Are most men struggling to get healthy weight women?

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A lot of people don't have a clue about what the difference even is between healthy and junk food, because food companies mislead people all over the place, all the time.

And it's not just about eating too much junk food, but portion sizes. A lot of people don't have much of a clue about that either. I'm just talking from...well, talking to people about food generally. People are very uneducated when it comes to food.

The Japanese eat small portions. Their snacks and sweets are a lot smaller too, and are often wrapped individually (helping portion control). I think the West could learn a lot from them. Or just from looking into our past, because this country used to eat smaller portions too.

Eep, American weight system. Not sure what 109 pounds is in relation to anything else.

I have a female friend who after starting to live with a male partner put on weight because he was cooking the portion sizes he would normally eat and multiplying that by 2. She was consistently getting larger portions than she used to and therefore put on weight.

Conversely I have another friend who is very healthy and slender, but she is concerned about her partner's weight, so is making him healthy food too. He likes her cooking, but he also enjoys going to less healthy places for lunch and snacks throughout the day while he is at work. Her healthy eating habits haven't helped him lose weight because he still does his own thing.

Smudge is right (I wish we had an upvote button). Some people think cereal bars are healthy. Nah, have a banana or a handful of nuts instead peeps.

This obsession with weight and one's body is absurd. We're not supposed to stay the size of children throughout our lives.

Actually, technically, we are.

Not children, exactly, but the same size as fully developed (aka young) adults? Well ideally yeah.

It's possible to stay the exact same weight as you were at 25 or 28 throughout your life. Extremely difficult, but possible.

It's rare, but I've seen plenty of middle aged and elderly men the same size as me or even slimmer.

Skeletal size and structure is fully developed about the mid-20s, so any extra weight accumulated is likely just more natural muscle and, more often to a much larger extent, extra fat.

I don't think elderly people have 'larger bones', that's an illusion. The body loses bone mass and density with age.

Big boned elderly people were big boned in youth, and same for smaller boned elderly people.

Of course, a lot of people gain weight when they reach middle age; slower metabolisms, less physical activity (sometimes due to more responsibilities but also because your body is weakening and you have to take it easier more often), pregnancies, change in hormonal levels, etc.

But as it's already been said here, in history in most of the world people remained thin across most of their lifetimes.

Overweightness was actually quite rare and seen as something only the wealthy were.

East Asia especially has a low obesity rate because of their superior diets, a low obesity rate across ALL ages as a matter of fact.

With the correct dieting, you can be not much bigger than you were at 38, or 48, or 58 and beyond as you were at 28.

I guess if it's completely hopeless and pointless and we will gain weight no matter what as we age then may as well speed it up by binging on foods, especially unhealthy ones, in large amounts and say "It doesn't matter, it'll happen anyway!". Don't be ashamed, we'd be doing what 90% of people do anyway...

Becoming obese as we age is now the norm, not the exception and what with fat propaganda/indoctrination...*ahem*...I mean, fat 'acceptance' movements being actively encouraged and supported by society, it couldn't be a better time to be obese.

That's what the wealthy were like in the 17 and 1800s. Gluttonous. They ate like pigs because they could, and since the average middle-class income person is now as wealthy as a medieval noble, might as well do the same, right?

8 stones in British. Or, more accurately, 49 kg.

Last edited by BTDT on 25 Feb 2017, 7:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hope no middle age adults give me the list of reasons why it's harder to maintain a healthy weight as you get older.

I already know, luckily, which means I'm prepared to stay healthy into old age and stay as fit and healthy as possible no matter how hard it gets.

It's one of the things I hope to never have to sacrifice entirely...

You're only 109lbs/49kg?

Here's a gentleman in his 50s who is probably not only yet another skinny middle aged/elderly adult I've come across, but THE skinniest I've ever heard of.

It depends on your height, but aren't people generally underweight at 109lbs? Whether you're male or female?

Still, unless you had some lottery genetics, that is impressive to stay that thin for so long if you did so through dieting and exercise!

Being underweight though can be unhealthy as well and bring its own problems, but I'm not going to be too preachy about it.

With a bmi of 20, I am neither overweight nor underweight.

Last edited by BTDT on 25 Feb 2017, 7:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think you have presented 2 extremes here: The first being maintaining childhood weight throughout life and the second, Beelzebub. As with most things, I think the most healthy lies between the two. That is, one shouldn't expend one's mental health trying to look like you did at your apogee; for most, this will not happen. But that doesn't mean you have to eat til you explode.

We're not supposed to stay the same size as children, obviously bone mass and muscle mass increases. But we ARE however supposed to have relatively the same percentage of body fat.

I think weight is bad way of measuring, it doesn't really say anything about body composition at all. A taller person will usually weigh more than a short person, with the same amount of fat on them.

I don't think there is any question about "measurement error." It is quite obvious that a significant fraction of the population is getting fat. And it is equally obvious that there is no simple fix.

As far as I know, the only government that has gotten involved in matchmaking is Japan.

I completely agree with you, people are very uneducated when it comes to nutrition. The biggest problem is that people have no concept of their caloric intake, or the caloric values of food, which is what it comes down to in the end. Eating healthy of course helps as it often times is more satiating, and of course more nutritious. The most frequent pitfall I see is sweet beverages and alcohol, as those can really add up to alot of calories, without doing anything but make you more hungry.

I have to say though, I refuse to believe anyone out there actually think candy bars are healthy.

That wasn't what I meant, I just don't think weighing is all that useful unless you're obese.
If I used the scale to measure my body composition, it would tell me I have gotten 1-2 kg's "fatter" over the past year. But I know that to be false, because I am much much leaner and have built quite a bit of muscle too.
I just use the mirror, it always tells the truth.

That depends on your body types, if they are close in height and body type then yeah they could likely be close in weight. However if you're short with a significantly taller S.O, you tend towards very skinny and they tend towards more chubby....then probably not unless one of you becomes severely obese or severely underweight.

I have been suffereing from an external hemorrhoid this weekend - taking the proper medicine and all.
But I decided to change my whole diet from now on, I don't want this horrible thing happens any more again.
Much more vegetables - I will pass a salad no matter what with every lunch; and more seafood and less red meat for lunch; less pastry, less cheese and diary things (except yogurt) for breakfast/dinner and more vegetables/salad for dinner again; where I live dinner is traditionally a small meat-less meal (like breakfast) while lunch is the big meal.
More fiber intake overall - I ll be adding beans and oatmeal to salads and make more frequently lentil soup. More fruits and less gâteaux overall as dessert (teary).
Actually I am going back to my old eating habits; I got bad eating habits due to my work trips - such as meater dinner.
... and most protein bars turned out to be bad for my bowels.