RIP Jared Lorenzen

I have to give it to Tomlinson. He really knows how to start his stories. What a great first two sentences.

The most telling part of this story, in terms of trying to get people to understand the fight that is serious obesity, is this:

"A couple of years after the story, he finally went to the doctor and stepped on a scale for the first time in years. He weighed 560 pounds...When ESPN's show, E:60, did a piece on him last year, he had dropped to 477."

The guy had lost 83 pounds -- 83 pounds! -- and really couldn't even begin to actually celebrate that, because he still weighed 477. Given the immensity of the problem when it gets to that point, it should be easy to see how failure can and does occur. It's not a little battle. It's a big, constant, usually losing, battle.

 

Yes, but.

There is no way that you can weigh twice as much as a normal human without having it exact a cost on your body. Heart and circulation, loading on the musculoskeletal system are the easiest examples, but there are multiple downsides to it.

 

The last two sentences were great, too, and at the same time a gut punch.

 

Just as a journalism matter you can't specify a cause of death if a cause of death has not been specified by his doctors or his family or the coroner.

And go easy on the weight loss sanctimony. Jared Lorenzon was an elite professional athlete who struggled and struggled to lose weight. Imagine how hard it is for someone who isn't in the NFL.

Rest now.

 

I get what you're saying, but we're not writing for the paper here. I would bet anything -- anything -- that his conditions have been specified as weight-related. Everyone, including news outlets, is just being too polite to say so.

They were good, too, but I guess I have the perspective that I wasn't surprised, that there is a reason Tomlinson's words weren't inspirational enough to help Lorenzen -- at least not enough to make enough of a difference: That is, weight loss only comes from within. It will only happen in a lasting way once the person, him/herself, makes the decision, themselves, to do it, for themselves, and their own health and well-being. Any other motivation, even doing it for loved ones, is ultimately unlikely to be enough.

I also would have "felt" the ending more if Tomlinson would have given some sort of update, weight-wise, on how he's doing (or any struggles he's having lately). I don't know him, and so have no idea. But the fact that he didn't do that, and seemed to write around it a little bit, makes me think he has not been losing, or might even be re-gaining, lately. Otherwise, that information could have really shown/brought home how Lorenzen inspired him.

And there's no judgment, weight-loss wise, from me there. I know that's how weight loss journeys are. They can go in spurts, you can have good months and bad months, ups and downs, etc. But I do think that information would have added a lot to the ending.

 

Welllllllllllllll ... it's not really a matter of "being too polite" for journalists. It's a matter of following the tenets of the craft and being fact-based. (Unless you're Fox News, Breitbart, CNN, Rolling Stone.)

 

I think most weight-loss posts are more empathy than judgment, whether it's from people who haven't been able to address it successfully or people who have managed to address it but struggle constantly to maintain.

 

I don't think there are bad carbs. They all have the same calories. What you are doing when you remove sugar (I assume you mean refined sugar and HFCS type stuff) and stop eating white bread or just bread, is you are calorie restricting. The foods with this stuff are calorie dense often without any offsetting benefit. Swearing off them is usually ends up being not snacking with bad stuff, not eating too much desert, and avoiding crappy breakfasts.

I have seen this as diet advice maybe six months ago and it is I have been doing for close to two years: Plan your meals as much as you can and eat close to the same thing everyday. If you plan what you are going to eat, it is much easier to account for the food's nutrition. And the best way to plan to eat nutritionally is to eat the same thing. Breakfast and lunch are the easiest. I don't find it boring if I mix up what my sandwich is.

[EDIT] I know this doesn't apply to people with severe weight issues.

 

I had a heart attack at age 41. I was given the standard advice to go on a low fat diet which I did. Potatoes, bread, cereal, lean chicken, fish and fruit juice. I went from 207 to 227. Went to a 38" inch waist from 34".

After a while I went on a high fat, low carb diet. Bacon, eggs, hamburgers (half or no bun), cheese, whole milk. I lost 17 pounds in two weeks. Not only did I lose weight, my wrists shrank (watch) and my fingers shrank (wedding ring).

 

What??

 

Carbs are gonna kill you.