I know why the Europeans are so slender.

[neptronix]

Diet. Plain and simple.

It's not just portion sizes. It's what kind of macronutrients you're getting. Sugar and high power carbs are really addicting and put one on a blood-sugar rollercoaster, which the majority of America is on, that's why something like 60% of us are overweight and 30% of us are obese, plus our diabetes incidence has been skyrocketing since the 1960's.

Ever ate a bunch of pizza, pasta, rice, pastry, soda, or some other hi-power carbohydrate and be full, and then for some reason, want more carby/sugary stuff right after? I can't be alone in experiencing that, my wife did too. Yea.. that's your blood sugar spiking, dropping, and then wanting to go back up. So, actual body calorie requirements be damned, your body is going to store that extra food as fat and then want more.

Reminds me of cocaine... it gives you a boost, then a drop.. except the getting fat part :lol:

I dropped my carbohydrates from 400+ a day to 20 a day and lost 56lbs in 5 months, and am still losing. Didn't bother doing portion control, just felt my appetite wane the second i started the ultra low carb diet. And i'm a natural fatty, so that was amazing..

Suddenly, my 1600W MAC rig seems excessive and i've gone to a pedalbike setup for my around town duties because pedaling unpowered is no longer such a bear at all and my knees no longer hurt, plus the weight loss has meant that i have more endurance ( less body fat pushing on veins and organs ).

As for your bike... bump up the volts if you want a higher top speed! 15mph sucks!

 

[LockH]

I'm pretty sure it's just down to what were once big differences in diet between the US and Europe. Some of that is historic, for example here in the UK we had food rationing until the mid-1950's, as a consequence of the massive debts built up during WWII. This resulted in people living on a fairly basic diet for around 15 years, which sort of established a culture of eating basic home grown food that took time to change. Culture has a lot to do with it, even now in France people prefer to use local ingredients over imported food, and the culture of making meals from what is available locally is still strong, much stronger than it is here in the UK.

Update (I guess). At one point, two Canadian kids lived outside of London (in the UK, their dad Royal Canadian Navy posted to Admiralty Square) for three years. Older kiddo went to three different schools (for different reasons) but in Year One, got airlifted/dropped into a "dorm school". This place:
http://www.wadhurst.demon.co.uk/high-trees/index.htm

(Think of this as learning how to swim by being thrown into the deep end of the pool. And dropped into a live fairy tale at the same time.)

Lots of saving graces, like EG many/most boarding kids had parents in diplomatic service from other countries (the school? Think "multi-cultural", but on steroids.).

Point is, other stuff that was wierd for a Canadian kid. Like learning how to bath in a tub with 3" of "warm" water. Growing our own watercress and mustard in seperate plots. Malt in jars on breakfast tables...

In other words perhaps left-overs from a life spent in a war zone (see "World War II".

Around the time the McDonald brothers were starting expanding their franchises in the USA, I was eating sometimes at a Wimpy Bar.

But it seems to me the "fast food" may have skipped a generation, with the USA a winner in that "race".

And beyond food (including things like "exercise"), the whole of europe was "set back" (maybe closer to reality) by that whole "world war" thingee being much more "up close and personal" than for many in North America.

It may be more than just a "food thing", I'm thinking.

 

[Eskimo]

Here people started slowly get slightly fatter during the nineties. Until then almost everybody was slim. Personally i try to avoid word "diet". Like there would be some kind of exceptional state.
It"s better to think your eating as "normal", no matter how you modify it. If you go on a "diet", that says the way other people eat is like, normal. When it is not. See yourself as a part of the culture, not just as an individual in vacuum. You are not on a diet when you eat less. You are the one being normal. Psychology is important, how you approach things.
That school i was when young had around 600 pupils. Not a single one of them was brought to school by car by parents. Somebody rarely was, like one guy, but that was exception. It was crazy exception if you did not walk or cycle to school. Parents did not want to drive their kids to school, they knew it was a bad habbit. No school busses either, nobody used standard busses.
Of course a family can function this way only in a society where there is nothing to be afraid of when your kids walk two-three miles to school, in the northern darkness.
When i was doing my walks, the first Sony Walkman just came out. That was great, i went through lots of albums on those walks.
Good breakfast is important. Around here it means oat porridge. I have been eating oat porridge forty years as a breakfast. No juices or anything, just a big chunk of that.
Small portions and often, good breakfast. Max four hours between the meals. That"s how people eat here.
Taking care of protein intake too, which means avoiding excess amounts of carbs. Though i"m calory-guy basicly.
As Lock said, of course it"s a large question, way beyond the borders of individual.

 

[Punx0r]

I think you need to look back into human evolution when considering diet. I don't think we evolved to eat three regular meals every day. Forgetting seasonal food shortages and looking at day-to-day stuff, I think people somedays had little to eat and other days managed to catch a deer and stuffed themselves with calorie-rich goodness.

Two summers ago I experimented with a fast-feast diet after seeing some interesting research on it. The initial idea was to alternate between fast and feast days: Fast days you eat 500-600 calories max. Feast days you eat whatever you want, including junk food. Later research suggested that any three fast days in a week works just as well.

Controlled studies in rats and limited human experimentation suggested that such a diet resulted in weight loss for the overweight, cholersteral and growth hormone levels, markedly increased lifespan (for the rats) and a few other benefits to mood, energy levels and mental acquity (yes, apparently hunger does sharpen the mind).

The idea was that because of natural satiation, when feasting the excess calories over your required daily intake don't make up for those lost on the fast day, so average calorie intake falls.

Also, it seems our bodies can cope with fatty, junky food, but not constantly. We need a day off to restore natual, healthy levels.

I tried this for 3-4 months and can recommend it. Going to bed hungry is odd to start with, but easier than regular dieting, because you know the next day is starting with a fried breakfast, if you want. You appetite does adapt after a while and it becames somewhat easier. I found myself with more energy and just feeling more lean and nimble (I didn't actually lose any weight, but I wasn't overweight to start with).

You may wonder (as I did) about bloodsugar and energy levels, but it doesn't matter. I did not feel tired or weak, I can recall one sunny day cycling 25 miles with a friend and eating 500 calories the whole day (the following evening) and it was easy. I was probably 2500-3000 calories deficient that day. It seems our bodies are very capable once given a few days to get out of bad habbits.

I would heartily recommend anyone (unless diabetic) to give it a try. You think you know what your belly looks like "empty", but 18-24 hours after last eating you might be surprised how much slimmer it is.

IIRC full human trials of this diet are underway to see how the findings in rats compare to humans.

 

[liveforphysics]

If you want to fatten cattle or hogs, you feed them corn.

Our government subsides corn so heavily, it's sold at under the costs to grow it.

As a result, you find corn derived compounds in a shocking variety of food products sold here.

Fattens hogs, cattle, and people alike.

If you wish to be slim, low calorie, low carb, high fat diet works. Of all the energy sources, fat is your optimal food energy source to drop body weight. It's very energy dense though, so you must be careful not to eat so much you exceed your daily calorie limit.

If I want to get fat, it takes only following the US governments "food pyramid" they teach kids in school. If you want to be slim, get your calories from fats, and don't exceed some reasonable food energy amount per day.

Take it from a guy who is 80lbs lighter today than he was a year ago.
It is definitely it's own best reward. Having 6pack abs is drastically nicer than lugging around 80lbs of belly fat hanging off your body. I used to be loaded down with 10x 1gal milk jugs worth of mass hanging off me! Feels so amazing to run and jump and ride.

 

[Giovanni LiCalsi]

You inspire me!
I really need to shave off the pounds.

 

[spisska]

I lived for six years in Slovakia, and I can promise you a couple things: 1) People there are much more slender than Americans, even those with unhealthy lifestyles, and 2) the women look like supermodels well into their 20s and sometimes even into their 30s. In their early 20s, shit. Visit Presov sometime in mid May. It's a university town, and May is when the exams are on. Just sit in the square, have a coffee, and watch them go to their tests -- oral exams before a panel.

Most Americans are a bit shocked by how fat-heavy the diet there is. Lots of pork, lots of frying -- they dip 100g of Eidam in batter, deep fry it, and call it a meal ... it's awesome -- lots of butter, lard, bacon fat, etc. The 'national dish' of Slovakia is called Bryndzove Halusky, which is potato dumplings with fresh, unpasteurized sheep cheese topped with cubes of bacon, and dribbled with the grease the bacon produced. If you're fancy, you might throw some onions on top of that.

Of course at the same time, the pork, bacon, potatoes, and cheese are local products. Hell, the town I lived in had a dairy that made unpasteurized yogurt. Brother, I can't even describe how good that goop was.

The thing that kept people thin in my town was that the center was very compact, and that's where everyone worked and/or was when they weren't working. It took about 15 minutes to walk from one side of 'downtown' to the other, and I'd do so at least twice a day. Why wouldn't you? You pass both churches, the theater, the Non-Stop (open 5am - 10pm Mon-Sat), the half-dozen pubs and cafes on the way ... Chances are you'll meet whomever you're looking for just walking around town.

The real thing is that people there eat locally produced food and get plenty of exercise because of their unique geography. Not just the meat and dairy -- plums, apples, pears, and cherries all grow there as if they were wild.

It's not the 'fat' that makes us fat -- it's all the hormones, and the byproducts of all the antibiotics that go into the food supply in the West.

It's not the fat in an Argentine steak that will cause you problems -- it's the dope in the Texas steak.

 

[footloose]

... nicer than lugging around 80lbs of belly fat hanging off your body. I used to be loaded down with 10x 1gal milk jugs worth of mass hanging off me!

I'm a big believer that us human monkeys understand simple images better than complex equations. Luke, thanks for putting this one so simply. I reckon I'm hauling around a couple of extra milk jugs. Getting rid of say 4 milk jugs is a simple, understandable goal. May be difficult in practice, but it is understandable.

I lived alone in Europe for a few months a while ago, for business reasons. Lost so much weight that my wife literally didn't recognize me at Paris airport one time when she came over for a visit. All I can say is I was walking a lot at night, eating a pretty rich but simple diet, and not drinking much. Pretty much zero candy bars or soda, just wasn't doing snack food.

 

[sardini]

If you want to fatten cattle or hogs, you feed them corn.

Our government subsides corn so heavily, it's sold at under the costs to grow it.

As a result, you find corn derived compounds in a shocking variety of food products sold here.

Fattens hogs, cattle, and people alike.

If you wish to be slim, low calorie, low carb, high fat diet works. Of all the energy sources, fat is your optimal food energy source to drop body weight. It's very energy dense though, so you must be careful not to eat so much you exceed your daily calorie limit.

If I want to get fat, it takes only following the US governments "food pyramid" they teach kids in school. If you want to be slim, get your calories from fats, and don't exceed some reasonable food energy amount per day.

Take it from a guy who is 80lbs lighter today than he was a year ago.
It is definitely it's own best reward. Having 6pack abs is drastically nicer than lugging around 80lbs of belly fat hanging off your body. I used to be loaded down with 10x 1gal milk jugs worth of mass hanging off me! Feels so amazing to run and jump and ride.

Guys is 98% food 2% exercise, so crank the F... amps!
http://www.endomondo.com/profile/7839301

 

[Ch00paKabrA]

I always get a kick out of the myth that Americans are fat and Europeans are skinny. Here's a report for y'all to mull over while eating a rack of ribs.

Apparently half of Europe is Fat too:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obesity-not-just-us-problem-half-of-europe-fat-report-says/

 

[Punx0r]

This is something I discussed recently with a couple of U.S. friends living over here. I think the conclusion was: A large number of men & women in the UK are somewhat, but not extremely, overweight. Compared to the US where people tend to be either a) in shape or b) very overweight.

On my few trips to the U.S. I was pleasantly surprised how many people (especially the ladies) were in great shape.

Of course, everything is bigger in the U.S., including examples of rediculously over-weight people being forklifted through a cutaway wall to get them out of their home

 

[o00scorpion00o]

Bosch get beyond the limit somehow as it's not 250 watts, it's 500 watts and 750 peak.

I do believe higher quality bikes with hubs are also more than 250 watts.

It pulls me up 20-25% a lot more than most if not all hubs can handle at the same power level and even bigger hubs would burn at the watts needed to get up. Granted at 25% you'll be peddling hard. The Haibike also has the added advantage of the S-ram Dual Drive III in the rear for greater gear ratio's.

For level ground and moderate hills a MAC 1kw upgraded kit from Cell-Man would do the job but i love the Bosch for it's utter smoothness and I now do not miss a throttle at all in fact I would not go back to throttle only.

 

[spinningmagnets]

I am convinced that...although exercise is always good...it is possible to eat more calories than you burn off. I believe the trend for US folks to be fat is a result of 90% poor food choices, and leading a sedentary life. Throw away your scale...eat healthier and stay active, and a year later your clothes will fit better instead of being tight. Be wise 80% of the time, and then what you do at birthdays/anniversaries/Thanksgiving doesn't really have a big effect.

In Europe, gasoline is $8/gallon in some places, so riding a bicycle or (gasp!) walking a few blocks is not sneered at. In the US, many people still feel that if a guy is riding a bike to work, he is either poor or has a DUI (lost his car license due to alcohol). An Italian, German, or French boy can visit a girl by riding his bicycle, if an American boy tries that he gets laughed at.

The biggest food culprits I see frequently: Sodas everywhere, and jumbo servings (liquid sugar), eating huge plates of carbs in the evening (just graze on carbs during the day, no need for any in the evening), desserts that are packed with sugar and frostings.

 

[Lebowski]

Once I watched the movie 'supersize me' where they told you how much sugar is in cola.
With half a litre you get 50 grams of suger.

So, I went to the kitchen, took out my scales and started spooning sugar. Incredible how
many spoons you need, and then to compare that to the half a spoon I use in a mug of tea.

I noticed here in central Europe, instead of cola people drink a lot of mineral water with gas.
You get the same prickly feeling from the bubbles as with cola, just none of the calories.

 

[friendly1uk]

In the US we have an epidemic of diabetes where it is now rising faster than most other diseases.

otherDoc

Are you calling it a disease to shift blame?
Here in the uk we call it a condition. It is not something you can catch. You bring it upon yourself with your genetics deciding how much effort that takes.
Recent research shows the cure is to stop eating so much. What a revelation. Just keep below 800 a day, and you can eat whatever you like.

Calling it a disease makes it much more socially acceptable. The fast food giants can hand out burgers at the drive through to people that can't fit through the door. Consoling them about their disease and offering to supersize it. Nobody batters an eyelid, they have a disease not an eating disorder.


Perhaps attitude keeps americans fatter, rather than food keeps europeans thinner.


https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/What-is-diabetes/

 

[USAEBIKECO]

A good diet, and some ebiking, and Americans can be as slender as Europeans. Ebiking is FUN exercise. I do it daily.

 

[o00scorpion00o]

Europeans are not that slender, well not in Western Europe.

Childhood Obesity can be a lot to do with parents, allowing them to dictate and rule the house, they should have the TV taken from their rooms and games consoles and forbid access to TV apart from maybe 30 mins to 1 hour a day, this is what we had to put up with as children.

If it was a fine day we were sent out to play or face the wooden spoon across the arse if we said no. We had chores and that means work and not sitting on our arses. Be it cutting the lawns with a push mower or cutting the hedges to anything really if it meant helping out.

I'm due to be a dad in a few weeks and there is no way in hell I'm having obese children, that will be our fault no one else.

 

[docnjoj]

In the US we have an epidemic of diabetes where it is now rising faster than most other diseases.

otherDoc

Are you calling it a disease to shift blame?
Here in the uk we call it a condition. It is not something you can catch. You bring it upon yourself with your genetics deciding how much effort that takes.
Recent research shows the cure is to stop eating so much. What a revelation. Just keep below 800 a day, and you can eat whatever you like.

Calling it a disease makes it much more socially acceptable. The fast food giants can hand out burgers at the drive through to people that can't fit through the door. Consoling them about their disease and offering to supersize it. Nobody batters an eyelid, they have a disease not an eating disorder.


Perhaps attitude keeps americans fatter, rather than food keeps europeans thinner.


https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/What-is-diabetes/

Well diabetes is a disease, and not only fat people get it. In no way does it deny that eating right and with a normal calorie intake, one probably will not be fat. At least we agree that eating too much makes one fat.
We in the US probably need to go back to rationing like in WW2. However, one or two bad harvests will bring down American's weight quite quickly.
otherDoc

 

[gogo]

You all are such a bunch of wives telling tales.

Every body is different. A fellow sprinter from High School hasn't gained an ounce from his then lean weight of 110 Lbs.. His 'secret' is a light snack in the morning and for lunch, and what might be considered a normal meal for his weight minutes before passing out each night. Oh, did I mention the twelve 5.77% ABV Red Hook beers throughout the day, containing a total of 2148 calories and 1430g of carbs? He drains the fat from his ground beef because "its bad for you".

Anyone heard of the epigenetic effects on DNA? http://www.precisionnutrition.com/epigenetics-feast-famine-and-fatness

Every body is different, so we are left with individual experimenting, and even with that things can change as we age. I like the healthful effect riding bicycles seems to have for me and electric bicycles seem to multiply the effect.

 

[Eskimo]

Cheapest gas is 8,32 dollars per US gallon at the moment. Around 80% of it is tax. That"s how you run free health care. Every single gallon pays six bucks to the state.
We used to be very car-based culture, like US in the seventies and eighties, but still we were very slender back then.
Inside last ten years this has changed dramatically. People don"t like cars anymore, bicycles are in now, and they got fatter during 1990-2010. Now it has stopped, they say.
What happened 1990-2010? That "zero-fat"-fashion. Then of course jobs are not so physical anymore like they used to be. No factories much.
Everybody woke up before the seven am back then, during the weekends too, then had his oat porridge. Hefty breakfast early was a standard.
You can eat pretty high quanties of food without getting too much calories, if you keep it simple. Like potatoes. Normal, standard boiled potatoes are excellent food, because they are not calory-rich. You don"t have to watch the amount.
They say that alcohol makes you fat not because of it"s calories but because your liver stops digesting fat while you have alcohol in your blood. Dunno.
Our alcohol consumption increased dramatically 1990-2010. Like, from four litres per year to ten litres per year of 100% alcohol.
Food quality has dropped a lot in thirty years. They are very smart over there. Meat percentage in our most famous sausage have almost halved in thirty years. Ice cream is crap now, artificial. Now, if you want same quality ice cream that they sold as a standard in the seventies, you have to buy the most expensive premium stuff. Like twenty bucks per one litre. Then you get the same quality you got as a cheap standard in 1978.
First, they invented these cheap, artificial crap food products that are not good for you. Then they raised the price of food that used to be standard, quality stuff dramatically, and started to call it "premium high quality food". Now people pay their ass off of food as a "premium", that used to be normally priced standard food. You still can buy the same quality sausage, what you bought as a normal sausage back in 1978, now it is just located at the "premium"- section and costs like twenty bucks per kg or something.

 

[Ch00paKabrA]

Once I watched the movie 'supersize me' where they told you how much sugar is in cola.
With half a litre you get 50 grams of suger.

So, I went to the kitchen, took out my scales and started spooning sugar. Incredible how
many spoons you need, and then to compare that to the half a spoon I use in a mug of tea.

I noticed here in central Europe, instead of cola people drink a lot of mineral water with gas.
You get the same prickly feeling from the bubbles as with cola, just none of the calories.

The Movie Super Size Me was nothing more than an Opinion Hit-piece. Morgan Spurloc completely misrepresented everything about what he was doing. Make no mistake, NOTHING he did in the movie was done without know exactly what and why he was doing it.

I would encourage you to watch it again, but this time with a critical eye. You will see a great many things that are ridiculous and some that are down right sneaky.

1. Stupid Rules.

Rule number one is that he can eat nothing but Mcdonalds food every day for every meal. In the real world, we can eat what and where we want.

Rule number two was that if the person asks him if he wants to "supersize" his meal, he must agree to supersize it. This rule does not apply in real life and stacks the deck in favor of the presumed outcome.

Rule number three is that he must eat everything that he is served. This is foolish. In the real world, i can eat until I am full and throw away the rest.

Rule number four is that he must eat everything on the menu at least once. Again, This is not a "real life rule"

Rule number five is that he can only walk a set, low number of steps every day. The only reason for this rule is to force a specific desired outcome.

In addition to the stupid rules, he also set a specific amount of time of 30 days. Believe me, this was not a random number. It normally takes your body around 5 weeks or so to adjust to changes that you make to your life style. He had liver enzyme tests performed on a regular basis and they were consistently rising to cope with the drastic change to his diet. After only 4 weeks, his liver enzyme levels started to come down and return to normal. This is simply medically natural and if I had to bet, I would bet that he knew this before he started his "scientific study.

2. Riddled through out the movie are speculative statements that cannot be verified. "cheese is addictive" was supported by him being shown curled up in a fetal position saying that he is suffering from withdrawals becuase he needs to eat cheese.

3. Morgan Spurlock had a television show where he would pay people to eat disgusting things. I guess it was simply appropriate that he should do this movie.

FYI: After I retired, I was bored and decided to go to Nursing school since nurses can work a 3 day work week. I did a paper on this movie so there was a lot of research that went into my knowledge of the movie.

Again, I would encourage everyone who thinks that there is ANY merit to this movie to watch it again but this time, watch it while looking for all of the discrepancies and purely opinionated statements.

Here is a story on a man who ate nothing but McDonalds foods and lost 56 pounds in, I believe, six months.

Edit: I forgot to add this URL - http://www.today.com/health/man-loses-56-pounds-after-eating-only-mcdonalds-six-months-2D79329158

Enjoy.

Sorry if it seems like a rant on my part, it is not meant to be. This just happened to be a subject that I am actually educated on. Just trying to share some info.

So, While there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support that US residents are over weight, There are many discrepancies and let's face it, Europeans are no better.

Remember, when governments and agencies want to support certain data, they change the stats to suit them. Remember, According to the data used by the US Goverment, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his prime was considered to be obese because of his weight.

As to the Diabetic epidemic in the US, I also did a paper on that one too. The reason that there is a diabetic epidemic (if you can call it that) has nothing (ok, very little) to do with sugary drinks, snacks desserts etc. The reason that we have a diabetic epidemic is because of one thing. Drum roll please... Insulin.

Diabetics are now living long enough to breed. It is really that simple. Survival of the fittest no longer applies to humans. It is really that simple. Same thing for Cancer and many other diseases.

If you actually read this entire post, you have too much time on your hands :lol:

 

[docnjoj]

I guess I have too much time on my hands, since I teach, Pathology and Nutrition for a major University. I was agreeing with you up until the very end. This weight gain is no conspiracy theory. CDC as addressed the issue and we as Americans are too fat.
Now are you considering eugenics to get rid of these fat people? It is serious to espouse those beliefs, since the Nazis did the same thing. They wanted to get rid of "inferior races" instead of fat people, but the principle is the same. Are you suggesting we withhold insulin from diabetics? There is a better way.
otherDoc
Edit: I just reread (too much time and anger now)your closing and apparently you will live forever. If we withhold treatment for cancer, well why not heart disease. That kills almost everyone! What are you going to die from?

 

[Punx0r]

Interesting analysis of Supersize me I never bothered watching it out of suspicion it was nonsense.

docnjoj, I'm not sure how it was intended, but I read that statement about insulin as pragmatic. It seems intuitive if you're dispassionate about the issue. I've seen the health benefits improved care has had on the generations of type 1 diabetics in my family.

I can't recall who, but someone once asserted that we could greatly improve the health and longevity of the human race by incrementally increasing the age at which people are allowed to have children No doubt there'd be some tradeoff, like we'd be long-lived but sloth-like :lol:

 

[gogo]

…
Now are you considering eugenics to get rid of these fat people? It is serious to espouse those beliefs, since the Nazis did the same thing. They wanted to get rid of "inferior races" instead of fat people, but the principle is the same.…

I do believe the eugenics movement was exported to Germany from the United States. Sadly, it was practiced by my home state of Iowa until 1977.

 

[sn0wchyld]

You do get lot of excercise with 1000W too, if you have the will, you just go faster.
I don"t get this basic idea behind this, that individual should somehow force himself to pedal by using very low powered bike. It"s ill logic.
It"s about YOU, not about the conditions. If you don"t have the will to excercise, then you are on the wrong path by trying to force your self with low powered bike.
On the other hand, if you have the will, then it does not matter how powerful your bike is. You still pedal hard.
Law can not be based around assumption that all men are lazy. It"s circle logic, man creates the law and then law creates the man.
Not all europeans are slender, but i guess more than in the US. American food is hugely calory-rich.
Europeans eat small meals and often. 600 calories is absolute maximum one should eat during the meal, including the drinks and all.
Normal meal is 400-500 calories. That"s three quarters of a Whopper. No fries, no drink, three quarters.
One full Whopper meal has all the calories that grown man needs in 24 hours.
Whopper with cheese, fries, soda. That"s basicly your energy intake for 24 hours. Thin man does not use much more.
Whopper is still delicious, though. We just got our first BK here.

^^this. I ride my 4kw bike to and from uni... not so much on the way in, since I dont want to arrive sweating too much, but on the way out, I still pedal like a maniac, and still arrive home panting and sweating. the 4kw just means I do it at 30-50km'h, rather than 20-40, and with more acceleration therefore fun!

personally, ive adopted the fast 'diet' - though its not really a diet, since Its not a temporary thing. basically, you fast for 20 - 36hrs, restricting yourself to no more than 600cals (for blokes) over that period (less the shorter your fast), and then eat normally outside of it. Theres been quite a few studies now showing its benefits both in terms of weight, but even more so in terms of general health - lower blood pressure, better blood sugar responses, lower risks for disease, lower levels of growth hormones etc etc... I can say I feel better with fasting, more alert, more energy, I've only lost a few kg, but then I was only ever 5-10kg overweight (85's the lightest ive ever been, back when I was snowboarding 6hrs a day, 7 days a week...). Pretty easy too, once you're into it - just skip 2 - 3 consecutive meals every other day or so, it doesn't need to be the same every week, and drink plenty of water.

anyway, thats my 2c on keeping reasonably trim (or rather, not overweight). Main thing i need for the last few kg is more consistent exercise, rather than the 1-2 days a week I ride/work out, and slaughter myself in the process. Even though I love exercise once I've started, getting off my ass in the first place is always kinda hard... well, other than snowboarding. Still looking for a activity that i love that much, and available in a country like Australia :| ...

I think you need to look back into human evolution when considering diet. I don't think we evolved to eat three regular meals every day. Forgetting seasonal food shortages and looking at day-to-day stuff, I think people somedays had little to eat and other days managed to catch a deer and stuffed themselves with calorie-rich goodness.

Two summers ago I experimented with a fast-feast diet after seeing some interesting research on it. The initial idea was to alternate between fast and feast days: Fast days you eat 500-600 calories max. Feast days you eat whatever you want, including junk food. Later research suggested that any three fast days in a week works just as well.

Controlled studies in rats and limited human experimentation suggested that such a diet resulted in weight loss for the overweight, cholersteral and growth hormone levels, markedly increased lifespan (for the rats) and a few other benefits to mood, energy levels and mental acquity (yes, apparently hunger does sharpen the mind).

The idea was that because of natural satiation, when feasting the excess calories over your required daily intake don't make up for those lost on the fast day, so average calorie intake falls.

Also, it seems our bodies can cope with fatty, junky food, but not constantly. We need a day off to restore natual, healthy levels.

I tried this for 3-4 months and can recommend it. Going to bed hungry is odd to start with, but easier than regular dieting, because you know the next day is starting with a fried breakfast, if you want. You appetite does adapt after a while and it becames somewhat easier. I found myself with more energy and just feeling more lean and nimble (I didn't actually lose any weight, but I wasn't overweight to start with).

You may wonder (as I did) about bloodsugar and energy levels, but it doesn't matter. I did not feel tired or weak, I can recall one sunny day cycling 25 miles with a friend and eating 500 calories the whole day (the following evening) and it was easy. I was probably 2500-3000 calories deficient that day. It seems our bodies are very capable once given a few days to get out of bad habbits.

I would heartily recommend anyone (unless diabetic) to give it a try. You think you know what your belly looks like "empty", but 18-24 hours after last eating you might be surprised how much slimmer it is.

IIRC full human trials of this diet are underway to see how the findings in rats compare to humans.

ha! wrote my post before seeing this one. interesting to see someone with the same experiences (in particular, the low weight loss, but notable gains in energy and alertness)!