Let's get healthy, What do you think of this discussion?

ladyoflyonnesse1

https://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/why-do-dieters-gain-their-weight-back/

phill_143

herrspoons wrote: »

Without reading the article, as I can't be arsed, it's because they don't adapt to their new maintenance level.

People will give all sorts of excuses, but that's it in a nutshell.

I think the TLDR version is 'Your body just hates you, so don't bother trying. Also, bears.'

LKArgh

Ok, I managed to read it. From what I understand, it is a blog of a very obese lady, trying to convince the world that losing fat is beyond her control, and pointless for anyone, and that being obese will not affect one's health. No. My father also believes that him being a chain smoker is beyond his control and will not affect his health (well, after several strokes and heart attacks, I am nto sure he believes the seond part any more, but too late). Again the answer is no.

TimothyFish

Okay, I just scanned the article, but the author clearly has some messed up ideas about weight loss. Exercise doesn't cause your metabolism to slow down, and not eating doesn't prevent you from losing weight. Your body doesn't have some set weight it is comfortable at. The reason we gain weight back is because we're gluttons and it is difficult to fight temptation.

Gianfranco_R

Whatever is the reason why people tend to regain the weight they lost, the fact that most people fail on maintaining a healthy weight doesn't mean that it is not worth trying. You can be among the successful ones...

stevencloser

The amount of denial and just plain wrongness is headache inducing.

ndj1979

aggelikik wrote: »

Ok, I managed to read it. From what I understand, it is a blog of a very obese lady, trying to convince the world that losing fat is beyond her control, and pointless for anyone, and that being obese will not affect one's health. No. My father also believes that him being a chain smoker is beyond his control and will not affect his health (well, after several strokes and heart attacks, I am nto sure he believes the seond part any more, but too late). Again the answer is no.

that sounds like a certain poster on MFP ...

ndj1979

I just copied this snippet out of it because it is so ridiculous and basically just blames starvation mode on everything..

"In the meantime, you go run on a treadmill. Your body now thinks that there is a famine and you have to run from bears. But your body is like “No problem, I’ve got this.” So it lowers your metabolism even more, drops calorically expensive “extra” muscle, floods the body with hunger hormones (since, what with the famine and the running from bears, it wants to make sure that you don’t forget to eat) and it holds back hormones that tell you that you are full. Basically, your body is hard at work doing everything it can to lower the amount of food that you need to live and store as much food as it can.

At the end of this process your body is biologically different than it was when you started. Your body has now turned into a weight gaining, fat storing, weight maintaining machine, biologically different than a body that has never dieted, and likely with a new set point weight – higher than your original weight – that your body is trying to maintain because it now is worried that there will be another famine and bear situation. Bodies are still biologically different even a year or more after someone stops dieting."

yea, that is not how it works…

snowflake930

I read the article, and I feel sad for this person. I spent years (decades) buying into the myth that weight loss over the age of 40 is hard, and it is true, but not age specific, as it is hard at any age. So I spent years, not even trying. "Why bother, right? The odds are, you will gain it all, plus even more possibly." I persevered this time and at age 60 stuck with MFP. Three years later, I have lost over 160 pounds and, more importantly, kept the weight off, for 16 months. I could barely move 3 years ago. After I had lost the first 90 pounds, I began to move more. Short walks at first. My streak now, is 40 days straight, that I have been to the gym and worked out for at least an hour. You can convince yourself that being overweight and not getting adequate exercise is ok, but someday it may catch up to you, and it is never to late to make changes that may give you a longer life.

Denial can not justify being unwilling to even try to become as healthy as you can.

P.S. and it does concern me that the odds are a very high percentage of the people who do lose, end up gaining it all back. But that is not an excuse to not even try. Goals are good, and my current goal is to keep maintaining past the 5 year mark.

kommodevaran

herrspoons wrote: »

It's almost as if there's an industry out there that wants people to keep consuming stuff they don't need.

No, really??

williams969

TL;DR

But I did skim the comments. This one's a gem: "The scientifically curious part of me wonders what the difference is in people that do experience lasting weight loss. I would guess that they actually have abnormal sympathetic/parasympathetic responses and that they would have been the first to starve during famine and first to be eaten by the bear."

LOLOLOL. Successful maintainers MUST be abnormal and anthropologically are the descendents of unfit human specimens. Yep, denial at it's finest--wrapped up in pseudo-intellectual speak.