Obesity and Ozempic and more (4 Viewers)

[Doug B]

Their attitude 100% is we are gonna eat what we want.

It's a weird feeling, not REALLY pushing and nagging to get them to eat right, but if they aren't committed, there's no chance they will change

This might or might not be a related thing, but I'll share it and see if it clicks for others.

We were watching a movie on Netflix the other day, called Hit Man. Just going to share two short scenes verbally, no plot spoilers:

- A woman is seeking to hire the titular hit man. They meet at a diner. Hit man is eating a piece of pie when she arrives. She begins by telling the hit man how controlling and terrible her husband is, and how she wants him gone. She looks at the hit man's pie, and asks him if she can have a bite: "He's got me on this crazy diet and doesn't let me eat things like this".

- Later, the same woman meets a paramour near a food truck. The food truck happens to sell ice cream, so both of them order sundaes or banana splits or something, then head back to a picnic table to enjoy their ice cream, makes eyes at each other, and feel total bliss.

The point? "Food deprivation" -- heck, the actual word "diet" is being used as a symbol of "mistreatment". And the bite of pie? The ice cream sundaes? Happiness -- makes all that nasty stuff go away. Visual shorthand right there on the shelf, handy for the screenwriter to use, understood intuitively by all.

Fighting obesity in society is not fighting a lack of knowledge. The right information, the right app, even the right intentions at the individual level ... all that's about 5% of the battle. Maybe. The other 95%? My favorite buzzword in this thread: socio-cultural conditions. The water in which we fish swim. The assumptions ingrained, the stuff we don't have to think about because it's automatic. Food is good. Tasty food is better. More tasty food is even better. And to be denied that is the very definition of suffering.

"He's got me on this crazy diet ..." While sitting across from a hit man, ready to pass over an envelope of cash. And the viewers instantly understand. They get it and sympathize with the woman. Socio. Cultural.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Some folks would rather go out stuffing hoagies & snickers down their gullet.

My parents.

My brothers and I have all talked about this. Stepdad had a heart attack. They made some moves, switched out some foods, and after like a month, the only difference is now he's taking some pills. They both eat almost no veggies, and snack right before they go to bed. Every day. Their attitude 100% is we are gonna eat what we want.

It's a weird feeling, not REALLY pushing and nagging to get them to eat right, but if they aren't committed, there's no chance they will change

Is it a thing where they don't feel like they have any hope of getting healthier? Like they're too far past the point of getting back?

 

[Battersbox]

Starting to feel like I have the worst diet in the entire FBG community. And it's improved a ton since I've been on semaglutide, but I still feel like I'm not as stringent as the vast majority of folks in here.

 

[Doug B]

I'm not sure how they could be more simple or transparent.

I repeat: You can't use yourself as the default person when thinking about how tackle this stuff.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Their attitude 100% is we are gonna eat what we want.

It's a weird feeling, not REALLY pushing and nagging to get them to eat right, but if they aren't committed, there's no chance they will change

This might or might not be a related thing, but I'll share it and see if it clicks for others.

We were watching a movie on Netflix the other day, called Hit Man. Just going to share two short scenes verbally, no plot spoilers:

- A woman is seeking to hire the titular hit man. They meet at a diner. Hit man is eating a piece of pie when she arrives. She begins by telling the hit man how controlling and terrible her husband is, and how she wants him gone. She looks at the hit man's pie, and asks him if she can have a bite: "He's got me on this crazy diet and doesn't let me eat things like this".

- Later, the same woman meets a paramour near a food truck. The food truck happens to sell ice cream, so both of them order sundaes or banana splits or something, then head back to a picnic table to enjoy their ice cream, makes eyes at each other, and feel total bliss.

The point? "Food deprivation" -- heck, the actual word "diet" is being used as a symbol of "mistreatment". And the bite of pie? The ice cream sundaes? Happiness -- makes all that nasty stuff go away. Visual shorthand right there on the shelf, handy for the screenwriter to use, understood intuitively by all.

Fighting obesity in society is not fighting a lack of knowledge. The right information, the right app, even the right intentions at the individual level ... all that's about 5% of the battle. Maybe. The other 95%? My favorite buzzword in this thread: socio-cultural conditions. The water in which we fish swim. The assumptions ingrained, the stuff we don't have to think about because it's automatic. Food is food. Tasty food is better. More tasty food is even better. And to be denied that is the very definition of suffering.

"He's got me on this crazy diet ..." While sitting across from a hit man, ready to pass over an envelope of cash. And the viewers instantly understand. They get it and sympathize with the woman. Socio. Cultural.

Sure. Some eat for comfort. And not getting to eat anything and everything they want is uncomfortable.

Such is life.

People can choose their hard.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I'm not sure how they could be more simple or transparent.

I repeat: You can't use yourself as the default person when thinking about how tackle this stuff.

Again, It's not on the consumer to be transparent.

It's on the producer of the food.

How do you think they can be more transparent in how they label the food?

 

[beer 30]

I've used MyFitnessPal for past 3+ years. I am OCD on entering my foods...

When I first started my weight loss journey, My Fitness Pal was instrumental in the change. I've shied away lately but I do jump back on occasionally when I veer off the path a little too far.

I just redownloaded to get back on the wagon

Is the subscription worth it?

I've never subscribed, they have definitely made it more difficult to use the free version with all the BS ads but I'm cheap so...

 

[Joe Bryant]

Starting to feel like I have the worst diet in the entire FBG community. And it's improved a ton since I've been on semaglutide, but I still feel like I'm not as stringent as the vast majority of folks in here.

That's great if you feel it's improving. And this isn't a game of best or comparison. We each have our own journey on this.

I also think it's an age thing. I care tons more now about what I ate than I did 20 years ago.

 

[Doug B]

For a lot of people so is alcohol but that's probably a next level thing.

More socio-cultural challenges.

I rarely drink, so I could look around and ask aloud: "Why don't people just insta-stop drinking cold turkey? It's not that hard, anyone can do it. Right? Right?" But that dang conditioning bites us in the butt once again.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I've used MyFitnessPal for past 3+ years. I am OCD on entering my foods...

When I first started my weight loss journey, My Fitness Pal was instrumental in the change. I've shied away lately but I do jump back on occasionally when I veer off the path a little too far.

I just redownloaded to get back on the wagon

Is the subscription worth it?

I'm honestly not sure what the premium version gets you. I buy it just as it's super helpful and it's not that much money given the importance of the subject.

 

[Chadstroma]

Their attitude 100% is we are gonna eat what we want.

It's a weird feeling, not REALLY pushing and nagging to get them to eat right, but if they aren't committed, there's no chance they will change

This might or might not be a related thing, but I'll share it and see if it clicks for others.

We were watching a movie on Netflix the other day, called Hit Man. Just going to share two short scenes verbally, no plot spoilers:

- A woman is seeking to hire the titular hit man. They meet at a diner. Hit man is eating a piece of pie when she arrives. She begins by telling the hit man how controlling and terrible her husband is, and how she wants him gone. She looks at the hit man's pie, and asks him if she can have a bite: "He's got me on this crazy diet and doesn't let me eat things like this".

- Later, the same woman meets a paramour near a food truck. The food truck happens to sell ice cream, so both of them order sundaes or banana splits or something, then head back to a picnic table to enjoy their ice cream, makes eyes at each other, and feel total bliss.

The point? "Food deprivation" -- heck, the actual word "diet" is being used as a symbol of "mistreatment". And the bite of pie? The ice cream sundaes? Happiness -- makes all that nasty stuff go away. Visual shorthand right there on the shelf, handy for the screenwriter to use, understood intuitively by all.

Fighting obesity in society is not fighting a lack of knowledge. The right information, the right app, even the right intentions at the individual level ... all that's about 5% of the battle. Maybe. The other 95%? My favorite buzzword in this thread: socio-cultural conditions. The water in which we fish swim. The assumptions ingrained, the stuff we don't have to think about because it's automatic. Food is food. Tasty food is better. More tasty food is even better. And to be denied that is the very definition of suffering.

"He's got me on this crazy diet ..." While sitting across from a hit man, ready to pass over an envelope of cash. And the viewers instantly understand. They get it and sympathize with the woman. Socio. Cultural.

Sure. Some eat for comfort. And not getting to eat anything and everything they want is uncomfortable.

Such is life.

People can choose their hard.

Yup... being healthy is hard. Being fat is hard. Choose your hard. But sometimes it isn't as easy as choosing your hard.

As for Hit Man.... I think the real difference here is that the controlling the diet was not about his concern of her health but his concern of her keeping her looks. So the benefit is self centered rather than thinking in her best interests. There is a real difference in that, though I can see a point being made that the subliminal message is 'diet- misery' and 'comfort eating- happiness'.

 

[Spartans Rule]

I'm not sure how they could be more simple or transparent.

If people don't care enough to spend two seconds reading the clear and simple label, I'm not sure what they can do.

But it's not transparent. General Mills gives Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios different serving sizes so that when the consumer spends two seconds reading the label, they see fewer calories on Honey Nut and buy that one even though it's far worse for them.

They're not fooling you or me that way, but people on a fantasy football message board are probably like 99th percentile when it comes to prorating numbers. Lots of the general public is bad at math and is gonna fall for tricks like that.

 

[Chadstroma]

I've used MyFitnessPal for past 3+ years. I am OCD on entering my foods...

When I first started my weight loss journey, My Fitness Pal was instrumental in the change. I've shied away lately but I do jump back on occasionally when I veer off the path a little too far.

I just redownloaded to get back on the wagon

Is the subscription worth it?

I'm honestly not sure what the premium version gets you. I buy it just as it's super helpful and it's not that much money given the importance of the subject.

The one thing I know which was somewhat interesting to me was the being able to scan something with the barcode to find it and put it in versus typing in and looking for the right one. The price on it was just way more than I want to spend so I didn't look into what the other functionality you get from it.... but from the constant messages selling you....I think you can then track your Macros, you have access to "plans" for eating and exercising and they stop the ads.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Another thought on this.

I wonder how much of this is the fact many of us now can live without ever being even slightly uncomfortable. Air conditioned, amazing vehicle, instacart grocery shops for us, Amazon delivers next day.

The idea of being hungry seems unfathomable to many.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I'm not sure how they could be more simple or transparent.

If people don't care enough to spend two seconds reading the clear and simple label, I'm not sure what they can do.

But it's not transparent. General Mills gives Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios different serving sizes so that when the consumer spends two seconds reading the label, they see fewer calories on Honey Nut and buy that one even though it's far worse for them.

They're not fooling you or me that way, but people on a fantasy football message board are probably like 99th percentile when it comes to prorating numbers. Lots of the general public is bad at math and is gonna fall for tricks like that.

No worries. We'll just have agree to disagree on the definition of transparent.

When the company says 1 1/3 cups is 150 calories, I call that transparent.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I've used MyFitnessPal for past 3+ years. I am OCD on entering my foods...

When I first started my weight loss journey, My Fitness Pal was instrumental in the change. I've shied away lately but I do jump back on occasionally when I veer off the path a little too far.

I just redownloaded to get back on the wagon

Is the subscription worth it?

I'm honestly not sure what the premium version gets you. I buy it just as it's super helpful and it's not that much money given the importance of the subject.

The one thing I know which was somewhat interesting to me was the being able to scan something with the barcode to find it and put it in versus typing in and looking for the right one. The price on it was just way more than I want to spend so I didn't look into what the other functionality you get from it.... but from the constant messages selling you....I think you can then track your Macros, you have access to "plans" for eating and exercising and they stop the ads.

Yes. That's a cool feature.

I've also found the database in myfitnesspal to be good.

It's also easy to make up your own meals. That's especially helpful if you eat a lot of the same thing.

I make an egg scramble frittata thing on repeat and it's easy to build the recipe one time and then just click that thing later and it's all there.

 

[massraider]

Is it a thing where they don't feel like they have any hope of getting healthier? Like they're too far past the point of getting back?

I think making lifestyle changes get harder every year someone gets older.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I also bought a Noom subscription last year. It's more expensive and the app is gorgeous and well done. But I think one can get all they really need with myfitnesspal.

 

[massraider]

It's also easy to make up your own meals. That's especially helpful if you eat a lot of the same thing

Meal planning is underrated.

A person can cook three days, and have batched meals weeks in advance. Portioned items in the freezer, ready to go.

It's so easy to eat badly if you are going day by day deciding what to eat.

 

[Joe Bryant]

For instance, today, I had one donut with my grandson for breakfast. That COULD have been the start to a terrible day but it doesn't have to be.

I had a normal lunch and afternoon snack.

But I'm sitting at 454 calories left for the day.

That tells me I'd better go light on dinner. And no alcohol tonight then.

I realize people think I'm not normal. But this is super easy and simply requires one be aware of what they consume.

 

[Joe Bryant]

It's also easy to make up your own meals. That's especially helpful if you eat a lot of the same thing

Meal planning is underrated.

A person can cook three days, and have batched meals weeks in advance. Portioned items in the freezer, ready to go.

It's so easy to eat badly if you are going day by day deciding what to eat.

Preach.

 

[acarey50]

The one thing I know which was somewhat interesting to me was the being able to scan something with the barcode to find it and put it in versus typing in and looking for the right one.

Just a little caution on this as even the bar code data is crowd sourced and not from the manufacturer - very high level of inaccuracies across all the various tracking apps. It will always pay off to take the time to double check that what comes up after scanning matches what is on the label.

Not just from people mis-entering information in the apps, but also because the labels can change as ingredients, etc. change.

 

[Doug B]

How do you think they can be more transparent in how they label the food?

Not my point.

My point is your taking something that's already familiar old-hat to you and thinking that others should readily adopt the same thing. Transparency and complication have nothing to do with it. You're not accounting for human inertia when making recommendations of "things people can do". Having the info and knowing what to do is a small piece of the puzzle. You're looking to overhaul minds altogether ... there's a lot of overhead to overcome for most all obese people. Mentally, psychologically, and socially ... it's not just the flip of a switch.

 

[acarey50]

But I'm sitting at 454 calories left for the day.

One tweak to this mindset though, is that it is the aggregate over the long term that matters.

So for example, if you had a birthday dinner to go to tonight, don't deprive yourself and enjoy it. If you go 400-500 over for the day, heck, even 1000 over for the day, it won't matter in the long run - just chop 100-200 off of the next 4-7 days and you come out the same in the long run, which is what matters.

 

[belljr]

I've used MyFitnessPal for past 3+ years. I am OCD on entering my foods...

When I first started my weight loss journey, My Fitness Pal was instrumental in the change. I've shied away lately but I do jump back on occasionally when I veer off the path a little too far.

I just redownloaded to get back on the wagon

Is the subscription worth it?

I'm honestly not sure what the premium version gets you. I buy it just as it's super helpful and it's not that much money given the importance of the subject.

The one thing I know which was somewhat interesting to me was the being able to scan something with the barcode to find it and put it in versus typing in and looking for the right one. The price on it was just way more than I want to spend so I didn't look into what the other functionality you get from it.... but from the constant messages selling you....I think you can then track your Macros, you have access to "plans" for eating and exercising and they stop the ads.

Yeah I thought the barcode thing was free before. Thanks

 

[acarey50]

It's also easy to make up your own meals. That's especially helpful if you eat a lot of the same thing

Meal planning is underrated.

A person can cook three days, and have batched meals weeks in advance. Portioned items in the freezer, ready to go.

It's so easy to eat badly if you are going day by day deciding what to eat.

Whole heartedly agree. Not the point of this thread, but for anyone interested in ideas for meal prepping that are actually "healthy" and taste good, Zach Coen and Jefe Harris are good follows on social media. Zach Coen does have a $5/month Patreon subscription with additional member only recipes, etc.

 

[massraider]

I'm not sure how they could be more simple or transparent.

If people don't care enough to spend two seconds reading the clear and simple label, I'm not sure what they can do.

But it's not transparent. General Mills gives Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios different serving sizes so that when the consumer spends two seconds reading the label, they see fewer calories on Honey Nut and buy that one even though it's far worse for them.

They're not fooling you or me that way, but people on a fantasy football message board are probably like 99th percentile when it comes to prorating numbers. Lots of the general public is bad at math and is gonna fall for tricks like that.

No worries. We'll just have agree to disagree on the definition of transparent.

When the company says 1 1/3 cups is 150 calories, I call that transparent.

You can find plenty of reading about the leeway companies have to hide things.

You read a label, and it says 'natural flavorings'. That's not transparent

 

[acarey50]

Yeah I thought the barcode thing was free before. Thanks

Believe it became part of the premium only version about 2 years ago or so

 

[RCon]

Starting to feel like I have the worst diet in the entire FBG community. And it's improved a ton since I've been on semaglutide, but I still feel like I'm not as stringent as the vast majority of folks in here.

My diet is a trainwreck. Doesn't seem to affect me much, though, because the one thing I am careful about is sugar. As my girlfriend has put it in the past, "Somehow, Rich could eat cancer out of a box and be fine."

 

[RCon]

How do you think they can be more transparent in how they label the food?

Realistic portion sizes instead of playing games? Serving size for Cheerios is 1.5 cups, yet serving size for Honey Nut Cheerios is 1 cup.

 

[massraider]

By the way, you can count calories, but there is a lot of products that don't add calories and sugar, and will actively be bad for your long term health, and hinder your ability to lose weight.

If there's a bunch of ingredients on the label of the "healthy" food item you are looking at, it's probably not good for you. Healthy items have few ingredients.

Emulsifers, preservatives, this random food dye, that random byproduct, bleached flour, etc. 200 calories of garbage isn't the same as 200 calories of veggies.

 

[belljr]

You know what I find extremely difficult and will sound dumb. Drinking water.

I only have water when eating lunch but to drink it throughout the day is extremely hard for me

 

[Mister CIA]

Was never a fan of My Fitness Pal. To use it means I'm either (A) eating overly-processed food, or (B) I'm weighing too many items, which is way too much work.

 

[belljr]

Was never a fan of My Fitness Pal. To use it means I'm either (A) eating overly-processed food, or (B) I'm weighing too many items, which is way too much work.

I need to drop 30 so I need to be careful

 

[acarey50]

You know what I find extremely difficult and will sound dumb. Drinking water.

I only have water when eating lunch but to drink it throughout the day is extremely hard for me

Are you drinking anything else throughout the day?

What about adding in some flavoring like Crystal Light, etc.?

 

[3C's]

My wife is the cereal eater so I found some no sugar added cereal at Costco and it's actually really good, but it's $14 for a box of 2 bags. I haven't priced cereal in forever but that has to be quite a bit higher than the junk from Post and Kellogg's.

Go check out that Costco packaging and tell us how many ounces of cereal are in those two bags.

Familiar brands of breakfast cereal have gone up a lot in the last decade -- that $14 could be in the ballpark if the quantity is about what I'm thinking.

EDIT: The box you linked to above was ~300 grams, or 10.6 ounces. Is the two-bag packages kind of like two boxes the size in your link?

34oz between 2 bags

 

[Willie Neslon]

Former Olympian and current holistic doctor Sten Ekberg is a pretty good YouTube dietary resource when it comes to what to eat and what not to eat. He breaks down his top 10 foods to avoid in this video. Very informative if you have 30 minutes to spare. To me, avoiding the "foods" on this list is far more important and beneficial than calorie counting when it comes to your metabolic health.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[belljr]

You know what I find extremely difficult and will sound dumb. Drinking water.

I only have water when eating lunch but to drink it throughout the day is extremely hard for me

Are you drinking anything else throughout the day?

What about adding in some flavoring like Crystal Light, etc.?

Not really I'll have 16 oz of coffee in the morning.

Water at lunch
16oz coffee after lunch

An occasional 7oz Pepsi zero

 

[Chadstroma]

The one thing I know which was somewhat interesting to me was the being able to scan something with the barcode to find it and put it in versus typing in and looking for the right one.

Just a little caution on this as even the bar code data is crowd sourced and not from the manufacturer - very high level of inaccuracies across all the various tracking apps. It will always pay off to take the time to double check that what comes up after scanning matches what is on the label.

Not just from people mis-entering information in the apps, but also because the labels can change as ingredients, etc. change.

Yes, same with looking it up. I am too cheap to get the functionality of scanning... not worth... what? $20 a month. But when you look it up you have to double check the numbers. I usually just check the calories and either fat or protein for whatever it is. If they match then I select it.

One thing that I really wish they did was track all vitamins and minerals not just Vitamins B, C, D and Iron... maybe a couple of others... Potassium I think.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I'm not sure how they could be more simple or transparent.

If people don't care enough to spend two seconds reading the clear and simple label, I'm not sure what they can do.

But it's not transparent. General Mills gives Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios different serving sizes so that when the consumer spends two seconds reading the label, they see fewer calories on Honey Nut and buy that one even though it's far worse for them.

They're not fooling you or me that way, but people on a fantasy football message board are probably like 99th percentile when it comes to prorating numbers. Lots of the general public is bad at math and is gonna fall for tricks like that.

No worries. We'll just have agree to disagree on the definition of transparent.

When the company says 1 1/3 cups is 150 calories, I call that transparent.

You can find plenty of reading about the leeway companies have to hide things.

You read a label, and it says 'natural flavorings'. That's not transparent

They still have to report total calories, right?

 

[Joe Bryant]

How do you think they can be more transparent in how they label the food?

Realistic portion sizes instead of playing games? Serving size for Cheerios is 1.5 cups, yet serving size for Honey Nut Cheerios is 1 cup.

Those are completely realistic and reasonable portions. Many people struggle with portion sizes.

But if you want more, have more. And account for the extra portions.

 

[bigbottom]

Another thought on this.

I wonder how much of this is the fact many of us now can live without ever being even slightly uncomfortable. Air conditioned, amazing vehicle, instacart grocery shops for us, Amazon delivers next day.

The idea of being hungry seems unfathomable to many.

Interestingly, One of the ways that I was able to be successful on my most recent diet, was the fact that I made sure I wasn’t consistently hungry. For lunch, I had a huge salad, but with all vegetables and a light amount of low calorie dressing. By the time I finish that salad, I was full. For dinner, pretty much every night for six weeks, I ate skinless chicken breast, steamed spinach, and cauliflower rice. But I ate a lot of it so I would feel full.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Former Olympian and current holistic doctor Sten Ekberg is a pretty good YouTube dietary resource when it comes to what to eat and what not to eat. He breaks down his top 10 foods to avoid in this video. Very informative if you have 30 minutes to spare. To me, avoiding the "foods" on this list is far more important and beneficial than calorie counting when it comes to your metabolic health.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Excellent!

4, Sugar...the cocaine of edibles, rears its ugly head again at No 2

1. Artificial Sweeteners or the Crack version of Sugar

That has got to be sobering for some folks

 

[Joe Bryant]

Another thought on this.

I wonder how much of this is the fact many of us now can live without ever being even slightly uncomfortable. Air conditioned, amazing vehicle, instacart grocery shops for us, Amazon delivers next day.

The idea of being hungry seems unfathomable to many.

Interestingly, One of the ways that I was able to be successful on my most recent diet, was the fact that I made sure I was never hungry. For lunch, I had a huge salad, but with all vegetables and a light amount of low calorie dressing. By the time I finish that salad, I was full. For dinner, pretty much every night for six weeks, I ate skinless chicken breast, steamed spinach, and cauliflower rice. But I ate a lot of it so I would feel full.

Yes. I probably just should have said “uncomfortable” seems unfathomable to many.

 

[bigbottom]

Another thought on this.

I wonder how much of this is the fact many of us now can live without ever being even slightly uncomfortable. Air conditioned, amazing vehicle, instacart grocery shops for us, Amazon delivers next day.

The idea of being hungry seems unfathomable to many.

Interestingly, One of the ways that I was able to be successful on my most recent diet, was the fact that I made sure I was never hungry. For lunch, I had a huge salad, but with all vegetables and a light amount of low calorie dressing. By the time I finish that salad, I was full. For dinner, pretty much every night for six weeks, I ate skinless chicken breast, steamed spinach, and cauliflower rice. But I ate a lot of it so I would feel full.

Yes. I probably just should have said “uncomfortable” seems unfathomable to many.

No, your point was well taken. If my diet resulted in me being unbearably hungry for large stretches of time, I probably would have failed, because to your point, I’m not good at feeling hungry/uncomfortable. And I’m not saying it’s a healthy diet, but it was, for me, an effective one.

 

[Joe Bryant]

My point is your taking something that's already familiar old-hat to you and thinking that others should readily adopt the same thing. Transparency and complication have nothing to do with it. You're not accounting for human inertia when making recommendations of "things people can do". Having the info and knowing what to do is a small piece of the puzzle. You're looking to overhaul minds altogether ... there's a lot of overhead to overcome for most all obese people. Mentally, psychologically, and socially ... it's not just the flip of a switch.

If spending 2 seconds to read the nutrition label that covers half the package is seen as monumental, maybe folks are right and we are truly doomed.

Thanks to all for the discussion on this. Some of it’s been discouraging but it’s been interesting for sure.

 

[massraider]

They still have to report total calories, right?

Sure.
But calories is a small part of the total picture

 

[DA RAIDERS]

235 calories for Multi Grain Cheerios and milk vs McDonalds Bacon Egg and Cheest (460 calories) + Hash Browns (140 Calories) plus coffee with 2 packets of sugar (32 calories) and you're at 632 for breakfast.

This isn't remotely a reasonable comparison, to the point that you're purposely trying to slant it in a specific direction. Why are we only including coffee (with sugar) with the McDonald's meal and not with the sugary Cheerios? Why are you adding hash browns to one side? That 1.3 cup of cereal isn't filling anyone up, so what else should we add to that side of the comparison?

More to the point, it's the added sugar that's the nutritional problem with Multi Grain Cheerios, not the calories.

And skim milk is gross. May as well use water

 

[Mitchie]

You know what I find extremely difficult and will sound dumb. Drinking water.

I only have water when eating lunch but to drink it throughout the day is extremely hard for me

Are you drinking anything else throughout the day?

What about adding in some flavoring like Crystal Light, etc.?

nothing personal but this is terrible advice.

 

[RCon]

How do you think they can be more transparent in how they label the food?

Realistic portion sizes instead of playing games? Serving size for Cheerios is 1.5 cups, yet serving size for Honey Nut Cheerios is 1 cup.

Those are completely realistic and reasonable portions. Many people struggle with portion sizes.

But if you want more, have more. And account for the extra portions.

You're missing the point. General Mills is intentionally deceiving consumers by using a smaller serving size on the less healthy food. The Cheerios serving size is 50% more than the Honey Nut Cheerios serving size. They do this because otherwise HN Cheerios would appear like a lot more calories on the label. That's the opposite of transparent.