Lessons from Anorexics for the Super Obese

Hi,

I've been watching YouTube again. After I found a few whole episodes of the British TV program "Supersize vs Superskinny" I watched with great interest while one person who was so thin as to be underweight swapped meals for four days in a row with another person who was very very overweight in the super obese range. They say all their weights in "stones" so I have no idea how much they weigh in pounds but suffice it to say the two participants were on the extreme far ends of the weight scale. I was glued to the programs as I watched three different pairs converse about their experiences and as I watched I picked up some interesting tidbits of information.

I also clicked on a documentary about an eight year old child who suffered from anorexia and was taken to an inpatient facility for teenage girls. It was amazing to see that these young women and this child were doing the same sorts of things. As they were closely monitored by the staff and made to eat every drop on their plates one of the nurses explained that an anorexic person will do odd things to avoid eating their food. They might simply stir it, or spread it around on the plate, or put things up their sleeves or in their pockets. Some of them will even take sauces and sort of absently smooth them into their hair, all in an effort to avoid eating the food.

Another thing that anorexic sufferers do is nearly constant exercise. The little girl was asked about her exercise habits and she told her therapist that she did an hour at a time, and as the talk went on, it came out that she exercised for an hour after every meal. What she did was skip rope, until her mother took the rope away, after which she began going up and down the stairs over and over again. And when she was not allowed to do that, she just hopped up and down in place, there was no stopping her. She just kept right on moving. There were clips of other anorexic kids doing the same sort of constant exercise -- poor young girls doing pushups with their tiny little arms until they were in pain. This causes any number of health issues in them, arthritis being the only one I can remember. They were not permitted to exercise feverishly at the facility so they would substitute constant moving of a foot or leg, just to keep something moving and burning calories.

I had even watched a documentary about an experiment where they took about a dozen slender men and women, who had volunteered and agreed to do the study, and over a four week period, made them eat twice as many calories as they would normally eat. A built in safety was that if any one of them put on more than 15% of their body weight they would be taken out of the program. These were people who normally ate anything they wanted and never gained weight. You know someone like that, I assume. They do seem to be everywhere among us, you have probably heard one of them saying that even if they try to put on weight, they cannot. That was what the study was about: they wanted to find out why some people are not fat. The thing is, some gained more weight than others, but none of them put on more than the allowed 15%. One of them did not put on any fat. An Asian looking man actually put on more muscle. After the program, every one of them, easily took the weight off just as natural as you please -- no diet needed.

A similar study had been done at a Vermont prison in the 1960s with prisoners who volunteered and were promised an earlier release date if they participated.  The stand out bit of information from that study was the surprising result that, it did not matter how much some of the men ate, they did not get fat.

The conclusions that were reached in this program were that there are simply some people with that kind of genetic makeup, and they also talked about a virus of sorts that some people get which makes them put on weight. It actually changes their bodies and after they have this odd cold, they begin to put on weight, and there is nothing they can do about it.

So what are the take away lessons for me? First I want to say that I am not advocating that anyone become an anorexic and I have a great deal of sympathy for the girls (and even boys) and their families who have to deal with this very serious problem. It is not easy. But I am not actually talking to the super thin here in my blog, this is for the super fat, like me, or even moderately overweight who have some form of diabetes and also struggle to lose weight.

What I gleaned from all of this was to see that smaller portions really do make a difference and that exercise can come in many forms. There are no real rules about the kind of exercise that is needed -- just start moving. Even as you sit in your chair watching TV, keep a foot moving, or move the arms and hands. Dance in the living room, or go out and walk about, slow or fast, just keep moving as the day goes along.

I noticed that some of the very thin people drank things instead of eating things. I don't think it would be a good idea to start drinking sweet beverages, or energy drinks, but I've been reading that tea and broth, or soup, vegetable juices, or anything that is a healthy liquid could replace a snack. Some of them drank whatever they were drinking often through out the day and only ate one actual meal per day.

I am not advocating this to anyone. I am just saying this is what I saw, and I am paying attention and gathering information for myself. (I can hear it now... about diabetics, and healthy eating and all that stuff.) I'm just saying that I'm doing all the right stuff and it is not working. I am reading, and watching, and gathering information that seems useful to me and if anyone else sees anything they can use, it would certainly be up to them to incorporate it -- or not. They can, and probably should, talk to a doctor, but I know when I talk to my doctor I just get more of the same stuff that I've been being handed for about 45 years now.

Although, my doctor did suggest that I try the raw food diet. And perhaps I should. She showed me a poster of a lady who was nearly as large as I am, who went on the raw food diet, and lost nearly all of her fat down to a normal size in a very short time. This lady holds seminars on Wednesday nights, and I balked at taking time away from church, but maybe I should go to one and see what it is about. I can let the folks at the church know what is going on beforehand so they don't miss me or worry about me being gone.

During the recent time that I was trying to follow my doctor's 1800 calorie diet, I noticed that the calories seemed to be more concentrated in the protein items -- the meat, chicken, fish, eggs and dairy. Even some vegetable items, like avocados or even nuts, have high concentrations of calories due to the fat content. The calorie counting was very frustrating for me, being a prediabetic and wanting to eat more protein that does not raise my blood sugar as high. I believe that is actually why I am still a prediabetic and not a type 2, yet -- because I concentrated on protein and added a few veggies. On The 30 Day Diabetes Cure, I began to focus more on the veggies -- so I flip flopped the proportions and my blood pressure came down -- and the A1C -- but not my weight (I had been binging on carbs when I started the program) . When I began to reduce the calories (meaning the protein items) even more on the 1800 calorie diet -- I began to feel like I was being starved and had to quit, because I could not manage that reaction, either.

So I am still searching for the program that will do all three for me: keep the blood pressure down, keep the A1c down, AND make the weight come off. At this point in time, I am still unwilling to begin the "counting" business, again.  I am just not going to do that, so I need to find what will work for me. Who knows, I may, in the end, have to give in and start the counting, but I already know I have a hard time handling the pressure and the starvation that that brings on. So I need another way.

I am getting clues from those people who are masters at staying slim (super thin people, and anorexics). I am also getting a little elbow or breathing room from the "virus" idea, too. Perhaps I am not completely to blame. In the documentary they said that many things, including genetics, can contribute to a person being one of the ones that stays slim without trying, or gets fat without trying. All the way back to the womb, things occur that affect the fragile balances in the body. I know that my mother gave birth to 10 children, but she told me that I was the only one that she put on weight with. All  my siblings were very slender, but I was normal sized as a small child (meaning meatier than they were) and I began to be overweight at about 8 years old -- the same time that the child in the documentary became anorexic. Maybe there is a connection of sorts. Maybe not.

I am still thinking, considering, and gathering information. I am beginning to move more often -- even if it is just foot waging or individual muscle flexing, repeatedly. It could not hurt.

Be back soon,

--Marcia