Why are people so concerned with weight-loss? page 34

[sbhikes]

I'm getting that impression too. This is why I hate the "fat=unhealthy, thin=healthy" thinking, btw - that someone whose every thought is about food, who dreams about ripening apples (and what on earth is wrong with apples?), and who is so obsessed with food that she has to exercise iron-willed control every single moment is "healthy". This is not health. This is not what we should be striving for.

Weight is not everything. If you want to lose weight really really quickly, lopping off a leg is probably the quickest way of doing that - but it sure won't be "healthy", right? Neither is starving yourself like that.

Yeah, I used to think Chaco was being too hard on her, but now I think he's absolutely right. Starving people wax on and on with dreamy food fantasies. Really super starving people have food fantasies involving totally mundane foods like apples.

[Iron Fireling]

I think because you lost weight too quickly and stayed there, your body is still in starvation mode thinking. On top of lots of stress you're putting on your body right now, you're definitely going to stay there forever until you loosen up.

I don't think it's her body... I think it's psychological. I see the same thing happen with animals! Cats I've rescued from being wild/strays will ALWAYS seem to eat as much as they can and tend to get fatter than cats who were raised from kittens. Those who have been without or struggled for food never seem to let the food go by as much as those who have never had to struggle for food.

[Owly]

Leida's goal weight is well under the bottom end of the healthy range if you read her posts on other threads. I am not interested in continuing to enable her eating disorder and hope that she finds some sort of help soon.

[meepster]

I don't think it's her body... I think it's psychological. I see the same thing happen with animals! Cats I've rescued from being wild/strays will ALWAYS seem to eat as much as they can and tend to get fatter than cats who were raised from kittens. Those who have been without or struggled for food never seem to let the food go by as much as those who have never had to struggle for food.

Psychology doesn't exist in a vacuum; it's her body, which she starved, which is driving the psychological damage here. Note that it's got nothing to do with whatever conditions existed in the former USSR - I'm from there too, and our diet was actually much healthier than SAD (note that Leida's feverish fantasies involve, for the most part, fairly healthy food - with the exception of the bread). We did not starve. Sure, tropical fruit was near-impossible to get, but there was plenty of delicious stuff to be had in its absence.

What I'm seeing in Leida is classic eating-disordered thinking, which is not healthy no matter how much she weighs. Even if she was completely average and within the middle of the healthy weight range, she wouldn't be "healthy". I really hope she gets some help.

Note, however, before we heap on too much on poor Leida, that she's just at an extreme version of what passes for "normal" for most Americans. Most women, in particular, have this sort of thinking to some degree or another. I'm currently dating someone who is significantly overweight - she's got something like 40 lbs. to lose on a very small frame. She goes to a nutritionist and uses CW calorie-counting for her weight-loss (we haven't dated long enough that I can push Primal principles on her; it's none of my business). This produces a minor starvation response. She's a lot more interested in sweets than I am. For her, food is a much bigger deal than it is for me. She feels guilty when she eats too much. It's all minor - she's not fantasizing about apples or obsessing about food - but it's there nonetheless.

[Leida]

These type of threads just tend to bring out the worst of the drama queen in me. I try to be honest, but come across as a resident nutcase. I just need to learn to tone down my typing, is all, or, better shut up. I am not starving. I have less food restrictions than other people 'round. I don't count calories. I enjoy my training. I am fine. It's just that soul-baring that gets me in trouble.

Really, shutting up is the best solution.