing weight was always a topic of discussion.

Most of the "nonsense" that I hear is in the form of excuses. "Fatness runs in my family" "I don't have time to exercise" "Healthy food is too expensive" "I'm big boned"

Did Omaha see a fat chick and burst into tears again? Quick, somebody send him some celery and a box of tissues!

I blame foodstamps.

That reminds me of one of the dumbest gimmicks I've seen in years: Fat Free Bread!!!!!

I have been overweight MORE of my life than I have been fit and proportional. I have been reading a book that got me back on track and if you want to read something that will having you cursing the writer because you KNOW he is right... the book is "Die Fat or Get Tough". The writer basically was a fatty that has been up and down most of his life and decided to do something about it and then wrote a book. It goes into how us fatties think and how fit people think and shows you the comparison as to why diets fail for fatties... not because they don't work... it's because fatties don't want to work to better eating habbits and daily exercise. I have lost 80 lbs and I am now at 300. I work out very vigorously 4-5 days a week and I have learned to eat only healthy foods 100% of the time. If you were to rate your health and fitness ethic from a 1-7 scale and 1 being "doing absolutely nothing" and 7 being "Whatever it takes".......where would you rate yourself???

As long as you've found a bogeyman to blame, being fat isn't your fault.

People who are in shape live on a planet where HFCS doesn't exist...otherwise we'd be fat, too.

Count your calories and minimize sugar.

Cut Soda to 1 can a day or get rid of it all together.


When I lost weight I kept a journal of exactly what I ate with the Calories, Carbs, Protein, Fiber and Fat listed.

You learn a lot in one week of keeping a journal.

This. You tend to hold yourself more accountable when keeping a food journal.

I've gotten back into the routine of using myfitnesspal on my iPad. It has helped the past few weeks. And that damn bar code scanner is pretty legit.

These extreme attitudes are just ridiculous. You do not need to eat healthy 100% of the time and you definitely don't need to always be at a 7 on your scale.

They make an App that reads barcodes?


Damn, that would have saved me a TON of time. Of course, the time I spent looking at labels really educated me.

I used to cringe every time I wrote down the string cheese fat content, and don't get me started on a cup of trail mix!

Having lunch at Schlotzky's..."small" original (slice of ham, salami, and some other meat...cheese, mustard, and onions) and a 1.5 oz bag of chips. I don't eat breakfast, so this is a perfectly reasonable lunch for me.

Anyway...there's a Cinnabon display case next to the register. It's full of MASSIVE rolls covered in frosting. One in particular has pecans on it. I looked it up, and it's 1,100 calories.

You can literally eat an 1,100 calorie dessert with your lunch while drinking 250 calories of soda (x2 because, hey, free refills) and get an entire day's worth of calories WITHOUT EVEN COUNTING YOUR MEAL.

It's crazy. 1,600 extra calories tacked onto a single lunch.

I have an iPad. Rather than searching for the food you Just consumed on myfitnesspal you can just scan the barcodes then alter the servings you consumed.

It's pretty nifty.