My grandmother was proud of her weight gain. She wore corsets and called herself “substantial.” Then she had a series of strokes (way before meds) and was told to lose weight. She did such a good job of it (she ate something for supper she called “mish mosh” - a concoction of saltines and skim milk in a tall glass) that her doc told her to stop. She kept the weight off, and lived for 25 more years. Go figure.
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I certainly spend a lot of time on 1 and 2. Which is the perfect precursor for 3.
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My Grandfather ate saltines w whole milk all the time. I tried it later in life and it kind of grows on you, but it is like Cap’n Crunch. You have to eat it w very cold milk and do so immediately after the milk is poured so it still has some texture.
I do not have it often but it is how my saltines usually get used up.
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Seriously, I thought by now that people understood that :
- The BMI is an empty measurement, designed by a statistician who used white European men as the base group. Utterly meaningless except for the sizes originally intended to measure (and exclude).
- Assuming fat is bad for one’s health tends to exclude a number of other factors (the damaging effects of weight cycling. the fact that many fat people do not get adequate healthcare because the number of times they are diagnosed as “fat” is not only a failure on the part of the medical professional, but keeps fat people from returning for more of the same. And given how many Americans are cool with depleting a source of diabetes medication for cosmetic purposes (or, sadly, to accommodate the structural bias that makes no space for fat people), I really question (or rather look askance at) the claims of health raised by concern trolls.
It’s a shame HO is so filled with anti-fat bias, but not surprising I guess. I mean, it’s a world filled with that hateful nonsense.
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You were not asking me but the NIH seems to link BMI and some negative consequences of higher bodyfat levels.
I think BMI is a rather poor tool but i guess it is useful on an individual level to measure gains amd losses.
Body fat % is better but measuring it is a bear. I worked out hard and got below 10% for a couple months and felt worse than i did before and after.
I do not know what the best range of body fat percentages is for most people but i think it varies a great deal. I liked being between 15% and 20% the best. My GF said she felt best around 25% and she definitely looked great. But BMI is not a good way to measure BF.
YMMV.
My trainer sad that body hat was extremely difficult to measure correctly, and that the scale my doc used was probably incorrect. He said the only way to measure accurately was by hydrostatic underwater measuring, which would (of course) be out of the question for me.
TBH I have nothing to add to @Hunterwali’s comment except for my absolute agreement on everything.
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One they never backed up with any scientific, peer-reviewed source, either. Huh.
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I am not sure i understand your post. I apologize if i am being irritating.
My point was that obesity is not easy to define but that radically excessive weight is unhealthy. It does not make a heavy individual a bad person. Generally, though not inevitably, maintaining a body fat percentage below a certain level (which tends to be a different range for men vs women) seems to lead to a healthier life for most people.
There are studies on this from both sides of the pond.
I have suffered from weight gain issues and i have seen similar problems in family and friends.
I don’t think anyone is saying that “radically excessive weight” is healthy. But is there truly a general consensus at which point someone is ‘obese’ - especially since it relies on the BMI, which is not a very reliable or helpful measure, as has been pointed out.
I know plenty of people with low body fat percentages who are far from healthy 
and no amount of workout or starvation diet is going to fix them.
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(also @ChristinaM)
I haven’t seen reports of those yet, but there are already lawsuits seeking class status claiming the drugs are causing what amounts to persistent (and painful) stomach and upper bowel paralysis. My diabetic MIL was on Ozempic and had a lot of trouble going to the bathroom. As soon as I saw about the suits and side effects and how they aligned with her problem, I had her check with her endo about going to other (old school) meds and her problems cleared up in about a month. (But she had another issue that could also have been contributing)
That’s in part how Ozempic and Wegovy (and I think but not sure about Saxenda) work - they increase residence time of the food so you feel fuller for longer.
I don’t know the status of the suits, whether they’re moving forward or will settle quickly to reduce publicity, or get dismissed.
Yep. Quick fixes (even relatively quick fixes) seem not to last. Whether drugs, fad diets, etc.
Yeah, it’d be a hard and fast “No thanks!” for me, too.
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Also gastric bypasses and lap bands, sadly, for many people, don’t keep the weight off in the long run unless they’re able to continue with a very strict regimen. I’ve witnessed someone close to me lose half her mass through a gastric bypass in 2010. She is just under 5 feet tall. She went from 200 lbs to 100 lbs. She has gained back somewhere between 50 and 75 lbs over 14 years.
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It’s not easier either on the other end of the scale (pun intended). I never had a weight problem, then 17 years ago went down from my ideal weight, dropping 30% of my body weight in a few months, as a result of illness. I’m now severely underweight, and the weight is not coming back. I’ve considered a diet of cakes and pastries, but I’m not sure that would work. Perhaps I should give it a try by moving close to @Nannybakes ? 
One thing I’ve not seen discussed here is devouring speed. I’ve watched many people in restaurants wolf down their food as if their plate was going to get pulled. They don’t give time for the satiety message to get from their stomach to the brain, and continue to shovel it in. I’m a slow eater, and don’t have that problem; sorry for the “holier than thou” attitude!
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I’ve always been a slow eater. I have friends and relatives who are shovelers. Including when they are guests. I’ve never understood it. I’ve always wondered if eating like that wouldn’t literally be painful, but I’m on the sidelines.
Some people become faster eaters because of their occupation. Medical residents, firefighters, farmers, etc.
Once you’re a fast eater, it becomes hard to go back to slow eating.
We have a fast eater and a slow eater in our household. I’m the Goldilocks eater.
(I don’t like the comment that others are shoveling food into their mouths further up this thread, at all. It’s mean.)
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Which is why my cakes are from 4” to 6”. We are both lean! I don’t think a pie/ pastry diet would be the best way to gain weight , tho’!!
Sorry if I offended you by my comment; there was no intent to be mean.
I worked four years in a hospital and did see medical personnel rush through their meals. It was understandable; I also saw them put down loaded trays in the cafeteria and exit as an emergency page was broadcast.
What I had in mind was the visual of someone in a restaurant, fork in hand rapidly moving from plate to mouth, to plate, until the plate is empty. I’ve seen this many times.
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Keep your eyes on your own plate 
You might eat more quickly if you weren’t distracted by the other people who eat very quickly. Also, take off any prescription glasses for myopia while you eat.
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I’m one step ahead of you. I do tend to take off my glasses while eating 
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I used to do that when I was taking an exam and there was distracting noise - for some reason, if I couldn’t see, I couldn’t hear - or, more correctly, scan for the source of the noise. Go figure.
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