Anyone have Obese/Overweight parents or grandparents?

[spatts]

It's ok to accept the fact that you're going to be heavy, but you do NOT have to accept your composition.

I wouldn't trade my 200 pounds for 130 and soft.

 

[Liftbig]

first time i read through this thread and spatts makes some good points. my mom is overweight, as are some other relatives in my family. i carry too much fat right now(i guess its still alot of baby fat, but whatever, its fat), and some say its becuase of my genetics. i dont buy that. my little sister, does not carry too much fat, she is actually pretty lean, and is a collegiate athelete in her sports. my extra weight doesnt come from genetics, it comes from learning habits from those around me. when i was younger i overate alot. in 6th grade i was already 260lbs. in 8th grade i was 300 lbs. by the time i graduated high school i weighed 380lbs with much higher bodyfat then i have now at 425 lbs. just recently, like in the last 8 months, have i learned how to eat better and my composition is slowly changing for the better.

 

[Nessa Bug]

Great outlook Spatts! Makes me view my body and fitness in a more positive light.

 

[makedah]

This is something I have been thinking about. Seems like lots of obese and morbidly obese people think it is heredity that is causing their obesity. Of course there are body types and yes some folks are going to be easy keepers. I don't recall seeing that many morbidly obese people 30 years ago, there really weren't obese kids in school. So just where did they come from? The older people that are obese now probabley weren't that way in their 20's, but as food became easier to buy and cheaper as well as more processed, the fat piled on. What the next generation picked up on wasn't so much crummy genetics but poor nutrition and eating habits.
...
IF your family is obese then look at what they are eating. Are they active? Look at old photos, I think you would be surprised at how good your grandparents looked. We all have been the unwitting participants of a 30 yr experiment run by the food industry.

For sure lots of people won't be reed thin or even lean. Thats ok, it takes all types, certainly one can be heavy and fit. Its the morbid obesity that should be avoided.

A agree with you, valerie.

My father's mother did long days of physical labor, walked everywhere and didn't eat junk food, and the pics of her from her 30s (no earlier pictures exist) show a robust woman - not obese, but not slim, either. My father says that she was never a small woman. My father is the most active person in the generation above me (daily walks, lots of yard work), and he's no lean machine - he has a belly but he is quite muscular and in good condition considering his age and health issues. He also avoids junk food and since a blood-sugar scare, has been on a moderate (low to med GI) carb diet. (And no, he's still not hard-bodied!) I believe that I gain strength and muscle pretty easily (but I'm no 'genetic freak,' as they say) because of these genes.

My sister and I grew up eating the same stuff, in the same portions (until I developed food issues) and she was always much more slender (long and lean like my father's father and his brothers) than I was. In my previous message I described my mother as being slender before she quit smoking, but that's not quite right. She was small in her youth (her nickname is "Teeny") then gained small amounts of weight steadily, but (like her sisters) she was quite curvy, with fat deposits in all the right places. She and her sisters got fat in their 40s; my female cousins and I (all with the same figure) got fat in our 20s. That shift is completely lifestyle related, but I believe the predisposition to store fat easily, in the same locations, was already there.

I'd be the first to admit that when I ate healthfully, I lost weight (some, not a whole lot) and when I ate junk, I gained it. Big surprise! But I also know that I eat as much junk as my peers and exercise MORE and still rapidly gain weight while they don't. (I suspect its just a matter of habits and setpoints and all that, but I'm going to the doc Monday to see if there's anything abnormal.) I have to put in SO much more labor than the women I know to achieve modest weight loss. And no, I haven't been a yo-yo dieter. (But I'm sure its possible that years of compulsive eating has wrecked my metabolism somehow.) Yes, we have the ability to change our bodies, but we all can't have the same body.

 

[BodyByFinaplix]

Flexy, I had alot of problems with my family. Half the people in my father's family (very large, he is one of seven children) are very fat, meaning 300 ibs+. When I first started loosing weight I heard everything from "you are so stupid for wasting your time trying to do that, you just gain it all back and be fat again, like us." to "you look horrible now." Do not let the negativity or jelousy of others drag you down.

I have learned something about a very negative aspect of human nature. There are alot of people in this world who get off to destroying or hurting other people. No matter what you try to accomplish, there will ALWAYS be something there telling you to give up, or who will try to belittle your achievements. Tell those people to go fuck themselves. Even after loosing all of that bodyfat, and after placing 3rd in my first contest, a guy I had met prior to getting into bodybuilding started working with me, and even though I had never acted cocky or arogant around him, he told me in the first week he worked with me, "Jason, I just want you to know that your body doesn't impress me, because I remember when you were a fat ass, and as far as I'm concerned thats how I'll always see you. Your nothing but a fake and a loser with your little bodybuilding thing, because a few years ago you were just a fucking slob, and I'm sure eventually you'll end up looking the same way again." Then he walked off.

People will always try to drag you down in order to make themsevles feel better. Some people are intemidated by those who achieve something beyond their reach, and would like nothing more than to see you fall short of your potential. You have to learn to either ignore these people, or use them as motivation. Push yourself harder, just to show them that they are wrong. Turn something negative that you can't do anything about, into a source of motivation to do something possitive.

Jackie, even if your family doesn't believe in you, I do, and I know you have the strength to accomplish your goals with your body. Maybe its time for you to start believing in yourself as well.

 

[BodyByFinaplix]

BTW, those who say that one should accept the fact that some of these women can't attain a certain body type should be put in the same category. I was told when I expressed an interest in bodybuilding, by several trainers as well as hardcore people at the gym that I would not be able to attain that look due to my endomorph genetics. 6 months later I did my first show at 4% bodyfat with a 28' waist and veins running through my abes. Flexy tell them to go fuck themselves too (as you can see this is my favorite express to tell people who tell me I can't do something). And make it a goal to prove them wrong and make them eat their words, when you look how you want to look.

 

[spatts]

For the record, I don't discuss this stuff with family much anymore, because they don't have anything positive to say. That's what my Elite family if for.

...and my "friends" have been reduced in numbers by about 75%.

You find out who's who when you challenge people to unconditional support.

 

[RottenWillow]

Mixed genetics here. One half of the family tends to be substantially overfat but muscular and the other half quite thin. I've kind of ended up with elements of both evident in my body. I'm too young as yet to know if I'm going to have a predilection for being overfat. Get back to me in 10 years.

On the topic of genetics vs behavior (diet in this case), traditional mexican cooking probably plays a part in the size of my dad's family.

 

[velvett]

For the record, I don't discuss this stuff with family much anymore, because they don't have anything positive to say. That's what my Elite family if for.

...and my "friends" have been reduced in numbers by about 75%.

You find out who's who when you challenge people to unconditional support.

I don't really discuss anything with anyone (even here) but I know what you mean about the friends.




I was actually told by a co-worker that weights make people fat.

In my horror, I pulled up my skirt, pointed to my thighs and said, "see those bumps - those are muscles - weights make muscles. Chocolate cake is what makes you fat."

 

[spatts]

I don't really discuss anything with anyone (even here) but I know what you mean about the friends.




I was actually told by a co-worker that weights make people fat.

In my horror, I pulled up my skirt, pointed to my thighs and said, "see those bumps - those are muscles - weights make muscles. Chocolate cake is what makes you fat."

I'm afraid I'm going to need a live demo.