Just watched the One Show with Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall bleating on about how 2/3 of the population are overweight or obese and we are all going to get type 2 diabetes unless we do something now and be a massive burden on the NHS and die ghastly deaths (slight exaggeration) so just eat 3 healthy meals a day and cut out the snacks and refined carbs and that will do the trick. How does that make you feel? It makes me feel a total failure...
Media obsession with obesity: Just watched the... - Thyroid UK
Media obsession with obesity
Aww don't be so hard on yourself.
A lot of fat people are failures caused directly by NHS and its doctors.
Untreated thyroid, diabetes, female hormonal imbalances just to name few.
I get sick and tired of the underlying message being that those of us who are overweight only have ourselves to blame. That we’re gluttons, consumed by greed, eating wall to wall Mars bars and guzzling non-diet Coca Cola while lounging on the sofa watching boxsets, our only exercise the walk to the fridge and back.
Because I know that isn’t true. I also know that many slim people eat utter crap but get to feel sanctimonious because they clearly “aren’t eating as badly as the fat people”.
It’s—pardon the expression—pretty f***ed up. Dieting doesn’t work. They know that the contestants who lose shedloads on The Biggest Loser usually put it all back on and more, despite watching what they eat and exercising like mad.
The media have this down as the simple “laws of physics—the law of thermodynamics, that energy in needs to balance energy out”. What that statement conveniently forgets is that’s only true in a closed system. The human body is not a closed system. It’s so much more complicated than that.
One day, maybe tens of years from now, they will finally figure out what’s happening. I suspect I’ll be dead by then, having repeatedly put my poor old body under the strain of an assortment of diets, seduced by the promise of how my life would be better if only I was slimmer (spoiler alert—I’ve lost a lot of weight on multiple occasions. The only difference it made was that I could buy clothes in a bigger range of shops).
So yep. I hear you Gidgeclev xx
It's only since I found out I was Hypo & Hashi that I truly appreciate how very difficult or how impossible it seems to lose weight.
Pre thyroid troubles I loved going to the gym, loved the fact I could into my sisters size 10 designer jeans & loved the way I looked.
Many people may not even know they have a thyroid problem bless them & that could well be the reason for not being able to get rid of the weight.
My old slimmer self used to think if only they had a healthier diet & exercised they be ok & lose the weight.
14 years later I'm eating the healthiest I have ever eaten & cant lose a drop of weight!
I miss my high heels. Have been wearing old fashioned Clarks shoes with insoles for years now! Look more like clowns shoes.
I miss wearing stylish clothes.
Maybe one day hey 🙂
Hey you curvier and veluptious ladies can still look good in high heels and nice clothes-no need to be dowdy and drab, there are some very sassy larger ladies out there-go girls.💋❤
Don't feel like a failure. I used to think it was as simple as calories in and calories used. Turns out it's not! The darn little butterfly makes everything more complicated. Do please don't feel bad because if you are like me then just getting through the day is hard enough without extra pressure from Huge what's his face!
Don't let the programme make you feel like that. It's not your fault. It's your thyroid troubles.
It was a relief to find out it was my thyroid keeping the weight on. It confirmed I wasn't going mad.
Pre thyroid troubles, if wanted to lose abit of weight, all I had to do was cut out eating toast or cereal at night.
I recall the time when I last tried this & it just wasn't shifting, I kept it up a few weeks & that was the start of my thyroid problems coming to light.
Please don't beat yourself up about it, I used to but not anymore.
Being a little overweight is protective against osteoporosis. More important to eat an extremely healthy diet and get lots of exercise. This won't necessarily make you lose weight as muscle weighs more than fat! I think a lot of the advice we've been given like low fat high carb diets has been wrong and got us into a mess.
Hi. I am curious how muscle can weight more than fat? Isn't a pound always a pound; 16 ounces?
The point is that while you exercise and lose fat, you will also tend to put on muscle. You could reduce a clothes size and yet weigh the same because fat is less dense than muscle.
Human fat has a density of 0.9 grams/ml, and 2. The lean (non-fat) components of the human body have an overall density of 1.1 grams/ml.
Well, maybe the NHS should stop telling every one to eat low fat high carb diets and then we wouldn't all get type 2 and be a burden on them. They could start by educating their dieticians. And perhaps they should treat hypo as soon as TSH rises, free T4 falls and patient is symptomatic. He has a point, though, about the processed carbs.
Years ago i remember it being said "its her hormones " now the knowledge has been lost as to how these ( hormones) can go wrong . Modern docs are not taught .
Being mainly womens problems makes it harder but one day we will get there . Have more understanding of the disfunction
Its a battle we have to win
What we eat has a lot to do with the state of the nation and the state of everyone of us. I don’t lose weight on a standard food intake but if I eat grain free low carb high fat I do. I have sat in a a&e watching children sobbing next to chocolate machines until their parents relent and being fed cans of red bull. It’s child abuse to bring children up on such a low nutrition diet. Sugar (and it’s alternatives) is a drug. Parents need help to avoid the pressures and get back to meat and two veg living.
Why on earth can't hospital trusts be radical, grow a spine & insist on healthy food & drink vending machines.
Glory be, when your are desperately hungry, you'll eat what's in front of you & if it not, then you'll learn the hard way.
I make only one meal. If my two say they don't want it, then we'll sit it out for a while & after some distraction with conversation eventually they'll pick the fork up.
We owe to our children not to fill them with cr&p & teach everything in moderation.
In a hospital near to me they have a Gregs bakery !! Sausage rolls, pasties, sandwiches, cakes, biscuits crisps and sugary drinks galore !! Nothing gluten free either !!
I don't believe it, how the hell can they justify that. Lots of people will be walking past thinking what on earth is a bakery doing in a hospital.
If the hospital can advocate that then they should be advocating natural juice bars, fancy modern healthy salad bars or some such set up.
Even the doctors and nurses go there !! Gregs obviously pay the NHS a fee - it's called double standards !!
Yes, definitely a financial incentive involved. Let the Drs & nurses stuff themselves silly. We know full well how they'll end up in a month or two!
I had a short stay in hospital a couple of years ago and they gave me a sandwich and a jam doughnut - I'm coeliac so gluten makes me really ill ! They couldn't supply anything gluten free - my daughter had to bring me food in ! Staff said they needed more notice - it was an emergency admission !!
🙄bonehead options are all they can offer! I find where I live there are more gluten free options when eating out. Still room for improvement. I used to live in London where you find endless, funky cafes & eateries offering oodles of gluten free/anything free options. We need more of that everywhere.
Same here too my hubby had to bring food in for me otherwise i would have starved😨
Snap! I was a diabetic on elective surgery all the ward food was carb or sugar based- no one knew the carb, fat, protein content or even calories of the food, when in doubt offer toast and jam! While there and sometime after it took some effort to get my blood sugar readings under control. Where were the healthy fruit and veg?
You just took the words out of my mouth-a hospital in west midlands has a greggs and other little cafe shops selling all manner of crap!! And as you say they do not cater for celiacs or gluten intolerant people.😕
Its New Cross Wolverhampton lol xx
Ha yes!! Is your endo based there too? I'm on my second consultant there-well what can i say apart from appalling!!
No ! After GP diagnosis I was prescribed carbimazole. 6months after feeling so ill GP refused to refer me to endo so I had to go private. Saw some nutter in Birmingham, who poked his finger through my throat, received and sent texts throughout the consultation (laughing whilst doing it) then told me I needed radio iodine treatment. I asked if there were any alternatives to try initially, he said no. 3 years later still no better, again going private to see endo in North Staffs. fingers crossed I may be seeing someone sensible !! Having full blood tests done next week, then further blood tests after fasting - hurrah think he's been reading the advice on here !! I'd read that I may be able to come off the carbimazole after 1-2 years, GP said no, endo said yes - 50% of people can manage without carbi. He said GP should not have prescribed medication it has to be done through endo. Told him GP was trying to put me on thyroxine with my carbi which I thought was stupid - one medication to lower it another to increase it - and he agreed with me !! Will eventually try to come off carbi while being monitored !! I know I am so fortunate to have private medical insurance through my work, but they will only pay for a couple of consultations and blood tests, then the premium shoots up renewal time, so hopefully my treatment will be condensed !! Apparently I'm being tested for Addisons disease because of the list of autoimmune diseases I already have !!
Also, there's no Greggs/tuck shops in the private hospitals lol xx
Good luck with private, ive been on carbi for 8 months now and currently on 2.5mg a day and due to see endo on 15th may.em😕 i too have hashis and graves and also celiac and god knows what else? You can be on carbi for longer than 18months if needs be, i wanted to swap to levo but everybody said no, if you become hypo whilst on carbi yiu just reduce dosage but you probably already know that!.thats great your workplace is paying-let me know how you get on.x
I'm only on 5mg a day for hyperthyroidism. It was reduced about 18 months ago from 10mg, GP suggested I cut the tablet in half - have they seen the size of the tablets !! I haven't got a microscope in the kitchen !! Think I've got everything this crappy auto immune stuff throws at me. I'm just praying I can get sorted out with this new endo - but I'm losing faith with doctors. Recent endo kept asking if there were other autoimmune problems in the family - no - but it could have gone back generations when the technology to diagnose wasn't about !! This old body aint got a crystal ball ! Good luck on 15th May !!
You make me laugh with the way you put things😊lol have you got a pill cutter i find it helps? They are so bloody fiddly though-at least yiur endo asked about auto immune diseases-mine told me it was far to techinical and to move on!! Yes i nearly shoved his clipboard up his @rse-i tild him he was so rude and then it all went downhill. Never mund😊
I don't know why some health 'professionals' enter into the health field, a lot have no compassion, care, concern or even enough knowledge. It took 2 years for the systemic lupus to be diagnosed ! The majority of my dark hair fell out (which made my daughter cry, who was 14 at the time, thinking I'd got the dreaded C. GP asked if I was depressed at all ? Told him well I ain't too bloody happy with no hair !! Answer was OK come back in 3 months time !! It was only when I got vitiligo they started testing for lupus. Last year GP told me to go somewhere hot for a few weeks and lie in the sun constantly to increase my Vit D levels !! When I told her I have to wear sunblock she asked why ? Read my bloody notes !! She'll be telling me to get a burger from McDonalds next !!
No haven't got a pill cutter - I've got swollen joints in my one hand thanks to rheumatoid arthritis so I'd end up cutting a finger off lol. God I sound like a right bag of scrap !! That endo was his initials AB ?? his attitude sounds familiar lol.
Oh my god AB yes!!! Likes the sound of his own voice. You have a great sense of humour😆😆 i don't mean to laugh but your humour is great!! Endos are full of impatience and topped up with self importance-i was going to change to birmingham university hospital(queen elizabeth) is that where yours is? But thought better the devil you know😈
You got to laugh ! If I kept thinking about all that's wrong with me I'd be up the crem !
If it's the same one he gets around all the private hospitals, supposed to be top in his field ! Writes lots of papers about thyroid stuff !! I'm at the Newcastle under Lyme one, where AB is too. I told BUPA under no circumstances do they refer me to him, apparently they even put it on the e-mail to the hospital. I told the new endo about him, he just smiled, said he knew him. The one I'm seeing now works at the North Staffs hospital in Stoke on Trent. Newcastle under Lyme is only half hour from where I live, and easier to get to than the one in Wolverhampton, and a get a free cuppa !
One day ....maybe just one day ..... (one can live in hope) that the food industry and Agri business will have the finger pointed at them, along with out of date and ill advised Government advice based on spurious "research" - they are the ones that have both provided us with the very "food" that has made us all so fat and given us the advice to eat what we do .......... You have to become your own expert, find the truth to what is really going on and if you are well enough take your own nutrition into your own hands. It is an uphill struggle but I for one am getting there and now my thyroid is back in kilter, my weight is coming off without me trying and my blood pressure and heart rate have come right back down into normal limits for my age. I have healed my own gut (not help from anyone in the NHS); I have just had my LTF's and pre-diabetes blood tests done and expect those to be coming back down to normal ranges too - oh and to boot - my overall cholesterol level has dropped similarly. All without any drug - sorry big Pharma!!
I echo what you say. Big Food & Big Pharma love only the Big profits & pennyannie rightly points out, their bottom line is all that matters. Loueldhen raises the important point that we can help ourselves & must.
This forum is the toolbox to help fix ourselves.
We must do this even when the government bends & gives in to accommodate Big Food & Big Pharma.
I'd like to know your story on healing your gut. I have been using Natures Plus Digestive Wellness supplements to help heal mine & as I'm learning I can always do more.
It's great to hear your goodness news story of getting back on track & losing the weight too. It gives me hope. And we all need that.
Hi Paula - I excluded certain trigger foods (ones that I know cause me a problem) like soy, dairy, gluten, sugar and alcohol then began a regime of prebiotic (inulin powder, which is ground chicory root - a natural digestive aid - warning this does make you fart!), probiotics - I used non dairy acidophillus (both bought from that well known high street health store that often had a penny sale!. I also used liquorice root and made my own bone broth from either chicken bones or lamb bones and sometimes fish bones. There are loads of recipes on line on how to make bone broth - it takes a long time to make but is well worth the effort. That along with other specified supplements (advised from blood tests) have now healed my gut - I am no longer in pain for the first time in about 30 years and am finally getting better. I am currently on an allergy food exclusion diet (currently 19 days into a 21 day regime) it has been hard and the first week I felt like boiled s**t, as all the toxins left my body-I feel better than I have done in years, my skin has cleared and I am losing weight naturally and all my health markers are improving. It is a true revelation, had I not taken this course I am sure that I would be on asthma meds, BP meds, diabetes meds, pain killers and statins for the rest of my life doing God knows how much damage to me! I am also buying my own NDT and feel better than I have done in decades (I am 56) I even have a spring in my step now that my fybromyalgic type pain has almost gone! I am proud of myself and so glad that I am finally feeling better. I have done this without the help and support of the NHS and my GP. I feel let down by them and it is expensive but I will forego a lot to feel better. Hope that info helps.
I think you need to see a bigger picture.
You are on this website so I presume you are learning about yourself and your condition, something you thought would have been done by " your doctor " when, if, you became unwell. Well, so much for that assumption. !
The media is driven by money and stupid, ill conceived comments from so called celebrities, sound bites from some programme or another by some slippery gibbet do not help anybody, but probably cause a rise in the purchase of diet foods. So job done !
We need to educate ourselves - be kind to yourself - we know of these simplistic stupid comments - we've heard and or felt them for many years - education is some of the answer.
Are the food industry and drug companies really interested in anything other than their bottom lines ? I don't think so - sorry.
You are right. We need to educate ourselves.
This forum, I imagine has 1000's of followers. It's potent ial to create a movement of epic proportion knows no bounds IMHO.
There is so much power in this forum that if we all individually harnessed that, then as individuals I'd like to think we are winning the war.
Informing ourselves & not allowing ourselves to believe the "brainwashing" is key.
As I uncover more lies & untruths, I will hold firm to the real truth I have found for myself with the help of this forum.
Although I used to hate the way my stomach used to spill onto my lap when I sat I blame the medical profession now not myself. I have been told by my lovely young lady doctor that I’m obese and need to do something. We went through all the diets she could think of and I had tried and failed with. I left feeling more depressed than I had in years because I know she didn’t believe i had tried. I then found a last resort Diet . High fat low carb. I had lived low fat for years on doctors advice so found it extremely hard to start but boy oh boy it worked. Next appointment for blood (annual) she congratulated me on doing so well, I had lost 15 kilo. See she said I told you that if you stick to a diet it works, was it sw. well when I told her it was keto she threw a fit and ranted about how un healthy that was. Can’t flipping win lol. Still eating lchf with the occasional treat and feeling much better.
Two hearts for you! Nhs advice has always been ‘cut down on what you eat’ not ‘change what you eat’. Cutting down is impossible. Feeding yourself differently is very possible and has radical effects. Sticking to it is not easy however. It requires planning preparation and determination. Well done you.
You can't win can you? I find that there is so much conflicting advice about weight loss. I have done every diet under the sun and did succeed in getting into the 'normal' weight range a few years ago before I was diagnosed. But I was on 800 calories a day and losing a pound or less per week... soul destroying.
I agree with Gidgeclev, as I often feel as if I’m failing when I see reports about obesity and then step on the scales. I’ve actually managed to lose 2 stone in the first part of this year, which is great, but there’s a long way to go and I’m feeling a bit stuck where I am at the moment, and I’m keenly aware that my thyroid is fighting against me. The media pressure to be slim doesn’t help and can make the process of dieting feel quite overwhelming, especially as there are so many different diets out there, some with questionable science attached to them. For me, it’s low carb, white meat/fish, pulses, medium fat, plenty of veggies and strict tracking that seems to work, with the occasional treat to make it less of a chore. Having overcome an eating disorder before finding out I have thyroid problems, I say find a way of eating that makes you happy, and ignore those who challenge you on it, as even if your body doesn’t conform to a media “ideal”, it’s health and happiness that really count.
Me too! I just wish the NHS would allow the prescription of Liothyronine (T3), maybe there wouldn’t be so many of us struggling with our weight!
Absolutely, you're bang on the money. People speak time & time again of how much T3 makes a vital difference. T3 users know how it affects them. I've read many comments from users on their symptoms returning when it's withdrawn and how anxious others are at the thought of it being taken away from them.
It is interesting to look at old film footage from the 40's and 50's when we were supposedly all slim and healthy from years of rationing. There are always some women who are obviously overweight. Either they had a thyroid problem or were buying sweeties on the black market! My paternal grandmother was always very overweight for no apparent reason and died in her 60's. I often wonder if she had an undiagnosed thyroid condition.
One thing for sure is you have to eat. Low calorie is not the way to go with underactive. If you up your fat intake ( good fats only) you have to eat less carbs or it will pile up big time. So if anyone decides to go the keto way please do your homework. The other benefit with it is you go gf and sugar free without realising . Win win hope you all have a guilt free day . X
2/3rds of the population are unwell too !! I'm 5ft 10" and underweight for my height. I don't drink alcohol (mainly because it makes me ill) so the doctors can't blame it on being obese, drinking etc. But, I've got systemic lupus, overactive thyroid, coeliac and Sjogrens syndrome and currently being investigated for Addisons disease. They don't know what to do with me !! I have a high cholesterol despite not eating the foods they tell me not to eat anyway ! My husband who eats everything - glass of full fat milk with a whole box of chocolates in one go - his cholesterol is 3.1 !! GP is desperate to get me on statins !! Down side of being skinny your face looks so bloody haggard all the time with nothing to pad it out ! Should I try Botox lol - I'd probably end up having a reaction to it and end up looking like a trout lol. We are all beautiful people regardless of age size and colour. We are here only once so enjoy it !!!
I will willingly donate some of my excess! I know it is ridiculous to worry so much about what your weight is but after a lifetime of snide comments from my mother it is difficult not to take the current anti obesity crusade to heart. Incidentally in my young slim days she used to worry that I was anorexic so I can never win.
It's just nasty people giving out snide comments. I've had them all my life - stick insect being the favourite, Oh your anorexic !! You need a good meal inside you ! Because of the lupus I now have white hair so I'm Mrs Santa or you look like a cotton bud !! Let them get on with it - they are just jealous that I struggle to find extra length trousers and that my arms are too long for my sleeves or that I'm in agony on long flights squashed between the rows. We all have our insecurities. I know I'm a nice person on the inside with a beautiful daughter (what the world calls normal) and lovely grandsons that love me for who I am !
Hi Sally, please do not place too much importance on cholesterol levels as we have all been fed a lie about cholesterol being bad for you. We need cholesterol for brain function, bones, muscles, in fact everything. High cholesterol has never been about eating too much fat. It is all part of Big Pharmas plan to get everyone on statins (there have been no trials that point to statins being a preventative for heart disease and highly questionable ones that show they are necessary for ready established heart problems). 'The dark side of statins by Mark Davis' reveals the truth and there are many other books too.
I am a 'larger person'. I know when I get my head in the right place and do what I know works for me that I can shed pounds .. doing the right things also helps my thyroid etc. Stress, etc upsets the balance. Cutting down on sugar and carbs helps. Surprisingly, good fats like coconut oil also help lose weight.
The body can put on weight to protect the main organs from toxins taken in from poor food, chemicals etc. They get stored in fat cells. This is why sometimes when we lose weight the toxins get released and we have a detox reaction. Drink lots of water to flush them out.
P.S. Just realised that I had a typo in my previous post and a slippery fibberty was meant to be what I typed - Blame it on the brain fog, or the bossa nova, it doesn't matter - smile - it is not about winning - if you diet you will inevitably fail and your self esteem takes another battering - it is a vicious circle - eat healthily - you know you can't rely on the medical profession regarding optimum thyroid treatment - why should anything else be different ?
You have to think for yourself - get off the merry go round - take some control - even if it is simply to press to exit button on sensationalist media " news " and programmes that simply are there to be fillers between the adverts - what is the merit in watching programmes that put you down rather than validate the real problems of living with hypothyroidism ?
My rant is over, I think, maybe I should call myself Mrs Malaprop in future ? Circa 1775
Take care, love yourself, whatever size that may be - just think if it were true - we will soon be in the majority and doesn't majority rule and the we can pick on the skinny guy ?
It does sound silly doesn't it - as if we would :
It makes me angry... so BLOODY angry!!! How dare he paint the entire 'fat' population with the same 'you should eat better so you won't be so fat' brush??? It's a load of patronising waffle from somebody who should know better! Last time I looked he wasn't a stick insect either! I have never been what would commonly known as 'slim' and it isn't my aim to be that now. However, I would like to be more comfortable in my body than I am with around 3 stones of thyroid failure weight hanging about my boobs and middle (impairing my ability to breathe properly, but that's nothing to do with my thyroid... according to my GP🙄), but nothing I try seems to get anything more than a couple of pounds off... I watched my hypothyroid mother go through every fad-diet going and I'll be damned if I'll follow her down that road! Her heartbreak was heartbreaking to watch, especially in the days when I could throw whatever I liked down my neck without putting on a single ounce while she was eating less than a squirrel! All my meals are prepared from scratch using 'healthy' organic ingredients and I would challenge Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall to find anything wrong with my diet! I don't eat shop bought bread, I make my own every day and processed food does not inhabit my pantry! So I would welcome his 'solution' to my weight problem and until he comes up with that he can shut the f*ck up!!!😡
He’s not targeting everyone. But the large percentage who can eat better and would massively benefit from that. My mother (and I) have the same hypo issue. She dieted and lived on two ryvitas and a dairy lea triangle of cheese per day but was very overweight. Poisoned by levo therapy and died at 56. I have learnt enough to know that dieting is useless but eating food (as opposed to rubbish) and being treated with t3 supports my health. But I wouldn’t want to stand in the way of anyone pointing out the terrible effects the standard diet is having on the majority of the population.
I agree with you totally... However, it would be nice if some of these programs could actually explain that not everybody's 'obesity' is down to eating too many pies! My arms and legs are as skinny as they ever were, it's just my middle that's got bigger because my thyroid gave up and the medical profession refused to do anything about it until my TSH was through the roof and I was physically on my knees, even though I went to them with my concerns due to a family connection with hypothyroidism years before! Had they done something then I would never have put this weight on in the first place! I'm just heartily sick and bloody tired of 'helpful friends' and even 'health professionals' suggesting I should try to lose a little weight... Do they honestly believe I WANT to be this shape???
He's probably just about to launch a new TV series/book. That's all they do on the One Show - promote !!
I have struggled with weight all my life as I have PCOS which actively encourages weight gain, and going hypo was the nail in the coffin.
At one point whilst badly medicated I pointed out to my GP i had to eat no more than 1300 calories and do a hefty gym session every day just to not put weight on, even he said that was not sustainable and gave me a raise! I have also tried them all over the years and pre hypo did lose some with slimming world. This time I put on even sticking to the stricter classic red and green days.
I am now optimally medicated on NDT and the T3 in it did help stop the upward march but no loss.. (probably the PCOS) and the only diet left to try was keto, it seems to be working albeit slowly.
You have to weigh up the options ‘they’ say it unhealthy, well what do they call being 5ft3 and 17 stone which apparently is my only other option. And if energy in versus energy out is the key why was I not losing an ounce on 1300 in and 500 at the gym out, ignorant patronising t**ts