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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >But what I see is someone who actually has 
> no concept of what it is that she is eating. It may be something similar 
> to the anorexic who looks in the mirror and sees a fat person. 

There's a family member who has been morbidly obese her whole life.  
There's a picture at a family gathering where she is standing in front of the 
open 
refrigerator and it looks like an aura around her, that is, you can't see 
any of the refrigerator.

Yet her perception is that she doesn't eat much.  A couple of years ago at 
a typical Appalachian wake, people had brought all and sundry to the family 
and among that was half a doxen nearly identical coconut pies.  Said woman 
went about the room visiting (some people never get to see each other except 
at funerals) with a small desert plate and one piece of coconut pie.  It 
looked to the casual observer that she was nursing that one modest slice of 
pie 
all evening.  Herself who was parked near the desert table casually 
observed with the tail of her eye .... she had refilled the plate and eaten 
nine 
slices of pie.

It's much like the discussions about generating electricity from the motion 
of a rocking chair or from dewfall.  The numbers just don't lie that much.  
A person at full rest requires about 15 calories per pound just to carry on 
the basal metabolic functions.  That figure varies some by age, sex, and a 
few other considerations, but it doesn't vary all that much.  Oddly, very 
obese people higher basal metabolic rate than thin people.   So someone who 
maintains a weight of 300 lbs is eating somewhere around 4500 calories a day 
just to maintain all their body's tissues alive.  Just like there is no magic 
stationary bicycle that can power your entire 200A service with a brisk 
workout, there is no such thing as the very obese human being who is not 
eating 
enough calories to maintain that obesity.

Several studies have shown that when people monitor their own food intake, 
they invariably report much less food consumed than if an observer monitors 
the same thing.  They genuinely believe they are not eating that much.

I belabor this only to point out that ridding oneself of denial is 
essential to ever getting a handle on it.

James</HTML>