Pop makes you fat.

[TelegramSam]

Bah. It's basic algebra, kids.

amount of calories eaten - amount of calories burned = amount of calories stored as fat

If the number is positive, you get fatter. If the number is negative, you get less fat.

It's not really that hard. If you have a slow metabolism, that means eat less or exercise more (probably get the most benefit from the latter as it tends to speed up metabolism).

[peeplj]

Bah. It's basic algebra, kids.

amount of calories eaten - amount of calories burned = amount of calories stored as fat

If the number is positive, you get fatter. If the number is negative, you get less fat.

It's not really that hard. If you have a slow metabolism, that means eat less or exercise more (probably get the most benefit from the latter as it tends to speed up metabolism).

Sam, I know that lots of people believe this...and it sounds reasonable...looks great on paper...and doesn't work that way in real life.

The way the human body works is complex. It just doesn't reduce to simple in-and-out linear equations.

There are very large people who eat very little; conversely, there are very thin people who have an enormous calory intake each day. These folks don't fit the cold equations.

--James

[hoofbeats]

I just don't think we're all supposed to be the same. We aren't supposed to all look alike, think alike, have the same hair color, have the same abilities, or the same skills.

To me, suggesting we should all weigh about the same, and that I should change my body to match society's standard, it about the same as going to someone seven feet tall and explaining why he'd really be so much better off if he had this special surgery to remove about 8 inches off each of his legs....

I'm not a big fan of the current "standard" either.

As for the whole soda thing... THANK YOU, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!!! I don't know *why* this would be news to anybody with any sense at all.

And yes, I am still going to drink sodas. Even though it's not healthy. Because I like it.

[emmline]

Yes, I've seen those articles recently. I'm sitting here drinking a coke at the moment. Usually it's tea in the afternoon, but I just felt like a coke.
Like most such "revelations" it would be a little cockeyed to blame overweightness on soda and exclude all the other contributing factors.

Well, at the risk of being stepped on for expressing an unpopular opinion...

I just don't think we're all supposed to be the same. We aren't supposed to all look alike, think alike, have the same hair color, have the same abilities, or the same skills.

To me, suggesting we should all weigh about the same, and that I should change my body to match society's standard, it about the same as going to someone seven feet tall and explaining why he'd really be so much better off if he had this special surgery to remove about 8 inches off each of his legs....

--James

P.S. In re-reading this post, I realized that I come across like a have a large chip on my shoulder about issues of fat acceptance. And that's ok, because I do.

Yeah, because I hope I wasn't suggesting that!

[peeplj]

Yeah, because I hope I wasn't suggesting that!

Nah, I didn't mean that to look like an argument to your post; rather, I was just using your post as a jumping-off point for me to climb up on a frequently-visited personal soapbox.

You're alright, I don't care what they say about ya!

--James

[emmline]

You're alright, I don't care what they say about ya!

--James

Just try not to spread it around, ok?

[peeplj]

You're alright, I don't care what they say about ya!

--James

Just try not to spread it around, ok?

--James

[chas]

honestly....and I know no one here wants to hear this....
beer makes you fatter than soda ever will........

I'm not one who does or doesn't want to hear it, but do you have any evidence for this (do you mean it literally for that matter)? Beer has about as many calories as soda, so I don't know why it would make one fatter. It was believed for a long time that beer had a preventive effect on cardiovascular disease because beer drinkers have a lower incidence of it than the populous as a whole. The lower incidence of heart disease was known long before the red wine fad hit, and is still accepted. I suspect that if beer drinkers as a whole were heavier, they wouldn't have a lower rate of heart disease. If you believe the epidemiologists, the likely explanation is that beer drinkers get more exercise than others, plus they tend to stress less. I dunno that you can really tease out which causes which, though.

[Redwolf]

Bah. It's basic algebra, kids.

amount of calories eaten - amount of calories burned = amount of calories stored as fat

If the number is positive, you get fatter. If the number is negative, you get less fat.

It's not really that hard. If you have a slow metabolism, that means eat less or exercise more (probably get the most benefit from the latter as it tends to speed up metabolism).

Sam, I know that lots of people believe this...and it sounds reasonable...looks great on paper...and doesn't work that way in real life.

The way the human body works is complex. It just doesn't reduce to simple in-and-out linear equations.

There are very large people who eat very little; conversely, there are very thin people who have an enormous calory intake each day. These folks don't fit the cold equations.

--James

Amen.

If most of the people out there who say "it's simple math" had to live on the 1000 calories a day or fewer it takes for me to MAINTAIN my weight (and that's with working out every day)...forget losing...they'd change their tunes soon enough, I think.

Redwolf

[Wombat]

What ridiculous leap of logic to they use to decide pop should be taxed higher because it's fattening? What a bunch of morons.

It's the same argument that they use to justify punitive taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. Spelled out, I think it goes like this. People will use less of a product if it costs more. We are therefore discouraging unhealthy habits by forcing the price up on everything that is bad for you. Of course, they know perfectly well that smokers and beer drinkers are likely to do without other perhaps healthy things to get what they want. So it is really a good revenue spinner.

The same reasoning I suppose justifies putting speed cameras in relatively safe places and arbitrarily lowering the speed limit a bit earlier to catch the unwary. Also, around here, speed limit warning signs seem to be deliberately placed to blend in with a mosaic of road side advertisements and shop signs just to make it even less likely that you'll notice. What is infuriating is that this actually makes driving less safe since drivers are distracted by the need to look out for arbitrary changes of speed limit where none would be expected by changed road conditions.

The people who do this to us are our elected representatives. Why do we put up with it?

[Wombat]

If most of the people out there who say "it's simple math" had to live on the 1000 calories a day or fewer it takes for me to MAINTAIN my weight (and that's with working out every day)...forget losing...they'd change their tunes soon enough, I think.

Redwolf

As we age, we have to keep eating less and exercising more as our metabolisms slow down. But we have set patterns and our hunger has nothing much to do with our optimal calory intake. You don't have to be a glutton to get into trouble here. It's not hard to see why reasonable people find it hard to maintain a good weight as they age. Not all people with eight problems are cumpulsive eaters or 'compensators' or whatever. Some are just aging and many of them are restricted in the kind of exercise they can do and in the hours available to do it. (I've never heard anyone over forty come out with the 'simple algebra' line. )

[susnfx]

That's really true, Wombat. Ask anyone with extraordinarily bad knees about getting enough exercise. It's enough to make you cry (and it has). My rheumatologist told me that a good percentage of his patients could ease at least some of the pain in their knees by losing some weight, but he doesn't even mention it because it's too frustrating to people who simply can't exercise.

Susan

[carrie]

It's the same argument that they use to justify punitive taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. Spelled out, I think it goes like this. People will use less of a product if it costs more. We are therefore discouraging unhealthy habits by forcing the price up on everything that is bad for you. ....The people who do this to us are our elected representatives. Why do we put up with it?

There's also the argument that the public health costs associated with unhealthy behavior need to be funded somehow, so why not let the users of unhealthy products bear some of the cost of that in the form of taxes? With alcohol and tobacco there are pretty clear links to disease, though there seems to be good level of alcohol use, which there isn't for tobacco.

Carol

[Walden]

It's the same argument that they use to justify punitive taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. Spelled out, I think it goes like this. People will use less of a product if it costs more. We are therefore discouraging unhealthy habits by forcing the price up on everything that is bad for you. ....The people who do this to us are our elected representatives. Why do we put up with it?

There's also the argument that the public health costs associated with unhealthy behavior need to be funded somehow, so why not let the users of unhealthy products bear some of the cost of that in the form of taxes? With alcohol and tobacco there are pretty clear links to disease, though there seems to be good level of alcohol use, which there isn't for tobacco.

Carol

People of certain so-called races are more prone to dying young, and some so-called races are naturally slimmer than others. Would it be right to penalize those so-called races? It most certainly would not.

[harpmaker]

what gets me are the seemingly arbitrary height to weight charts. Who decides those things anyway? I saw one awhile back that said I should weigh around 195 lbs. Yeah, right! If I got that thin I would have to stand twice in the same spot to throw a shadow.