Fat free customers.

[friendofjimmyk]

IDK if weight watchers is the no carb diet. To me and my bf it's a blessing but it's a dangerous diet. it works, but it takes away from your body it's primary source of energy so it's pretty bad for your health
.

Weight Watchers is a weight loss program - like a center that you can go to and they help you lose weight - like Jenny Craig. It's a company that specializes in weight loss.

[Mark Healey]

I love it when Macdonalds when someone orders a really fatty meal then asks for a diet coke!

I do that except that it is usually at Jack in the Box. It's the easiest way to cut calories. Let's not forget the dental reasons either.

When I'm outside the U.S. it is a different story. They use real sugar. ADM (agribusiness corperation largely focused on corn) has made it cost prohibitiave to import sugar, so American soda makers have been forced to use corn sweetener.

[Mark Healey]

True, true, true. Sadly, most Americans don't get this.

Need to lose weight? Try this new crazy diet plan! Better yet, take a pill, and make no effort! (I have actually heard one such pill advertising the fact that their pill works better than starvation. Gee, there's a great marketing ploy!)

The fact is, if you want to lose weight and get in better shape, there is a very simple, time-tested method to do this. It's called eat smarter (sometimes that means eat less, but not always) and exercise. Problem is, Americans (as a group) are far too lazy and want the quick fix.

As someone who has struggled with weight his whole life let me tell you:

The problem is that exercize is boring. It doesn't take a whole lot of brain power to master lifting and replacing heavy things. I learned to run and ride a bike so long ago I don't remember not knowing how. Reading or watching TV during don't cut it either. Those are supposed to distract you from the dullness of the activity but it still requires enough attention to make reading something wortwhile impossible. You've got to make the activiey interresting in it's self.

My next plan is to wait for the Wii to go down in price and strap someting heavy on my wrist while I'm killing space monsters. We'll see what happens.

[Giggle Goose]

The problem is that exercize is boring. It doesn't take a whole lot of brain power to master lifting and replacing heavy things. I learned to run and ride a bike so long ago I don't remember not knowing how. Reading or watching TV during don't cut it either.

I think having a TV on the elliptical at the gym that I can hook my headphones up to is AMAZING! You don't have to watch what everyone else is watching, and I don't even notice how many calories I'm burning when I'm watching a riveting episode of Oprah or Dr. Phil. But if nothing is on, then yes, it can get boring, Mark, I agree. Since I was always a bit of a chunk-muffin myself, I'm one of those people who can't be entertained simply by running or pumping iron.

[Sofar]

The problem is that exercize is boring.

I can usually remain entertained by my own thoughts. They're pretty interesting, actually. Y'all should take a listen some time.

And I'm tired of everyone treating every word from that Snopes place as gospel.

And the only diet drink we carry is Diet Coke. Everything else is normal. If the reason you're drinking Diet Coke is because it's healthier, maybe you should consider avoiding soda altogether. Have some juice or something. We got juice.

[Dips]

[tangent]
Actually, I am quite aware of this, and generally respect the snopes folks for their common-sense research. However, this is one time when I think they have probably bought the corporate line just a little too much. I'm not sure I buy the whole Aspartame Disease thing, but I can't imagine that methanol, formaldehyde and formic acid being a part of one's diet is a good thing. See also http://science.howstuffworks.com/question536.htm
[/tangent]

Okay, go ahead and resume the original discussion, and sorry about the minor hijack there.

Pieman, your article actually supports the Snopes article. It's not clear because the How Things Work article compare apples and oranges unit-wise. A good scientific article, which is not trying to mislead the reader, will use consistent units of measure throughout. In that article they mention the number of milligrams of methonal in a 12 oz. can of diet soda (20mg) and after mentioning the percentage of methonol in a typical glass of wine of unspecified size (0.0041 to 0.02%). 0.0041 and 0.02 are much smaller than 20.

But comparing millgrams to percentage by volume is not comparing the same thing. It's like trying to decide which package of meat is a better deal when one package says $1.99/lb. and another package says $0.50 per cubic inch.

Since I always like to compare things using the same unit of measurement, I decided to use the article's numbers to calculate the percentage of methanol in diet soda.

It says on my can (no, not THAT can, the soda can) that a 12oz. diet soda is 355ml in volume. In order to find out what percentage of the volume 20 mg of methanol is, I'll need to find out how much volume 20 mg of methanol is.

The density of methanol is about 0.8gram/1 ml. To find out how many ml are in 1 gram of methanol, just flip the equation and divide 1 by 0.8. The result is 1.25 ml/gram.

But grams are not millgrams (mg). So we need to find out how many ml of methanol are in a milligram (mg). Since one gram equals 1000mg we just need to divide 1.25ml/1000mg to find out. The answer is 0.00125ml/mg of methanol.

Since we have 20mg and not 1, we should multiply that by 20 to find the total volume of methanol in a can of diet soda. It comes to 0.025ml.

A can of soda contains 355ml. To find the percentage we divide 0.025 by 355 and multiply by 100. The answer is 0.007%. The concentration by volume of methanol in wine ranges from a bit more than half what's in diet soda at the low end (0.0041%) up to almost 3 times as much at the high end (0.0200%).

[zzapp the witch]

Exercise doesn't have to be completely boring....take housework for example.

Ok, bad example, but going ahead and doing those hard scrubbing jobs that you've been putting off can burn a few calories every day. Hell, everytime I get out and start pruning trees or just puttering outside I lose a little seasonal weight. Just move.

And to the other poster...yeah the Glycemic Index is what I meant.

[TruthHurts]

Exercise doesn't have to be completely boring....take housework for example.

Ok, bad example, but going ahead and doing those hard scrubbing jobs that you've been putting off can burn a few calories every day.

I agree I am a housekeeper and due to all the exercise I do at work I can go home and eat something fatty without worry.

[symposes]

once i get my bike fixed ill be riding it to work, its probly going to be between 10 and 20 minutes 1 way, so thats between 20 minutes and 40 minutes of biking.
and the way the path i take is laid out, i go up hill 2 times and downhill 2 times. so its balances out to not alot of coasting.

[Seshat]

Ok, bad example, but going ahead and doing those hard scrubbing jobs that you've been putting off can burn a few calories every day. Hell, everytime I get out and start pruning trees or just puttering outside I lose a little seasonal weight. Just move.

And to the other poster...yeah the Glycemic Index is what I meant.

I thought so.

And I agree with 'just move'. It's enough.

[Sofar]

A lot of kids don't move around that much these days, what with all them vi-dya games and that M.T.V. Wait, both those things were invented before I was born.

Man, I remember when spending an hour digging a hole seemed like a fun idea. I don't have the energy for that anymore.

[TennesseePieman]

Per that article though, you'd probably not want to drink beer, wine or fruit juice anymore since they also have methanol as a component.

The difference is, wine and juice also have ethanol, which completely counteracts the methanol. It is actually recommended to give a person ethanol who is suffering from methanol poisoning (i.e., has drunk wood alcohol or ingested antifreeze). Aspartame does not contain ethanol, nor does the body metabolize an ethanol component from it.

I agree with the other person who said that quantities are important, but even given that, I can think of alternatives to diet soft drinks that don't contain even small amounts of poisons.

And to bring this whole thing back on topic (again, sorry to the OP for the unintentional thread hijack), one other thing I discovered when losing weight was that by trying to deny my body what it craved, like sugar or salt, or attempting to fool it with substitutes, was just asking for trouble. I found out that if I went ahead and gave my body a small piece of candy when it wanted sugar, or a small snack-size bag of chips when it wanted salt, I was warding off the possibility of the craving coming back bigger and stronger later on. If I tried to hold it off by substitutes or denial, I would binge later on the thing I was craving.

Your body craves certain things because it needs them. The trick is to learn what the minimum necessary quantity is and not overdo it.

[Canarr]

Actually, the feeling of your body "craving" sugar is a sign of vitamin deficiency. Goes back to the days when mankind's main source of vitamins was fresh fruit - which, coincidentally, was also the only way to get something sweet. Thus, our metabolism connected "sweet" with "vitamin content", and it still does that today.

[Jester]

I love it when Macdonalds when someone orders a really fatty meal then asks for a diet coke!

I got this a lot when I worked in the ice cream parlor years ago. People would order the biggest meal we had, top it off with the biggest sundae we had, and the entire time, be drinking a diet soda. I have nothing against people who drink diet soda. My little sister does that, and at her size, she is not doing it for weight loss purposes. (Lil sis, an adult, is 4'11", 96 pounds, and a size 0. In other words, tiny.)

I remember years ago seeing a cartoon somewhere. A rather large woman with a mountain of food in front of her is screaming at the waiter, "YOU IDIOT! I ORDERED A DIET SODA!!!" It was, to say the least, hilarious, and very SC-like. The point some are trying to make here is that if people think that they can eat whatever they want and do no exercise, and counteract it all by replacing regular soda with diet soda, they are not facing up to any form of reality.

how about someone getting a gigantic tub of popcorn, putting enough butter that the entire tubs wet and leaking out the bottom...

Heheheh....I was notorious for that when I was younger. I literally would tell concession stand workers at movie theaters to "put as much butter as you have ever seen on a popcorn on it, and then, when you think you can't add any more....add some more." I actually grossed out my older sister once doing this. It was quite funny. I am not that bad anymore, but I do like my popcorn with a decent amount of butter. That being said, I almost never get popcorn anymore. To me, the ultimate movie theater snack is Raisinettes. What can I say? I'm an oddball.

I can't drink diet pop - the aftertaste is one reason....

That is the reason I don't drink diet anything. I can't stand that aftertaste. Then again, outside of work, I rarely drink any soda whatsoever anymore. At work, I need my Sprite. Until they start allowing me to quench my thirst with a cold beer while bartending, I will continue to drink copious amounts of my clear bubbly sugar water, thank you very much.

I can't do most aerobics due to a hip problem.

There are plenty of ways to exercise that are hip-friendly. Swimming is the most obvious one, as that is not only the best exercise you can get in general, but also is the easiest on any joints that may pain you. Depending on your particular issues with your hip, bicycling may also work for you. And remember, not all bicycles are of the standard variety. Recumbent bicycles (the kind where you sit more like on a chair than on a standard bicycle) are excellent for low-impact exercise, and still give you the cardiovascular workout that bicycling is so good for.

I know there are others, but I am a bartender and a magician, not a personal trainer. That being said, one of my ex-girlfriends IS a personal trainer, and if you would like, I can ask her about specific regimens for you. Just let me know.

a large soda is abour 300 calories, with a big mac running 560, that's mor ethan 50% increase in calories if you have the regular soda, not to mention all the HFCS in the soda

True. But of course the better solution is to (a) not be eating the Big Mac, (b) not be drinking soda. Fruit juice is a far better, healthier, more body-friendly drink. Gatorade (and other sports drinks) are also very good for the body, with far less sugar and chemicals than a soda. Also great if you are doing some of the exercises discussed earlier.

Of course, I still spoil it all with non-diet sodas (caffeine-free, though, which is something)...

*really just hyperbole, but I won't turn down a Sprite or root beer if offered one, and could drink it all day if you let me.

Good to see I am not the only decaffeinated person here. Just a heads up, though....Barq's has caffeine, which makes it the only root beer that I know that does, as does Sunkist orange soda, which makes IT the only orange soda that I know of that does. (I discovered this after drinking Sunkist for a year, and wondering why I felt so crappy.)

The problem is that exercize is boring. It doesn't take a whole lot of brain power to master lifting and replacing heavy things. I learned to run and ride a bike so long ago I don't remember not knowing how.

I'm one of those people who can't be entertained simply by running or pumping iron.

Exercise is not just running or lifting weights. As may be obvious, I am a huge devotee of cycling, but there is swimming, hiking, climbing (if you live near mountains or hills, or a gym that has a climbing wall), working around the house (especially if you have some renovations you need to do...I watched my father shed numerous pounds building a deck once), etc. Some people like carpentry, and that is exercise in itself, whether done for home improvement, hobby, or as a job. And let's not forget good old-fashioned walking. My seventy something parents do a daily walk of a decent distance, and are in great shape for their age in large part due to that. And if you don't live too far from work, heck, WALK to work and back. Walk across the mall parking lot instead of driving from the store at one end to the store at the other end. (I see people do this all the time.) Better yet, park in a spot farther from the mall entrance (there are plenty of spots in that neighborhood!) and walk a little further to and from the mall.

There is always a pick-up basketball or football or soccer or baseball or hockey or whatever game going on somewhere. And if you are more organized than me, there are adult leagues for the same. Sports are exercise. There is boxing, if you are into that sort of thing. (I personally am not, but HAVE worked off the occasional frustrations beating the hell out of a heavy bag.) You don't even need a game. Batting cages can really work the calories. (Another frustrationg reducer for me, though sadly, there are none down here.) Heck, DANCING can be a great exercise, if you are one for the club scene. Depending on your job, you may get exercise there, too. Obviously, that depends on your job....people at call centers, for example, are prone to get less exercise than people waiting tables.

There are people who live in the colder climes that I am sure are saying "it's too cold to do blah or blah." Many of the activities listed are indoor activities. Also, if you live in a snowy area, you can always get out and shovel snow for exercise. If you have neighbors that can't do their own shoveling, volunteer to help them out. You don't need to do it for pay, like when you were a kid. Your "payment" would be helping them out AND getting that exercise.

There are a million ways to work the human body, and not all of them will bore you. I have only listed a few here. I love cycling, but I realize it is not for everyone. Find one YOU like. Find a few YOU like.

Just a few thoughts on the subject.

[Primer]

Gatorade (and other sports drinks) are also very good for the body, with far less sugar and chemicals than a soda.

Have you read the label on Gatorade lately?? At least sodas taste a bit better for sugary water.

My drink of choice is still water, thanks.