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Over Weight


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Just reading my morning paper. Bit shocked, but not surprised to read that overweight/obese adults make up 50% of the French population.

Given that this gives a lower chance of surviving Covid, you might think that more people would be trying to reduce their weight, especially as a high percentage of the population are on a reduced income/more time on their hands.

In October last year I was a bit shocked to find that my BMI (weight in Kg/height meters squared) put me over the "accepted" limit, so by this rough rule overweight (BMI of 26.1). Since October last year I have cut back on wine during the week and chocolate. BMI now 24.8.

What it has given me is an slight insight into the mental and physical effort needed to reduce weight. If you are one of the many who are in reduced circumstances, it must be next to imposible to have the will power to reduce your Covid risk. For those of us who are not, is it easier to blame the powers that be rather then take personal responsibility to reduce our risk?
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Have you been watching the advertisments with which 'Comme j'aime' bombard early evening  TV? [6]

I think that there is a distinction between the risk of catching the disease, which is something that we can legitimately expect the authorities to try to lessen; and  the risk that it poses to each of us if we  catch it.

One can blame the management of a particular Goverment for the first.

The second is true not only of obesity and Covid, but of many other sorts of behaviour and disease.
Smoking, drinking alcohol, drug abause eating 'junk' food can all contribute to disease.

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 In fairness wooly, when I moved to France, in my region, which in fact was not that far from the italian border AND a lot of it was in fact italian at one point....... pasta was the base starch.

I know folks would have rice and potatoes too from time to time, but pasta was usual.

There were next to no fatties.

I do remember when they were going to close a lovely 'cafe' in the centre of the city and open a McDo's. Great debates and everyone french we knew was up in arms, wouldn't get anyone in they said. Well they were wrong about that.

Supermarket pizzas, beurk, although I rated several pizzerias in our regions, they did very very good pizzas. Lovely thin bases and just the right amount of toppings served with a lovely bottled chilli oil to go on top, if required!

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I think this has been said before but when people are interviewed about their eating habits, they invariably say that they eat traditional French meals and dislike "fast food". But when questioned specifically about where they last bought a meal the embarrassed answer is usually somewhere like Flunch.
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Nothing wrong with Flunch, one can have a perfectly balanced meal there if one chooses.

I used to have rows with other parents when my kids were in primaire, as I said that there would be nothing wrong with them bringing a packed lunch.

Mais NON ma petite Idun,( evidently more sottise from the anglaise), children MUST eat a hot meal at lunch time. As I pointed out, to the parents carping the most, that they  had no idea what was being served at home at lunch time, but apparently they believed that a good balanced french meal would always be on the table.

I do know that if I called round to see friends, often at around 8pm the children would be eating then, a plate of cooked but dry pates or rice, no sauce, no butter even, with say a couple of fish fingers or piece of ham(cold) followed by a yoghurt and to bed.

I have eaten at these people's homes and we have had lovely meals, but everyday  and that is what the kids got. And since I have returned to the UK once when I was back, I called in at my old neighbours and they asked if I wanted to stay and eat. Frozen chips and ham (cold) again, some salad and yoghurt, and their kids are no longer there, so that sort of meal is obviously a staple. She uses the canteen at work on a lunch time and he is on the road and uses motorway cafes or the likes of Flunch.

French everyday food is not always what it is cracked up to be.

But the weight of folks, well, most of the french women I know smoke or smoked. They would eat less and smoke more and stay slim.

The truth is that fatty foods, that are easy to eat are tempting and once one starts with them, a sort of craving can start.

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"The truth is that fatty foods, that are easy to eat are tempting and once one starts with them, a sort of craving can start"

It is not the fatty foods that are the problem. It is the simple refined sugars and carbohydrates that are the problem.

The standard American diet (SAD) diet invented by prof Ancel Keys that invaded the planet back in the 60's has caused massive overweight issues in every country it has touched, plus the added sugar in fast food outlets crap is fuelling a world wide obesity problem.

Ancel Keys moved to Pioppi in Italy where they consume a lot of olive oil and Mediterranean diet which is pretty much the opposite of what he told governments we should eat.
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We have eaten lots of meals at Flunch, too. Apart from some vege stewing for hours in the help yourself pots until it turns to gloop, the food is generally fine. But it's fast food that French people claim to avoid. (After 20 years, I still get confused by the menus and ordering details which the locals have no trouble in understanding, of course.)

Humans were not designed to cope with refined sugar but our brains do not realise this. Some doctors feel that it is so harmful to health that it should be a banned or restricted substance, like drugs or tobacco.
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Sorry but you have made me smile with that post.

It suddenly came to me something that was constantly said years and years ago to you men.......... don't fall in love with a  slender italian beauty, look at her mother to see how big she will get.

So what was that about, italian mama's were all too often larger ladies, and what was their diet..........mediterranean?

I have to say that a fish and chip shop I go to from time to time, if I ask for a baby chips to go with a fish, the portion is huge, enough for two even three adults IMO. When I was a child, they would serve a child's portion in a small cone and we were delighted to get such a treat and it was enough. (same chip shop, but I am sure, different owners)

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Idun, what's the difference between an elephant and an Italian mumma?

20kg and a black dress!

Mediterranean is not inland Italian, and too much pasta will do it along with bread and potatoes.

The French consumed loads of cheese so should have died so much earlier but heart disease was low compared to othe countries.

High carb, high protein low fat is bad, thats the government's of several countries instructions since Ancel Keys and the obesity graphs show this commenced shorty after they adopted the SAD diet.

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The only way I can post is if I keep clicking on the font size and the font itself. Otherwise I simply cannot post at all.

So sometimes my posts are tiny, sometimes huge and it feels like I have no choice.

This looks normal after about four attempts with the sizing and trying all the different fonts.

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Wooly, Fat and obese, well, I suppose it is how the weight goes on someone. And you don't have to be very heavy to get that obese figure with the BMI test.

It tells me I should be a certain weight, and I was that top weight and lower in my teens and part of my twenties, I was in my early teens when I was the lowest figure and still growing.

HOWEVER, if I dropped that weight, I would look AWFUL and my face would look emaciated and that is just going down to the top of the range they suggest.

Frankly then that becomes a nonsense. My weight yoyo's, I put it on I lose it, and there you go. But I never look in the mirror and think I look 'ill' and I know that the NHS's suggestion would leave me quite demoralised and looking very poorly indeed.

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Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight by dieting will know it's the equivalent of hell on earth.

I was more or less OK with my weight till I was 50 and then I looked in the mirror and decided on a HUGE exercise kick, having a personal trainer who made me do weights and use machines that the men in his gym were doing and using.  But, did I lose weight, and inches off everywhere.

Then I came to France, no gym, no personal trainers in rural Charente Maritime.

After that, I more or less didn't care much and didn't mind much and my weight was steady.  Then came cancer and chemo and tiredness and laziness and couldn't-care- less-ness.  I would'nt say I went grossly fat but I had to go up a dress size.

Now I am down by over 9 kilos but it's taken over 2 years of chipping away at the weight.  Eventually, I grasped the nettle, gave up alcohol and meaty meals (still eat a little meat and lots of fish), walking daily even if I don't want to and daily Pilates for suppleness of body and calming of stress. 

The confinement, couvre-feu, etc are wonderful aids to slimming:  no restos, no eating with others, no fêtes, no nothing.

I agree with idun, BMI is a crude and not at all accurate measure of obesity.  Now the "experts" say your waist measurement is more important in terms of avoiding heart problems. 

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I have to agree with you about the BMI thing being 'off.'  When we were in the U.S., our medical insurance rates were reduced if each of us had a BMI of less than 26.  26 or more would raise our annual rate by 300 U.S. dollars PER PERSON.  At that time, my BMI was 27 and husbands was also well above 26 (that number was used for both men and women).

So, we both set out to take the weight off to reduce our insurance premiums. Of course, it would likely make us healthier too, but that wasn't the spark to get us moving. Ha Ha

It took about a year and a half, but I got mine down to 20.1  Lost 40 pounds.  Husband lost 50 pounds, but still did not go below 26.  IF he had gone even to 28, I think he would have looked like someone with a serious health problem.  As for me, I do think it aged me to loose that much weight.  Yet, I've managed to keep it off.  I had to invest in an entire new wardrobe, so now THAT keeps me where I am ...

The BMI stuff is weigh off IMO.

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I think it's important to take into account someone's frame.  Some people are naturally more robust, wider shoulders, heavier in build altogether.

I am about medium for build and I am happy with my size and weight at the moment.  But I need to be vigilant all the time.  Really watch the starch and chocolate and the Magnum ice creams!  I don't know if it helps staying away from alcohol.  I have had periods of no alcohol but have never shrugged off the weight like I have now.

Got to depend on how much you drink in the first place.  I was never a heavy drinker but I did have a drink most days.  I cut off the alcohol for health reasons and not to lose weight.

My pneumologue said I was the only patient she knew who'd actually lost weight during the confinement but she did say my lungs would be the better for it.

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 Yes, one's frame is important too.

My frame is bigger, which I was made well  aware of as my mother complained that I was built like a cart horse. I wasn't, but that was how she was, and as she was petite, she found my bigger frame unacceptable....... !

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The bizzare idea behind BMI, muscular low body fat fit people fail the daftest health test in living memory.

Mint keeping off some alcohol is wise as it can contain high levels of carbohydrates, a spirit like gin and vokda with slimline no sugar mixers doesnt spike insulin levels so better than wine and beer. Insulin is such a powerful hormone even doctors are only just understanding it role.

If you like magnums and dont find them too sweet then it a fair bet you have some insulin resistance, best to lower sugar and carbohydrates to re align the insulin levels.

I still do my nutribullet mix occasionally but without the banana.
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"Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight by dieting will know it's the equivalent of hell on earth."

Not necessarily, when I (123kg) went low-carb 2011.10, I dropped effortlessly to 85kg 15 months later and stayed there for three years, but ... then the ethanol intake went up ...

"keeping off some alcohol is wise as it can contain high levels of carbohydrates"

It's not just the carbohydrates. The problem is that the liver becomes preoccupied with the ethanol and so everything else gets stored away until the ethanol is completely dealt with. At a certain level of ethanol, the weight just piles (back) on.

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