I have been a big girl all my life... even when I was a kid, eating normal portions, very active, etc I still would gain weight... and anytime my mom would put me on a diet I would feel like I was starving even though I wouldn't be eating *less* than what I'd ate before, just different foods, and yet STILL the weight wouldn't come off... I finally leveled off around 250... eventually the weight started climbing again, though very slowly... about 6 years ago I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism... actually my thyroid was practically dead... after starting hormone therapy my weight gain stopped, though I STILL couldn't lose weight... I was a lot less active by then though, and I was still making HORRIBLE choices in what I'd eat... though I'd never eat a lot... in fact, more than once, I had friends concerned that I was anorexic because I ate so little! But I would eat the wrong things... though I didn't THINK they were wrong at the time... a few years ago my weight started ballooning again... I went up to 365... about 50 of that was gained in just the last year before I started LCing! I never went to the doctor about it though because finances were too tight and I couldn't afford the doctors visits... I started LCing in May 2003 and actually had to force myself to eat as much as suggested... it was so odd for me... I felt stuffed all the time! But the weight actually started coming off... though slowly... I did finally go back to my doctor and asked to have my thyroid checked again (I'll admit, I hadn't been that great at taking my medicine) and found it was COMPLETELY out of whack again... once I started the medication again AND LC the weight started falling off me... even though I was eating more than I ever had before in my life!

So I can honestly say, for me, overeating was not the fault... it was my choice in foods and my thyroid problems.

For people who are fit and thin when they were young, I think its natual for them to gain some weight as they age due to slower metabolism. I have a friend who used to be 5'3"-110lb, and is now 120 lb with no changes in the way she eats. As for me, I think I am thin except for the tommy area. I inherited my dad's stomach, so all the fat seems to concentrate in one area. As for people who are obese since childhood, I found a good section from a Biochemistry Book (Voet & Voet 2nd Ed).

Most obese people find it inordinately difficult to lose weight, or having done so, to keep it off. Yet most animals, including humans, tend to have stable weights; that is, if they are given free access to food, they eat just enough to maintain this so-called "set point" weight. The nature of the regulatory machinery that controls the set point, which in obese individuals seems to be aberrantly high, is just beginning to come to light.
Formerly grossly obese individuals who have lost at least 100 kg to reach their normal weights exhibit some of the metabolic symptoms of starvation: they are obsessed with food, have low heart rates, are cold intolerant, and require 25% caloric intake than normal individuals of similar heights and weights. In both normal and obese individuals, some 50% of the fatty acids liberated by the hydrolysis of triglycerols are reesterified before they can leave the adipocytes. In formerly obese subjects, this reessterification rate is only 35-40%, a level similar to that observed in normal individuals after a several day fast. The fat cells in normal and obese individuals, moreover, are of roughly the same size; obese people just have more of them. In fact, adipocyte precursor cells from massively obese individuals proliferate excessively in tissue culture compared to those from normal or even moderately obese subjects (adipocytes themselves do not replicate). Since fat cells, once gained, are never lost, this suggests that adipocytes, although highly elastic in size, tend to maintain a certain fixed volume and in doing so influence the metabolism and thus the appetite (I guess that would explain the problem areas). This insight, unfortunately, has not yet led to a method for lowering the set points of individuals with a tendency toward obesity.
Interesting research from UM-Ann Arbor. http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2004/wnt10b.htm
Mice with hyperactive Wnt10b gene eat all they want, but have half the body fat of normal mice

That's not the world I live in. Animals with unlimited access to food, and very little excercise, get fat. Dogs, cats, horses, pigs, turkeys, sheep, etc.

It is not good for them, and it is not good for us. Lots of people overfeed their pets and then wonder why their pets develop back, hip, and leg problems at an early age.

Some do and some don't. My pets (I've owned a cat and a dog) never eat all of their food that they are given and don't become obese. But then again, I've seen other pets who eat all of their food, always want more, and become very fat.

I think genetic potential determines things like this... some animals will not over eat and become fat when given access to lots of food, whereas others will over eat and become fat. I am not going to pretend to know what that difference is, but I think it is most certainly inborn.

That's an interesting point. We have two dogs. The larger dog is the older and not as active, but is a normal weight for her breed. She has a little bit of hip dysplacia so doesn't get around as well as our younger dog. Our younger dog is very active, a smaller breed, and up until a couple of months ago was a normal weight for her breed.

What changed a couple of months ago was that with tick season, I started making the younger one stay outside overnight (they're both let in when it's stormy, and the older one comes in during the hot afternoon in the summer), and within a short time I noticed she was getting a little pudgy. Their food is outside where they can eat when they're hungry, and I'm figuring since the smaller one has been outside at night, she's been double-dipping, thus the weight gain. Of course, the older dog's weight has remained pretty steady all of the time, with a little weight gain in the winter she takes off during the summer.

Since it has some scrumptious-looking LC recipes, I picked up a copy of Woman's World magazine the other day, and there are bits and pieces in it about some of the cooks who devised these recipes--one being Dana Carpender.

I thought this would make an interesting addition to this thread, because according to the magazine, before Dana Carpender tried low-carbing, she was on a low-fat diet:

It's what we feed our pets that causes them to gain weight. Feeding grains to cats is insane yet that's what we do every day unless we feed them a raw meat diet. My cats were overweight, lethargic, sleepy and sick before I switched them to raw. They are now slim, healthy, energetic and happy. Exercise and overeating had nothing to do with this scenario and neither does it work for humans if they are not eating what they should be eating.

When I moved and stopped all the exercising I used to do, I also cut down on the food I ate. I could never cut it down enough to keep from gaining weight when I was eating 25 grams of fat (and over 300 of carbs!) a day.

The difference in my body was dramatic when I switched to low carb...and this is with no change in activity level AND an average of 200-500 more calories a day (judging from typical comparison days I put into Fitday.)

Judging from my experience, and also Dana Carpender's, I would say that there are LOTS of people who simply can't exercise enough to burn off the excess carbs that they are told to eat.

And in my case for sure, those carbs made me HUNGRY. When I exercised a lot, I figured it was logical, after all, I was burning it all up. But after I stopped exercising, I would still be hungry on a few hours after a meal! I know now it was dropping blood sugar. At the time, I thought I was crazy.

And whether I ate again (low fat! low calorie!) or sent myself to bed starving, I still gained weight.

It's no wonder so many people say "to heck with it! I'm not going to be hungry anymore!" and eat more, but it's always the wrong things in our society. Look how hard it is to hunt down a good low carb meal sometimes.

It's no damn wonder Americans are so fat. It's not a dramatic decrease in activity...we were industrialized long ago. It's not that we are fat pigs who always super size it...we are always hungry! And we are always hungry because all we get offered are carbs that don't fill us up, just make us hungrier, and pack on the pounds!

I'm convinced a calorie is not a calorie. It's WHAT you eat more than HOW MUCH.

Yeah, that's what I mean, too.

Can be:
Overeating=Eatingbadstuff=Noteatinggoodstuff

I do Agree with that.

I feel that some people are predisposed to weight gain but I don't think that is most peoples problem. I just think that many people severely underestimate the amount of food they eat. That is why many people recommend keeping a food journal. I got chubby after highschool because I ate too much and exercised too little.

I forgot to ask in the first post, Hellistile, what do you feed your cats?
I would be interested in changing the diet of mine.

There is a raw pet food manufacturer right here in Edmonton by the name of Arusha Pet Foods and several holistic veterinarians and pet shops carry it. The meat is range-fed bison, ostrich, chicken, turkey to which is added ground bone, fish oil, egg and other stuff that cats would get in the wild. They also carry raw food and bones for dogs. My cats love the bison meat the best (I have visions of my little kitties chasing down a bison in the wild and lmao).

http://www.arushapetfoods.com/

There are several raw food manufacturers and raw pet feeding information that can be found on the net.

I became overweight after the birth of my 2nd son in January 2002. Starting at 6 weeks postpartum, I began the low-fat, low-cal, high-carb diet that I'd used with great success in the past. I was also breastfeeding, another calorie burner.

Surprise! In spite of weighing portions and logging my food intake, I couldn't lose a pound. I started a walking program and gradually went faster and for longer distances, Nothing! After a year of this, I began cycling last summer and added some weights. Still I couldn't lose weight.

I was exercise more than I had in my life, still breastfeeding my son, never taking in more than 1600-1900 calories a day, and I had actually gained a few pounds. Finally, out of total desperation I tried the low-carb diet, and now I feel like a human again. It isn't even the weight loss per se, it's the fact that I feel so healthy, vibrant, and energetic again.

If I had only known that all the fat-free, high-carb crap was the culprit - I would've begun low-carb 2 yrs ago instead of suffering with my weight. I plan on staying low-carb forever!

Don't be silly a cat chase a bison down? come of it they would make you feel so nasty for them being hungry that YOU would be the one chasing the bison down with them looking at you with that smug "look what I got YOU to do" look on their face.