Anyone else bugged by the "I tried it, it doesn't work" sans context?
Dragonwolf
Posts: 5,600 Member
Or any variation, thereof, like "low carb is impossible to maintain" or whatever?
Intellectually, I know that not all ways of eating work for every single person, and that's okay. It's why I generally keep my mouth shut when I see it.
However, I see so many people who try "low carb" (or Paleo, for that matter), but aren't actually following the eating plan, or they do it for all of three days, then claim it "doesn't work," that there's that little part of me that's like "were you doing it right? Did you do it long enough? Were you eating enough food?" and all the other troubleshooting questions and newbie speedbump scenarios I've seen over and over again, because saying it "doesn't work" without any kind of context bugs the hell out of me (it doesn't help I'm a compulsive problem solver and "it doesn't work" triggers that compulsion).
It's not meant as a "you failed because you did it wrong," but more like making sure they gave it a fair shake. If they gave it a fair shake and it didn't work for them, that's fine, but doing it wrong, then saying it doesn't work, to me, is like someone putting together a table from Ikea without following directions, then blaming the table or Ikea when it falls apart (or blaming a manual transmission car for stalling, because you never learned to drive stick).
Intellectually, I know that not all ways of eating work for every single person, and that's okay. It's why I generally keep my mouth shut when I see it.
However, I see so many people who try "low carb" (or Paleo, for that matter), but aren't actually following the eating plan, or they do it for all of three days, then claim it "doesn't work," that there's that little part of me that's like "were you doing it right? Did you do it long enough? Were you eating enough food?" and all the other troubleshooting questions and newbie speedbump scenarios I've seen over and over again, because saying it "doesn't work" without any kind of context bugs the hell out of me (it doesn't help I'm a compulsive problem solver and "it doesn't work" triggers that compulsion).
It's not meant as a "you failed because you did it wrong," but more like making sure they gave it a fair shake. If they gave it a fair shake and it didn't work for them, that's fine, but doing it wrong, then saying it doesn't work, to me, is like someone putting together a table from Ikea without following directions, then blaming the table or Ikea when it falls apart (or blaming a manual transmission car for stalling, because you never learned to drive stick).
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It bugs me too. I had to tweak my eating strategies several times to get it working for me again. Maybe because I am older,maybe I have a more sensitive stomach. Whatever the cause I think I am finally on a roll with this WOE. I am getting consistent results now not the totally insane ups and downs. This has been close to 6 days with the new slight changes. BUT I think it took me close to three months trying different things for a few weeks at a time to get to this point.
I do think people do not give it long enough and just give up too soon. For me I am hanging in there because I feel this is my last chance to lose the weight and keep it off. It might be coming off slowly but it is coming off. I think my biggest problem was trying to mix keto and Atkins. Even though both are very much the same for me I can not go from one to the other combining the two. I am doing the low carb now with out quite as much forced high fat and weight is coming down slowly after a three pound bounce that lasted almost as many weeks. I just hate having to keep losing the same three pounds. LOL0 -
This reminds me of a teaching philosophy I learned while in school. (I'm a teacher if you couldn't guess.) It's the closed mindset v. the open mindset. Students, or in this case MFP users, might go into these "diets" with a closed mindset but are just doing it to do it. Because they already decided it doesn't work before actually doing it, it doesn't work for them. Rather, when a user starts this WOE with a open mindset, it is more likely to work for them because they are willing to struggle a bit figuring it out and give it a chance. The mind is a powerful tool. Just a thought...0
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It doesn't bug me. Diets of all kinds have an incredibly high failure rate.
I'm more interested in the "it worked for me long term" stories. How do people maintain restrictive diets long term in a world filled with tasty and inexpensive treats?0 -
I think a huge part of it is this instant gratification mentality that seems to surround much of the new to lifesytle change newbies. The quick fix is oh so tempting, and if you believe the hype about ANY diet, well, bring it on.
Fact is, whatever you choose to try- it will take time, it will take patience and it will take some tweaking. I'm two months in (and 11 lbs lost) and am STILL tweaking and learning and I expect this is a trend that will continue.0 -
I agree.0
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I don't really care what people say in general. The only thing that worries me is that if people haven't done their own research they might decide not to try something that might work very well for them just because other people who are militant in their defense of carbs say these things.
Even worse to me is when they claim that if you can't stick to it for the rest of your life you will regain everything you lost. That won't happen unless you go back to old eating patterns. Even if you eventually abandon low carb, as long as you replace it with something reasonable you will maintain the loss. But common sense is something many people do not have.0 -
What annoys me more is when it's the same handful of people who go out of their way to repeat it any chance they get. They tend to get very snippy when I point out I've been on it for 15 years, with the "well, you're just an exception." BS. When a thread title is something like "keto help" or "trouble staying under Xg carbs" there's no reason for them to answer those questions in the first place, any more than I go around answering questions about lifting. They only go in to tell the OP they're doing it wrong.
Most of the time, they eventually admit that yes, they did do it wrong. But, then insist it wasn't their fault they did it wrong. The same people who run around telling newbies "everything in moderation" blame LC for their own inability to moderate carbs.0 -
It bothers me to some extent, not online so much as in person. Like if someone inquires as to why I'm eating almond bread with salami and then tells me not to waste my time with low carb because it didn't work for them, well that's just irksome as it gets.0
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The folks that bug me are the ones who say.. Low carb doesnt work. I tried that and lost a ton of weight... But when I went off it.... And I gained it all back....WTF???.. If you always do what you always did...you will always get what you always got.0
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People often take Diet as a quick fix to weight loss, they complain later they gained all of it back. I am yet to see people saying "I changing my lifestyle and will keep it for the rest of my life." With all the fails on "dieting" that you see online it's no surprise that people don't trust or believe in it. I don't care, I don't want to hear bitching from people who don't take their health seriously. It's a shame, with all the information about sugars and all that processed food products, you would think people would be more cautious about their diet. If it comes in a box, don't eat it! (with few exceptions)0
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Completely agree. Especially the ones who mention that they had zero energy and headaches constantly while doing low carb. Maybe because they didn't educate themselves and failed to watch their electrolytes.0
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I got myself into a snit with a person in a big forum..he kept banging us over the head with Ancel Keyes 1944 Minnesota Starvation study proving it's CICO. He fought me, dissed a decent video on calorie myth (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5ewexMZ1-o) calling it "sales promo"…sigh. What he is clueless about is that the men who were starved did not lose below their body's limit, or they would have died..on top of that most of the young men became mentally ill, seriously, during refeed, and for years after..it was a horror story. And proved nothing about individuals' nutrition needs, but did influence a sitting president and started the High Carb regime in America.
Terrific Swedish Doctor- 2011- Showing how poor nutrition advice affected millions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSeSTq-N4U4 0 -
What's irritating about that one is the thread got shut down, he came back and wrote something as a big FU to everyone who was disagreeing with him, and it got stickied as "helpful advice".0
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What he should have known, if he was really into CICO and that study, is that it showed significant amounts of metabolic adaptation in the men. Their BMRs varied (often significantly) from what the predictions based on body mass changes would suggest. Then, upon refeeding, the BMRs didn't recover as quickly as the weight can suggested they should. Short version, it got harder and harder to lose weight even at the amounts they were eating, and once they started eating normal again, it was insanely easy to put weight back on. That's a recipe for disaster, it's also the recommended recipe at MFP.
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/68/3/599.full.pdf
There's a link to the study. They saw BMRs drop to an average of 20% by 12 weeks and 25% by 24 weeks, these are below the control BMRs. Even 12 weeks after refeeding, the median BMR was 10% below the control BMRs. Although variation was high, with some people being much lower than you would expect (the graphs suggest nearly 40% below the expected BMR at points).
Short take-away, the more you restrict, the less you lose and the easier you regain.0 -
What annoys me more is when it's the same handful of people who go out of their way to repeat it any chance they get. They tend to get very snippy when I point out I've been on it for 15 years, with the "well, you're just an exception." BS. When a thread title is something like "keto help" or "trouble staying under Xg carbs" there's no reason for them to answer those questions in the first place, any more than I go around answering questions about lifting. They only go in to tell the OP they're doing it wrong.
Most of the time, they eventually admit that yes, they did do it wrong. But, then insist it wasn't their fault they did it wrong. The same people who run around telling newbies "everything in moderation" blame LC for their own inability to moderate carbs.
This is what gets me too. In real life people either don't take it seriously or want to know if I eat anything special. No, just low carb. And then they lose interest and go away.
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