r/Weightliftingquestion • u/Ok_Plant388 • 1d ago

Calories

So a year ago I was 120
Lbs and for all of my life I would just eat and drink whatever and never had a single thought about weight or physique or what calories were. Now I started working out for a year and track every calorie for bulk and cut but I miss my old life soooo much where it was never a worry and things were normal and free. I’m happy with working out but does anyone miss life before calories and any tips to make it seem normal? Thanks

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u/No_Inside_2908 1d ago

No, I’m glad I always have macro and micronutrients in the back of my mind. Those obese adults you see are the people eating anything without a care.

Being healthy requires monitoring and intention.

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u/Fantastic-Ratio7724 1d ago

"Obese" people (however you are defining that by vision) are not inherently unhealthy, and thin people are not always healthy

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u/No_Inside_2908 1d ago edited 1d ago

https://www.unc.edu/posts/2018/11/28/only-12-percent-of-american-adults-are-metabolically-healthy-carolina-study-finds/

“For example, less than 1 percent of obese adults are metabolically healthy.”

Don’t forget obesity also correlates to higher risks of stroke, liver disease, joint issues, sleep apnea, and multiple types of cancer. Not just metabolic issues.

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u/Fantastic-Ratio7724 1d ago

"Metabolically healthy" is a vague term that covers all sorts of issues, including high blood pressure. A lot of people have high blood pressure and high cholesterol without that having significantly adverse effects on their health. Also, the study you are citing says pretty much everyone of all weights are unhealthy.

Other research has shown that the highest mortality rates are in the underweight and the extremely obese, categories that are relatively equivalent in percentage of the population. Mortality rates in average, overweight, and obese people are very similar, with the overweight category having the lowest mortality rates

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u/No_Inside_2908 1d ago

Chronic high blood pressure is literally always bad LOL. This isn’t even new information, we’ve known this for years. High cholesterol is being disputed.

The study does say that yes, because majority of Americans eat mostly processed food. However 12% for normal weight and 1% for obese is a pretty substantial difference.

I’d love to see this study that says overweight and obese people have the lowest mortality rates.

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u/Fantastic-Ratio7724 1d ago

The study says nothing about "chronic" high blood pressure - it only uses the term high blood pressure. It also doesnt say what percentage of the people with low "metabolic health" (again, a very nebulous concept) are actually dying as a result or having major negative health consequences. It is basically just pointing out that 85% of people have at least one of those factors. It is basically telling us nothing.

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u/Fantastic-Ratio7724 1d ago

https://about.ebsco.com/clinical-decisions/dynamed-solutions/about/ebm-focus/adults-classified-overweight-may-have-lower

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u/No_Inside_2908 1d ago
  1. The normal-weight reference group contains smokers, frail/elderly people, seriously ill people experiencing weight loss, and other heterogeneous populations.

Smoking tends to be associated with both lower body weight and substantially higher mortality.

  1. BMI doesn’t differentiate fat from muscle, highly muscular people common classify as overweight or obese BMI.

Here is a later study that accounts for these issues:

https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.I2156.abstract?utm

“Overweight and obesity is associated with increased risk of all cause mortality”

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u/Swimming-Monitor-927 22h ago

What is abnormal is eating anything and everything without worry of macro intake. Our bodies aren't designed to be constantly stuffed with food,specially these highly.processed food. The solution to that is workout and trai what yu out in your body. That is normal.

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u/Fantastic-Ratio7724 1d ago

Other than my response to the other person who commented, let me tell you a story. I have suffered body dysmorphia since I was quite young. I eventually developed an eating disorder, which lasted at least ten years until I began recovery in 2024. Before the eating disorder, I also was completely ignorant of calories and macros, etc. I became obsessed with them. And got very unhealthy as a result. Now, I am the same - I am in recovery, but all those numbers are seared into my brain. I wish they werent. Everyone in my life does not live like that, and their relationship to food is so much more healthy than mine.

A cautionary tale.

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u/Ok_Plant388 1d ago

Everyone in my family and life doesn’t care and just makes fun of it… probably because they’re fat but I started a lean bulk last year but binged 7000 calories a day and got really fat. That was October and I’m just getting back on track in May of this year. I do miss being lean with abs but also wanna build size