Why Women Lose Weight—or Don’t

Stop being fat and workout and eat healthy you fat bastards.

There are an infinite number of misconceptions about weight gain and weight loss. As a board certified physician in both Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology (which is study of the digestive system) I believe I can add some clarity. Unfortunately, I know it will cause about a million of comments, all based in emotion and ignorance.
Simply put, weight gain is a matter of input vs. output. If you eat more calories than you use up, your body will store it and you will gain weight. If you burn up more calories than you eat, you will loose weight.
The only tissue that actually controls your metabolism is your muscle mass. Your muscle mass to fat ratio is the true determinate of metabolism.
The number one determinate of calorie burning through activity during the day is Non-exertional Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) which is the amount of activity you do during the day to complete your activities of daily living (ie work or home activities (not workout activities))
Your thyroid or other "glands" or "hormones" have nothing to do with it. This is a commonly held myth by both patients and many physicians.
There is a misunderstanding in the general population and the lay-man's (common) literature that there are good and bad proteins and good and bad carbs and good and bad fats and that food items that are good for you are a fair or reasonable substitute for the other bad stuff.
The truth, for weight loss there is NO SUCH THING. It is simply a formula of input vs output. If you take in 1 gram of carbohydrates you take in about 4 calories of food. If you take in any type of fat, you take in about 9 cal per gram. EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth has calories and contributes to you input.
The "good" and "bad" are derived from the side-effects of excess. If you don't take in excess, then it is not bad, you body will convert it into stuff it can use. But if you take in excess of the bad stuff, it will store the bad stuff and you will get the side effects of the excessive storage (which are heart disease, joint pain from too much weight, pancreas failure and diabetes due to too much stress on that organ from too much fat etc.)
So if you are fat, you took in too many calories over your lifetime, if you are slender, you haven???t.
Your body frames etc have NOTHING to do with it. If I did a bone-scan, I would see that you, if you are fat, have a normal skeleton. But I won???t waste health care dollars on that.
A simple example is that if you eat one handful of peanuts every day as a snack, you will ingest 100 extra calories per day. If you do that for a year, then you will have eaten 36,500 calories in that year. There are 3,500 calories per pound of fat. So then you WILL have gained 10 pounds in a year.
The opposite is true for weight loss.
It ALL comes down to discipline and understanding.
I hope this helps you understand.
I hope that if you have a goal then you are disciplined.

Fat people do burden society. As already mentioned, perhaps universal health care will never happen because of the liability fat people place on the system. Also, who's to say smoking is worse than being overweight? Both will kill you faster than normal...

There is the problem. Women are lardasses and think it's normal. Consequently they start believing that they can also be sexy and desirable, maybe just by wearing some hot skimpy clothes. The truth is, being fat is disgusting. There is nothing sexy in resembling an elefant, no matter what kind of provocative outfit you may be wearing. Fat chicks are not cute; they are ugly, unattractive, and repulsive. The problems is also that they still get attention from guys that 'go for anything' for the sake of getting some easy fun. Dudes, forget about fat chicks, and go for the hot ones only, although it requires harder work to get laid. This kind of tolerance only encourages women to disregard their bodies and focus instead on make-up and clothing.

To Melodyknows-- you need to change your name to MelodyKnowsJack. You should also get an attitude adjustment. Do not tell me what I eat! I eat as I said. My food is not covered with creams or butters as you like to assume. Your attitude is what is wrong with this world-- you have never been in my shoes yet you sit in judgement of me and assume I am lazy and pig out all day. I work the way I do because after 4 children, my "wonderful" husband left to "find himself". Of course, he does not pay any child support, so that leave me to support my wonderful kids. I was 35# overweight at that time and he said I was too fat and he had met a "beautiful slender girl". Well, guess what, after she had 4 children for him, his thin beautiful wife is now #100+ over weight :) AAAAHHH,, revenge is sweet:) So, MelodyKnows Jack SHI**, please dont judge others lest you be judged as harshly. One can only hope that those like you who judge others, end up with some type of awful, disfiguring disease so that you too may expereince they type of predjice you support.

Personally any Woman should have a little fluff to them. Who wants to see ribs sticking out and hips that could put an eye out.

If you ask me the american idea of thin (ribs showing and sharp hips) needs to be re-evaluated. A little extra fluff is by far more healthy and desireable

Everyone I know who is overweight claims that it's the way "God made them." And, that they are completely healthy and normal. But, they aren't. They are gorging on food. This girl who claims to eat 800 calories a day is completely full of it. She might eat 800 calorie food items, but I'm sure it's been deep fried, covered in butter and cream, and then served with a side of cheese. I mean-- come on people. Exercise. Get off your butts. Stop eating fast food. Stop being lazy. Lose the weight before you end up like my grandfather-- so overweight and defeated by diabetes that they are going to have to cut his legs off. It's not healthy to be overweight. There is no such thing as fit and fat. The fact is, people who are overweight are less productive and more likely to die at an earlier age. Being proud of being fat is just ignorant.

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Now, I am not one of the lucky gene pool lottery winners, so I have what thin people consider a "problem". As one posted here, he thinks 5'2 and 120 is on the "thick" side. I would suggest this man seriously get some help-- that is not "thick" at all! Maybe it is time Americans started seriously looking at what is considered "healthy". I am overweight, but, I am healthy. Please do not judge those who are not "rails". Do not automatically assume obesity is preventable or the obese person is simply lazy-- this is not true at all. Quit judging something you have never experienced. One can study obesity all they want, but, until they have walked a mile in my shoes, do not presume to know what is causing it and how I can prevent it. I have tried all the "experts" ways. I am still obese. I have had all tests done and there is not one thing wrong with me physically. I eat 800 calories per day-- (food is expensive). It takes 900 calories a day just to sustain life. I am currently and have been under a doctors supervision for my weight for over 3 years and he montors my intake so my average caloric intake is accurate. He has no answers for me and neither does anyone else. So, I hope this adds a perspective to this side of the story for you. Thank you for letting me have my say.