Despite years on LC, and 100 pounds lost, I’m still fat. I’m sure plenty of people feel disdain for me when they see the fat lady with a cart of heavy cream, half-and-half, bacon, nuts, eggs, butter, etc.

Same here. But what they can't see is how much better I feel!

Altho I got a bit of a reward the other day - ran into a woman I haven't seen in a while & she asked if I'd lost weight because I was looking good! Same could be said of her. We're heading toward good health from different directions, but we're both getting there.

Doesn't get any better than that.

I've seen Gary Taubes express a concern a few times that if the Carbohydrate hypothesis ever really replaced calories in/calories out, people might still assume that overweight people were to blame, but for a more specific carbohydrate gluttony instead of a general one. You can't really assume that that person with a cart full of carbs hasn't tried low carb, and if they did, that they failed low carb rather than the other way around. When I went low carb, I pretty much lost my taste for carbs, in a way. I might eat some pretty crummy carbs at Christmas, etc.--but afterwards, I can't wait to get back to my usual diet. I've done brief periods on low fat, high carb in the last couple years--again, I can't wait to get back to low carb. It's hard for me to come down too heavily on people who are tempted by potato chips, when the foods that tempt me are far less likely to make me fat--since I went low carb, the consequences of giving in to highly palatable foods have decreased. I can't really say that I have any more self-control, just that what little self-control I do have has become way more effective. I just don't want carbs that badly, I think only childhood memory makes them tempting at Christmas, the rest of the year, it's not like I'm jealous when other people are eating birthday cake or anything.

That meal at Denny's--when I was nine, I wouldn't have hesitated to eat that, but I was skinny, so people would have just laughed at my hollow leg and temporarily bulging belly.

Agree with robynsnest on this one.....live and let live. WE ALL must find our way, on our own time thru our life journey and all it's good and bad. No one is ever or will be perfect in this world as 'other's opinions sure show that we should be as they see fit' but we can't judge with evil intent or thoughts. It is what it is, if ya find something 'just so wrong' then pony up and put in the work to change how the world sees an issue. We can all judge easily, and we do all the time, me, included here, but take action to change what you find 'oh so wrong' and if ya don't do that, then keep the opinion to yourself kinda thing

New here. I understand the feeling you describe, when I catch myself doing it, I feel small. I know a lot of smart people that have a poor diet, I can only imagine how the less intelligent are even more prey to the bombardment of ads and choice. You see them ahead of you in the grocery store with a cart full of soda and junk food.

I am following a low carb lifestyle, it is yielding good steady results. I was interested in the change in one of the machinists at my company, a big biker sized guy, who had lost a lot of weight and solved a lot of health issues. He told me the plan he was on (and believe me, he is "all-in") and a bunch of our other machinists followed his example. I described it to my wife & we started it that day.

I think you can't talk people into it, they have to see your health, the change in you, and come to you for answers.

I don't, but I drives me crazy that my wife will not get on the train after the weight I have lost, and how good I am doing. She continues to just eat what ever, and she has had health problems in the past. She still has little issues and much of it I notice has to do with what she eats.

I see people killing all types of food, I do not say anything. But I notice they are hungry later after a carb meal. Now I do 20/4 fasting with LCHF, and I have a cookie in my window sometime and it working for me. better then me eating 10 cookies plus more in the past.

I don't think it's lack of intelligence, but in many cases lack of knowledge. Think of the warring diet mavens on the internet & in print! Who do you believe?

And then there's addiction. The 20 years I spent smoking were because I was addicted, not because I didn't know the harm I was doing to myself.

The years I spent eating my way into poor health were a combination of the 2. It's been a long & difficult journey.

That pretty much describes my experience, Bonnie.

Jean

Agree on addiction. Until I realized I was addicted to carbs, and it was a repeating issue until I eliminated the highly addictive ones, I lacked full knowledge of how to deal with my eating situation. It was the only way I could eliminate the cravings for addictive food and gain control of the situation.

I followed this thread when it was first posted, but did not feel compelled to reply until now. I'm not sure if my comment will make sense, but here it is.

Growing up in the 50's and 60's, there was really only 1 or maybe 2 fat kids in a class. The rest of of us were average for then, skinny for now. I do not think I felt disdain, but they did get made fun of and I was happy to average.

As a young adult, I did see a lot more overweight people, and being in pretty good shape, I did wonder how someone could let themselves get to that point and assumed they could lose the weight if they really wanted. In other words, it was their fault.

As a middle age man, even though I was adding weight, and classified obese by my doctor, I never really saw myself as fat and it did not affect my life in any way. I still wondered how people (fatter than me) could let themselves get to that point.

In my 60's, I took up low carb eating, lost a lot of weight, am no longer classified obese by my doctor. However, after about 2 years of eating low carb, and about 6 months at my goal weight, I now find myself bingeing on a fairly regular basis. I am not bingeing on the typical high carb treats, it can be meats, cheeses, or other fat. It's not a disaster, as I just go back to strict Atkins 72 induction for about a week and I am back to my goal, but this does not seem like a healthy way to eat.

Don't misunderstand, I am in the low carb camp, but I think it is more complicated than low carb vs high carb. Blaming people eating habits on lack of knowledge seems fairly close to blaming it on lack of will power when there may be some processes we don't really understand. Contrary to what people say, you can still binge and gain weight on LCHF.

So, my point is that I don't know why I feel the need to binge, is it hormones, lacking nutrients, psychological, or whatever, but I do have a better understanding of how someone can struggle with weight and its not as simple as someone just not caring. Getting back to the subject of the post, while I would not say I ever felt disdain, I did have a lack of sympathy and assumed it was there own fault. At the risk of being a hypocrite, my own experience has changed my mind.

Slightly off topic, but do any of you ever feel judgmental about successful low carbers who are quite knowledgeable about this WOE, yet they still end up finding the slippery slope only to regain some or all of the weight lost? I'm not talking about newbies just starting out nor people who have every intention of returning to "normal food" after reaching goal. I'm talking about those who have committed to making this a permanent lifestyle, yet end up regaining weight (whether it involves "cheating" or not). Someone like me, for example.

A long time member here once said that she could tell if a member was going to be successful by the words they choose in their posts. After being here for several years I find that I too can often predict success or failure based on what I read. Some members that I thought would find success still end up among the "disappeared". Making the LCHF switch for life is no easy thing. It is much easier to spot the flawed logic and bad behaviors that typically precede a diet meltdown. I admit that I find myself being judgmental at times, but I usually don't step in to point out other people's mistakes (as I see them, anyway). I've tried "tough love" on this forum before. It didn't work and I think that I came across as 'holier than thou'. People need to learn their own lessons; learn from their own mistakes.

About my regain since reaching goal... I am still committed to my LCHF WOE. I can count the number of true "cheats" that I've had since reaching goal on one hand. My overall macros are still low carb, high fat, moderate protein. Yet since reaching goal I've had several stretches where I'm eating too much to maintain my weight. At one point last September I was up nearly 30 pounds from my all-time low the year before. Since then I've managed to take some of that weight off, but it has been in fits and starts; ups and downs -- not a smooth process like the original weight loss was. The me of 2 years ago would likely be judging me right now. So the way I see it, simply making LCHF your way of eating is not all there is too it, at least not for everyone. Some of us still have issues beyond that.

I'm still learning about myself. I'm exploring information about leptin resistance to see if there is a way for me to increase my satiety levels. It would be really nice if my body sent a clear message when I'd had enough to eat. I've also considered the concept of addiction transfer. I was very addicted to carbs. I had binging issues and terrible (all day) eating habits as a result. I've found that I can still binge and eat badly with OP food, even though I know that these foods do not contain the "sugar hit" that the old binge foods did - which, IMO, is what started my binging issues in the first place. OP foods that I had no issues with the first year of this WOE have turned into problem foods that I can overeat. So I have to wonder if some sort of an addiction transfer is taking place? I've read about that happening. I'm not sure what to do about it. So needless to say, I still have a lot of work to do on me. I have issues beyond simply making LCHF my WOE.

This is some good insight and worth contemplating. If we stop warring with others opposed to our unique view point we might learn much more about what is really going on. Maybe it is unknowable as well.

I don't know, that's for sure but I experiment a lot - and still know little

So when I peer into someones shopping basket, I catch myself making up all sorts of stories about this person pushing it. For all I know they may be shopping for someone else. I can't make someone eat the way I do but I can shape the way I think about other eating and it's their own business AFAIC.

What seems most likely to me is that being at a reduced bodyweight has hormonal etc. consequences that tend to make us "lazy" and/or hungrier or more interested in food or to have more of a drive to eat, whatever you want to call it. Insulin response both to food just after a meal, and the increased "fasting" insulin if liver glycogen levels are relatively replete between meals is still an important factor. But the lower body fat levels are relative to where they started out (or relative to where they'd "like" to be, preobese is a lot like postobese), the more responsive we are to a given insulin level. I sort of look at maintenance vs. weight loss as a sort of lobster trap. On a given diet, what you eat to lose weight will be less insulinogenic than what you eat to maintain. An exception to this is if you just keep eating what you ate to lose until you plateau, and then call that plateau maintenance. Otherwise if you lose until you hit a certain weight, even if you just increase calories in the same macro ratio as you lost on, the insulin is going to be higher--and paradoxically, this increased food intake might actually make you hungrier.

I maintained at 170 for about a decade, with lots of bounces down to 160 and back up. Since going to ketogenic ratios two years ago--I've maintained at 160. Some bounces down to 154 and back up. There's some debate about whether diets should be keto or not. I don't know if this works better for me because it's more ketogenic, or because it's a lower insulin approach. Some could argue calories--because if I want to keep carbs very low, and protein in a certain range, I sort of have to limit fat, at least to a degree, to avoid getting into 90 percent plus fat intake territory--past 90 percent, it's hard to say how safe things are, there's no human data.

When I first went keto I'd dieted down to 154 and was binging on ridiculous things almost daily. Keto nipped that in the bud, but eating off plan for a holiday, or a bit of booze and peanuts once a week ramped things up.

With psychology, I think it's possible that eating ketogenically makes me more likely to think my mama loved me when I was a baby. It does seem to put me in a better mood, on average. But I think it's more likely to be our body/brain's natural drive to maintain itself, with our feelings about food, "self-medication" etc. trailing along behind. I doubt the idea of self-sabotage that's put out there. Usually self sabotage involves too immediate a reward of some sort, when we're trying to figure out why we do something, we tend to sort of make stuff up after the fact. When I was a kid, "why did you do that?" I didn't have an answer. Now maybe I do. You could take that as an increase of awareness. Or the development of the faculty of just plain making stuff up.

I do, I think it's call Schadenfreude. When I can recognize these types of thoughts arise in me I can then try to substitue the thoughts with kind of the opposite, compassion and empathy.

I Schadenfreude a lot. More opportunity, when recognized, to develop more wholesome attitudes. I need a lot more practice.