Where Does All the Misinformation Come From?
Replies
-
rainbowbow wrote: »It comes from people trying to sell things or push an agenda.
In general i've seen it go like this:
Researchers publish a paper about science
Media Blatantly mis-represents said science
Companies jump on the bandwagon to capitalize on "science"
Sometimes the first step is "we have a product we want to sell, let's fund some research".
That bit sums it up perfectly.0 -
MontyMuttland wrote: »No, no, no no no, nonononononono, nooooooooooo !!
There is no such thing as weight by volume.
? Am I missing something? There is such thing as weight per unit volume: it's called density.
Thank you! I was about to lose my mind.2 -
If you understand how to "weigh" things, you weigh materials of SAME VOLUME to determine it's WEIGHT DENSITY. That's how science works.MontyMuttland wrote: »Tried30UserNames wrote: »Muscle does weigh more than fat so that one isn't misinformation.
A pound weighs a pound. But by volume, muscle weighs more than fat. Rarely does anyone specify volume in the "muscle weighs more than fat" truism because we figure your smart enough to figure out the obvious.
I'm quite certain the idea of starvation mode comes from people's experience. They cut calories drastically and exercise intensely and they get stuck at the same weight for months at a time. Or they diet and lose weight, then when they try to add back even a tiny bit more calories than their calories, they gain huge amounts of weight very quickly.
No, no, no no no, nonononononono, nooooooooooo !!
There is no such thing as weight by volume.
These are two totally different measurements.
Weight is a measure of how heavy something is.
Volume is a measure of how much space something takes up.
They are not the same thing.
They are not interchangeable.
A kilo of fat weighs the same as a kilo of muscle and a kilo of feathers, but each of them takes up a different amount of physical space.
However, it's stuff like this where people confidently put forward ideas that are factually incorrect which leads to widespread nonsense getting believed by so many others.
People cling to notions they like the sound of, regardless of truth.
But facts remain true whether you like them or not, that's just the way it is!
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
11 -
Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »All of the above, and I'll add: some bad "word of mouth" advice. For example, someone looks great, someone else asks *how* they lost the weight. They give an imprecise short hand answer like: "I'm doing atkins. I eat all the fat and protein I want and no carbs". Which, of course, isn't Atkins. And hopefully isn't what they're doing if they think they're doing Atkins.
Or "I lost weight by not eating anything white". WTH?
I just cut my winter weight and I'm trying to get a little lower. A friend of mine asked me what I was doing because I already eat pretty good and exercise regularly. I told them that I just cut back on carbs at dinner on most nights. He said, "that's it...you just don't eat some carbs at night and that's how you lose weight?"
I had to explain to him that there wasn't anything magical about avoiding carbs in the evening but rather, it's just an easy rule for me to follow to put myself in a calorie deficit if everything else remains the same. That and I don't usually drink beer during the week when I'm cutting...but he didn't like that idea very much.7 -
probably the same place that "God helps those who help themselves" comes from0
-
And the mic drops.people
A simple example will do. A book is written and advertised with a title and a blurb. "The Grapefruit Diet", or something like that.
The advertising casts a wide net and many people see the blurb, but not many people buy the book. It doesn't matter if they do or they don't, because the writer, the buyers, and the non-buyers just make up silliness about living on grapefruits or something like that and the meme takes on a life of it's own. My mother was taken in by this one. She'd solemnly slice a grapefruit and put half of it on a plate. Then she'd sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar on it, then she'd use a spoon to dig the sections out and eat them by the spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down. No weight loss meme every worked for her because she'd eat her 'stay fat' food, then add her 'lose weight' food on top of that. I remember eating Ayds like candy.
2 -
Someone mentioned the 60's. Can i just say, atleast back then when companies were trying to sell you something they still provided you (somewhat) reasonable information.
5 -
Excuses - you don't want to believe you're fat because you eat too many calories so you make up some ridiculous nonsense about not eating enough (because you're in total denial you're munching through calories like no one's business) or that you're just going crazy with the muscle building... Yeah right - it can't be you're own fault you're fat - it HAS to be something else. We hate being accountable for our own actions - it's so much easier to blame something else.
And I'm using you/you're generally - not referencing OP or anyone else specifically in this thread.4 -
If you understand how to "weigh" things, you weigh materials of SAME VOLUME to determine it's WEIGHT DENSITY. That's how science works.MontyMuttland wrote: »Tried30UserNames wrote: »Muscle does weigh more than fat so that one isn't misinformation.
A pound weighs a pound. But by volume, muscle weighs more than fat. Rarely does anyone specify volume in the "muscle weighs more than fat" truism because we figure your smart enough to figure out the obvious.
I'm quite certain the idea of starvation mode comes from people's experience. They cut calories drastically and exercise intensely and they get stuck at the same weight for months at a time. Or they diet and lose weight, then when they try to add back even a tiny bit more calories than their calories, they gain huge amounts of weight very quickly.
No, no, no no no, nonononononono, nooooooooooo !!
There is no such thing as weight by volume.
These are two totally different measurements.
Weight is a measure of how heavy something is.
Volume is a measure of how much space something takes up.
They are not the same thing.
They are not interchangeable.
A kilo of fat weighs the same as a kilo of muscle and a kilo of feathers, but each of them takes up a different amount of physical space.
However, it's stuff like this where people confidently put forward ideas that are factually incorrect which leads to widespread nonsense getting believed by so many others.
People cling to notions they like the sound of, regardless of truth.
But facts remain true whether you like them or not, that's just the way it is!
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
No, actually you typically don't - there's no need to make sure two materials are the same volume before weighing and it often adds an extra time-consuming step. Imagine trying to excise a precise cubic centimeter (or inch, or whatever) of material from a larger block, especially if the block is irregular in shape. It's not always a simple thing to do.
You weigh a piece of material, you measure it's volume (in any order you choose) and from those you calculate its density.1 -
A lot of it is the media blowing things out of proportion. A single study suggests something and they report it as fact. Several studies show most people should eat less of <whatever> and they report it as <whatever> is unhealthy with no mention of amount. And people are lazy. They read the headline, maybe even skim the article but make no effort to find out what the actual study said or if it's been confirmed by f/u studies.
Many people believe everything they read regardless of whether the source is credible.2 -
Science changes as new research emerges and new facts discovered. Einstein disproved some of Newton's theories. Pluto is no longer a planet. But by and large the worst information comes from companies trying to sell something. We laugh at the old time snake oil sales men going from town to town selling cocaine laced cough syrup but go out and buy the newest "magic" weight loss pill.2
-
99% of misinformation comes from the bodybuilding.com message boards. Then it takes a decade to figure out which ones are real or not. For a long time multiple small meals and fasted state cardio were dogma.2
-
Money. And agendas. Also it seems like people have a tendency to believe that because a certain something worked for them (like eating 6 small meals a day, or cutting out carbs, or whatever) that it is the ONLY thing that works.1
-
Science changes as new research emerges and new facts discovered. Einstein disproved some of Newton's theories. Pluto is no longer a planet. But by and large the worst information comes from companies trying to sell something. We laugh at the old time snake oil sales men going from town to town selling cocaine laced cough syrup but go out and buy the newest "magic" weight loss pill.
I thought it was, again.
https://futurism.com/pluto-reclassified-as-a-major-planet/2 -
Also, many people want a quick fix. It didn't take only a month to gain the weight I'm now trying to lose, and it would be unrealistic of me to believe I can lose that weight in that amount of time. When I began to lose weight, people would ask what/how I did it. I would say by simply counting calories and getting more exercise. Nobody wanted to hear that tho (because as another user mentioned, it's boring and not sexy), and I'd get follow-ups like "Surely you're cutting out bread and pasta, not eating after 5pm, taking raspberry ketones, on diet pills, etc???" Nope, just calories in/calories out, and my progress has been very 'slow and steady'. Their eyes would start to glaze over, lol.3
-
I just saw NdT speak again last month.quiksylver296 wrote: »
Pluto is still a "dwarf planet" not one of the eight "major planets."
Check the date of the article:
"Say it with me now, “Yay!” …also, have a happy April Fool’s."
{Not sure if you were joking or being facetious...}
"Pluto is a dwarf planet. A dwarf planet travels around, or orbits, the sun just like other planets. But it is much smaller." -- NASA
See how easy it is to forget about critical thinking and fall for confirmation bias?
Misinformation...1 -
-
LOL! Some of the letters he got from grade school kids were hilarious.Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »
1 -
-
Instant gratification, everyone wants it. Patience, hard work...things I don't see too often in people.
In down 90lbs and I have no secrets. No pills, no fasting, no cleanses, no low carb just simple math and hard work.1 -
5 -
I just saw NdT speak again last month.quiksylver296 wrote: »
Pluto is still a "dwarf planet" not one of the eight "major planets."
Check the date of the article:
"Say it with me now, “Yay!” …also, have a happy April Fool’s."
{Not sure if you were joking or being facetious...}
"Pluto is a dwarf planet. A dwarf planet travels around, or orbits, the sun just like other planets. But it is much smaller." -- NASA
See how easy it is to forget about critical thinking and fall for confirmation bias?
Misinformation...
All I heard was "Pluto is a planet." Good enough for me.
4 -
LOL. Fair enough. Live like you wanna live.quiksylver296 wrote: »All I heard was "Pluto is a planet." Good enough for me.
0 -
14 -
Well, a few months ago the science team of the New Horizons mission did propose a new definition of planet that would include Pluto, but then the Solar System would have hundreds of planets under this definition. The IAU hasn't taken any kind of action on the proposal though, and AFAIK it hasn't even been formally presented to them. I assumed you were thinking of that.1
-
I blame Google. Seriously, how many posts do we see that give some really bad information followed by "just Google it, you'll see it's true"?1
-
From that infographic, I would be wondering why the journal's peer-review group didn't do a better job of vetting the submission.
@rainbowbow I love how the menu very carefully specifies that the lettuce leaves MUST be "small." Because if you put four LARGE lettuce leaves in that dinner salad, you'll just keep gaining weight. XD4 -
MontyMuttland wrote: »No, no, no no no, nonononononono, nooooooooooo !!
There is no such thing as weight by volume.
? Am I missing something? There is such thing as weight per unit volume: it's called density.
Yes, they weren't clear. The objection is that weight-relative terms are used when it's density that's really being compared.
The counter-argument is that 'everybody knows' that when you say X is heavier than Y that you mean equal volumes of X and Y.
Now personally, I'd be ripped a new one if I use heavier and lighter in that way but I came up through a biochemistry and physics track and am still in a branch of science where assumptions and inaccurate terminology are frowned upon.
So would I. But then, I also understand the difference between a casual expression where, in context, the meaning is clear, and technical contexts where absolute clarity is important. I don't know why this should be so difficult for some people, except perhaps they enjoy the opportunity for needless pedantry.6 -
clicketykeys wrote: »From that infographic, I would be wondering why the journal's peer-review group didn't do a better job of vetting the submission.
@rainbowbow I love how the menu very carefully specifies that the lettuce leaves MUST be "small." Because if you put four LARGE lettuce leaves in that dinner salad, you'll just keep gaining weight. XD
Don't forget your DOMINO sugar!
3 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »All of the above, and I'll add: some bad "word of mouth" advice. For example, someone looks great, someone else asks *how* they lost the weight. They give an imprecise short hand answer like: "I'm doing atkins. I eat all the fat and protein I want and no carbs". Which, of course, isn't Atkins. And hopefully isn't what they're doing if they think they're doing Atkins.
Or "I lost weight by not eating anything white". WTH?
I just cut my winter weight and I'm trying to get a little lower. A friend of mine asked me what I was doing because I already eat pretty good and exercise regularly. I told them that I just cut back on carbs at dinner on most nights. He said, "that's it...you just don't eat some carbs at night and that's how you lose weight?"
I had to explain to him that there wasn't anything magical about avoiding carbs in the evening but rather, it's just an easy rule for me to follow to put myself in a calorie deficit if everything else remains the same. That and I don't usually drink beer during the week when I'm cutting...but he didn't like that idea very much.
There you go. you were precise with your description! As I knew you would be!1
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 426 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions