Fat mountain biker ponders why he has an addiction to food

9 comments
By Clive Chapman | Monday, Aug 2, 2010 12.43pm

Previous: « "I've lost 4st 12lbs"

Moving on now into my second year of pedalling and weight loss, I recently made a bit of a discovery. Maybe it was obvious all along and I was too close to it or too stupid to realise earlier: this weight loss pedalling thing isn’t a battle with pedalling/exercise at all, it’s mainly a battle with food.

I can get up at early o’clock and pedal to work after a tiny argument with my inner wimp, no problems at all. But the harder fight is saying to my Gluttony Demon, “No! I won’t have that take out curry!” Or whatever bit of inappropriate grub is on my radar at the time. Sometimes to my shame I lose, and hate myself afterwards, but mainly I’m winning as my 5 stone weight loss indicates. But I’m really aware that my fight isn’t anywhere near over in regards to food.

It is really too simplistic to say, “You’re a greedy fat idiot who should know better!” As some people have said to me. Okay, I’m fat and maybe an idiot, but I hope you get my point. I think there’s a difference between being greedy and having a food addiction. I’m not trying to abdicate my responsibility here by the way, just trying via this blog to get some understanding of what makes people like me tick.

I’m certainly not in the business of whinging either and saying, “It’s not my fault, I’m ill” or the classic, “I have a slow metabolism.” This is my problem, caused by me, and I believe that for some as yet unfathomable reason I brought it on myself. As I said, I was the one who got myself like this. I am accepting full responsibility for ending up a year ago weighing 22st 4Ib. I don’t recall being kidnapped and force fed doughnuts, no really, that never happened!

The big question is why? Can you help me with that one?

I’m a massive believer in prevention rather than cure. At what point did I stop being a normal eater and active person? Could I or someone else have spotted it? If it could have been identified what could have been done?

I’m no health professional so I haven’t got any answers; I’m kind of hoping someone reading this can come up with some useful suggestions. Maybe it’s just too complex a subject and there are as many reasons for ending up morbidly obese as there are meals on a curry house menu? I don’t know.

My answer (maybe not an ideal one) was pretty simple with no magic to it all. Eat less and pedal.

I’ll say that again just in case you’re morbidly obese and didn’t quite grasp the simplicity of it.

Eat less and pedal.

To everyday healthy folk that’s totally obvious. To morbidly obese people (well to me anyway) it’s an abstract concept that sounds good, but is not something do-able. Something for others to try.

Well here’s the thing, it is do-able, very do-able, I’m proof.

I didn’t have anyone else telling me what to do, advising me on what’s best or even encouraging me at the start. Wifey, God bless her, had seen it all before, and while she certainly didn’t discourage me and was supportive, she quite rightly took this plan with a pinch of salt as it was quite clearly another failure in the offing, like so many of my fitness diet forays before.

The only things I had going for me was Frank Kinlan’s blog which gave me the original idea, a basic knowledge of diet and training plans from my old sporting/military life and a past love of the bike.

Okay, there are obviously details involved with that, but the basic eat less pedal more concept isn’t abstract, it works. If you remove emotion and sit down and plan your week and your meals like I did, then it all becomes much easier when you see it in black and white.

There is so much room for manoeuvre in those four words of “eat less and pedal” that it’s untrue. I believe it really can be adapted to suit anyone. Maybe substitute exercise for pedal, but we’re on a bike blog and the bike is my exercise of choice, and in all fairness if you’re reading this you have an interest in the bike. So we’ll stick with bike, eh?

I’ve had a few email conversations with various folk over the year all telling me why they can’t do it but are impressed with what I’ve achieved. They can’t do it because they’re still at the stage I was before I started this. At the stage of the wreckage of failed get-fit plans and seeking comfort in food when you fail. I know: been there, done that.

That’s the point at which I can’t help or understand, even having being there myself. I still can’t get why I didn’t act properly sooner.

That’s expert medical professional territory in my opinion. All I can say is you have to want to do it and take the first step yourself. I believe that’s all there is to it. But I do also know that it’s a really hard step to take. For some, quite clearly an impossible step.

Maybe this is the wrong place for this as I’m guessing most folk reading this are all regular cyclists and healthy anyway. Maybe I should find a fat-busters blog to write for!

Anyway, please feel free to contact me via my daily blog at http://massivemtber.blogspot.com if you think I may be of some use in assisting your fat to fit aspirations.

I certainly don’t profess to be the fount of all knowledge, but I’ll certainly be happy to use my experiences to help you if you think it might be useful.

Happy pedalling!

You can follow BikeRadar on Twitter at twitter.com/bikeradar and on Facebook at facebook.com/BikeRadar.

You might also like...

User Comments

There are 9 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 9 of 9 comments

  • "Weak willed" to "It's the hormones!". As ever the truth probably lies between the two extremes. The field of obesity research is incredibly active and recent discoveries are shedding light on the link between neurotransmitters and 'willpower'. The next part is fairly technical but I'll try and keep it simple and include a few links to the relevant publications in the medical field (for those who aren't bored senseless).

    Quite a few years ago through a series of very elegant mouse experiments researchers identified a hormone called leptin which is produced in fatty tissue which increased in concentration after a meal and signalled to the brain that it was full. Some obesity IS genetic - there are some people who are born without being able to make leptin (so keep eating) OR have a faulty receptor so the leptin they have doesn't work. The former have been 'cured' by having their leptin replaced.

    The question was whether 'regular' (or multifactorial, polygenetic) obesity could be treated (if not 'cured') by leptin. Sadly not. Turns out the more fat you are the more leptin you make and that means that the brain stops listening to it. It turns out that the brain is actually more sensitive to a LACK of leptin rather than leptin itself. In other words it evolved as a defence against starvation - if you don't have a leptin telling your brain all is good, it gets massively hungry and makes you go seek out food. On the other hand, lots of leptin doesn't tell your brain to stop eating.

    More info at the (as usual) fairly good Wikipedia link:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptin

    Whilst not the magic cure, it made people realise that there were complex neurological processes at play. Recent research has identified a new peptide gut hormone called Peptide YY 33-36 (it sounds like nerve gas I know...).

    In one study, a group at UCL infused this hormone (it can't be given orally as it is digested unfortunately) into people of normal weight and found that at high levels (which occur naturally after you eat a meal), people of a normal weight ate less food in a 24hr period compared to those who didn't have the infusion.

    Interesting - but we have seen already that obese people are resistant to these kind of hormones. What effect would it have in them? The group did another study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine where they compared the effects of PYY on appetite and food intake in both obese and normal-weight subjects. Turns out BOTH obese and normal weight people had a similar decrease in appetite and 24hr calorie intake! It also turns out obese people have LESS of this hormone normally suggesting that is part of the reason why they are prone to keep eating. Full article here:

    http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/8671/1/8671.pdf

    As the post says, willpower in other areas of life isn't the issue. Having said all that unfortunately the simple equation of calories in and calories out still holds true. Just that some people need more willpower than others to battle their own hormones and come out on top.

    An incredibly brief summary of a huge huge field of ongoing research all over the world. I hope if you've managed to read this far you've found it interesting! I'm no expert in this field so if there are people out there who have a different take then I'd be glad to hear it.

    Parag

  • Wow! Thanks for taking the trouble to type all of that, I have read it all and bookmarked the links! Fascinating stuff, it's good to see there is actual research being done into a massive (excuse the pun) health issue.

    But as you say, there's no easy magic bullet, eat less and excercise more is the way forward.

    Cheers

    Clive

  • Parag and Clive

    Thanks very much. Excelent article and response.

    When I'm explaining it to people it always boils down to "it is much harder for some than others but you can't beat the first law of thermodynamics".

  • Not forgetting "drink less alcohol" - almost 200 calories in a pint, and that's not counting the pork scratchings

  • I scoff tons of tasty ratatouille smug in the knowledge that the more I eat, the more calories I'm burning. It's made entirely of negative calorie ingredients - Onion, tomato, aubergine, courgettes and bell peppers, hardly any fat, very few carbs but so much fibre it takes more energy to digest than the body can extract from it. It's packed with vitamins and antioxidants too so makes you feel great. I usually have it with meatballs, steak or chicken but rarely have starchy carbs on the side unless I have a big ride planned and need to carboload. I get the majority of my calories during breakfast in the form of porridge or weetabix and have bread, beans or pasta for lunch

  • Excellent atricle/comments. It struck a note with me as a former fatboy (I still am a little chunky), and I too have found it much easier to motivate myself to exercise than to properly control my calorie intake. I would definately say that I am still a food-addict, but there is a much more recreational slant on it these days. The fact is, I love food. Echoing the writer's 'prevention better than cure' sentiments, I am aware that I need to get it really well sorted before I hit my thirties and forties where, as I hear from workmates in this age group, things get much harder. Repetetive strain injuries and the like tend to accumulate and the bodys brown fat cells (which convert calories directly to heat) slowly start to deplete.

    I'm writing this with my office chair in a reclined position to accomodate the huge dinner I just ate...

  • Good article and one that I can relate to.

    I'm also a fat boy biker and despite a love of being out on my mountain bike I've always had a problem with food. I love eating good food, but the problem is I also don't know when to stop. Last night, I had a great meal of home-made tandoori fish with spicy vegetables on the side, felt full without feeling bloated afterwards, but still munched on half a bar of chocolate later in the night.

    The problem is, this comes after I've lost 10kg so far this year from a peak 105kg at the beginning of the year, my fitness has improved enormously and I'm doing things on the bike that would have seemed ridiculous some time ago. For example, at the weekend, I did an 80km off-road ride with 2000m of climbing (I live in the pre-Alp region of Germany) and felt fine the next day. This has been achieved through your formula--less (but better) food and more pedaling.

    Oh, and I turn 46 next month. And yes, it does become harder to lose the fat as you get older.

    The point is, despite being encouraged and motivated by the considerable progress I've made, I still have sometimes uncontrollable urges to snack and feel guilty afterwards. Why do I do this? I look better, I feel better and I am obviously quite fit, so why do I still feel the pull of habits that I KNOW are bad for me?

    So Clive, keep going, you're not alone. And I'm sure your efforts are a great encouragement to others, like myself.

  • Thanks for all the comments folks, it seems I'm not alone in being a food addict.

    Your support is appreciated!

    Cheers

    Clive

  • great article again, Clive you talk alot of sense and are a great inspiration keep up the good work.thanks phill

Post a Comment:

You need to login or register to post comments.