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In the smoking discussion, as we all know that smoking is bad for the health so do foods. Obesity actually counts as the biggest killer in the western world with all heart and other diseases associated with foods drinks etc. now my question is which one is harder to quit smoking or to lose weight and I had this discussion in the office and most said losing weight was very difficult, why? Think about the person who needs to lose lots of weights, that is years of change to achieve the goal, smoking can be given up if the person is determined to do it, it might take months but remember if the person smoke once in a while that will not effect the health badly but any mess with the diet plan will stop shedding pounds and set you back for weeks/ months because you lose motivation along the way.

as i've said in the smoking thread... it's harder to give up smoking than losing weight. i'll even make a bet...

for me personally quitting smoking has been a hard task but am working towards it.

eating depends a lot on your working pattern and day to day life. if you are in sales and mrketing job people tend to grab a quick bite and what could be handier than a burger or fast food. there are places which offer you salads and healthier food but not everyone gives it a thought.

But i thnk setting up your goals to eat the right food is easier than quitting smoking.

I do not smoke so iam not really sure but I never get addicted to any thing so I think I would be able to give it up if I was smoker but I never been so I can not be sure. I drink caffeine and was hooked in it and I gave it up but I know nicotine is worse.

I like smoking...never gonna give it up!



Knight

Dubai Knight wrote:I like smoking...never gonna give it up!



Knight

so whenever i read any article 'bout risks of smoking, lung cancers, yadda yadda - i stopped............


i stopped reading those articles!

weary_heart wrote:as i've said in the smoking thread... it's harder to give up smoking than losing weight. i'll even make a bet...

I cannot agree, smoking was easier to give up than eating.

sage & onion wrote:

weary_heart wrote:as i've said in the smoking thread... it's harder to give up smoking than losing weight. i'll even make a bet...

I cannot agree, smoking was easier to give up than eating.

it's overeating sage....

OMG - wait till chocs reads this

Dubai Knight wrote:I like smoking...never gonna give it up!



Knight

ditto matey

smokers of the world unite

arniegang wrote:OMG - wait till chocs reads this

what's with chocs arnie? smoker or obese?

losint weight is soo much harder for me

lets just say she has a few issue's re smoking

but she's a real tiger cat really, i blew smoke over her and she didnt bite my head off or scratch me

arniegang wrote:lets just say she has a few issue's re smoking

but she's a real tiger cat really, i blew smoke over her and she didnt bite my head off or scratch me

hmmm....

arniegang wrote:

Dubai Knight wrote:I like smoking...never gonna give it up!



Knight

ditto matey

smokers of the world unite

Oh no smokers get together

I find it MUCH harder to lose weight, was addicted to several things in the past few months and quit them almost entirely recently:

Soft drinks, now Water
Haven't smoked a cigarette since the start of ramadan and shisha for about 10 days, not intending to get back to it as it f***ed up my throat quite badly
Energy drinks, used to drink red bull and ornamin-c very often, barely drink them nowadays

So yeah, losing weight is much harder for moi

Think that it's different for everyone....there are other factors that play a role...for smoking that would be will power& if someone smokes 2 cigs a day or a whole pack....for losing weight metabolism is important...some pple have slow metabolism so for them is going to be more difficult to lose weight..
So depends on the person

I think that the evidence that obesity kills is sketchy at best. I'm not saying this out of the blue, it's something that a relatively small and select group of obesity and other experts have been stating for some time with unbiased facts to support it. I think the real culprit behind heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes etc. are 1.bad eating habits (which many thin people have) 2. lack of exercise (I think an equal number of thin versus overweight people lead very sedentary lives) 3. smoking, excess drinking, medications 4. stress 5. genetics 6. other factors (a new study reported in the NY Times has found that some people tend to suffer from undetected but chronic low levels of gut inflammations caused by bacterium that also affect food digestion and can cause a lot of weight gain).

What many people don't realize about the studies that claim that fatties are dropping dead by the thousands is that these studies are sponsored by diet companies including huge pharma (diet pills) corporations, and weight loss plans, etc. Scare tactics keep them in business, afterall in the US alone the diet industry nets about 40 billion dollars a year.

I also don't see the comparison between smoking and weight. Smoking is an addiction, it's willingly inhaling toxic chemicals into the body while fat is a naturally occuring lipid that the body needs in order to function. (However, artificial chemical fats: transfats are a very significant culprit in causing diseases, according to many experts.) Going hungry is not an option that is easy to take for many, hence the failure of diets. I do think that excess fat can certainly be a problem for many, and these people would do good by seeking professional help, but to think that excess fat alone will cause death is illogical. I think that an overall holistic approach to health is more important than making the diet industry richer than it already is.

From the topic's subject, I initially thought this would be a censored debate!!!

Mint Tulip wrote:I think that the evidence that obesity kills is sketchy at best. I'm not saying this out of the blue, it's something that a relatively small and select group of obesity and other experts have been stating for some time with unbiased facts to support it. I think the real culprit behind heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes etc. are 1.bad eating habits (which many thin people have) 2. lack of exercise (I think an equal number of thin versus overweight people lead very sedentary lives) 3. smoking, excess drinking, medications 4. stress 5. genetics 6. other factors (a new study reported in the NY Times has found that some people tend to suffer from undetected but chronic low levels of gut inflammations caused by bacterium that also affect food digestion and can cause a lot of weight gain).

You answered your self there! Food is the biggest killer in the the west, How? All these diseases you mentioned above, high blood pressure, heart problems and even cancer etc are all associated with diet. So the statement not sketchy at all, I think a diet can kill more than smoking. If you want me to quote the stats for death in results of this I will. I can talk in depth about cancer, because it is my research area, even though all these scientific can not be proven 100% (no science fact is that accurate). It is all stats and there is strong correlation between cancer and diet. The Japanese or Chinese have lower rate of cancer compared to westerners.

Mint Tulip wrote: I also don't see the comparison between smoking and weight. Smoking is an addiction.

How can you just make statement like this, food is addiction too, why do not these people give up food to become healthier, fitter etc??? because they are addicted to food, it is psychological diseases, food is also associated with depression. Anorexic is recognised illness but overrating just started to be given some attention now. Giving up smoking can take weeks and moths but losing weight need years if you have excess weight to lose and that mean years of patience and determination and above all have the right psychological state.

I would not be able to give up either. I love my food and i like to smoke. Fortunately, i have a fast matabalism, so the food does not turn into fat/flab!

sara_uk,

I personally would not say that food is the biggest killer in the West, I think that it is a combination of factors and one very significant factor is over-processed, high-fat, empty-calorie foods - yup absolutely.

I have a problem with how obesity is approached though. It's approached as an "epidemic" when it is not, it's a condition, a real problem for some - it's affecting many but it is not in itself a disease. I'm also very skeptical with the solutions that have become the norm: which is mostly to push dieting, and dieting so far has been shown not to work for the vast majority of people. So the so called "solutions" basically are not working - most people that lose weight will gain it back, and I'm sure you've seen those statistics. One can't ignore the role that the diet industry plays in this issue. If diets worked the diet industry would not be so profitable, after all they're the ones that benefit the most when someone loses weight then gains it back only to get back on another diet. the yo-yo dieting cycle is I think the real danger to people's health because studies have shown that losing and gaining weight over a period of time will eventually damage the metabolism and will slow it down. Look at Oprah Winfrey for example, through out most of her life she has lost and gained back a significant amount of weight and now even though she has a trainer, chef, equipment, and works out a lot, restricts her meals, etc. she struggles to maintain a body-type that most would consider chubby or thick. That is the plight of many; after so many diets, the body will not recover and losing even small amounts of weight will become increasingly harder.

Also, it's important to note that not all over-weight people are emotional eaters, not all of them have unhealthy eating habits, not all of them have diseases - I think that to generalize the condition of all overweight people is also part of the problem (and once again, the diet industry's propaganda does over-simplify fatness and the media runs with it). But for those that do have problems, I think their treatment should be individualized and rational. The treatement for an anorexic girl is not to tell her to just eat a sandwhich, the best and most successful treatment by far is to have her go into therapy. It's the same with emotional compulsive overeaters, their problem is not with what they eat, it's what triggers them to eat the way they do - they're better off going to therapy than going on a diet.

seeing as how i dont eat much, and i get sick after eating almost everything...i would say the quitting the smoking.

ive tried and failed....many times.

which i am assuming just means i am not fully committed to doing (actually, i dont need to assume...i know). so once im through...khalas, it will be over.

inshalla