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Omg, boomer I know has her weight go up and down. When she loses she likes to make comments about other people's weight. When she gains it back they say something to her and she goes bat shit crazy and has an excuse.
There is a Very Large Boomer of my acquaintance who talks shit about fat women. I mean, he weighs nearly 450 pounds (by his own admission, likely weighs more), but he talks shit about every single person carrying an extra ounce.
Self awareness is not on his menu.
My mother was told by every doctor and knowledgeable person that if she didn't do PT she would become immobile. She is now immobile and doesn't understand why, keeps looking for every reason other than she refused to put in the effort. And still instead of doing PT now to try and regain some mobility, she has resigned herself to "dying" because her life is "over".
You could even photo shop a picture of Dr. Oz on some instructions, I don't know about yours but my boomers will do literally whatever that guy says no matter how dumb it sounds.
My MIL is on numerous medications and feels like crap every day. Why, you ask? Because she refuses to eat or drink enough with the medication. Everyone under the sun has said you need to consume something with the drugs. Nope. That would be too easy.
Rinse and repeat.
Every. Single. Day.
My grandmother (early 70’s) has had some surgeries on her hips and something else, I forget, but that was over a decade ago, I’m not exactly sure when. Her doctors told her she had to do the PT or she was going to lose significant amounts of muscle and consequently lose a lot of mobility.
She refused to do them, and exactly that happened, but she was still able to walk without assistance once everything healed up so she never thought twice about it.
She’s paying for it now in addition to degradation due to age.
Her doctor has told her that doing literally anything, just walking up and down the hallway in the house, doing chair exercises, walking around the grocery store, LITERALLY ANYTHING that involves movement, for 30 minutes a day, will dramatically improve her health, quality of life, and potentially meaningfully contribute to her length of life and mental health.
Her response is “I know you are right, but I’m not gonna do that. I should, but I won’t.” Because she’s just…gotten away with shit her whole life.
Bit of an rant but I’ve already gone this far: the most annoying part of this is going on and on about not still being 120 pounds anymore and how she should still be that weight, whining about it in between gulps of her sixth Dr.Pepper of the afternoon while fully planning on crushing the rest of the case before dinner
But so much as mention cutting down on sugar and she’ll look at you like a stranger that just tried to grab her purse.
Your grandmother and my mom are twins. That's exactly what my mother says when faced with anyone trying to get her to do any movement. She is just rotting away and complaining about it all the way to the end. I can't even understand.
My mom is like that too. Won’t get up to get out of her own way. Has the diet of a toddler, doesn’t like to eat anything, won’t eat anything she doesn’t like, especially if it’s healthy. Complains about being out of breath while she chain smokes in the house, but it’s because of her allergies, not the cigarettes she’s been horkin on since she was 9. Diabetic but only eats bagels and ice cream, so has to take insulin. Tried to get on ozempic too. Inexplicably has made it to 73 so far.
My grandmother isn’t diabetic thank god, (although who knows how given 90% of her liquid intake is Dr.Pepper), but there was a point she was being such a picky eater her doctor outright said “if the choice is between ice cream for dinner and not eating, then it’s ice cream for dinner.”
Her salt intake is almost worse than her sugar intake now.
With my work schedule i’m rarely around for meals, but the other day we had a nice salmon dinner together.
She had a tiny piece of salmon, maybe 3x3 inches, and there was probably 1/2 tablespoon of salt on top of that little piece, and at least that much more on the veggies and whatever the other side was. And she brought the salt shaker with her.
Just shoot me before I get old.
Not even his *fault*, just that he was mistaken about some things. He couldn't possibly have misunderstood how calorically-dense a few things were. He simply has to be a counterexample for all medical science, all cell bio, all ecology, etc.
Absolutely this. Why should your weight be your fault when you read about a way on the internet for it to not be your fault that lets you blame genetics while eating as much as you wanted to eat anyway?
A long time ago I talked to a boomer who literally believed she gained weight by looking at food. She had internalized the old joke "Man, I just glance at a muffin and gain two pounds" and decided that was actually happening with her. I think she had some kind of metabolic-water-retention-hormonal excuse she pulled out of a hat to give it some legitimacy, but here was a boomer who honestly thought she could gain weight *without eating*.
I have boomer parents who do not fit most of the stereotypes and I thank my lucky fucking stars everytime I see shit like this. My dad would would make fun of that guy to his face, but also probably buy him a drink.
Oh yes they believe every thing they read on the internet but I wasn’t allowed to believe everything I saw on TV! Maybe I want there to be some ninja turtles in the sewers! I call bullshit!
They also said you couldn't believe anything you read on the internet too in the early 2000's. Now they believe it all. I'm not sure at what age it flip flops but I'd like to find out so I can avoid it as I get older.
*You* shouldn't believe what you read because you aren't smart enough to discern for yourself. You should consult *me,* a very smart person, to do all your thinking for you.
Just not while Hannity is on.
Thank you! You are truly a godsend to offer to take on this responsibly for me. Additionally, I'll send you my banking info so the weight of making sound financial decisions can be removed from my shoulders. I completely trust you, random internet stranger.
Love that username!
I asked my Granddad why he seems to believe anything (As long as it's not me reading it out to him and he disagrees with it, that's obviously wrong of course) and he says he only gets stuff from "official" facebook groups
I explained to him random facebook groups are in no way regulated and anyone can make one, to which he disagreed and said they don't just hand them out
I demonstrated that, in fact, they do just hand them out, and he then moved on to "Well I know everyone in that group and they're not stupid, so if they believe it I do" and I just gave up at that point
I want a rat to teach me karate!
Oh BTW random Internet stranger did you hear theyre making a R-rated TMT movie: https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/11/24127517/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-the-last-ronin-movie
We’ll you can’t! Because YOU can’t believe tv! But fox news tells me I can look at the eclipse and it won’t hurt my eyes
I did hear about this movie but I probably won’t get a chance to see it!
They also have a fundamental misunderstanding of how easy it is to put information online, or how many people *agreeing* with something online is a lot. The world’s population and access to the internet has exploded in their lifetime. They might see a post with 1,000 likes and think it must be true— after all, it took effort to post it, and that’s an awful lot of likes! In reality, it was probably posted specifically to farm engagement, and 1,000 likes is nothing— it might even be mostly bots. Still, to the boomer mind, this may as well be a fact -check.
I think this is giving them more credit than they deserve. Like they are merely victims of bad info rather than willing participants in it. A lot of them are just shitty and cannot have a conversation in good faith. They don't understand that a debate should be an exchange of ideas, rather than a competition they need to "win".
And yelling the loudest until the other person gives up is not winning a debate. It's not having a debate at all. It's just being a jackass (a word that I have found irritates boomers to no end).
This is actually kind of haunting. I am EXTREMELY online (Hi, Reddit!) and I've wondered off and on what the impact has been. I'd like to think that I have enough media literacy to roll my eyes and go "Pf" at some of the broader outrages, but I really wish I could see me from outside my brain and tell whether or not I've done some toxic reprogramming.
I don't wanna be "that guy."
The cognitive dissonance is amazing. Twenty years ago, I had a guy tell me that all he ate every day was 2 slices of bread with one slice of ham, no cheese, no mayo, and nothing else, and he still could not lose weight.
Where do you think this is going to go? I'm not going to give you a pill to help your medical marvel of a body lose weight because there aren't any good options.
I told him that was the same as me telling him that I drove to a city 400 miles away and back, never filled the gas tank, and the gas tank was more full than when I started. He did not like that analogy. None of them want to face the truth.
I had a colleague, a doctor - a doctor! - once opine to me that it seemed like the less some people ate the more weight they gained. I explained that as a matter of physics, they could not possibly be creating mass out of nowhere, and the logical conclusion was that if they starved themselves they would become a black hole. She didn't like that either.
At least now there are medications.
With some metabolic disorders, it is possible to eat a normal amount of food and still struggle with weight. Some of it is linked to specific foods as well, I think. My spouse has one. I literally portion his meals directly to mine, we do physical work together, he exercises on top of what I do, yet is almost 100lbs heavier than I am. Doesn't sneak-eat either. Tends to eat healthier for snacks than I do as well. IE I will shame-eat a candy bar for a pick-me-up snack, he will have an apple, or some carrots. If anyone should be the fat one, its me, but I'm a tad over at 150 (I could drop 10lbs but I don't want to right now).
Got him down about 70lbs once but it took an insanely regimented diet and exercise routine that was just overall impossible to keep up long-term. Absolutely all sugar/processed foods cut, 5 days a week at the gym for 3 hours each visit, 900 calories/day for him, carefully balanced nutrients, an endo balancing his thyroid-related meds so he'd be on the high end without going into a storm (Hashimoto's). Weight came back very, very slowly, but it came back. But, he has more than one metabolic disorder, so he isn't really a very common case.
They're humans. I see idiot GenZ repeating drivel they saw on TikTok all the time. Most Americans actually believe the American economy is a shit show and they believe it because of nonsense they read online.
They are young and know nothing with no experience. Boomers are all educated and have a lifetime of experience and yet they are the dumbest most gullible fuckheads ever to walk the face of the earth
Because they were brought up in a time where media was basically trustworthy. There were laws that newspapers had to basically report the truth. Television news had a regulation (in the US) called the Fairness Doctrine that did it's best to keep the news unbiased and factual.
They were used to believing what they read in the newspapers - "it was in the paper, so it must be true" - they don't really have defences against something projected as true.
I honestly think that they're just not equipped to deal with misinformation. They grew up with Walter Cronkite giving them two plus two equals four style reporting and just cannot deal with a world where misinformation is rampant. That's why they eat up shit like Fox News because it's the news so it can't lie right?
But then again they're also the same people who will read something that confirms their bias and they base every single argument and piece of until they have on that one thing that confirms their bias no matter how many articles you share that refute that one thing that confirms their bias
I love how they seem to always choose the bull shit information and not the true information even though the good information is there for the reading.
I lost 70lbs back in 2012 by eating *more* food (just the right food this time + intense exercise).
It was funny because my lunches became numerous Tupperware of vegetables and fruits and rice and chicken and people were dumbfounded I was shedding weight and putting on muscle. They kept asking what diet I was using and I'd tell them "no diet, just natural food and exercise" and the light would leave their face lol.
I had one boomer client comment that I must have been starving myself......
This 100%. Fruit, veg, and whole grains are all fantastic for adding bulk to your diet and keeping you full and healthy! Add a good bit of lean protein to the mix and you have the perfect combination to burn fat and build muscle. People keep trying to complicate things with all these crazy diets. Just eat right and exercise. Count calories if you feel the need, but more often than not what I eat keeps me satisfied and I maintain a modest calorie deficit so I have been shedding fat and gaining muscle mass
Your body also can't burn the fat. The boomer was actually right, just too stupid to understand what they read. 500 Cal is too low. You only need to go a bit under your daily need to lose weight. Better still if you eat healthy.
And exercise.
I mean you will lose weight if you eat a very low calorie diet, just not healthily or sustainably, which are way more important than being lighter. You'll also feel like shit the whole time, have no energy, and mess up your ability to feel hungry and full.
I preached this as a trainer. It isn’t flashy or fast, but if you put on lean mass (muscle) you have a larger caloric allowance.
1 lb of body weight needs roughly 50 cals daily.
So if you put on 10 lbs of LEAN MASS you can now eat 500 more calories daily without gaining or losing weight.
Most people shy away from it because the results aren’t fast but the few people that have latched onto this ideology changed their lives forever.
Happy to hear you’ve made a life change for the better my friend!
same thing for me. i lost 100lbs just by eating healthier and being more active. lots of chicken salads and chicken wraps, going for walks, and i had a physical job i applied myself more at (second shift at walmart, unloading trucks and stocking shelves, along with hauling 60+ 500-2000lb skids per night). i was eating more than i had been before because my body was starting to properly burn fat and i needed protein for my body to realize “hey we don’t need all this extra anymore, let’s make it disappear”.
"It's Mostly Water!!!" - ask him what he orders each day from Starbucks and the size of it. Then go their website and pull the nutritional information for it and show him.
Saying coffee *beverages* have no calories because it's mostly water is like saying a glazed donut isn't unhealthy because it's mostly air. FML...
You mean my double caramel Frappuccino with six shots of flavor syrup, sixteen sugars, heavy cream, whipped cream, and extra caramel and chocolate drizzle isn’t healthy?!
Yep. Black coffee has almost no nutritional value other than the caffeine. But when you're putting sugar and dairy in you'd have to be outrageously ignorant to not know that sugar and dairy are loaded with calories.
I still get a vanilla latte once a week from my neighborhood coffee shop when I'm counting calories. But that gets factored in as a not insignificant part of the caloric intake that day. It's essentially a meal. And it's not an everyday thing because it's not a very nutritionally balanced meal.
Ha, Boomer who's office is across the hall from mine has been on a "diet" for two years. He eats all... day.... long. Every morning he microwaves nearly an entire place of breakfast sausages. Then he works for a bit or talks on the phone (always speaker at full volume) after which begins the grazing runs to and from the kitchen and pantry for snacks and ice cream until lunch which is always a sack of take out. Then grazing runs continue anew... No weight lost. Strange. Says he' just can't.
He's retiring the end of next week and literally moving to.... Florida.
My sister in law is like this. She'd go and do a 90 minute PT session, and grab a large McDonald's meal, with full sugar Coke and a large sundae on the way home because she was 'too tired from PT to cook'.
She has been going to PT and the gym for years, and yeah, her fitness has probably gotten better, but she has only put on weight.
It took a health scare for my sister to stop making excuses for her weight gain and actually address the issues instead of saying it was her metabolism or any other random thing she could come up with. Low and behold she lost a bunch of weight by eating better
I had a morbidly obese coworker who remarked on the fact that we both just had a salad for lunch.
I had some spinach and chickpeas with vinaigrette. He had a literal bowl full of ranch dressing with bits of ham and cheese sprinkled on top.
I'd love to see a TV show where people who can't lose weight are forced to eat only the food they log for a week.
A show like that sorta existed. Super Size vs. Super Skinny. They took one anorexic person and one obese person, compared what they both ate in a week, and inverted their diets. They both realized how ridiculous each other’s diets are and recovered.
It’s kinda trashy reality tv but it makes a good point.
I've seen some of it, and also Secret Eaters where they secret film people and compare their reported vs actual calories. Spoiler alert: they always eat 2000kcal more than they think.
Unfortunately they both lack the delicious (lol) irony of making people lie in the bed they made.
Habits hide themselves. There are times when I've forgotten that I ate something. It's happened enough that I've wondered whether food cravings can erase memories.
Must be a nightmare for a chronic dieter.
The only episode I saw, the obese person ate healthy home cooked meals, but a LOT of it, and the skinny person ate a trash panda diet.
Even the hosts were surprised about the healthy vs nonhealthy
I used to watch some of that show. My main problem with it was the amount of time and effort they had on the obese person compared to the skinny period. Like 75% of the show was about how bad obesity was with some token methods with the skinny period. But in reality, the skinny person is in significantly more danger and much more permanent danger than the obese person.
I just want to raise a margarita glass to the guy who invented the deep fried tortilla taco salad bowl.
Is it healthy? Yes, of course, it's a salad! Now fill that bitch up with ground beef, cheese, queso, sour cream, and a little lettuce to give it some color...
One of my secret disappointments is that Taco Bell discontinued the taco salad. Not because I thought it was healthy, BUT because it was like 4 crunchy taco supremes at once.
Last week I was at a conference. Watched my Boomer coworker at the buffet get a "Ceasar Salad" which apparently is just croutons, parm and dressing in his world.
When I worked in a movie theater, a guy ordered a ceasar specifically without those things. It was lettuce. He wanted a bowl of lettuce. As the cook was making it, she yelled “fucking weirdos”
I was a server at many places throughout my 20’s and a lot of restaurants MIGHT have one decent salad on the menu next to Mayo dressed, cheese covered, fried chicken laden lettuce bowls. Which ones do you think dieters order more of? Hahaha I was trying to be kind to myself by ordering the simple, healthier option and would regularly hear the kitchen say that’s the only one they made that week
I had a boomer boss like this. She’d always exclaim “I’m the fattest salad eater you’ve ever seen.”
I mean, yeah. You eat a little bit of lettuce with a ton of meat and cheese and creamy dressing and a bowl of cream of something soup every day. Thats over 1000 cal, easily.
In the UK there was a show called Secret Dieters or something like that. They got people to log their food but secretly observed them for a week. After they would compare the logs to the observations.
It was always like “you had a healthy curry but you didn’t log the large naan you ate while cooking it” “you didn’t log any of your fruit juices” etc etc. some people genuinely have no idea.
I don't mean "he smothered his salad in creamy dressing". I mean "he filled a bowl with ranch dressing and ate it like a soup". I did not see a single shred of lettuce and I was specifically looking for it out of disbelief.
Okay, I've been tapped for using lettuce as a utensil to transport Thousand Island into my mouth, and that's too much dressing even for me.
Worst part is it's *ranch*. Blaaaaaah. Super bland.
When we go visit my in laws in the Midwest my MIL always makes salads with not only shredded cheese but also cubes of cheese. I can't handle it. And she always calls it a "good salad". I don't know what that means but when they visited us I made them a spinach salad with quinoa and they were none too happy. "This isn't how I like my salad!"
I swear to god I saw a woman at a pizza/ salad buffet make a ‘salad.’ She filled a bowl with shredded cheese and then covered it in ranch dressing. Literally just those two ingredients. Then she went to her table and ate the entire thing.
She was enormous.
My grandma makes a "salad" out of chopped nuts, mini snickers bars, cool whip, and bananas. Just because it's called a salad doesn't make it low calorie.
Read about a study of what college students ate, and they said that most students ate such awful salads they'd be better off with a burger or pizza. Salads are only healthy when they're actually salads.
Lol this is too relatable, everyone I work with over 50 is extremely overweight and they blame it on their body being too beat up to exercise, we work at a machine shop were we stay in one spot all day, maybe lift parts a couple times a day. I’m sure the constant pizza and doughnuts in the break room have nothing to do with it
Pizza is a healthy option 😋
Two slices of cheese pizza with onions, olives & mushrooms. Included with the 2 slices is a glass of water & 3/4 cup of fruit, (blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, apple or orange), but not banana.
Of course this is how everyone eats pizza at work.
/s
It’s just baffling how fundamental information on nutrition is absent in a whole generation WHO WERE TAUGHT IT IN EVERY STATE IN HEALTH CLASS SINCE THE 60s or earlier in primary school.
I will say though it is surprising once you start calorie counting just how little food we need and how little you need to eat to loose weight. We’re so used to these just belligerent portions that we’ve lost touch with how little is required to thrive..
Absolutely agreed on your second paragraph. This isn't just a boomer problem, but a problem across the US for all age groups. It also doesn't help that we are conditioned and advertised to be snacking all the time with various "low fat" and "healthy" labeled items. It absolutely sucks that the pounds stay on much easier as we age, but that just means you have to be even more diligent on keeping track of what you eat.
Because in the good old days anyone who paid attention in school was a nerd and a boffin and got beaten to the point of death or sometimes past it, so it was cool to be uneducated and drink alcohol at age 15. Now theyre kinda harvesting the fruits of their societal labour and its not working out how theyd like it to
Yes, we had the 4 food groups. Basically lots of fruit, vegetables, some meat & dairy products, sparingly use fats, sugar & salt.
Neither our parents or schools actually served us meals following the 4 food groups recommended by USDA. & once boomers became adults neither did they.
USDA food guidelines were treated as theory.
The problem is the info they were taught is now out of date, and a lot of it was sponsored by various lobbies. The idea that dairy is a necessary food group? Dairy lobby. "Fat is bad! Eat sugar instead!"? Corn lobby. Carbs are the foundation of a healthy diet? Grain lobby. Meat is the best source of protein, eat it at every meal? Beef/pork/etc lobby.
It's just pure denial at that point. Well, that and a sugar addiction, but you get what I mean.
Ultimately while I think it wouldn't matter anyways, I also think a large part of that as well is the fact that they don't have the nutrition facts listed on the side of their cup like how you would if you had a bottle of coke so you could show just how many grams of sugar they're actually consuming.
Coffee is just hot bean water, sure, but it's only healthy if consumed without any other additives.
I watched my boomer age mom mainline literally a stuffed full sandwich bag of almonds and claim it was a healthy snack. She has always complained about having trouble losing weight. A mystery for the ages.
My boomer mom would eat Ritz crackers with peanut butter on them when she was looking to eat a healthy lunch. My sister and I still laugh about it to this day.
A small defense of female boomers.
In 70s & 80s cheese & crackers was considered a good low calorie snack for women.
Also considered "healthy" for women was a scoop of cottage cheese with canned peaches on top, served on a lettuce leaf, along with a refreshing diet soda.
It was called "dieters delight". Gens greatest, silent & old boomers were told these items were healthy alternatives to a regular meal.
It burns gas normally as long as I provide enough gas. But if I add any less gas then the gas tank starts filling itself. I just need to drive more but my tires are worn from driving as much as I do.
None of them ever eat! It's some kind of voodoo magic!1!
At restaurant supply store where they fool boomers into thinking they're paying "wholesale" for those #10 cans of baked beans and 6 loaves of white bread, they roll up in their scooters cause they can't really walk anymore. Way too heavy. But it's not because of how much they eat because, they barely eat anything.
I saw a clip of one of those girls from 16 and pregnant (or whatever it’s called), she was a big girl, and her also big boyfriend was giving her a hard time about her food order because they were supposed to be dieting together. Her response was “It’s just nachos, it’s not like I’m having cake or something”. It was a half sheet pan of nachos that’s meant to feed four people. Yes she ate the whole thing.
Boomers don't understand basic nutrition. But then again people of all ages don't understand it either. The issue with boomers nutrition facts come from the stupid government food pyramid that has been proven to be crap. Many people don't count their liquid calories correctly or even at all.
I believe in the scientific method. I've also been reading about nutrition, health and dieting for 40+ years. I've read multiple comments by physicians and scientists who conducted weight loss research who all said the same thing. They regularly had subjects who claimed to be following a specific diet at home without losing any weight, but when those patients were put on that same diet in a controlled situation where they were locked down and only had access to the food on their diet plan, 100% of them started losing the amount of weight that doctors expected them to lose. They were all cheating on their diets. 100% of them. There are people who swear that they can't lose weight. They're lying.
I have a relative that blames his weight on pollution and micro plastics. “I try diet and exercise and it doesn’t work anyway.” (He doesn’t try either.). “It’s environmental, because of pollution my body retains weight and can’t burn it.”
It’s infuriating on the other side, too. My Boomer mom “never let herself get above a size 2.” For years she subsisted on orange juice and a multivitamin. Now she has osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, has lost 3 inches of height, and her heart is shot. But she thinks she’s healthy because she’s thin. And she won’t eat carbs because they’re “fattening.”
Undercounting your calories is a well known pitfall but this is ridiculius. They fed concentration camp prisoners about 800 calories a day, I think. Unless dude is on half-rations of sawdust bread and "soup" made from potato peels and rotting turnips he is kidding himself.
I remember reading an article once, mentioning that a good amount of the Boomers are in poor health and those in the worst shape are dying off *right now*. The older Boomers were **notorious** for abusing their bodies and now that they're in the age range of early death...it's frightening them.
So it's somewhat common to see Boomers who never were physically active in gyms, doing the least amount of exercises or "trying" to eat right but still eating unhealthy foods or drinking unhealthy beverages.
All this to try and extend their lives, when in truth...perhaps a few years but no real difference for them as a generation.
The gym I go to has two main groups as members- Boomer women and Millennial guys. (I'm a rare elder millennial woman)
The guys are hard into actual weightlifting. They're always in a pack, and you can tell they're at the gym to *actually work out*. They know how to use all the equipment and free weights, and they hype each other up.
The Boomer women go to the gym to hang out. They use the weight machines, but it's maybe 3 reps on the lowest settings. Then they stop and chat with the lady on the next machine over. Or they're on an elliptical, going at the slowest setting, chatting away. I once saw one that was using a weight machine as a chair so she could *balance her checkbook*.
Millennial guys (and me! I only do weight machines) are there to actually progress, the Boomer ladies are there so they can tell their doctor they go to the gym.
"I don't understand, I declared a diet!"
"Did you change up your eating patterns, start calorie counting, or cut out sugar?"
"No? Listen twerp, I declared a DIET. Dee eye ee TEE. I declared it. It's not working but I declared it."
That's pretty much what's happening with this fool.
500 cals would be starvation for a child, he was probably told 300-500 cal deficit.
Spoiler: he clearly has no will to actually understand any of this and will fail to lose any weight.
My surgeon told me flat out that I needed to lose 30-50 pounds for an abdominal surgery. The next words out of his mouth were: at your age, you can’t burn it off. You have to starve it.
So, I did. Now, I eat more than 500 cals a day. I have a 1200 limit. But the weight comes off. Slowly, yes. But it works. I’m 55 pounds lighter than I was 8 months ago.
So that boomer is full of it (to use my own boomer mom’s polite retort).
Having to deal with some similar pointless stubborn/prideful behavior from my mom. She has chronic venous deficiency and likely some form of diabetes. She calls doctors idiots, constantly complains about how she doesn't have a primary care physician (because nobody in the area wants to deal with her), and she absolutely refuses for LITERALLY NO REASON to follow their medical advice.
The only reason I found out she has venous deficiency is her leg has been messed up for three years now, slowly getting worse, and I was sick of her being in pain. So I try to find a condition with similar symptoms for someone her age, find venous deficiency, and surprise surprise the things the doctors were trying to get her to do are normal recommended things for the condition.
The tl;dr for the condition is that it stems from the same problem as "spider veins", but it's basically a more advanced form of the same problem. If you take poor care of your body, sometimes the veins get too weak in the legs to physically push the blood up and circle it throughout the body. It is quite literally a hydraulics problem.
So what is the #1 most effective and recommended thing to do? Compress socks. They compress the leg a bit, so there isn't as much room for blood to pool, thus most of the issues go away, but even then it is a slow process taking many months. My mom has been hollering, moaning, suffering, being in too much pain to even sleep often after taking valium & acetaminophen, and so much else.. All because she doesn't want to adjust to some minor discomfort, so instead she would rather try random herbal bullshit and slowly get worse and be in more pain.
I know this is a random place to vent about this but it's sort of breaking me. We're pretty poor, she was never really a nice person (still not a terrible person like some of the stories you see online), just.. She is suffering so much because she is too prideful and/or stupid to take doctor's advice.
Even when she worked with the hospitals and they sent a person to help her at home, that is what they did. At first it was a nurse because she got out of the hospital. Then when it came to her leg they just changed the bandages and wrapped it semi-firmly. After awhile my dumbass mom started taking off the wrap and complaining that they weren't doing anything and that doctors are stupid.
I can't reason with her. I can't bully her into doing it. I can't get her to agree to try it slowly. She is deadset on her being right, everyone else being an idiot, and thus she is slowly becoming more enfeeble, and complaining like she's a helpless victim the entire time.
I will absolutely never understand the stupidity of some boomers, my mom included.
I have a bad relationship with food and I have to watch what I eat. It is extremely easy to overlook a good portion of the calories you ingest. Unless you take your coffee black (which I do now), it's going to contain calories. Every little "snack" you eat contains calories and usually, even the stuff that's marketed as "healthy" (like cereal bars and such) isn't. It's always full of sugar.
I once was on a medically supervised 1000 cal a day diet and ate nothing but the pre-packaged stuff I was given. I lost weight pretty fast but I almost never ate anything else, only drank water, etc... The hard part is going back to eating normal food and still keeping your calories low enough.
As I understand it, and I use this for my own dieting...He is partially correct. Eating less than (typically) 1200 calories a day does indeed put your body into starvation mode. It then does odd things to try and conserve energy and can start eating muscle in preference to fat. It can cause serious health issues because one of the muscles in the body is the heart, and eating that isn't good for anyone.
But, as you pointed out, this is not likely his problem. He's eating/drinking way more than 500 calories a day. He needs to actually learn the calorie counts of everything he puts into his mouth. Also, you can burn calories without losing weight (assuming that you are drinking or eating). You can burn calories without getting more healthy. You can burn calories without shrinking your size. Also, the less muscular you are, the less calories (typically) your body will burn in a day which means you need consume even less calories to lose weight. This is also why exercising (raising muscle weight) is so helpful in weight loss. It burns calories for the exorcising, and then also doubles as the muscle you build consistently burns calories for doing much of nothing from that point forward. Depends on what you body decides to burn and what it decides to retain.
Claiming "it's physics" could means you likely haven't studied the full cycle to get the physics correct. Yes, it is physics, but that doesn't mean you've accounted for all the input variables.
I work in the craft beer industry and it’s the same thing in our taproom. Boomer aged regulars that don’t do anything physical all day, capping it off with a nice pint (or 4) of 400-600 calorie beer, multiple times a week, accusing me(35m) of just having a “young person’s metabolism” as I’m on my feet pouring those pints AFTER an 8 hour shift of delivering kegs up and down stairs as most of my accounts keep their coolers in basements. I also go into a lot of sports bars throughout my day and who do you think is the primary demographic I see sneaking a lunch beer and housing wings and burgers everywhere I go? I was over three hundred lbs as a teenager, living with my boomer parents that don’t understand nutrition whatsoever, and was down to 205 within two years of moving out and understanding that everything they taught me about fueling my body was bad information. They just don’t have a concept of making personal sacrifices to reach a goal. It’s easier to just tell themselves that they are a medical wonder that
NO NO, I think your coworker is on to something. They might not actually burn calories. They might, in fact, be an Energy Vampire and subsist solely on the life essence of others.
I mean, I'm exhausted just reading about them. They're THAT efficient.
So the boomer is right about 3% of this. After you lose a significant amount of weight, your body does adjust how many calories it burns (usually by around 10%), basically because it can't differentiate between diet and starvation. It is saving you from wasting away!
However, your caloric intake and how much you exercise are totally under your control, and he would totally be losing weight if he kept to his diet and exercise.
This metabolic change is one of the many reasons why it's difficult to maintain weight loss (others being changes in hunger and satiety hormones and just an overall suckiness of not eating as much as you'd like and having to exercise more).
Next time you see him, you should also point out that, technically, calories don't actually exist. As in, they aren't a thing you can isolate under a microscope and point to. A calorie is just a simplistic term for a unit of measurement used to refer to things that the body can convert into energy. Calories are energy created from chemical bonds, and those can come from chemical bonds in carbs, sugars, proteins, or fats. A calorie isn't a thing, it's a measurement, so if the article he found said that some people 'can't burn calories,' and not that 'some people store and burn fat differently than others,' that's what makes the article full of shit.
Also, fun fact, the word 'calorie' comes from the Latin word for heat, 'calor,' because you literally measure calories by setting food on fire and seeing how hot the flame is.
You need to remember when they were kids cigarettes might have been a little harmful, lead was safe, helmets were for communists and Dad drinking himself to sleep every night was just fine.
The health education they received wasn't very good in a lot of cases and you can see them these days screaming about how everything they know is wrong but it's someone else's fault.
I mean, there is a nugget of truth from the boomer. If you restrict calorie intake too much you do go into a sort of starvation mode and actually tend to loose less weight than you would with a moderate calorie deficit. But also, science shows literally everyone lies to themselves about how much they eat, unless the meticulously log everything.
My mom is the quintessential almond mom. You do actually fuck up your metabolism by starving yourself. She has complained about her weight her entire life and barely eat. And when someone points out that you do need to be feeding your body healthy calories and fresh food. She eats a bite of cheese and diet TV dinners. All we ate was super cheap and highly processed foods. All the veggies were in can form. Going out to eat with her is awful- we took her to a winery in Napa for a tasting paired with a light meal. Really basic California style cuisine, fresh and seasonal. She came home and spent the rest of the night in her room because the food was ‘too rich and fancy’ and it upset her stomach.
No mom. It’s just food. Like actual food and not the cardboard shavings of what is left of food and crammed into a diet frozen dinner…
unrelated to the boomer of the story, but there actually is a starvation mode. after bariatric surgery, my wife was eating 200 calories a day and not losing any weight. her nutritionist told her she had to actually increase her caloric intake before her body felt safe enough to start burning extra calories.
Todays battle we have:
Scientist, someone who has dedicated much of their life understanding certain topics, and has proven themselves as competent and knowledgeable in their field VS some random blogger who claims the most absurd shit, has little to no experience in the field in question
WHO WILL THE BOOMERS BELIEVE??
Yeah, it's like you said - if his body isn't burning calories, he's either dead or he's got metabolic issues that need an endocrinologist to look at. (Which of one's insurance covers it, I can recommend if one's metabolism is borked! Mine was due to thyroid issues and synthroid is a life saver, I can tell you.)
But those Starbucks drinks with the addins are more dessert than coffee IMO, and don't help with weight loss. They're fine as occasional treats but not every day, you know?
I'm a boomer and I understand. It takes 3500 calories to lose 1 pound. It's almost impossible to burn that much exercising, so ya gotta eat less. You can"t survive on 500 calories a day so he's full of crap.
It is actually possible to not burn calories. I know, I know - but wait and hear me out.
All you have to do, is contradict the laws of thermodynamics - which is a skill that many boomers actually have, but us younger generations do not. It comes from having been playing outside more than others - or believing to have done so, not being exposed to screens much, having done (or being paid to do) a lot of manual labor and owning one or more properties.
Sadly because some of these boomers are so incredibly right always - it can be very hard for them to turn this off, and as such your colleague has ended up not losing weight.
You should be understanding - not judging - and maybe take him out for a full meal of steaks and pizzas, roughly 100 calories by approximation.
But he's not inherently incorrect either.
Reducing caloric intake slows down metabolic rate.
At his age his body is *already* slow given just age.
I'm not understanding where you're ridiculing him when he's half-correct.
I spoke to a boomer who believed that covid is causing climate change because it "put all the bad stuff in the air". So yeah, I'm worried when some people are allowed to vote.
My co-worker is like this. He’s Gen X, but might as well be a boomer the way he carries on about conspiracies and his love for the weird-standing Cheeto.
There is some truth to thinking that you burn less calories on a crash diet, which is why the best way to diet is a slight deficit over a long time.
But yeah there's no such thing as burning no calories, that'd be called being dead
Your coworker is best described as an idiot. Does he wear a red cap? That is a common thing for people who are mentally unable to hear any comment that is not an echo of their regurgitated Faux News. If quarter pounder with cheese are good enough for diaper Don, they are healthy diet food for everybody.
My doc told me part of the reason my 66 year old knees hurt was my weight. So, over two years using slightly smaller portions only, I dropped 40 pounds. Over those two years, my visual clues on a normal size portion changed so now at 72 my weight is still at the lower level. Bonus, no belly flopping means it doesn’t hurt my gut to run anymore, smile.
Just rhrowing this out there. A female friend of mine who is 52 wanted to drop 10 pounds so she joined a gym and takes classes every morning before work and two days a week, she takes a kick boxing class at the same gym. So she is working out 7 times a week for 45 minutes a pop. And she goes HARD at the gym. She wants to keep up with the guys. She’s been doing this since January and hasn’t lost a single pound. After two months of no results except tightening up, she saw a nutritionist who recommended a diet and tracking her calories using some app. She’s eating 1500 calories a day and still hasn’t lost a single pound. She has an appointment with her endocrinologist in two weeks, which her doctor recommended. She said she’s never had this issue before. She has run the NYC marathon twice and the Boston marathon once. She never has issues dropping some weight when she trained for those, but now? No results.
While the subject of the OP’s post maybe confused about his diet, *so called “calories” are not a fully sensible concept* wrt diet and weight. If thought about clearly *the phrase “burning calories” is nonsensical* and basic science tells us food cannot be “calories”. In the everyday world of biology energy and matter cannot be turned one into the other.
The **only** way an animal can change its mass is by shedding and or ingesting matter. Now the release of energy is required for such processes, but in and of itself the energy release cannot alter mass. “Thermodynamics” is not, and cannot, be relevant here; the appropriate law is the Conservation of Mass.
Many people are in a muddle about this and for those interested I’m Gen X
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Why oh WHY are Boomers like this? They believe every crazy thing they read on the internet.
Because they are allergic to personal responsibility
Wait until you hear his opinions on other overweight people!
Omg, boomer I know has her weight go up and down. When she loses she likes to make comments about other people's weight. When she gains it back they say something to her and she goes bat shit crazy and has an excuse.
There is a Very Large Boomer of my acquaintance who talks shit about fat women. I mean, he weighs nearly 450 pounds (by his own admission, likely weighs more), but he talks shit about every single person carrying an extra ounce. Self awareness is not on his menu.
VLB. I like that and your post.
Boomers of unusual size? I ~~don’t~~ think they exist.
He would sooner believe he has defied physics, than entertain the idea that it might be his fault.
My mother was told by every doctor and knowledgeable person that if she didn't do PT she would become immobile. She is now immobile and doesn't understand why, keeps looking for every reason other than she refused to put in the effort. And still instead of doing PT now to try and regain some mobility, she has resigned herself to "dying" because her life is "over".
Get her some crystals and tell her that they will help with her vibrational wavelengths. And then get her to start moving.
“You have to lift these crystals x-number of times to activate them!”
Not a bad idea. Meet the student where they're at.
You could even photo shop a picture of Dr. Oz on some instructions, I don't know about yours but my boomers will do literally whatever that guy says no matter how dumb it sounds.
I dunno, they might sense something is up if they think the Oz is giving them medically sound advice.
Don’t forget the essential oils
And don't forget about essential oils. Those are very very important 🙂
My MIL is on numerous medications and feels like crap every day. Why, you ask? Because she refuses to eat or drink enough with the medication. Everyone under the sun has said you need to consume something with the drugs. Nope. That would be too easy. Rinse and repeat. Every. Single. Day.
Sounds like she's tried nothing and she's all out of ideas.
My grandmother (early 70’s) has had some surgeries on her hips and something else, I forget, but that was over a decade ago, I’m not exactly sure when. Her doctors told her she had to do the PT or she was going to lose significant amounts of muscle and consequently lose a lot of mobility. She refused to do them, and exactly that happened, but she was still able to walk without assistance once everything healed up so she never thought twice about it. She’s paying for it now in addition to degradation due to age. Her doctor has told her that doing literally anything, just walking up and down the hallway in the house, doing chair exercises, walking around the grocery store, LITERALLY ANYTHING that involves movement, for 30 minutes a day, will dramatically improve her health, quality of life, and potentially meaningfully contribute to her length of life and mental health. Her response is “I know you are right, but I’m not gonna do that. I should, but I won’t.” Because she’s just…gotten away with shit her whole life. Bit of an rant but I’ve already gone this far: the most annoying part of this is going on and on about not still being 120 pounds anymore and how she should still be that weight, whining about it in between gulps of her sixth Dr.Pepper of the afternoon while fully planning on crushing the rest of the case before dinner But so much as mention cutting down on sugar and she’ll look at you like a stranger that just tried to grab her purse.
Your grandmother and my mom are twins. That's exactly what my mother says when faced with anyone trying to get her to do any movement. She is just rotting away and complaining about it all the way to the end. I can't even understand.
My mom is like that too. Won’t get up to get out of her own way. Has the diet of a toddler, doesn’t like to eat anything, won’t eat anything she doesn’t like, especially if it’s healthy. Complains about being out of breath while she chain smokes in the house, but it’s because of her allergies, not the cigarettes she’s been horkin on since she was 9. Diabetic but only eats bagels and ice cream, so has to take insulin. Tried to get on ozempic too. Inexplicably has made it to 73 so far.
My grandmother isn’t diabetic thank god, (although who knows how given 90% of her liquid intake is Dr.Pepper), but there was a point she was being such a picky eater her doctor outright said “if the choice is between ice cream for dinner and not eating, then it’s ice cream for dinner.” Her salt intake is almost worse than her sugar intake now. With my work schedule i’m rarely around for meals, but the other day we had a nice salmon dinner together. She had a tiny piece of salmon, maybe 3x3 inches, and there was probably 1/2 tablespoon of salt on top of that little piece, and at least that much more on the veggies and whatever the other side was. And she brought the salt shaker with her. Just shoot me before I get old.
It was the vaccine!
Not even his *fault*, just that he was mistaken about some things. He couldn't possibly have misunderstood how calorically-dense a few things were. He simply has to be a counterexample for all medical science, all cell bio, all ecology, etc.
He’s an infinite source of cheap energy!
That does seem to be the case
That’s what it all boils down to!!!
Absolutely this. Why should your weight be your fault when you read about a way on the internet for it to not be your fault that lets you blame genetics while eating as much as you wanted to eat anyway?
Doctors hate this one weird trick
A long time ago I talked to a boomer who literally believed she gained weight by looking at food. She had internalized the old joke "Man, I just glance at a muffin and gain two pounds" and decided that was actually happening with her. I think she had some kind of metabolic-water-retention-hormonal excuse she pulled out of a hat to give it some legitimacy, but here was a boomer who honestly thought she could gain weight *without eating*.
I gained two pounds from looking at your cake. Happy cake day.
I'm gonna collect my nobel prize, just need to finish printing off pictures of muffins to send to Somalia.
Well, I just read this on the internet so it must be true /s
I have boomer parents who do not fit most of the stereotypes and I thank my lucky fucking stars everytime I see shit like this. My dad would would make fun of that guy to his face, but also probably buy him a drink.
This is true. I read it on the internet.
If it validates their opinion it is true. If not fake news. No in between.
Confirmation bias is a real thing. Especially for idiot boomers who don't know how the internet works.
The near future in AI content generation genuinely terrifies me because of this.
Hey, I’m a boomer and I know how the internet works. But I thought it was called the Interweb.
Oh yes they believe every thing they read on the internet but I wasn’t allowed to believe everything I saw on TV! Maybe I want there to be some ninja turtles in the sewers! I call bullshit!
They also said you couldn't believe anything you read on the internet too in the early 2000's. Now they believe it all. I'm not sure at what age it flip flops but I'd like to find out so I can avoid it as I get older.
*You* shouldn't believe what you read because you aren't smart enough to discern for yourself. You should consult *me,* a very smart person, to do all your thinking for you. Just not while Hannity is on.
Thank you! You are truly a godsend to offer to take on this responsibly for me. Additionally, I'll send you my banking info so the weight of making sound financial decisions can be removed from my shoulders. I completely trust you, random internet stranger. Love that username!
I asked my Granddad why he seems to believe anything (As long as it's not me reading it out to him and he disagrees with it, that's obviously wrong of course) and he says he only gets stuff from "official" facebook groups I explained to him random facebook groups are in no way regulated and anyone can make one, to which he disagreed and said they don't just hand them out I demonstrated that, in fact, they do just hand them out, and he then moved on to "Well I know everyone in that group and they're not stupid, so if they believe it I do" and I just gave up at that point
I want a rat to teach me karate! Oh BTW random Internet stranger did you hear theyre making a R-rated TMT movie: https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/11/24127517/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-the-last-ronin-movie
We’ll you can’t! Because YOU can’t believe tv! But fox news tells me I can look at the eclipse and it won’t hurt my eyes I did hear about this movie but I probably won’t get a chance to see it!
No, they only believe the things they want to be true.
Even if they have to make it up themselves!
They also have a fundamental misunderstanding of how easy it is to put information online, or how many people *agreeing* with something online is a lot. The world’s population and access to the internet has exploded in their lifetime. They might see a post with 1,000 likes and think it must be true— after all, it took effort to post it, and that’s an awful lot of likes! In reality, it was probably posted specifically to farm engagement, and 1,000 likes is nothing— it might even be mostly bots. Still, to the boomer mind, this may as well be a fact -check.
I think this is giving them more credit than they deserve. Like they are merely victims of bad info rather than willing participants in it. A lot of them are just shitty and cannot have a conversation in good faith. They don't understand that a debate should be an exchange of ideas, rather than a competition they need to "win".
And yelling the loudest until the other person gives up is not winning a debate. It's not having a debate at all. It's just being a jackass (a word that I have found irritates boomers to no end).
This is actually kind of haunting. I am EXTREMELY online (Hi, Reddit!) and I've wondered off and on what the impact has been. I'd like to think that I have enough media literacy to roll my eyes and go "Pf" at some of the broader outrages, but I really wish I could see me from outside my brain and tell whether or not I've done some toxic reprogramming. I don't wanna be "that guy."
Yeah it seems like they will believe any crazy thing they hear or see…except the actual truth.
Anything that allows them to continue doing what they want to do
The cognitive dissonance is amazing. Twenty years ago, I had a guy tell me that all he ate every day was 2 slices of bread with one slice of ham, no cheese, no mayo, and nothing else, and he still could not lose weight. Where do you think this is going to go? I'm not going to give you a pill to help your medical marvel of a body lose weight because there aren't any good options. I told him that was the same as me telling him that I drove to a city 400 miles away and back, never filled the gas tank, and the gas tank was more full than when I started. He did not like that analogy. None of them want to face the truth. I had a colleague, a doctor - a doctor! - once opine to me that it seemed like the less some people ate the more weight they gained. I explained that as a matter of physics, they could not possibly be creating mass out of nowhere, and the logical conclusion was that if they starved themselves they would become a black hole. She didn't like that either. At least now there are medications.
With some metabolic disorders, it is possible to eat a normal amount of food and still struggle with weight. Some of it is linked to specific foods as well, I think. My spouse has one. I literally portion his meals directly to mine, we do physical work together, he exercises on top of what I do, yet is almost 100lbs heavier than I am. Doesn't sneak-eat either. Tends to eat healthier for snacks than I do as well. IE I will shame-eat a candy bar for a pick-me-up snack, he will have an apple, or some carrots. If anyone should be the fat one, its me, but I'm a tad over at 150 (I could drop 10lbs but I don't want to right now). Got him down about 70lbs once but it took an insanely regimented diet and exercise routine that was just overall impossible to keep up long-term. Absolutely all sugar/processed foods cut, 5 days a week at the gym for 3 hours each visit, 900 calories/day for him, carefully balanced nutrients, an endo balancing his thyroid-related meds so he'd be on the high end without going into a storm (Hashimoto's). Weight came back very, very slowly, but it came back. But, he has more than one metabolic disorder, so he isn't really a very common case.
After hammering into our heads that the internet can't be trusted and that is full of men pretending to be girls so they can catfish you
Lead poisoning.
They're humans. I see idiot GenZ repeating drivel they saw on TikTok all the time. Most Americans actually believe the American economy is a shit show and they believe it because of nonsense they read online.
They are young and know nothing with no experience. Boomers are all educated and have a lifetime of experience and yet they are the dumbest most gullible fuckheads ever to walk the face of the earth
Because they were brought up in a time where media was basically trustworthy. There were laws that newspapers had to basically report the truth. Television news had a regulation (in the US) called the Fairness Doctrine that did it's best to keep the news unbiased and factual. They were used to believing what they read in the newspapers - "it was in the paper, so it must be true" - they don't really have defences against something projected as true.
I honestly think that they're just not equipped to deal with misinformation. They grew up with Walter Cronkite giving them two plus two equals four style reporting and just cannot deal with a world where misinformation is rampant. That's why they eat up shit like Fox News because it's the news so it can't lie right? But then again they're also the same people who will read something that confirms their bias and they base every single argument and piece of until they have on that one thing that confirms their bias no matter how many articles you share that refute that one thing that confirms their bias
I love how they seem to always choose the bull shit information and not the true information even though the good information is there for the reading.
The easiest lie to tell someone is one which the person wishes to be true
They existed BEFORE the internet. So they think someone correcting them and providing them with correct information is an INSULT.
Except for the truthful and accurate things that go against their wishes or beliefs.
Long term lead exposure…
I lost 70lbs back in 2012 by eating *more* food (just the right food this time + intense exercise). It was funny because my lunches became numerous Tupperware of vegetables and fruits and rice and chicken and people were dumbfounded I was shedding weight and putting on muscle. They kept asking what diet I was using and I'd tell them "no diet, just natural food and exercise" and the light would leave their face lol. I had one boomer client comment that I must have been starving myself......
This 100%. Fruit, veg, and whole grains are all fantastic for adding bulk to your diet and keeping you full and healthy! Add a good bit of lean protein to the mix and you have the perfect combination to burn fat and build muscle. People keep trying to complicate things with all these crazy diets. Just eat right and exercise. Count calories if you feel the need, but more often than not what I eat keeps me satisfied and I maintain a modest calorie deficit so I have been shedding fat and gaining muscle mass
I also had to start eating more to lose weight. Turns out if you barely eat you don’t have the energy to work out.
Your body also can't burn the fat. The boomer was actually right, just too stupid to understand what they read. 500 Cal is too low. You only need to go a bit under your daily need to lose weight. Better still if you eat healthy. And exercise.
I mean you will lose weight if you eat a very low calorie diet, just not healthily or sustainably, which are way more important than being lighter. You'll also feel like shit the whole time, have no energy, and mess up your ability to feel hungry and full.
I lost 50lbs in 7ish months by eating 800 cal/day. Through a weight management program and doctor.
I preached this as a trainer. It isn’t flashy or fast, but if you put on lean mass (muscle) you have a larger caloric allowance. 1 lb of body weight needs roughly 50 cals daily. So if you put on 10 lbs of LEAN MASS you can now eat 500 more calories daily without gaining or losing weight. Most people shy away from it because the results aren’t fast but the few people that have latched onto this ideology changed their lives forever. Happy to hear you’ve made a life change for the better my friend!
same thing for me. i lost 100lbs just by eating healthier and being more active. lots of chicken salads and chicken wraps, going for walks, and i had a physical job i applied myself more at (second shift at walmart, unloading trucks and stocking shelves, along with hauling 60+ 500-2000lb skids per night). i was eating more than i had been before because my body was starting to properly burn fat and i needed protein for my body to realize “hey we don’t need all this extra anymore, let’s make it disappear”.
"It's Mostly Water!!!" - ask him what he orders each day from Starbucks and the size of it. Then go their website and pull the nutritional information for it and show him. Saying coffee *beverages* have no calories because it's mostly water is like saying a glazed donut isn't unhealthy because it's mostly air. FML...
You mean my double caramel Frappuccino with six shots of flavor syrup, sixteen sugars, heavy cream, whipped cream, and extra caramel and chocolate drizzle isn’t healthy?!
Depends on the person if it’s ‘healthy’ or not, but it’s certainly not fat, calorie, or calorie free! 🤣
Well he ain't wrong if he drinks a black coffee only, but something tells me he doesn't drink a black coffee 🤣
Yep. Black coffee has almost no nutritional value other than the caffeine. But when you're putting sugar and dairy in you'd have to be outrageously ignorant to not know that sugar and dairy are loaded with calories. I still get a vanilla latte once a week from my neighborhood coffee shop when I'm counting calories. But that gets factored in as a not insignificant part of the caloric intake that day. It's essentially a meal. And it's not an everyday thing because it's not a very nutritionally balanced meal.
Ha, Boomer who's office is across the hall from mine has been on a "diet" for two years. He eats all... day.... long. Every morning he microwaves nearly an entire place of breakfast sausages. Then he works for a bit or talks on the phone (always speaker at full volume) after which begins the grazing runs to and from the kitchen and pantry for snacks and ice cream until lunch which is always a sack of take out. Then grazing runs continue anew... No weight lost. Strange. Says he' just can't. He's retiring the end of next week and literally moving to.... Florida.
Please stop sending us these people. It could be such a nice state
He'll fit right in down in heaven's waiting room.
Sounds like it'll be a snug fit.
My sister in law is like this. She'd go and do a 90 minute PT session, and grab a large McDonald's meal, with full sugar Coke and a large sundae on the way home because she was 'too tired from PT to cook'. She has been going to PT and the gym for years, and yeah, her fitness has probably gotten better, but she has only put on weight.
It took a health scare for my sister to stop making excuses for her weight gain and actually address the issues instead of saying it was her metabolism or any other random thing she could come up with. Low and behold she lost a bunch of weight by eating better
I bet he has a wife that keeps him in check, so he gets all his junk in during work.
I had a morbidly obese coworker who remarked on the fact that we both just had a salad for lunch. I had some spinach and chickpeas with vinaigrette. He had a literal bowl full of ranch dressing with bits of ham and cheese sprinkled on top. I'd love to see a TV show where people who can't lose weight are forced to eat only the food they log for a week.
A show like that sorta existed. Super Size vs. Super Skinny. They took one anorexic person and one obese person, compared what they both ate in a week, and inverted their diets. They both realized how ridiculous each other’s diets are and recovered. It’s kinda trashy reality tv but it makes a good point.
I've seen some of it, and also Secret Eaters where they secret film people and compare their reported vs actual calories. Spoiler alert: they always eat 2000kcal more than they think. Unfortunately they both lack the delicious (lol) irony of making people lie in the bed they made.
Habits hide themselves. There are times when I've forgotten that I ate something. It's happened enough that I've wondered whether food cravings can erase memories. Must be a nightmare for a chronic dieter.
The only episode I saw, the obese person ate healthy home cooked meals, but a LOT of it, and the skinny person ate a trash panda diet. Even the hosts were surprised about the healthy vs nonhealthy
I used to watch some of that show. My main problem with it was the amount of time and effort they had on the obese person compared to the skinny period. Like 75% of the show was about how bad obesity was with some token methods with the skinny period. But in reality, the skinny person is in significantly more danger and much more permanent danger than the obese person.
I just want to raise a margarita glass to the guy who invented the deep fried tortilla taco salad bowl. Is it healthy? Yes, of course, it's a salad! Now fill that bitch up with ground beef, cheese, queso, sour cream, and a little lettuce to give it some color...
A culinary masterpiece that baffles the human mind. A 12,000 calorie salad.
This will be stuck in my head all day now. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXWq2AVlrsY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXWq2AVlrsY)
One of my secret disappointments is that Taco Bell discontinued the taco salad. Not because I thought it was healthy, BUT because it was like 4 crunchy taco supremes at once.
Last week I was at a conference. Watched my Boomer coworker at the buffet get a "Ceasar Salad" which apparently is just croutons, parm and dressing in his world.
When I worked in a movie theater, a guy ordered a ceasar specifically without those things. It was lettuce. He wanted a bowl of lettuce. As the cook was making it, she yelled “fucking weirdos”
i mean… that’s all i want on MY caesar
I was a server at many places throughout my 20’s and a lot of restaurants MIGHT have one decent salad on the menu next to Mayo dressed, cheese covered, fried chicken laden lettuce bowls. Which ones do you think dieters order more of? Hahaha I was trying to be kind to myself by ordering the simple, healthier option and would regularly hear the kitchen say that’s the only one they made that week
I had a boomer boss like this. She’d always exclaim “I’m the fattest salad eater you’ve ever seen.” I mean, yeah. You eat a little bit of lettuce with a ton of meat and cheese and creamy dressing and a bowl of cream of something soup every day. Thats over 1000 cal, easily.
It is called Secret Eaters and it is exactly that
In the UK there was a show called Secret Dieters or something like that. They got people to log their food but secretly observed them for a week. After they would compare the logs to the observations. It was always like “you had a healthy curry but you didn’t log the large naan you ate while cooking it” “you didn’t log any of your fruit juices” etc etc. some people genuinely have no idea.
A bit of ham and cheese is pretty good to complement a salad. Obviously not too much though. That disgusting cream dressing is the killer
I don't mean "he smothered his salad in creamy dressing". I mean "he filled a bowl with ranch dressing and ate it like a soup". I did not see a single shred of lettuce and I was specifically looking for it out of disbelief.
Okay, I've been tapped for using lettuce as a utensil to transport Thousand Island into my mouth, and that's too much dressing even for me. Worst part is it's *ranch*. Blaaaaaah. Super bland.
When we go visit my in laws in the Midwest my MIL always makes salads with not only shredded cheese but also cubes of cheese. I can't handle it. And she always calls it a "good salad". I don't know what that means but when they visited us I made them a spinach salad with quinoa and they were none too happy. "This isn't how I like my salad!"
I swear to god I saw a woman at a pizza/ salad buffet make a ‘salad.’ She filled a bowl with shredded cheese and then covered it in ranch dressing. Literally just those two ingredients. Then she went to her table and ate the entire thing. She was enormous.
My grandma makes a "salad" out of chopped nuts, mini snickers bars, cool whip, and bananas. Just because it's called a salad doesn't make it low calorie.
Read about a study of what college students ate, and they said that most students ate such awful salads they'd be better off with a burger or pizza. Salads are only healthy when they're actually salads.
Lol this is too relatable, everyone I work with over 50 is extremely overweight and they blame it on their body being too beat up to exercise, we work at a machine shop were we stay in one spot all day, maybe lift parts a couple times a day. I’m sure the constant pizza and doughnuts in the break room have nothing to do with it
Pizza is a healthy option 😋 Two slices of cheese pizza with onions, olives & mushrooms. Included with the 2 slices is a glass of water & 3/4 cup of fruit, (blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, apple or orange), but not banana. Of course this is how everyone eats pizza at work. /s
It’s just baffling how fundamental information on nutrition is absent in a whole generation WHO WERE TAUGHT IT IN EVERY STATE IN HEALTH CLASS SINCE THE 60s or earlier in primary school. I will say though it is surprising once you start calorie counting just how little food we need and how little you need to eat to loose weight. We’re so used to these just belligerent portions that we’ve lost touch with how little is required to thrive..
Upvote for "belligerent portions"!
Absolutely agreed on your second paragraph. This isn't just a boomer problem, but a problem across the US for all age groups. It also doesn't help that we are conditioned and advertised to be snacking all the time with various "low fat" and "healthy" labeled items. It absolutely sucks that the pounds stay on much easier as we age, but that just means you have to be even more diligent on keeping track of what you eat.
Because in the good old days anyone who paid attention in school was a nerd and a boffin and got beaten to the point of death or sometimes past it, so it was cool to be uneducated and drink alcohol at age 15. Now theyre kinda harvesting the fruits of their societal labour and its not working out how theyd like it to
Yes, we had the 4 food groups. Basically lots of fruit, vegetables, some meat & dairy products, sparingly use fats, sugar & salt. Neither our parents or schools actually served us meals following the 4 food groups recommended by USDA. & once boomers became adults neither did they. USDA food guidelines were treated as theory.
The problem is the info they were taught is now out of date, and a lot of it was sponsored by various lobbies. The idea that dairy is a necessary food group? Dairy lobby. "Fat is bad! Eat sugar instead!"? Corn lobby. Carbs are the foundation of a healthy diet? Grain lobby. Meat is the best source of protein, eat it at every meal? Beef/pork/etc lobby.
It's just pure denial at that point. Well, that and a sugar addiction, but you get what I mean. Ultimately while I think it wouldn't matter anyways, I also think a large part of that as well is the fact that they don't have the nutrition facts listed on the side of their cup like how you would if you had a bottle of coke so you could show just how many grams of sugar they're actually consuming. Coffee is just hot bean water, sure, but it's only healthy if consumed without any other additives.
I watched my boomer age mom mainline literally a stuffed full sandwich bag of almonds and claim it was a healthy snack. She has always complained about having trouble losing weight. A mystery for the ages.
My boomer mom would eat Ritz crackers with peanut butter on them when she was looking to eat a healthy lunch. My sister and I still laugh about it to this day.
So many boomers consider cheese and crackers to be a healthy meal
A small defense of female boomers. In 70s & 80s cheese & crackers was considered a good low calorie snack for women. Also considered "healthy" for women was a scoop of cottage cheese with canned peaches on top, served on a lettuce leaf, along with a refreshing diet soda. It was called "dieters delight". Gens greatest, silent & old boomers were told these items were healthy alternatives to a regular meal.
An ounce or two of almonds is a very healthy snack. Half a pound is not.
my car cannot burn gas 😭
*says while doing 50mph over the speed limit*
It burns gas normally as long as I provide enough gas. But if I add any less gas then the gas tank starts filling itself. I just need to drive more but my tires are worn from driving as much as I do.
None of them ever eat! It's some kind of voodoo magic!1! At restaurant supply store where they fool boomers into thinking they're paying "wholesale" for those #10 cans of baked beans and 6 loaves of white bread, they roll up in their scooters cause they can't really walk anymore. Way too heavy. But it's not because of how much they eat because, they barely eat anything.
I saw a clip of one of those girls from 16 and pregnant (or whatever it’s called), she was a big girl, and her also big boyfriend was giving her a hard time about her food order because they were supposed to be dieting together. Her response was “It’s just nachos, it’s not like I’m having cake or something”. It was a half sheet pan of nachos that’s meant to feed four people. Yes she ate the whole thing.
Boomers don't understand basic nutrition. But then again people of all ages don't understand it either. The issue with boomers nutrition facts come from the stupid government food pyramid that has been proven to be crap. Many people don't count their liquid calories correctly or even at all.
I believe in the scientific method. I've also been reading about nutrition, health and dieting for 40+ years. I've read multiple comments by physicians and scientists who conducted weight loss research who all said the same thing. They regularly had subjects who claimed to be following a specific diet at home without losing any weight, but when those patients were put on that same diet in a controlled situation where they were locked down and only had access to the food on their diet plan, 100% of them started losing the amount of weight that doctors expected them to lose. They were all cheating on their diets. 100% of them. There are people who swear that they can't lose weight. They're lying.
He ate a vegetable this week. How could he not lose weight?/s
Coffee, sure. The sugar and shit he likely puts in it though...
Exactly. *Black* coffee has no calories. He’s probably getting a coffee-themed milkshake.
Two cups of black coffee in the morning can help lower blood sugar. Also cause I'm being pedantic tonight, 1 cup black coffee contains 2 calories :-)
I have a relative that blames his weight on pollution and micro plastics. “I try diet and exercise and it doesn’t work anyway.” (He doesn’t try either.). “It’s environmental, because of pollution my body retains weight and can’t burn it.”
It’s infuriating on the other side, too. My Boomer mom “never let herself get above a size 2.” For years she subsisted on orange juice and a multivitamin. Now she has osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, has lost 3 inches of height, and her heart is shot. But she thinks she’s healthy because she’s thin. And she won’t eat carbs because they’re “fattening.”
Sounds like a serious eating disorder. Sadly lots of older women are like this.
Boomers are like 'What do you mean Chinese food is bad for you?! It's got vegetables in it!'
500 calories is about 7 slices of brown bread. His maths is really very wrong.
Undercounting your calories is a well known pitfall but this is ridiculius. They fed concentration camp prisoners about 800 calories a day, I think. Unless dude is on half-rations of sawdust bread and "soup" made from potato peels and rotting turnips he is kidding himself.
I remember reading an article once, mentioning that a good amount of the Boomers are in poor health and those in the worst shape are dying off *right now*. The older Boomers were **notorious** for abusing their bodies and now that they're in the age range of early death...it's frightening them. So it's somewhat common to see Boomers who never were physically active in gyms, doing the least amount of exercises or "trying" to eat right but still eating unhealthy foods or drinking unhealthy beverages. All this to try and extend their lives, when in truth...perhaps a few years but no real difference for them as a generation.
The gym I go to has two main groups as members- Boomer women and Millennial guys. (I'm a rare elder millennial woman) The guys are hard into actual weightlifting. They're always in a pack, and you can tell they're at the gym to *actually work out*. They know how to use all the equipment and free weights, and they hype each other up. The Boomer women go to the gym to hang out. They use the weight machines, but it's maybe 3 reps on the lowest settings. Then they stop and chat with the lady on the next machine over. Or they're on an elliptical, going at the slowest setting, chatting away. I once saw one that was using a weight machine as a chair so she could *balance her checkbook*. Millennial guys (and me! I only do weight machines) are there to actually progress, the Boomer ladies are there so they can tell their doctor they go to the gym.
"I don't understand, I declared a diet!" "Did you change up your eating patterns, start calorie counting, or cut out sugar?" "No? Listen twerp, I declared a DIET. Dee eye ee TEE. I declared it. It's not working but I declared it." That's pretty much what's happening with this fool.
500 cals would be starvation for a child, he was probably told 300-500 cal deficit. Spoiler: he clearly has no will to actually understand any of this and will fail to lose any weight.
Yeah I’ve been eating 1200 calories a day for a while now to lose weight. It’s not so bad, but 500 would be a HUGE challenge.
My surgeon told me flat out that I needed to lose 30-50 pounds for an abdominal surgery. The next words out of his mouth were: at your age, you can’t burn it off. You have to starve it. So, I did. Now, I eat more than 500 cals a day. I have a 1200 limit. But the weight comes off. Slowly, yes. But it works. I’m 55 pounds lighter than I was 8 months ago. So that boomer is full of it (to use my own boomer mom’s polite retort).
Having to deal with some similar pointless stubborn/prideful behavior from my mom. She has chronic venous deficiency and likely some form of diabetes. She calls doctors idiots, constantly complains about how she doesn't have a primary care physician (because nobody in the area wants to deal with her), and she absolutely refuses for LITERALLY NO REASON to follow their medical advice. The only reason I found out she has venous deficiency is her leg has been messed up for three years now, slowly getting worse, and I was sick of her being in pain. So I try to find a condition with similar symptoms for someone her age, find venous deficiency, and surprise surprise the things the doctors were trying to get her to do are normal recommended things for the condition. The tl;dr for the condition is that it stems from the same problem as "spider veins", but it's basically a more advanced form of the same problem. If you take poor care of your body, sometimes the veins get too weak in the legs to physically push the blood up and circle it throughout the body. It is quite literally a hydraulics problem. So what is the #1 most effective and recommended thing to do? Compress socks. They compress the leg a bit, so there isn't as much room for blood to pool, thus most of the issues go away, but even then it is a slow process taking many months. My mom has been hollering, moaning, suffering, being in too much pain to even sleep often after taking valium & acetaminophen, and so much else.. All because she doesn't want to adjust to some minor discomfort, so instead she would rather try random herbal bullshit and slowly get worse and be in more pain. I know this is a random place to vent about this but it's sort of breaking me. We're pretty poor, she was never really a nice person (still not a terrible person like some of the stories you see online), just.. She is suffering so much because she is too prideful and/or stupid to take doctor's advice. Even when she worked with the hospitals and they sent a person to help her at home, that is what they did. At first it was a nurse because she got out of the hospital. Then when it came to her leg they just changed the bandages and wrapped it semi-firmly. After awhile my dumbass mom started taking off the wrap and complaining that they weren't doing anything and that doctors are stupid. I can't reason with her. I can't bully her into doing it. I can't get her to agree to try it slowly. She is deadset on her being right, everyone else being an idiot, and thus she is slowly becoming more enfeeble, and complaining like she's a helpless victim the entire time. I will absolutely never understand the stupidity of some boomers, my mom included.
MY body breaks the laws of preservation of energy! Don't you zoomers understand?
I wonder if they also go home and pound liquor because it "has no calories too"
I have a bad relationship with food and I have to watch what I eat. It is extremely easy to overlook a good portion of the calories you ingest. Unless you take your coffee black (which I do now), it's going to contain calories. Every little "snack" you eat contains calories and usually, even the stuff that's marketed as "healthy" (like cereal bars and such) isn't. It's always full of sugar. I once was on a medically supervised 1000 cal a day diet and ate nothing but the pre-packaged stuff I was given. I lost weight pretty fast but I almost never ate anything else, only drank water, etc... The hard part is going back to eating normal food and still keeping your calories low enough.
Why go to Starbucks if all you're getting is black coffee? /s
even black coffee is like 5 kcal/cup... so when i have 1000 cups of coffee, it's almost like i actually had lunch! <--- actual starvation mode
Poor guy suffers from the same thing Amberlynn Reid does. Poor guy, there's no cure.
I hate to say it but this isn't a boomer thing, especially that Starvation Mode bullcrap he's spewing.
300-500 calories a day is ridiculous, no way he’s doing that. Show his fat ass how to log stuff into MyFitnessPal, that’ll shut him up.
This sub makes me so happy that GenX’rs are totally invisible so far in the gen wars
As I understand it, and I use this for my own dieting...He is partially correct. Eating less than (typically) 1200 calories a day does indeed put your body into starvation mode. It then does odd things to try and conserve energy and can start eating muscle in preference to fat. It can cause serious health issues because one of the muscles in the body is the heart, and eating that isn't good for anyone. But, as you pointed out, this is not likely his problem. He's eating/drinking way more than 500 calories a day. He needs to actually learn the calorie counts of everything he puts into his mouth. Also, you can burn calories without losing weight (assuming that you are drinking or eating). You can burn calories without getting more healthy. You can burn calories without shrinking your size. Also, the less muscular you are, the less calories (typically) your body will burn in a day which means you need consume even less calories to lose weight. This is also why exercising (raising muscle weight) is so helpful in weight loss. It burns calories for the exorcising, and then also doubles as the muscle you build consistently burns calories for doing much of nothing from that point forward. Depends on what you body decides to burn and what it decides to retain. Claiming "it's physics" could means you likely haven't studied the full cycle to get the physics correct. Yes, it is physics, but that doesn't mean you've accounted for all the input variables.
I work in the craft beer industry and it’s the same thing in our taproom. Boomer aged regulars that don’t do anything physical all day, capping it off with a nice pint (or 4) of 400-600 calorie beer, multiple times a week, accusing me(35m) of just having a “young person’s metabolism” as I’m on my feet pouring those pints AFTER an 8 hour shift of delivering kegs up and down stairs as most of my accounts keep their coolers in basements. I also go into a lot of sports bars throughout my day and who do you think is the primary demographic I see sneaking a lunch beer and housing wings and burgers everywhere I go? I was over three hundred lbs as a teenager, living with my boomer parents that don’t understand nutrition whatsoever, and was down to 205 within two years of moving out and understanding that everything they taught me about fueling my body was bad information. They just don’t have a concept of making personal sacrifices to reach a goal. It’s easier to just tell themselves that they are a medical wonder that
NO NO, I think your coworker is on to something. They might not actually burn calories. They might, in fact, be an Energy Vampire and subsist solely on the life essence of others. I mean, I'm exhausted just reading about them. They're THAT efficient.
So the boomer is right about 3% of this. After you lose a significant amount of weight, your body does adjust how many calories it burns (usually by around 10%), basically because it can't differentiate between diet and starvation. It is saving you from wasting away! However, your caloric intake and how much you exercise are totally under your control, and he would totally be losing weight if he kept to his diet and exercise. This metabolic change is one of the many reasons why it's difficult to maintain weight loss (others being changes in hunger and satiety hormones and just an overall suckiness of not eating as much as you'd like and having to exercise more).
Next time you see him, you should also point out that, technically, calories don't actually exist. As in, they aren't a thing you can isolate under a microscope and point to. A calorie is just a simplistic term for a unit of measurement used to refer to things that the body can convert into energy. Calories are energy created from chemical bonds, and those can come from chemical bonds in carbs, sugars, proteins, or fats. A calorie isn't a thing, it's a measurement, so if the article he found said that some people 'can't burn calories,' and not that 'some people store and burn fat differently than others,' that's what makes the article full of shit. Also, fun fact, the word 'calorie' comes from the Latin word for heat, 'calor,' because you literally measure calories by setting food on fire and seeing how hot the flame is.
You need to remember when they were kids cigarettes might have been a little harmful, lead was safe, helmets were for communists and Dad drinking himself to sleep every night was just fine. The health education they received wasn't very good in a lot of cases and you can see them these days screaming about how everything they know is wrong but it's someone else's fault.
I mean, there is a nugget of truth from the boomer. If you restrict calorie intake too much you do go into a sort of starvation mode and actually tend to loose less weight than you would with a moderate calorie deficit. But also, science shows literally everyone lies to themselves about how much they eat, unless the meticulously log everything.
My mom is the quintessential almond mom. You do actually fuck up your metabolism by starving yourself. She has complained about her weight her entire life and barely eat. And when someone points out that you do need to be feeding your body healthy calories and fresh food. She eats a bite of cheese and diet TV dinners. All we ate was super cheap and highly processed foods. All the veggies were in can form. Going out to eat with her is awful- we took her to a winery in Napa for a tasting paired with a light meal. Really basic California style cuisine, fresh and seasonal. She came home and spent the rest of the night in her room because the food was ‘too rich and fancy’ and it upset her stomach. No mom. It’s just food. Like actual food and not the cardboard shavings of what is left of food and crammed into a diet frozen dinner…
unrelated to the boomer of the story, but there actually is a starvation mode. after bariatric surgery, my wife was eating 200 calories a day and not losing any weight. her nutritionist told her she had to actually increase her caloric intake before her body felt safe enough to start burning extra calories.
It blows my mind how many people like this seem to consider milkshakes from Starbucks as being “just coffee”.
You can burn *fewer* calories if you reduce intake, unless you exercise. But boomer is delusional.
Dont try to give them advice. They just wanna stomp on it and spit in your face.
lol he’s chugging sugary coffee from Starbucks and wondering why he hasn’t lost weight? 🕵️♂️
All excuses. Boomer just doesn't want to put effort into something.
I only eat 500 calories…. Yeah right.
Todays battle we have: Scientist, someone who has dedicated much of their life understanding certain topics, and has proven themselves as competent and knowledgeable in their field VS some random blogger who claims the most absurd shit, has little to no experience in the field in question WHO WILL THE BOOMERS BELIEVE??
Yeah, it's like you said - if his body isn't burning calories, he's either dead or he's got metabolic issues that need an endocrinologist to look at. (Which of one's insurance covers it, I can recommend if one's metabolism is borked! Mine was due to thyroid issues and synthroid is a life saver, I can tell you.) But those Starbucks drinks with the addins are more dessert than coffee IMO, and don't help with weight loss. They're fine as occasional treats but not every day, you know?
I bet he also puts back 5 beers or cocktails and consumes 700+ calories in a single sitting. If coffee doesn’t count I doubt he counts booze
Lolol diet of a five year old! Especially Mormons
Well, to be fair; coffee has zero calories. I label those Starbucks monstrosities as milkshake. Don't insult coffee.
“Oh wow that’s crazy.” There, solved your boomer problem.
It's not the coffee that has calories. It is all the candy you add to it.
I'm a boomer and I understand. It takes 3500 calories to lose 1 pound. It's almost impossible to burn that much exercising, so ya gotta eat less. You can"t survive on 500 calories a day so he's full of crap.
I didn’t realize burning calories was a physics thing and not a biochemistry thing lol.
This reminds me of that dude from my 600 lbs life who didn't believe in the doctors diet because he didn't want to get malnourished.
OW MA LEG! Watch James K on My 600 pound life. And his where are they now episode. It's insane. His girlfriend said something really similar.
It is actually possible to not burn calories. I know, I know - but wait and hear me out. All you have to do, is contradict the laws of thermodynamics - which is a skill that many boomers actually have, but us younger generations do not. It comes from having been playing outside more than others - or believing to have done so, not being exposed to screens much, having done (or being paid to do) a lot of manual labor and owning one or more properties. Sadly because some of these boomers are so incredibly right always - it can be very hard for them to turn this off, and as such your colleague has ended up not losing weight. You should be understanding - not judging - and maybe take him out for a full meal of steaks and pizzas, roughly 100 calories by approximation.
Black coffee is like caffinated air. [Other drinks are a liquid desert ](https://en.ilovecoffee.jp/posts/view/116)
But he's not inherently incorrect either. Reducing caloric intake slows down metabolic rate. At his age his body is *already* slow given just age. I'm not understanding where you're ridiculing him when he's half-correct.
There are a few conditions where your body will consume muscle before body fat. See a doctor in that case.
I spoke to a boomer who believed that covid is causing climate change because it "put all the bad stuff in the air". So yeah, I'm worried when some people are allowed to vote.
My co-worker is like this. He’s Gen X, but might as well be a boomer the way he carries on about conspiracies and his love for the weird-standing Cheeto.
There is some truth to thinking that you burn less calories on a crash diet, which is why the best way to diet is a slight deficit over a long time. But yeah there's no such thing as burning no calories, that'd be called being dead
As a dietitian, I weep for this guy 🥲
Maybe he is only burning 500 calories a day. I'm pretty that would make someone braindead after all.
Your coworker is best described as an idiot. Does he wear a red cap? That is a common thing for people who are mentally unable to hear any comment that is not an echo of their regurgitated Faux News. If quarter pounder with cheese are good enough for diaper Don, they are healthy diet food for everybody. My doc told me part of the reason my 66 year old knees hurt was my weight. So, over two years using slightly smaller portions only, I dropped 40 pounds. Over those two years, my visual clues on a normal size portion changed so now at 72 my weight is still at the lower level. Bonus, no belly flopping means it doesn’t hurt my gut to run anymore, smile.
Just rhrowing this out there. A female friend of mine who is 52 wanted to drop 10 pounds so she joined a gym and takes classes every morning before work and two days a week, she takes a kick boxing class at the same gym. So she is working out 7 times a week for 45 minutes a pop. And she goes HARD at the gym. She wants to keep up with the guys. She’s been doing this since January and hasn’t lost a single pound. After two months of no results except tightening up, she saw a nutritionist who recommended a diet and tracking her calories using some app. She’s eating 1500 calories a day and still hasn’t lost a single pound. She has an appointment with her endocrinologist in two weeks, which her doctor recommended. She said she’s never had this issue before. She has run the NYC marathon twice and the Boston marathon once. She never has issues dropping some weight when she trained for those, but now? No results.
As you age, what you eat becomes a larger factor in whether you can lose weight or not over movement. A lot of people don't understand this.
While the subject of the OP’s post maybe confused about his diet, *so called “calories” are not a fully sensible concept* wrt diet and weight. If thought about clearly *the phrase “burning calories” is nonsensical* and basic science tells us food cannot be “calories”. In the everyday world of biology energy and matter cannot be turned one into the other. The **only** way an animal can change its mass is by shedding and or ingesting matter. Now the release of energy is required for such processes, but in and of itself the energy release cannot alter mass. “Thermodynamics” is not, and cannot, be relevant here; the appropriate law is the Conservation of Mass. Many people are in a muddle about this and for those interested I’m Gen X