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The time to have "that talk" with your son?

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
4,395
Location
Suffolk, UK
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
No not the one about respect, "No means NO!" and always wear a condom.

The one where you realise he has reached the age when you started to put on weight , just a pound or so a year whilst staying fit and active (running a half marathon, cycling the London to Brighton, commuting to work by cycle). Looking back you never thought you were over weight but your trouser waist band did seem to be getting a little bigger over time. You have noticed that he is putting on a little weight; not much, and no obvious belly, but not quite as lean as he used to be.

The one that goes "The important thing to remember is that your waist measurement (not your trouser waistband) should never be more than half your height. You are at higher risk because I have T2. Not saying that you are fat, but just to please remember the one simple guideline."

I suspect that if I had managed to keep at a 36" waist or below I might not have developed T2; than again, who knows?

Anyway, don't try it when your child is feeling fragile.
Thankfully my lad (hah!) took it well.
 
Well done!
Do you think he actually heard what you were saying?

I think we ALL have this kind of 'but it will never happen to me' default setting, and overcoming that mindset is like wading through mud.

Someone once told me that I was heading for diabetes in a year or two - when I was back in my 20s.
(actually I lasted more than 20 more years before I hit the D, thanks entirely to low carbing), but I never really believed it would happen. Yes, I decreased the carbs, and yes I made diet and lifestyle an interest, but... somewhere deep inside I was still convinced about my own immortality.

Ironically, I am now feeling exactly the same about my knees, which are showing clear signs of deterioration. lol
 
Yes, I reckon it registered.

He is always fitness conscious and I could see the unsaid "Am I fat?" worry line across the brow.
I made haste to reassure him.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
I suspect that if I had managed to keep at a 36" waist or below I might not have developed T2; than again, who knows?
Click to expand...

Who knows? Exactly! How would you explain the overweight people who never get diabetes and the non overweight people who do get diabetes. May I suggest that overweight = diabetes is a just too simple, there really is more to it than that.

What's more serious are the men who can't accept that they have got fat and that the trousers with the 36" waist really do look ridiculous. LOL
 
DavidGrahamJones said:
Who knows? Exactly! How would you explain the overweight people who never get diabetes and the non overweight people who do get diabetes.
Click to expand...

I think that being overweight it's a problem besides the risk to get T2 diabetes. As I have just written on a rant, that being overweight could cause other conditions and some are quite deadly.
 
I have no doubt that being overweight has an effect on our health. There will always be people who eat too much of the wrong things and become overweight. There again there will be many people who eat all the right things but gain weight for some other reason. Steroids for example, some birth pills, in my case Rosiglitazide and even Gliclazide can be associated with weight gain.

Personally, I eat less than 1500 calories (RMR 2300) and less than 100 gms of carb a day. I swim 1 km 3 times a week, play golf once a week and walk to the local shops every day except Sunday (3/4 mile one way). Doesn't seem to prevent me gaining weight at certain times.
 
I'm agreeing on this. My idea is that on most cases being overweight is a syntom either of unhealthy lifestyles or bad eating habits or is caused by a medical condition.In either cases I tinnk that dismissing being overveight (or underweight) as a small problem
is not a good idea.
 


I travel to the countryside by bus, a village job, and the older men who are over weight with tighter waistband's and the 'large over hang' around the middle, is very visible
 

Sounds as though you handled 'that talk' quite tactfully
 
. . . . . . or the drugs taken for a medical condition. I'm not making light of weight issues, quite the opposite. I'm worried that all overweight people are lumped together as over eaters, which technically is correct, but doesn't tell the whole story.
Apologies for going slightly off topic, there is some meaning to my madness. As mentioned earlier, I eat 800 cals a day LESS than my Resting Metabolic Rate and when I ask my doctor "why can't I lose weight?", all she can say is that my metabolism isn't working properly. I'm still looking to fix it.
 

The main point is not that you WILL get diabetes if you are overweight.

The main point is that if there is a genetic history of diabetes in your family AND you are overweight then you are at increased risk of developing diabetes.

If your risk is higher, then logically you should be more careful.
 
And that is what I try to tell my grandson but to no avail. You can warn people of the risks they run but If they choose not to listen then you have to accept that, realise you have tried your best and then move on.
 
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