Balance between extreme thinness and fatness.

Francis, I think the term "anorexia" refers to a simple loss of appetite, often brought on by illness. Anorexia nervosa, on the other hand, is a psychological disorder. Remember Karen Carpenter? She stopped eating and they had to force feed her. To this day her brother feels that it was the forced feeding that caused her heart to fail.

Morbid obesity, the medical term for overly fat folks, may also be psychological. Another reason sited is that certain types of red meat contain hormones that have been fed to certain cattle, and those who indulge, put on weight over a period of time and often quite rapidly. One must, however, rule out pituitary problems.

Jane Fonda was bulimic for a while. In other words she would eat, then force herself to regurgitate. This is quite dangerous if not checked, because it causes dehydration.

Well, those are extreme cases, but what about "normal" people? What do they do to keep the balance?

Your pictures showed "extreme cases", honey, so I went with that first. I guess to determine what is "normal", one should look at the genetics of it, i.e. the tendency to be heavy or lean based on one's parents.

We all know about exercise and proper diet, so the best thing to do is to rule out any psychological or illness problems, and go from there.

Strange, I just received an email from my friend Cheryl warning about aspartane poisoning from some of the sugar substitutes found in certain sweeteners and diet drinks. The culprit may well be the types of food we eat. Read the label on the product and make certain there are no hydrogenated oils used for the purpose of shelf life.

Another variable to watch is stress. That was the hardest for me to beat, but I'm doing it now.

I work hard to stay thin because it's healthier as we get older but I wouldn't want to look half starved.

I think thin and skinny are 2 different things.

I don't think there's anything less attractive than a "stick woman".
A really obese woman would run a close second though.

And that's speaking strictly from the point of view of physical attraction of course.

Lots of people are worthy, interesting and good to have as friends that aren't necessarily as stunningly attractive as me.

Francis--

A lot of overeating is learned behavior.

What was left out of this post was muscle. Muscle is beautiful, I believe. Muscle is healthy, I believe. Muscle is sexy, I believe.

If one is healthy, and has no heart, or other health abnormalities, with the O.K. of a doctor, putting on muscle, in a methodical and safe manner, is the antidote to thinness and fatness.

Also, in my opinion, muscle is cooler than sunglasses, flip-flops, sandals, beautiful hair, newest clothes fashion, sitting in a highly visible seat at an outdoor cafe; it's just cool.

Sensible arguments, Bear! Thank you.

How could we change those patterns, Noddy?

Foofie - it's always a matter of balance.

Shouldn't we avoid this?:

I think body weight is (not always) related to the amount we move. small movements such as getting up to change the television. Todays society has so many labour saving devices that we move considerably less in our daily lives. It is true that as we age we tend to thicken up and its my belief that this is directly related to a reduction in movement.

The type of food we eat also affects how our body stores fat. I think humans were designed to hunt and gather. Meat and fats being faster on the hoof was not always available but fruit and vegetables with less carbs, protien, fats and fibre were generally available in one form or another.

The hungry gap also had it effect. The lean times at the end of winter and early spring were times of low food supply and caused the body to draw on fat reserves.

The answer to extreme body weights over or under what appears normal these days is always lifestyle and consumption.

Very interesting thread Francis.

Yes, balance is the key. Balance comes with loving yourself, and acceptance of who you are. By that I mean who you Truly are.

An aside, when I looked at your two pictures, I had very different reactions.

The first one shocked me, and made me want to look away, it smacked of sickness and death.

My reaction to the 2nd one was sadness.

I'm not talking about bodybuilding to the competitor level. I was talking about just looking athletically muscular.

That's a good pic. However, I don't want my body to be like that.

Anything extreme (over weight or under weight) is not good.

We eat to survive, not survive to eat.

oh, I don't know about that "we eat to survive" comment.

I don't eat soley to maintain my physical exsistance.

Eating is an extremely pleasurable activity.

In fact, if I had a magic lamp with a genie inside, one of my wishes would be to be able to eat as much as I want at any time and not gain weight or hurt my health.

Food is wonderful.

Francis--



I've written elsewhere on A2K about Mindful Eating--eating when you're hungry and stopping when your physical hunger is sated.

"Unmindful" eating is gorging to fill an emotional void or to compensate for minor or major irritants or to make up for inadequate sleep...any eating that is not done to satisfy hunger is mindless.

My weight is within healthy limits right now, but over the years I've picked up a reflex for Mindless Gorging and unless I pay attention, I'll gain weight again.

Chai--

Eating is pleasurable, eating is social communion, and overeating in times of plenty is probably instinctive to some degree.

Balance is all.

I agree with you, Noddy24.
Balance is very imortant.

Give me your average flabby person any day of the week.





Okay, okay, somewhat..


still...

I used to hang out at a cafe that was near the original gold's gym, plus, wait, an institute for advanced stuff in psychology. Talk about parade...


grabs coffee from staff I've known for decades.. Gnaws on world's best croissants...